The major construction is done! WHEW!


Last night we finished hanging the cabinet and electricity. All the major construction is finished! The only things left to do are paint, put in the back splash, and mount the hood over the stove. Those will wait until after the holiday. We are going to take a much needed break!

BUT, all things considered, I love it! It looks terrific and is so comfortable! I did a little baking today and thoroughly enjoyed rolling out dough on the flat counters!

As a reminder, before:



After:


Not so shabby! I'm excited now to put on the finishing touches!

Okay, Okay, Okay! I know this is a little over-kill on the blogging and pics lately, but I'm getting some serious pressure from my sisters to know what it all looks like. If you'd rather not be part of the mayhem that is my life, surf on!


Yesterday this was my kitchen

This is where my kitchen stuff was...all over the place!

It's like camping only without the nice fire and s'mores.

Cabinets minus tile counters.

Then here came the granite! It took four men (and Parker) to get it all in.


Sooo pretty! Even unfinished it's pretty! I almost don't want to put my cabinets back up and cover it...but then where would I put my plates?

Lastly we attached the hardware, put the trim around the ceiling lights and put in the new frig.

At about 9:30 last night I transferred the contents of the old frig into the new one...

I'm bushed.

But it looks divine!

Goals for today:

Get a working sink
Hang pendant lights
Find a Tambour track to fix my appliance garage
Replace cabinets

Wish us luck!

Ominous....

This morning we woke to this message on our front lawn.



Hmmmmm.

Demo day #....I'm not even sure at this point.

Time for counter tops to go in!

Today we got out our hammers and safety glasses and went to work on those tile counter tops. Whoever put them in did a realllllllly good job of it. There were 3 layers under the tile and each layer had about 4,000 screws in it. We measured and found screws every 4 inches. It was oh so much fun! (red light)

Dallin was a great help! He popped off all the tile on the big counter by himself and loved every minute of it! The whole time he talked about how much fun he was having and how he should make this his job!

He said he was going to advertise that he could help people and get paid. "Yeah, you could charge like $50 for the day", I told him. "No" he said, "I think it would be worth like $25". So if you need a helper for the day...you know who to call! Ha ha!


Then he removed all the knobs from the drawers and cupboards.

Adam spent most of the time on plumbing, trying to get out the old sink. He only broke off one knob and sent me sprinting to turn the water off to the house. It was easily fixed (he's amazing) and all was fine.

Maura mostly sat in the dirt and made little mountains. Much fun was had by all!

It's difficult to live without running water in the kitchen and counter tops. We've been getting by using Maura's little table.


Grandpa Jonesy and Grandma Colleen got here yesterday afternoon just in time for ceiling painting. We hope we don't wear them out before they head back to Wyoming!

Mookster Chronicles

Maura: "Mom! There is a cactus!"

Me: "Yes Maura, there is a lot of cactus."

Maura: "Mom! They will poke my blood out!"

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Getting ready for playgroup:

Me: "Maura, who are you going to play with today?"

Maura: "Rylie and Brighton and Jack..... and Linkin. He puts his fingers in my nose and I let him."

Me: "Yuck! Why do you let him put his fingers in your nose?"

Maura: "He is my friend, so I let him put his fingers in my nose."


Ahhh, so that is what friendship is all about. Good to know.

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Maura: "Mom, where is Santa? He is just coming and coming and so slow!"

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We had a great ward Christmas party on Friday night. It was a Cowboy Christmas. We had burgers with all the fixin's, a really fun program and Santa.

Maura was NOT afraid of Santa. She was the first one in line and even before he asked her what she wanted she blurted out, "I want a pillow pet, a polly pock house, and a baby". Santa sure better get this right because these things have been on her list for weeks now!

Dallin still isn't too big to sit on Santa's lap. I'm so glad.

What does he want? A giant bucket of Legos.

Kitchen demo take....I dunno...45??

It's been a project, that's for sure and I Love LOVE LOVE it!

I really wish I had the talent and the tools to be able to tackle the job myself. I really hate dragging out a project for more than two or three days and this one has gone on for more than two weeks!

BUT, as I speak, my ceiling is done (minus paint and three more lights). No more drywall dust or insulation in our food!



This was after texturing and waiting for it to dry.

I feel pretty helpless standing around looking at what needs to be done then standing around looking at the real talent do all the work....*sigh* Well, at least I'm good at cleaning up!

We've gone through several modifications of what we are going to do to the kitchen mostly based on what it would cost us and advice from friends.

So for now we are going to replace the hardware, leave the top of the cabinets open, clean up the small trim at the top and see what it looks like after that. We aren't going to add cabinets on the top...yet or paint cabinets...yet. We'll see if I like it after we get new counters (TUESDAY).

One REALLY exciting thing was today I decided that to really make this kitchen sparkle I needed an new hood over the stove. So, I did a little internet research and was about to decide I couldn't afford it when I looked on my favorite online shopping resource, Craigs list!

Can you believe I found a stainless steel chimney hood that would fit perfectly where I wanted it?? Even better was the price, 1/3 of what it would have cost me in the store! AND it was new! It was totally worth the drive to North Phoenix to pick it up.

I made Adam model it for me. It looks like it is copper or bronze because of the lighting, but it really is stainless steel and soooo shiny! It has lights and a really good fan, and it's just awesome! I can't wait to put it in!! (Again with the standing around and waiting...)



So long country style hood. I won't miss you much.


If anyone needs a hood for their stove I know where you can get a great deal!

Next week we tear out tile counters to get ready for the granite, sink and faucet.

I'll be really excited to get our new faucet. We accidentally snapped off the head of our faucet during the demolition project and now the water shoots straight out the snake like cord the faucet was attached to (you know the kind you can pull out to move the faucet head around with). It has some pretty strong pressure and if I forget and turn on the water full power I give myself and most of the kitchen a shower. Adam has gotten soaked a few times as well, it's been downright funny!

Then we will paint, do tile, add the hood and hang pendant lights.

My dad and Colleen are coming into town on Tuesday. I'm going to hand them a paintbrush the minute they walk in the door (aren't I a nice hostess??) and hopefully I can get most of this project done before Christmas!

My big dilemma is what color to paint. I really suck at choosing paint colors, so if anyone wants to share their opinion feel free to drop by and give me your two cents!

Next week is going to be a whirlwind getting ready for Christmas and trying to finish up some projects. It's gunna be fun!

The sheetrock was hung today! Yahoo! I tried to help, but I was no good at using the screw gun so I mostly stood around and watched. Maura, on the other hand, was very entertaining.





Next is tape and texture, paint and light trim.

Then cabinets, and counters, and paint...

I kiww'd da Wabbit!

"Typhoons! Huwwicanes! Eawthquakes! SMOOOOOOGGGGG!!"

"White witning stwike da wabbit!"

Poow wittow wabbit. Poow wittow bunny.

So what did you expect? A happy ending??

Construction Day 1:

Goals :
1. Put up sheet rock
2. Install can lights
3. Seal old AC duct

Actual work accomplished:
1. Replaced the rat nest of wiring that was hidden by the drop ceiling.
2. Gave thanks that our house didn't burn down as we replaced all the burned and crumbling wires.
3. Installed 8 of the16 can lights
4. Replaced more wires, added junction boxes where there were none, and tried to figure out why several wires were drawing 200 volts...hmmm

Dan Rogers (center) acting as foreman, Chase (right) acting busy, Ac guy in the far corner sealing the duct, and the dedicated electrician who did not complain or even swear when he saw the mess he had to straighten out.

Maura "The Mean Witch" tried to help as much as possible and the nice electrician let her!


Goals for today:
1. Finish wiring
2. Put in 8 can lights
3. Hang sheet rock

FUN, FUN, FUN!!

Kitchen Demolition: Part I

My lovely kitchen.

It's time. Time to rid my kitchen of the 70's inspired drop ceiling.



And the bunny. Farewell little bunny. I won't miss you.

And the counters. I will miss them even less.


Friday afternoon I began. This is how far I got by myself. Then Adam came home and we really did some destruction.

It was really tough to get the AC vent out. We had to crawl up into the attic and cut it out. Leslie let us borrow her mean looking saw and it helped a bunch. Leslie helped a bunch too!!



One of the hardest parts was the clean up. There was 3 feet of insulation on the floor. It sounds easy to just roll it up and take it out but it weighed about 1,000 lbs! It took a lot of pushing, some huge black trash bags and a tarp we sacrificed to get it all done.

We piled everything in the driveway to be hauled away another day. Usually when we leave stuff on the curb with a sign that says "free" it disappears quite quickly. I think we'll do that to this pile and see what happens! :0)



Construction begins tomorrow.

Next demo project-tile counters!

WOOO HOOO!!

Trenton and David

My brothers came to visit! Well, they came to visit my sister Katie and her baby Adell, but I made sure to get in my fair share of visiting time!

Dallin and Maura especially liked hanging out with their uncles.

Last Sunday we went to Katie's house to hang out with them and play with their dogs. Trenton's dog Rhino only has three legs (they usually call him tripod) and Maura was fascinated! She watched him and you could see the wheels turning trying to figure out what was different. Finally she said "MOM! That dog...he's.....he's....missing a piece!"


I think Dallin mostly loved getting out of school to go do some fun activities. One afternoon we went to the Aquarium at Arizona Mills. (bummer no pictures)

Then another afternoon we went hiking at the Arboretum near Superior.

I tried and tried to tell Maura to NEVER listen to her uncle Trenton, but she was rather enamored with anything he said. He was always trying to get her to eat nasty stuff like bugs and dirt! (Note the angry fist in the next picture thanks to Trenton)

Maura, Trenton, Katie, Kevin (and Adell), David, Dallin


Awww, how sweet.


We spent a lot of time wandering through the different trails smelling things and even tasting stuff. Olives right off the tree are super nasty, right Dave?

I had never been to the Arboretum before and it was a really neat place. I especially loved all the fall colors and huge trees!









This suspension bridge was really amazing!




The scenery was incredible!

This was a really cool little maze... I forgot what it was called...a peace garden or something. I think you are suppose to think of a problem you need solved and think about it while you walk through the maze. When you get to the end you will have the answer to your problem.


Dallin did a good job playing photographer.


Maura tried her skills as well. She really wanted a picture of a cactus.

Dallin tried out his muscles against a precarious rock.

It was a really nice hike but the Mookster was crabby near the end. Good thing we had a bunch of Uncles to help!

Thanks brothers for coming to visit us! We really loved it!

Some new portraits of the Mookster. They turned out rather well I think.

You can see really well where she cut her hair in the front, but not the teeth.


I was trying to get a really good "before the tooth-pull" picture and she just wouldn't do anything but this sweet demure smile (totally not her character).


This one is a little more true to life...



Almost got the tooth shot...not quite.

She's still a keeper.