Kitchen update, Week one, day 5

We made great progress this week! And just to be clear, when I say "we" as I share our progress, I mean that in the loosest way possible. Meaning not me at all, but our contractor.  This was a bigger project than I was willing and able to tackle!

 Anyway, here is the progress "we" have made as of the end of the first week, which turned into only 4 days (see below)

What is awesome is that he was able to keep the stove plugged in, so the only thing we're really missing is a kitchen sink.

Next step is electrical which is scheduled for Monday, but due to this view out the front door, we might be delayed a bit.  We did talk for over 1.5 hours about lighting placement, switch operation and other things electrical that if you've never built a home, you don't think about (like me).  

Next week's issues include picking out a kitchen sink.  Who knew there were so many choices?  Size, material, one bowl or two, and if two bowls, 50/50 split or 60/40?  Stainless? Ceramic? And if you pick stainless, there are considerations of gauge (thickness) and insulation for noise control!  More on sinks later as I go through that process.  

Also coming up: How are we making out with the kitchen torn up like this?  (Answers: fine, and honestly it's a first world problem, so no complaints here.)  

For today, I am thankful for electricity, warmth, and bacon after shoveling snow.  

Week one, day two

Happy New Year!

 

I hope everyone is enjoying a fresh start to a new year.  Last year was quite a journey for us, and I'll share some thoughts on that later.

But for today, there's this: an enormously messy kitchen, because Monday is DEMO DAY!

Twelve years ago we decided to sell our first house after living there 15 years.  We weren't looking actively, but at times we would drive around and just see what was on the market.

 One day it was raining torrents....the kind where you will be soaked if you as much as step out of the car.  I happened to be driving through the neighborhood we liked because the boy had fallen asleep in his car seat, torrential rains were falling, and we didn't have a garage at our house.  Not wanted to wake a sleeping 1 year old by getting him soaked didn't sound like a good idea, so I drove.   So in this neighborhood we liked, in the very back where it backs up to a farm and woods, this house had a "For Sale by Owner" sign so I called.  The sign had gone up the night before, we saw it the next, day told the owners we wanted it, and placed a contract the next day.  In that market in 2004 you had to move and move quickly, so we did.

The day after that, we could barely remember what the house looked like, where the rooms were, or if it really had 4 bedrooms or not.  And having been in our first house 15 years (and now this one 12), you can see that we don't usually move quickly, so this was a bit unnerving.

But we have loved this house and making it our own.   That first day though, I can hear the owner saying "it has a white kitchen" and my heart sank.  As a friend has said, "You hated that kitchen from the beginning" and I did, even before I saw it.  I know, white kitchens are all the rage, and there are some awesome white kitchens out there.  But I come from people that work with wood, and I just am drawn to natural unpainted wood.  So for 12 years I have planned out this kitchen in my mind, and it's finally time to gut the thing and get going.  Yes, even the green laminate counters are going.

So kitchen demo is happening, I'm packing and organizing and loving it, and trying to imagine what it will look like in the end.  We've never built a house or done a project of this size, so this is new and I want to keep track of the process here.

I'd better get back to packing!

Floating Hydrangeas Centerpiece

I had so much fun last week helping out with a family wedding. Centerpieces were needed, so I borrowed the things that my niece and I had used in her wedding last June (2014!). This is so easy, and so beautiful.

Today's project: Crazy quilting

A friend and I are working on an idea for a craft showing coming up, and this is not about that.  It's about the leftovers.

We've been collecting tshirts for our other project, and have a lot of scraps left over.  And I decided to do something with them since I'm sitting here monitoring a very quiet boy who is not feeling well but doesn't want me to speak to him or otherwise throw food at him on occasion.  So I'm sitting here close but not too close, and doing something with my time since my "real work" (ie accounting) is done for the morning.

It's a bit crazy, a bit scrappy, and hopefully, in a bit, will be a lap quilt.  I'm using the same techniques I picked up last year making two photo quilts and the year before making my first tshirt quilt.