Big Projects and MORE BOXES!

I am SO EXCITED!!! Our new kitchen cabinets have arrived. With any luck I will be using a dishwasher by Monday. I never realized the beauty of such a simple machine, but I gotta tell ya, a year of washing by hand has given me a great deal of appreciation. It will be fantastic, and I can hardly wait.

The cabinets look awesome and I am thrilled that they will give us the accommodations that we really need in the kitchen. We were working with a 20" stove and limited cupboard space. It is only a 10x10 space, but we can really maximize it with an island stove and help meet code with a really nice custom hood/vent. It is going to look amazing. I pulled out one of the pieces and it matches the other trim and woodwork beams in the rest of the space.

Unfortunately, the beautiful new cabinets are still in their boxes, and the old ones are cluttering up my front porch. I think we will be able to sell them though. I posted em up on craigslist and had 3 people stop by to take a peek. We shall see if they can get them out of here by Monday... THAT would be great!

So here is the picture of the kitchen before the big project. We will be upgrading everything including the kitchen sink... which wasn't bad to begin with, but we wanted the corian built in sink so we don't get gunk in the seams. The whole upgrade will only cost us about $1000 because of the insurance money. We will also be upgrading the floors (was lenoleum before the flood).

I will definitely put up after pictures once we get there. But here is a cute one of part of the process. We are about 1/2 way through the project now and I don't have the heart to tell Ben that we are going to start on the other part of the remodel (adding 2 rooms above the garage) as soon as we're done with the kitchen gear. He is working so hard and I think it is actually good for him to have something to do when he is home. At least something that is going to have a product when complete.Ayway, it was quite the ordeal getting to this phase. First we had to pick out the colors and style and price everything out. Then we waited 6 weeks for them to arrive and barely got the hot tub out of the converted garage before they arrived. That was a project! We ended up using 2 jeeps, a buddies trailer that wasn't quite wide enough to accommodate the hot tub, a couple of wood planks, the winch (a mechanical device used to wind up a rope, not a hooker) a couple of ratcheting tie downs, a tow strap or two, a come-along, a big tree, and some good-old-fashioned muscle to get it from the garage to the deck out front. Here are a few pictures of that fiasco.

Getting the hot tub out of the garage.*****
Getting the hot tub onto the little deck (temporary storage till we get the addition on.)

I gotta say that I am impressed with Ben's ingenuity. I don’t think I would have been able to do that… at least not without calling in the brigade. I did help, but only to the extent that he told me exactly what to do and when to do it.

Ya know, I just realized that I didn’t mind that. I must confess that I was eager to be bossed around, at least it made me feel useful. Surprisingly, we haven’t fought at all during this stressful remodel. We have been able to work together and neither of us have been really frustrated… although, we can see why carpenters drink. It is a little more stressful than we had anticipated.

Anyway, that is the bulk of our projects for the weekend. I will definitely keep yall posted on the progress and new plans for improvements. Fun? Fun. FUN!