Hello

I miss blogging. I doubt many people read or follow me but I feel better knowing I have documented my triumphs and accomplishments. I started this post in April 2013 and am just getting around to finishing it. I just think, what is the point?

Take Sunday for example- we had demolition day in the kitchen. All the backsplash and countertops came down/off. I seriously have been dreaming off taking this tile off my walls for two years. Serious. It was time.

Now I wish I could share these photos but I can not. Someday in the near future I hope to gain enough courage to spend the money to add photos and keep up on this lovely blog. I don't like having  facebook to document my pictures. Just the word facebook makes me cringe. I am soooooo anti pop culture.

Any way since starting this post in April many more kitchen accomplishments have happened. No only did we demolish the ugly 97 cent tile counters and back splash to make way for the new and improved counters- we sucked it up and BOUGHT new counters. Ocean green granite from Elite Counters in Hillsboro. I couldn't be happier. Truly it was a beautiful sight to come home to. I laid on it and hugged it. It is so pretty.

A few weeks after that we did the back splash installation. Many hours of cutting and aligning the beautiful matte white subway tiles. I also hugged this once it was installed. The white on the black counters was truly a magnificent sight to see. I was so happy that our kitchen was coming along.

Many DIY blogs and websites say that you should put the mortar or whatever it is behind the back splash but FIL is an independent contractor and doesn't know why? When there is an extremely easier way to accomplish this task. He simply caulks the back of the tile and sticks it to the wall. Easy one step done. Why would you do anything else? We had to cut spots for the outlets and cut to fit around the corners and tricky spaces. It took us merely 3/4 of a Sunday afternoon but it was TOTALLY worth it.

Fast forward to mid-week and our sheet rock guy "rocky" comes multiples times to finish off the disgusting holes in the walls. He came back sparsely and fit us in when he could. He knew we had been living with it for 2 years and that we didn't need to be the priority, out kitchen had other things that could be addressed.

A few more weeks passed and hubby and FIL grouted the tile. Plain white one white. Then we sealed it with an expensive sealer. Now my master bath is 99% complete and I consider the kitchen 95% but hubby disagrees and would lean towards the 99%.

The wall in the kitchen still needs a cap. FIL has a vision for some crown molding type edge and I believe it will be fabulous once complete. Also the kitchen island needs a toe kick. We saved tiles from the wall demo and island installation to hopefully be used for this.  So with those two things needed I consider the kitchen 95% done. That is still really good considering where we started 2.5 years ago.

For the master bath all that is needed is the toe kick tile to be installed and then it will be finished.

Once the dry wall and tile and everything was in I decided to paint the great room! We went to Home Depot and brought home a few samples. I was hoping for a nice gray to compliment the black counters and white back splash. We settled on Martha Stewart's "Chinchilla" color matched at Sherwin Williams "Mistic Gray". Hubby went on a mid week motorcycle trip and I took the alone time to accomplish the task of painting a great big room. Took me two nights, 1 gallon of paint, 9 plus hours and a bottle of wine. Worth it!

Oh glory day, I cannot believe we have come this far. I wish I could share pictures with you but alas, I am cheap and cannot.

Check back soon for updates!

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.

365 Days

Is how long our little family has been living in this beautiful home!

Dweet loves moving strictly for the use of boxes

Bye bye apartment living!

So many things have happened this years. From changing the front door hardware on move in day, to new fridge, washer and dryer and tearing down the view blocking wall.

All within the first seven days!

Then we painted our master bedroom. I had the hardest time picking a color and hubby isn't any help. I ask "do you like this color?" he grunts "yeah" so it's all on me. I had a few swatches picked out but hadn't settled yet. I saw a commercial for 50% off and immediately went and randomly picked Sherin Williams Spa. It's a little bright but I like it. I guilted hubby to help paint! Yay for teamwork. I will eventually paint the bathroom the same color but a waiting for the new cabinet instillation.

Staged

New mattress. 

New blinds in the master.



Replaced the brass light fixtures for more "us" lights from ikea and home depot.

Mom and I painted the trim of the house.



Hubby and his dad built the beautiful entertainment enter. The house came with one that we weren't particularly fond of. To be honest it was gone the first night too. The bonus was that it has a mini fridge spot. Necessary 5 feet from the normal sized fridge of course.

Staged house, notice the bar to the right. Gorgeous right?

So we lived with this for a few months.

TOP

Bottom

Added a gallery of where we have been.


When the end of summer rolled around we got a leak. Its the weirdest thing and only drips when its NOT raining...Luckily for us Oregon has more rainy days than not. Sadly its coming out of our hood over the stove and its really weird. Who has leaks when its sunny? These people do.

When we moved in we noticed the lawn border was upside down, so hubs and I turned them over.

We tried to complete the rock to lawn makeover. Again still in progress.

Not to mention adopting two dogs! Whew. I hadn't realized all we accomplished this year. Can't wait to see what the future brings!

Mandatory end of post animal pics!!

Lilah's new and hopefully last splint!!

Dweet studying hard for mid-terms

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Caught red handed! Making a mess

Delilah has taken over Dude's bed