Ta-DAH

As my mother would say, "Drumroll, please!"
We now present our new kitchen!




Here we are coming into the kitchen from the hall.
LOVE the countertops!

The backsplash tile that Allen installed.

The floor tile, also installed by my handy husband!

The new farmhouse sink. Do you see that dishwasher? It's on in the picture, because we use it EVERY night!

Pantry on the right.

Didn't get the switch plate on before this picture, but use your imagination, ok?



Now I have room for all the glasses.

And all the plates!

Love the Lazy Susan for all our pots and pans.

These pull outs are beside the stove.

A place for everything

And everything in it's place.

There is even room for my plastics

Glass dishes are up high out of Miller's reach!

See this nice cabinet?

It pulls out and swivels so I can use ALL the space way in the back!

It may not look beautiful to you, but now I have a place to put food...in the kitchen. Yes this is a novelty!


Let me remind you how it looked before...

Getting There

They say that the journey is just as important as the actual destination. So here are a few pictures of the work in process. We are so close to being finished and revealing the new kitchen.
This what our living room looked like for longer than I would have liked.

Here is Allen hard at work tiling the floor. It ended up being quite a task.

The kitchen after I did my hasty paint job. Most of this is now covered, but we wanted to be sure that anything that might possibly show was painted.

The cabinets as they are being put in.

This is after the cabinets are installed, but the doors aren't on.

Stay tuned!

Coming Around

Sorry I haven't been coming around too much. It has been a busy couple of weeks to say the least. We are managing well, but it just doesn't leave a lot of time for the extras. My time reading People magazine, watching Top Chef and Big Brother, and well, blogging have had to cease. There will be more of these in the future, but just not at this time.
Jackson starts school on September 16. By then I will surely have a little more time for my leisure pursuits!
In the mean time just look at the fun the boys had in NC with their grandparents.
They were building a new house down the hill from the grandparents so Jackson got up close and personal with a digger!




This boy L.O.V.E.S. corn! Can you tell?


All tuckered out!

No, he's not wearing a dress, it is just an adult sweatshirt. It was so hot here, I couldn't fathom that he might need it!

A tale of a sad kitchen

When we bought this house we were in a bit of a rush. We had one week to search the entire DC area for a house. It was the height of the housing boom and all the houses were way out of our price range. All of them except for this house. It was the very tippy top of our "there's no way we are going to spend that kind of money for a house but have no choice" budget.
I was so happy to see a house after days of seeing very yucky townhouses. It needed help. That's ok, we can do it. Right? That first summer I painted every inch of this house. Allen and his dad redid our pink bathroom and a year later he finished the basement. The kitchen got a paint makeover, but it was just putting lipstick on a pig. We knew the kitchen was going to be major. We needed a dishwasher, but in order to fit in a dishwasher we needed new cabinets. New cabinets are a lot of money, so we just kept putting it off.
Finally, I could take it no longer and told Allen we would be purchasing a portable dishwasher. The idea is just so weird to me. You screw a hose onto your faucet and run another hose into your sink and that is how you wash dishes. He was game, so we ordered the dishwasher.
Not long after that Kelly and I went to IKEA and I saw one of their display kitchens. The price looked pretty reasonable and before you know it we were planning our long awaited Kitchen renovation. The prices that seemed reasonable turned out to be twice as much once we priced our kitchen. Plus we had to move a doorway to make room for more cabinets and a better flow. It's never as simple as it seems at first.
We never picked up our portable dishwasher. I don't mind because yesterday Allen went and bought a nice new dishwasher that will be installed tomorrow. Along with our new sink and disposal (didn't have one of those either).
So since I have been promising pictures here you have it. Our FORMER kitchen in all it's cluttered glory. Maybe in a week or two everything here will be finished and I can give you the after pictures.

This is the wall that we changed. It is opposite the sink. Since the doorway to the hall was there we couldn't do many cabinets. That doorway is now closed and there is a doorway where the pass through shelf thingy was.

The shelves that served as a pantry.

The sink area. See all the clutter? I. DO. NOT. LIKE. CLUTTER.

The stove and all my cabinets. That big black hole is no longer there.

Oh Boy!

I'm gettin' a dishwasher, I'm gettin' a dishwasher, oh yeah! Can you hear me singing at the top of my lungs? I am super happy. In order to get said dishwasher are in the midst of a kitchen remodel. By remodel I mean I have a fridge in my dining room. Nothing but walls and a subfloor in my kitchen and I am washing sippy cups in the mop sink. Nice!
We have lived here for 4 years and washed every dish by hand. Except when our family comes and visits, they always help us with the dishes! Oh the bottles! Kelly and I always say, "Everybody loves a martyr!" and that is me with the bottles. Wait until the last baby finishes with bottles to get a dishwasher! Can you say "martyr"?
Nah, it just worked out that way!
Tuesday they came and tore out the cabinets and floor. Yesterday they cut a new door from the kitchen into the hall. Demo is some loud business. They then sealed up the one that was there. The new door is 5 feet 7 inches farther down than the other door. That makes room for more cabinets. I NEED cabinets because I only had 4; 1 on top, 1 on bottom 1 above the stove and 1 below the sink.
We have survived that. Allen is going to tile the floor this weekend, and I am going to prime and paint.
So where does that leave the Bug and the Butterbean? In hog heaven. They are going to stay with Allen's parents in N.C. for a few days. We will miss them, but know that they are having a ball there- and they will be much safer there.
Keep your fingers crossed that they will be able to install cabinets next week.
I know I promised mystery pictures, but I can't get my pictures downloaded.
Sorry there are no pictures on this post, but it is either post without pictures or not post at all. Always thinking of my audience!
I'm gettin' a dishwasher! I'm gettin' a pantry! I'm gettin a disposal! I'm gettin' cabinets! Oh yeah!