Pictures are worth a thousand words...

The appliances came as schedule two Fridays ago.  I have used my oven almost every day.  I really did miss baking.  The range works beautifully and the refrigerator is great (although it's just a fridge).  We are all so happy to have a working kitchen again!

The following Monday people came to blow in insulation in the attic.  What a world of difference that has made.  We had very little to begin with in the original house anyways, and of course nothing in the addition until now.  The bedrooms don't feel so cold anymore!

The quartz countertops went in at the desk area and also the half bath.  My uncle came by and installed undercabinet lights in the kitchen and laundry room, lights at the desk area, installed the other light fixture at the garage and installed the door bell.

The contractor came this past Friday and installed the baseboard in the bedroom closets, hung the address numbers and the good 'ol mailbox.  He also had to fix two doors that were sticky (and not sticky with food...can't blame this one on my kids).

The plumber came by this morning and installed the faucet in the half bath, so now that bathroom is functional.  We are schedule to have the vinyl floors installed in the two existing bathrooms on Wednesday, so we will have to tear out the existing cabinets and install the new ones, which means we will be down to one bathroom for a little while.  See, the construction never stops around here!

We had to move everything out of the storage unit on the 10th...so now everything that we don't need is either in the garage or the house...guess I'll need to plan on a garage sale....

Okay, I really wasn't going to say that much...here are the pictures!

My uncle installing the recessed lights.

I love how the lights make arcs on the wall.

Hard to see, but the under cabinets lights are on.

Our door bell!  I love it!

Here the countertop is in at the desk.

Vanity done in the half bath.

Baseboard in the closet.  I can start to fill them up now.

Happy New Year! And...we've got water!

We hope you all had a great 2011 and wish you all a wonderful and even better 2012!  We were able to start the new year with running water in the kitchen.  The countertops were installed on Friday and our most awesome plumber came on Saturday, New Years Eve day, to install the faucets and garbage disposables and even the dishwasher.  No more washing dishes in the garage in the freezing cold!  Everything has turned out beautifully.  So, only two more days until the appliances get here!

The contractor came on Monday and installed the baseboard through out the house, so we are getting closer to being done.  Besides the appliances arriving on Friday, my Uncle (also awesome) will try to finish up some of the electrical work (but we are still waiting for some light fixtures that are on back order) and the plumber will come back to install the rest of the fixtures in the laundry room and hopefully be able to set the toilet in the half bath.

The countertops arrive!

Making the necessary cuts.

First countertop on.

The island sink is set.

Here is the island sink all done.

Main sink.

View to the left.

View to the right.

Overview of kitchen.

Baseboards installed.

Now comes the part where we have to put everything back together in the house.  No easy chore when you have to figure out where it's supposed to go and re-organize everything...but I'm up for the challenge.  It will be sooo nice to be able to find our stuff again and not have it move to different locations in the house 10 times!

Stay tuned for the appliances!

Happy Holidays!

We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season.  It's been great to see and hang out with family and friends.  For those of you who we have not seen in a while, we do miss you all and hope to see you in the coming year.

A lot has happened since the last post.  It's been so crazy here, that there has been no time to post anything.  I'm making myself do this before the new year!

The cabinets did arrive on the day that was planned, but it wasn't all the cabinets...just the kitchen and the laundry room - and that is fine with us.  The sooner we can get the kitchen back, the better.  The contractor was able to install most of the cabinets in the laundry room first, then he worked on the kitchen.  It took about 4 1/2 days to finish....during the mid week, the rest of the cabinets came and are now sitting in the garage waiting for flooring to be installed and the demo of the existing bathroom cabinets.  The plan is to make the half bath functional before we tear into the existing two bathrooms (because no one really wants to use the porta-potty...with the exception of the two younger boys...go figure).

Once the kitchen cabinets were installed, the flooring guys came and started prepping the plywood floors and also installed cedar planks to the bedroom closets.  The next day they installed the vinyl flooring in the half bath and the laundry room.  They turned out beautiful.  On the third day they started working on the hardwood floors.  Starting from the entry, they are working their way towards the kitchen, then they will work on the hallways.  The day is almost over here, so it looks like they will finish the kitchen/dining room and come back tomorrow to work on the hallways.  We love it so far!

Today we also got a call from the countertop installers...they will be installing the countertops tomorrow!  It will be a little crazy tomorrow...my uncle will come to finish some of the electrical work, the contractor will come to install some of the baseboards and the skin for the bottom portion of the cabinets and the quartz counters will be put in.  What a way to end the year....too bad we can't get the appliances that night!  Although, I need to call the plumber to see if I can get him to come later that day to install at least the main kitchen sink....wouldn't that be dreamy!  Running water in the kitchen!!!

Removing the glass sliders to accommodate the island.

Pushing and pulling the island through.  The island is almost 4' x 8' and is one whole piece!

Here is the island in its general location.

The range hood cover!

Bringing in one of the laundry cabinets.

The pieces of the kitchen get put together.

One side of the laundry room.  The tall piece waits to get installed on the other side.

The quartz slabs are in!

Here is the Tourquay for the kitchen.

Here is the New Quay for the desk, vanities and laundry rooms.

The new kitchen...cabinets in place...just needs the crown moulding and trim pieces.

The other side of the island.

Right side of the kitchen.  To the left will be the range and straight ahead to the right will be the fridge.

Left side of the kitchen.  Main sink will be there.

Left side of the laundry room.

Right side of the laundry room.  Room was re-painted and is a much better color.

Here is a little bit better picture of the kitchen island.  You can also see the crown moulding on the upper cabinets.

One of the cabinets in the "entry".

The other cabinet flanks the other end.  The quartz will go in between.

Existing carpet was taken away.  The boys are sitting on the boxes of hardwood which is getting acclimated to its environment.

Just the view of the family room.

Entry.

Closet with cedar flooring.

Out goes the Pergo and the old linoleum it sat on.

In goes the wood floors!  Almost done!

Half bath before the new vinyl floors.

Vinyl floors installed and the new vanity cabinet.

Vinyl floors in the laundry room too.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year if I can't post anything before then!

We've got carpet!

Last Friday we were able to have the carpet installed in all the bedrooms...including ours (might as well).  Since we didn't touch our master bedroom as far as the remodel goes, we thought it would be best to just get new carpet so it would match the rest of the bedrooms.  Since we were getting new carpet, we had to rip out the old baseboard (part of it was the original baseboard that was installed in 1968) and also take out the trim around the doors and closet doors (we did the entire house, might as well do ours so it all matches).  Since we were taking out the trim in our bedroom, the trim in the master bath needed addressing as well as the other side of the boy's bathroom.  So, there....there is new baseboard and trim throughout the entire house.  We have officially touched every room in the house.  Can we say we are done now?!?  Luckily, my dad was able to help demo trim and baseboard and our contractor was nice enough to come by and cut the baseboard and trim for us.  He even installed the baseboard for us.  Hooray!

Then next day we were able to move the boy's into their own rooms.  CT and my brother went into the storage unit and picked up their bed frames, desks and night stands.  They even brought back CET's diner.  My mom and I cleaned everything up, washed all the quilts and they had a brand new bedroom to sleep in.  CAT even got a new "teen" quilt for his room.  I would have waited until he was in 5th grade like KWT, but the poor kid has always had to shared a room with his brothers, so I thought he deserved to get his "teen " quilt early.  I think they are all very happy.  Now we just need to have the doors cut a bit at the bottom so they can close their bedroom door. =)

Here is the pad before the carpet.  I had to take a picture of it for KWT since it's green.  He had requested he wanted grass for his flooring material instead of carpet.  I brought samples home thinking he would hate them, but he picked one out that he liked (it was the softest with a really short pile).  I could not bear the thought of changing it out later, so he got carpet.  Maybe someone will get him a grass welcome mat. Do they still make those any more? I can pull the daisys off!

Carpet installed and a mattress in!

Here is our room with the pad, new baseboard and trim!

CAT's room.  He hates that we have clear lights on the Christmas tree and outside on the house.  He asked me why we can't have the colored lights.  I told him the clear lights are classic looking and I think it looks better.  CT told him, "Mommy likes white."  Yes, just wait until you see the new kitchen.  CT must have felt bad for him, so when he was at ACE Hardware, he bought him a string of colored lights and let him hang it where every he wanted to in his OWN ROOM.

His little hang out area under the bed.

What's teen bedding you ask?  Here it is...not grown up but definitely not little kid.

KWT's room.  Just need to add the accessories now.

CET's room.  We are using the same bedding the two older boys got when they got the loft bed.  I still love it.

Our room.  The bed was moved to the center of the window.  It was always off center and never looked right to me.  It also means we need to get new dressers since the old ones won't fit in the space any more.  That's okay.  We need new bedroom furniture anyways.  CAT got one of our old dressers and CET will probably get the other smaller one.

Over the same weekend we even were able to get our Christmas tree and the night before CT and my brother hung the TV back up.

Ahhh, no more mattresses on the floor = no more kids jumping on the mattresses!

In the days after moving the boys back into their rooms, I cleaned what I could and tried to some how get our house back in order and make it a home again.  I hope I got all the construction dust out...

The hallway leading to the boy's room.

This year the boys hung the lights and decorated the tree.  I did a little bit after they were done. They did a pretty good job.  I think they get the job next year.

I borrowed a table to put in our "desk area" so we can see what it will be like.  It works.

I called the cabinet guy and our cabinets will be delivered on Monday, Dec. 19th!  The contractor is set to come next week to install them.  The fabricator for the quartz countertops are scheduled to come on the 22nd, the flooring guys might come on the 21st and the appliances are set to be delivered on January 6th!  We could be done by the first week of the New Year...we will see.  Oh, did I mention the tile for the kitchen backsplash is on back order until early February?  The interior doors still need to be painted, I still have to re-paint the half bath and laundry room and the door hardware still needs to be installed...yeah, we will get there.