Grinning from ear to ear

Yesterday was what I call a "Fun fun furlough Friday" as I normally get to do something different on these days. Friday furloughs are a bittersweet day. Its an unpaid day that I would normally be working so it causes a pay cut for state employees while supposedly saving tax payers 2 million per furlough (They haven't confirmed this statistic but stick to saying its real). Unlike holidays, state employees are the only ones with this day off so it creates a day to conduct business during business hours that I usually don't get to do. For instance last June I went down to the court house and got our marriage license and scheduled our ceremony on a furlough Friday. Courts aren't open on weekends so I don't know when I would have done this otherwise. Unfortunately I can't conquer DEQ on these days as they take the same furloughs as I do. Stores aren't as busy as holiday Friday's or weekends so I go get things I have needed. As you know we are on the search for our granite and wouldn't you know that granite shops are only open Monday through Friday 8-5? Crazy right? So yesterday we went and viewed some stone for the kitchen and bathroom, which again, we wouldn't have otherwise been able to do.
Are you grasping the bittersweetness of these Furloughs? The "Fun fun furlough friday" is sarcasm OBVIOUSLY I don't get paid for that day and I have no choice but I can get some important things done.

Wondering about the title of the post? You know I am not grinning from ear to ear regarding furloughs right? So yesterday my wonderful Father In Law (FIL) texted, for the first time might I add, and asked if he could get into the house to install (!!!) our cabinets! He didn't know that we would be home to help. So he arrived with this beautiful site:

Box van full of our cabinets.

Lots of drawers.

Dweet loves them too!

By this time I had been jumping for joy singing "woohooo, woohoo, woohoo" for about an hour. I have been waiting for this moment for 13 or more months. I cannot describe how ecstatic I was when this happened. 

Remember what the kitchen looked like before? Big open wasted space?

Somehow, Delilah managed to make it into most of these pictures?

The void is no more!

First step we had to remove the backsplash? toe kick? Trim? I'm not sure what its called, but I got rid of the tile border on the wall where I wanted cabinets. Enter putty knife and hammer and the only demo for this portion of the project.

Husband scored the tops of the tiles first.

Some where harder to remove and kept splitting in half.

FIL even organizes his garbage. 

I later found out that he was saving some of the full tiles for the toe kick under the new cabinets. Organized with reason, I like it.

There are electrical outlets that we want/ need to be functional so they measured where the socket matched up with the cabinets and cut the square out.

This is the hole.

 Then the cabinets were put into place.

First you want to make sure they are level. Easy if the people who installed your floor did that level.  

The men screwed the two cabinets together. Teamwork to make sure it is level and doesn't distort the wood.

Between the back of the cabinets.

 The cabinets also got attached to the wall.

Caulking on the bottom. 

See the big hole? Thats for my microwave! The outlet is in the drawer below so there needed to be a hole from the microwave to the outlet. Enter hubby with a power tool.

 They added wood behind so it wouldn't slip when in use.

 I asked FIL to clean the microwave but he said it would cost extra ;)

Lets have a reminder of the kitchen when purchased:

Listing photo

So Fridays finished product looks like this:

 Drawer fronts and cabinet doors to come, I promise.

Fior garbage and recycling.

Shelving on the left. Notice clean microwave!

A door and shelving will go here.

Look at the counter space!

I know it doesn't look like much yet. But oh my gosh! The kitchen isn't as gigantic anymore and the space is useable! I am seriously in love. I wanted to eat dinner staring at its beauty.

When we add the bar portion it will really help break up the room between kitchen and living space. Counter tops will be nice too. One step at a time. We are most likely going to wait a few months for the savings account to grow in order to buy all that granite. We are adding granite to the pre-existing counters, the new ones and the bar. Thats almost 6 different pieces we will have to get. Luckily FIL knows a guy who can get it for us at stock price. They do lots of business together to it is only fair.

I cannot wait to go grocery shopping and put the bags ON MY ISLAND!! It seems so minor but its a dream come true!

FIL also installed bathroom counter!! More on that later.