99.9% Complete!

The floors are finally in and they are beautiful. Matt has to come back and put the kickboards in and seal around the edge of the countertop. The only thing left to do is replace the baseboards all around the kitchen, dining room, living room and down the hall. I haven't yet decided what I want so it will probably be awhile before I get that in. Oh, I forgot, I also have to re-paint the foyer. The carpet color wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be and it clashes with the paint in the foyer! Not sure exactly what color to put down there so that will be awhile also!

I have floors!

My floors were started on Monday. On Tuesday they still were not done. I think they will probably be done with the wood today. I'm not sure whether they will get to carpeting the stairs today or not. The flooring is really beautiful. Of course, the pictures don't do justice to the floors. There are a lot of knots and veining that are black that really tie my furniture in. I took these pictures when it was dark out and only used the flash for lighting.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve. I haven't posted on here in ages. If you can believe it, I'm still waiting on my floor! Hopefully, it will be completed next week.

What I do have, are new dishes! I've got service for 6 right now and am planning to order more but am waiting for a coupon! I went to Zanesville Pottery and got a lot of serving pieces. The dishes are multi-colored - sage green, gold, red and ivory. They look beautiful behind my glass cabinet doors.

I also bought myself a Roomba (the robot vacuum cleaner) to help take care of the wooden floors. I'm impressed with how it works. I questioned whether it would do a good job but I've gotten LOTS of dirt out of my carpets and from the plywood floors! Opie barked and barked when I first turned it on but I told him he better get used to it and there was no sense wearing himself out. Now he just looks at it.

As most of you who follow this blog already know - I'm having the traditional pork and sauerkraut dinner today. There will be ten of us here - Mom, Dana, Bryan, Clayton and Tiffany, Jodi and Eric, Jane and Sam (Tiffany's mom and her boyfriend) and me! I made a cheesecake yesterday and made a chocolate raspberry sauce and a regular raspberry sauce to serve with it. I also made breadsticks last night. Today I will put the sauerkraut, pork and smoked sausage in the oven and am making an apple glaze to go over the pork. We are also going to have homemade applesauce and, of course, mashed potatoes. Sounds good, huh?

Carla and Sarah will be here on Sunday to stay with me for a couple of weeks. If you don't know what I'm talking about - Carla moved here I think 3 or 4 years ago from Texas because of her husband, Dean's, job. I met her when she was hired to work at the office. She's just a fantastic person and very artistic and stylish! She helped me tremendously in the creation of my kitchen. Anyway, her husband now got transferred to Arkansas. He has been living out there since September or October. They finally sold their house in St. Clairsville and found one in Texarkana. Sarah is a sophomore in high school this year and wanted to finish out the semester here. Since they moved out of the house in St. C. right before Christmas, they had no place to go. So when they return from visiting family in Texas, they are staying with me! I'm looking forward to having them. It is unfortunate that they will have to put up with the installation of the hardwood floors but - oh well!

I wish you all a healthy and prosperous (yeah, right - in this economy?) New Year. It's amazing how the years just fly by. This time next year Jace will be walking all over the place and probably talking up a storm. Happy New Year!

The Old Kitchen

I have had several requests for pictures of the old kitchen for comparison. Believe me, there is no comparison between the old kitchen and the new one! Just to accommodate all of those people that don't remember the old kitchen, here it is:

Now - aren't you sorry you asked? I even forgot how ugly it was! My goodness what a difference!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving!

I haven't posted the grouted tile which completes the kitchen but I think I want to wait until the floor comes in. My family all saw the final results at Thanksgiving and the girls at work will be seeing it on Friday! My kitchen made for a great Thanksgiving food preparation place! It is very functional and everything turned out very tasty. Well, with the exception of the pumpkin pies - I forgot to put any sugar in them!!!

Hopefully the floors will be in soon and I can do the final posting of the completed kitchen! I put the shelves in last night that Clayton built. They turned out great! Now all I have to do is fill them with pictures. I have always wanted a photo gallery and this will be it.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

P.S. My great nephew is not only a beautiful baby but he is a very good baby. He only cried when Clayton held him! Not sure why that was - Clayton was probably nervous as he says he has never held a baby before.

I Have Tile!

Eric came on Saturday and put up the tile. It is absolutely gorgeous. He did a fantastic job. He'll be here early this week to grout it. I've also got a picture of the finished island. I don't think I had one before.

Almost There!

The corian was delivered yesterday but there was a problem with the outlets on the backsplash and they couldn't put it in. Matt fixed the problem - of course - and the Corian is in place. It is absolutely beautiful and the integral sink looks great. The plumber is coming tomorrow to put in the faucet, garbage disposal, dishwasher and connect the stove. Then it's done!! I got the dining room cleaned up and put back together. It looks so different. It's definitely going to take some getting used to.

I Have Countertops!

Poor Matt. He had a bad day on Friday. The countertop for the bar didn't fit! He said everything went wrong on Friday. But he got it all worked out and it is, of course, beautiful. The Corian will be here Tuesday or Wednesday and then it will be finished!

I put a lot of things away on Saturday. The entire house is filthy and I'm not even sure where to start! All of you attending for Thanksgiving take heed!

Matt talked me out of doing my tile backsplash myself. The guy he uses is not available so I had to find someone else. I thought - I'll call Eric, he'll probably know someone. He does - himself! He also has a friend that he talked to about it. Eric is going to come see what I have and we'll go from there. I hope I can get it done for Thanksgiving.

And, yes, I went out and purchased a new TV for my new kitchen. I couldn't get a very good picture though so I called Bryan. He came over and found that the "router" box I have is a piece of junk. He wired the cable directly to the cable coming into the house and WOW what a difference. He's going to get me a splitter to use instead of the junky box I have. I can even get a few stations HD!

Carla and Sarah stopped in Friday evening. Sarah was writing her name in my dust! She sat at the counter and ate Dairy Queen. Sarah's favorite part is the tile and she gave me some great advice about the grout color! She obviously takes after her Momma.

I Have Light!

Matt wasn't supposed to come today - he's running out of things to do. But he showed up this morning anyway. The electrician had time and wanted to finish up his part of the job. I absolutely love the pendants and the foyer light. I think I will like the one over the table once I get the table back in place.

Thanksgiving is in two weeks - how in the world will I ever be ready? Getting this place back together is going to one huge undertaking! Probably more of an undertaking than the demolition!

Something New Every Day!

All of this kitchen renovation is so exciting. I cannot wait to get home from work to see what has happened. Today I picked up the trim rings for the can lights. Matt told me to go ahead and get them. Well, when I got home I just couldn't wait for him to put them in - I did it myself! He probably thinks I'm nuts.

The island is all set where it stays and they put the finish on the back of the island. The microwave was also installed today and I actually got to fix something to eat for dinner! My microwave also works as a conventional oven and has some new kind of speedcooking thing that uses halogen lights. I'll try it out eventually.

Abby is coming tomorrow to measure for the corian/sink. I think the rest of the countertops will be in by the end of the week and the light fixtures can go in. I cannot wait for the lights! Anyway, here's today's pictures:

I Have Cabinets!!

Are you ready to see the cabinets? You won't believe it - especially if you can recall the kitchen prior to the demolition. I guess they made a mistake when building the cabinet that encloses the refrigerator so it has to be made over. That means a delay of a couple of days. Darn! Matt called me on my way home and was asking me a few things. One of the things he wanted to know was if I had the handles. I told him yes but that I would put them on myself because I wouldn't be able to wait! As you can see, they are all on. Well, there's another set to be put on the pantry but Matt has to drill the holes for those. Okay, here they are:

This will be the island. It's not anchored in place yet but it will look something like this:

Can you see my living room in the background? That's the shelves Clayton made back there on the horses. I guess Matt had to move them out of the way, so I wasn't able to paint on those this evening. The dishwasher goes where that big hole is in the island.

I'm not sure if Matt will be back tomorrow or not. When he left today he said he was at a standstill so I'm not sure what happens next. He is going to replace the window and Dave Shutler is going to make moldings to go around the window that will match the cabinets! Won't that look great?

When I look at all that has gone on in my kitchen - I know that I am truly blessed.

It Doesn't Seem to be Getting any Better!

Yesterday (Saturday) I was up and started painting by 7:30!! I had all the priming done by 12:30. Of course, I had to make a trip to Lowe's because I didn't have enough primer and I needed more paint for the hallway and paint for the shelves that Clayton built. (Kind of like the house that Jack built!). Jim Bordas let me borrow his truck so I went to Zanesville to pick up the shelves so I can get them painted too. When I got home I painted the red wall and began priming the shelves. I also hung the hallway light. What a difference! When you turn the hallway light on now, you can actually see - and see well! I still have a lot to get done today. I have to paint the hallway (already taped off), add another coat of paint to the red and paint behind where the refrigerator is going to go. I will continue working on getting the shelves primed and painted. Here's what it looks like:

If you look close, you can see the new refrigerator. I'm not able to see any of the other appliances because they are boxed up! I tried to open the boxes and look at the stuff but it's not possible. I guess I just have to wait.

On top of all the work that needs to be done before tomorrow - I've gotten a nasty cold! I'm going to Wal-Mart and get some cough and stuffy nose medicine this morning first thing. I also need to go get something to eat. I don't even have my microwave now!

A little over two weeks to Thanksgiving! I hope things look better by then that what they do now!

Remodel - Day 3

Wasn't the demolition four days? I think it was - at least basically. Well, when I got home from work today I have drywall! I am just amazed at what a great job Matt and his crew are doing. They just keep everything moving.

I also got a call today that the lights were in! I had to rush over right after work and pick them up. I think they are going to be gorgeous. Ask Carla how much I fretted over the lights. I'm a little disappointed with the one that goes over the table but it will look nice.

I also ordered by bar stools today. I'll have to get the picture of them. I think they will look real nice. The last thing to be ordered is the tile. I would have ordered it this evening but I want to see if I can get a coupon. I was able to get a coupon for the bar stools worth 10% off so I figured I'd try for the tile as well!

Here's the bar stool:

I think that's it for now!