Kitchen is Completed!

Except for a few minor fixes the kitchen is now complete!  I can’t believe all this has been done in less than 2 months!  I’m so happy that it’s finished before I leave for Africa this Sunday.  The office is complete and put back to normal.  The living room is all back to normal.  The outside is almost finished.  We got the bedroom windows installed yesterday so now we just have to prime and paint the walls in there and move the furniture back in place.  Maybe that will all be done by the weekend.  We’ve got some clean up to do but that shouldn’t take too long.  I’m so amazed that this is our house.  God has so blessed us and I’m so appreciative of all the wonderful friends from church who made this possible.  God bless you all!!!!  I’ve posted a couple of before and after shots so you can see the amazing transformation. Thanks for following along in this journey with us.  Hope you’ve enjoyed it!  Now I will have to find something else to blog about!

Kitchen Trim Is In

What a difference it makes to have trim around the windows and floors!  It certainly gives it that finished look.  The kitchen floor was finished today.  Now, just a few more minor things and the kitchen will be done.  Tile in front of the front door will be done tomorrow.  Windows in our bedroom are supposed to go in tomorrow.  I got the wallpaper put up in the office over the area where they closed in the door.  Took down the border in the office last night.  Just have to paint the top half of the wall in there now.  When windows are finished, will have to paint our bedroom.  After those inside items are done, there are a few outside things still yet to be finished…siding, soffetts, finish step going into sun porch and lots of clean up!  The end is in sight!  What an amazing transformation.  Loving it!  

Appliances and Running Water!

Praise the Lord we finally got running water in the kitchen last night!  Thanks AJ!  The dishwasher still needs to be installed and the floor still has to be finished but little by little we are getting there.  Steve came over last night and installed the under cabinet lighting.  When we turned them on we could then see that the rail the cabinet people installed under the cabinets to hide the lights were not flush against the cabinet bottoms and light is shining between them and the cabinets.  One more issue to deal with.  Then today when the appliances were delivered the fridge barely fit in the opening.  In fact, it is rubbing right against the cabinets on both sides and if there is the slightest movement I can hear it rubbing.  Don’t know if something needs to be done about that or not.  Guess I’ll let Hershel deal with that one when he gets back from Mexico.  Even with all the problems I know it will be worth it all.  I love it already!

Kitchen Struggles!

I have been so stressed this week over the kitchen floor and have sat down and just cried.  I’ve been feeling really selfish about it though because it’s Easter weekend so I should be focusing on Christ and the sacrifice He made for me and know that all He went through was so much more than I could ever imagine having to go through.  My piddly little issues are nothing compared to that so I feel very fleshly even being upset.

We found the problem with our floor on Thursday night.  As we got ready to go to bed we went in the kitchen to look at the floor and almost half the floor tiles were buckled up.  The floor guy was here all day Friday trying to fix the problem.  Apparently, for some reason, the luon underneath was being pulled up as the glue dried so they had to use a hair dryer on each tile and peel it up, put more nails in the luon then glue the tile back down.  They stayed here until about 8 p.m. that night working on it.  The hallway by our bedroom still hasn’t been done at all and now we are going to need more tiles to finish the job and they are on backorder and won’t be in until Friday.  I had to call Lowes again and cancel our delivery of appliances for Saturday.  The question is, whose fault is it that this has happened so who needs to pay for the extra tiles we now have to buy?  The floor guy says the luon that Mike bought was bad but Hershel thinks the floor guy didn’t put down enough nails in it to begin with.  He said he’s put in at least 30 of these kind of floors and has never had a problem with any of them before.  There are still a few more tiles that need to be redone and hopefully it will be grouted on Monday.  Oh, and also where the new addition was added, the floor is not level with the old floor so you can see a slant in the floor along the line where the bay window was.   Very frustrating.  The backsplash was put up yesterday and will be grouted tomorrow.  It looks great and I love it.  Our kitchen table was delivered on Friday is in the living room for a while I guess.  

Hershel is at the airport right now leaving for a mission trip to Mexico for a week so that leaves me here alone to deal with the kitchen issues.   It’s been a very stressful week but I’ve been trying to just put everything in perspective and remind myself that we live in a fallen world and nothing in this life is going to be perfect.  Maybe the imperfections in the floor will be a good reminder to me each day that the things we have on this earth are just temporary and the perfect home awaits me in Heaven one day.  I’m sure after my trip to Chad, Africa I will just be thankful that I’m not walking on dirt floors!  It’s all about perspective!

 

New "imperfect" floor

 

Finishing the backsplash

Hanging over counter lighting

Kitchen Update

Yesterday we got the few things fixed on the cabinets that needed to be done.  They also installed the countertops.  I love how it looks!  Today we thought we were getting the floor and backsplash done but only got the board for each that have to go underneath.  Found out today that the floor install is a 3 day process.  Luon (not sure how to spell that) the first day, tiles the second day and grout the third.  Supposedly we will get the backsplash done tomorrow morning and all the floor tiles laid.  We decided to go ahead and get the new appliances and we had them scheduled to be delivered tomorrow and had to change the date to Sat.  Couldn’t change delivery for the table to Sat. so I guess the table will set in our living room for a day and a night.

My friend, Mary Anne, and her daughter came over last night to check things out and ended up helping put some shelf protector in the cabinets.  Still have some more cabinets to finish but they did a huge part of it.  Can’t wait to get it all done!  Check back soon for more photos after backsplash and floors are in!

Kitchen in the Home Stretch!

I cannot believe all that has been done in the kitchen remodel over this last week.  Thanks upon thanks go to Ben Trueblood, Jr. & Ron Barefield for all their time and effort on our electrical work.  A.J. Trueblood has been an amazing plumber for us this past week.  Steve Connell has chipped in to help and Dave Farwell came one night to give his help to the project as well.   I am just in awe of the giving hearts of these men to come help us after they have worked a full day on their day jobs.  That is the body of Christ in action and blesses my heart so much!  They’ve done amazing work and both the electrical and plumbing passed inspection with flying colors!

Mike Dozier and his team have continued to do an amazing job keeping everything running smoothly and helping us meet deadlines so the next step can be completed. Our cabinets were installed yesterday and I was able to get the kitchen walls behind the cabinets painted before the install.  There are a few things on the cabinets that have to be changed and hopefully that will happen on Monday.  Countertops are scheduled to be installed on Tuesday and the floor and backsplash on Wednesday.  At that point the majority of the kitchen will be completed but we will still have things to do like window trim, baseboards, under cabinet lighting, window blinds, making curtains and decorating.  I really liked the green paint color I used until Hershel and Steve put in the recessed lighting globes last night and it totally changed the color!  I debated on repainting another color but decided I would give it some time to see if it grows on me.  There’s just too much work to be done right now to start repainting walls I just painted.  We also had purchased new stainless steel appliances that are supposed to be delivered next week but we’ve decided to just keep the white ones we already have.  They aren’t that old and we will just replace them when one of them dies.  Dave Ramsey would be so proud!

We still have to have 2 windows installed in our bedroom since our sliding door was removed for the addition.  After that is completed we will have to put in some new baseboard trim and paint that room.  Our office was also affected since the doorway was closed in.  The trim in that room had to be patched in and the walls have to be repainted.  The living room also has to be painted since we cut out a portion of it and added on to the wall.  Hershel painted the ceiling in the kitchen on Thursday night and the ceiling in the living room today.  I painted one accent wall in the living room today and hope to paint the rest of the living room walls tomorrow.

This has been, and still is, a huge job but I know the finished product will be so worth it.  It’s amazing already.  I can’t wait to get it all done and just enjoy it.  We are so blessed to be able to do this to our home and I truly thank God for allowing it to happen.

One More Step Closer

Today was a huge workday on the kitchen!  The drywall was put up, another window installed, hall opening and office opening were closed up, new hall opening finished, living room wall expanded and top half cut out.  Also, all the cabinets, countertops, sink, etc. were removed to get ready for the electrical and plumbing on the existing side of the kitchen.  Amazing!  Tomorrow the walls will be mudded and on Monday they will be sanded and ready for paint!  I can’t believe we will actually be putting paint on the walls in less than a week.  We still have alot of work ahead of us but I’m so happy with the speed of the process so far.  Mike Dozier is my hero right now!

Temporary Wall is Gone!

Oh my goodness!  I’m so excited to have the temporary wall gone and see the size the kitchen will actually be!  We had some great help from guys from our church doing the electrical work over the past 3 days.  It passed inspection today.  Tomorrow we have the framing inspection and the cabinet company is taking measurements.  Also tomorrow the small wall you see in the pic below between the living room and kitchen will be removed, pantry will be taken out and far kitchen wall taken out to open up for new walkway.  Still lots to be done but it’s great seeing the progress.  

On the down side, 4 of the people who came to our house over the last 3 days to help us are sick today with the stomach bug that went around our house over the weekend.  I feel terrible about it and am praying it will be over quickly for them and won’t spread to their families or to anyone else who was over here.  Kylie and Taheton still can’t seem to completely shake it.  One day we think they are better and the next they are sick again.  Not a good time to have sickness in the house!  This too shall pass.  Stay tuned for more updates along the journey.

Bay Window Gone

A couple of days ago our kitchen bay window was taken out and a temporary wall was put in place to keep out the elements until we can get the new windows and sliding door put in.  Today they put the shingles on the new addition roof.  There are so many decisions that have to be made on this remodel, big and small.  It’s so hard!  I was a little stressed and under pressure today over it and we still have a long way to go!  Lord give me strength and patience.

Ceiling Leak Spurs More Progress

I told you yesterday that progress had to be halted on the kitchen due to rain.  Well, last night we had a leak in our bedroom ceiling from water running in the attic and through the vent.  Since the rain is going to be around a few days, our contractor had his crew back out here this morning in the rain putting the roof on the addition!  I’ve posted a few more pics of the progress.  Next week some wall demolition will be underway!  That’s scarey!  Gotta start on the electrical work as soon as possible.  Hopefully things will keep moving along at a good pace and we’ll have a new kitchen before we know it!