18 Days

The remodel of the kitchen got off to a good start. The old cabinets came off much better than anticipated and we were pleasantly surprised as to how the walls looked behind the cabinets. With a house that was built in the 1890's, you are never quite sure what you are going to find.

The first major project was cutting out some sections of plaster/drywall so "Jack of All Trades" Arlen could do some rewiring for us. My mom and dad had also come up to lend a hand in the remodel and entertaining of Isabel.

When it comes to electrical, I know my place...

After a little sheetrock and mud we were ready to put up the backsplash and hang cabinets. And by we, I of course mean my dad and Arlen...


My dad took some time off work and came back up to help some more. When I got home from work on February 10th I was greeted by this:

Unfortunately, this is where the progress hit a brick wall. Menards input our measurements for the east wall wrong into their design software, so the cabinets and countertop we received did not fit. A new order was put in and we are still waiting for those to arrive. With progress halted on the wall cabinets, our attention was turned to the new hutch and repainting.

18 days...and counting...

15 Days

If you asked Kati and I what the two biggest things we dislike about our house the answer would unquestionably be 1) our kitchen and 2) our 1 bathroom. Well, we have decided to do something about the kitchen.

Around Christmas time, Kati and I spent around 8 hours at Menards, with the Jekyll and Hyde employees of the cabinet department, designing a new layout of cabinets and countertops for our kitchen. Why Jekyll and Hyde? Because one minute they offer adequate customer service, the next it seemed like they were pushing us out the door.

It was a painful process, but we came up with a pretty cool design and we started counting down the days until we could say goodbye for good to our god-awful kitchen.

What made our kitchen so bad? I am glad you asked, let me show you a few of the reasons.

Notice a common color?

Lots more white, but little counter space.

Not sure what we are supposed to do with that corner cabinet...

A large empty wall...

As bad as these pictures are, you can't see the worst part. Whenever we would open one of our drawers, the cabinet right below it would magically, or maddeningly, open as well. In addition to that fun little trick we also had several cabinets that simply wouldn't stay shut. If you look closely at picture #1 and #2 you will see some of Kati's hair binders keeping our cabinets shut... Words can't explain how much we disliked our kitchen.

15 days ago we got word that our cabinets were in. Let the demo begin!



Well, things haven't gone exactly as planned. 15 days later we are without a completed kitchen. We have gone over two weeks without a kitchen sink, the only other sink in the house is the bathroom sink. We have gone over two weeks without a meal cooked in our house. We have gone over two weeks with our house in complete disarray. 15 days...and counting...