There is a light at the end of the tunnel

I didn't think to write down the day when we started the kitchen makeover.  I really should have, because seriously it feels like it's been nine hundred and ten years that we have been working on it.  I'm pretty sure it was right after the Derecho that wiped out our power for almost a week.  So that would be early July.  Which really isn't that long ago when looking at the big picture.  When you are living in a kitchen that is a bit of a mess with half your dishes in the spare room and the other half missing in action, it's a bit of a challenge. 

We so close to being finished that I can taste it, or is that dinner that I'm dreaming of?  The only things left to do are minor in comparison to what we have done: painting the trim around the kitchen and dining room windows, changing the lower wall color in the dining and great rooms (the current color clashes with the new cabinet color), painting that trim,  constructing three shelves to go above the sideboard in the dining room and building a new pantry which will need paint as well. 

One thing that has been great is that Andy and I have taken a few weekends off here and there to regroup. This past weekend we went with friends to a wine festival on Saturday and spent most of the day fishing on Sunday.  We have a romantic four day weekend coming up which we are really looking forward to.  Biking by the beach, great food on the water, and hopefully not a lot of tourists.  I'm really looking forward to eating out.  I hear most restaurants don't keep their dishes in the spare room...

 

Andy built the cabinet above the island from scratch to match what we had.  I love how it turned out and it gives us a lot of extra storage space.

 

 

 

We have picked out a new light fixture for the dining room and will hopefully have it up soon.  This is what it currently looks like.  We took the leaves out of our table to make the room seem larger.  The sideboard is a new addition purchased at a discount furniture store.  It's the perfect size for our small room.

 

The pantry on the right is going to move into the spare room to store yarn and fiber.  There will be three shelves above the sideboard.  The new pantry will look very similar to the cabinets with wainscoting and crown molding.  It's going to be about a foot taller and possibly wider.  I'm hoping for some slide out shelves, but we will see what transpires there.

 

 

 

More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys (or so you would think)

We have been going non stop this year on our house.  In February we replaced the flooring in the great room, hallway and the two main floor bedrooms.  It's worked out beautifully - easy to clean and maintain.  It's much better for our allergies than the wall to wall carpet that we removed. 

Next Andy enclosed the fence like railing around the stairwell:

Before

After

We began work on the stairs by removing the carpet to see what was under it.  It was a combination of stair treads (good) and plywood (not so good).  Andy replaced the plywood, rebuilt the corner steps, added trim around the edges and wainscoting risers.  I'm the painter in the process.  I come from a family of very talented artists and am glad to be able to use my limited painting skills for some good!

Then we added a shelf under the bar area of the counter that divides the great room from the kitchen.

Most recently we have begun refacing our cabinets.  While it does take a bit of time, refacing isn't really hard to do.  Andy added wainscoting and trim to the existing door fronts.  We updated the knobs and hinges and Ive painted the insides to give everything a clean and uniform look.  Right now all of the lower cabinets are complete.  This weekend we will begin on the upper cabinets.  Here are a few progress pictures.

Sanded, washed and primed

Finished!

 

 We added sliding racks to make access easier.

Before

After

The trim underneath still needs to be painted.  I think I will do that last since I still need to paint the trim in the dining room.

PS  Im up to 148 hexipuffs!!