It's taking shape...

It has been over a month since my last post on the kitchen project.  But don't for a moment think we haven't been working like mad!!  It has actually been rather enjoyable, believe it or not.  The project that was supposed to only add a pantry and take three months, has grown to a 70% demo of the entire kitchen and remodel.  But we are excited to see it finally taking shape.  There is still quite a bit to do so we are extending the completion date of this project till the end of the year...Lord willing, we will make it.

I must say the project has challenged me much more than I ever imagined.  I have learned how to frame a pantry, hang doors, build cabinets, install wood ceiling, install canned lighting (although I have actually done that before); hang beadboard molding and lay tile with accent pieces.  I have laid tile before but not with an accent piece.

Well the last post showed the pantry done and the flooring done.  Now for some more progress pictures... (cue drum roll)

Just to remind you of what we started with here are a couple of before shots.

The old breakfast room.  

Of course, the refrigerator was pushed back all the way.  We pulled it out to begin the demo.  The four doors (two top and two bottom) closest to the camera on this was the pantry...not adequate for a family of 7.
  

The very first cabinet (Thanks to Robert Simon for teaching me in an evening how to build cabinets)

The first two cabinets hung...woohoo and dishes put away. 

After getting a quote on retexturing the ceiling, we decided that was a little out of the budget, so we wooded it instead.  Well, actually it is beadboard but it looks like wood plank ceiling.  (truthfully this is what Lauren wanted to begin with.)  

Another shot of the ceiling.  Need to patch the seams.  

Fast forward a few weeks and voila...all kitchen cabinets are hung.  It went much better than I thought.  Still need to put the stiles on and make the doors, so these are just the boxes and shelves right now.  

The pantry again...finished and stocked...need to paint the doors and trim.  

The new and improving kitchen.  :)  Still a ways to go, though.  

Cabinet that will be over writing desk (still need to build) but I got the brilliant idea to build mail slots as well.  That will be a lifesaver.  

Breakfast area, you can sort of see the beadboard.  Need to finish up the trim on top of the beadboard and the trim pieces in the corners.  

The cabinet around the refigerator...yeah that one was a challenge and I had to work with that one as it didn't quite fit the first time.  But fortunately I was able to fix it without taking it apart.  FYI...nothing in this house is square!!!  :)

You can sort of see the skinny cabinet to the left of the refrigerator.  That is going to house the pots and pans (hanging) that are over the refrigerator in the picture.  We are going to put crown at the top so the gap at the top of the cabinets will be covered.

So we have some work still to do.  We need to finish the cabinets with the stiles and doors and then finish installing baseboards and patch all nail holes and then finally paint!!  We are looking to pain the cabinets, top and bottom as well as the trim a linen white.  The cabinets will then have a tea stain glaze applied to them to give them a little character.  We then need to paint the walls as well...still deciding on a color.  Then Lauren will get to add splashes of color in the decor.  Though the project has become the mammoth evolution...we are having fun.  

Just because I love my kiddos I will close with some pictures of them.  I realized, I need to take more pictures of the boys...I don't have any of just them recently.  I enjoy taking pictures of my littles!!!

Christyana

Cyniya

Caitlyn

Corban, Colin & Cyniya

7 years ago...

Today is a special day!  Today we celebrate the 7th anniversary of our first born son.  I remember the day as if it were yesterday.  Hard to believe 7 years have come and gone.

That day was a Thursday.  Lauren and I went to the doctor for her first of 4 weekly checkups...she was 36 weeks pregnant.  At this point, being first time parents, we had already been to labor and delivery twice with false labor.  But, she pressed on.  At the time, we worked in the same office at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.  She, an admin and me a loan processor.  We had a baby shower scheduled that afternoon at work, which Lauren was very excited about.  We were getting a cake from her favorite place...RJ Goodies in Spring, TX.

So we sat in the doctors office and Lauren was having contractions.  The doctor examined her and as he got ready to leave the room, she had a heavy contraction and winced a bit.  The doctor had a concerned look on his face and sat back down and asked, "What just happened?".  She told him she had a contraction and that her back had been sore for several days to which he responded, "I think we will send you to labor and delivery...you're probably in labor."  So we walked across the hospital to labor and delivery.  When we arrived they instructed us to go back to the doctor.  So, confused, we went back, to which Lauren quipped, "If I wasn't in labor before, all this walking will throw me into it."  We got back to the doctor's office and he sat us down to inform us there was, "no room for us in the inn."  Hurricane Katrina had come through two days earlier and the hospital L & D unit was full.  So he sent us to a hospital just down the street.

We arrived and were taken immediately into triage for monitoring.  About 20 minutes later, the nurse came in to tell us that the doctor would be there in about an hour to perform the delivery.  We had elected a C-section (out of our own ignorance).  So needless to say, this came as a bit of a shock.  I went in the room to start making calls to work and family.  And thus began the whirlwind of a day.

Our precious baby boy was born that afternoon around 2:15pm.  The procedure went smoothly and after only about 15 minutes in the operating room, we heard the most beautiful sound...the first cry of our first child.  We both teared up as they introduced us.  They said he was beautiful...my first thought, "are you blind???"  For those that have had children you will agree, that a newborn before cleaning them up is a bit messy and cute isn't quite the word I would use to describe it.  :o)  They moved us to the room, a very nice and large room.  The rest of the day is a blur, but Colin was with us for all but about 20 minutes of the day after the delivery.

We, of course fell in love instantly!!  Lauren's boss and a couple of colleagues brought the baby shower to us.  It was a wonderful day.

So, to my dear oldest son let me say, I am so blessed to have you as my son.  I am so proud of the young man you are becoming and pray God's blessings over you.  I pray that he will tug at your heart, convict you of your sin and open your eyes to your need of Him.  You are such a wonderful role model for your younger sisters and brother.  I love so many things about you.  I love your giving spirit and your compassionate heart.  I pray God will shape you and mold you into a wonderful husband and father one day.  You are a treasure!!!

~Psalm 127:3~

Wanted to include a few pics of that amazing day...

Maternity shot of Lauren

At the hospital

Beautiful baby boy...

Meeting mommy for the first time. 

The next morning

After first night

The day we took him home from the hospital.

about a week old.

1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

7 years

Plugging along...

Well we are three weeks into the remodel and the kitchen definitely doesn't look the same.  But we have made some great progress.  The tile flooring has been installed, the pantry shelving has been installed and more importantly the pantry doors have been installed.  Very grateful for a friend who knew how to hang double doors.  I would have been totally lost.  But I continue to learn a lot.  My sweet wife has as well...like when you try to move an outlet that has just been changed out, it is best to make sure the power is off before you touch it...her arm finally stopped twitching.  :o)  Since this was not my first tile installation experience, I thought I needed a challenge...ha ha.  Well, actually my wife decided what she wanted and I was crazy enough to try and tackle it.  Did I mention, I have a desk job as a career...  Though it began with a little bit of a rough start, the overall install went well, much better than I anticipated.  In 15 hours, over five days after work, it was finished.  It took another 5 hours to grout and clean afterward.  Not to bad for a non-professional.  A few pics of our progress...

Our old flooring...pink and grey swirl...not bad just not what we wanted.  

After night 1 of laying tile.  Though we began on a Saturday at 7am...we actually didn't get the first tile laid until about 6 pm...long story.  We went with a neutral tile and an oil rubbed bronze accent insert piece.

While I laid tile, Lauren worked on taping and floating sheetrock.  

Making progress...night 2

Making more progress...night 3

Night 5 after grouting...floor still wet hence the shine.  

View of breakfast area after grouting.  

New pantry with DOORS!!!  Thanks E.J.!!!

Kitchen from the breakfast area showing pantry.  I installed sheetrock over the doors. 

Breakfast area with new tile, and partially installed beadboard on the walls.  

We are making progress, like a herd of turtles.  Haven't done much with this week except get everything in the pantry as my parents are in town.  Still a lot of organizing to do but we are getting there.  I finally hooked up the fridge to the new water line, praise God, no leaks.  We have also had a very kind and generous neighbor come by to teach Lauren how to do a skim texture on the walls.  She is a designer by trade and we have really enjoyed getting to know her through this project.  She has been a total blessing!!!  Thanks, Roxanne!!!  Still have a ways to go...next task, finishing the beadboard and then getting all trim hung; then time to make some cabinets.  Never done that before, but I look forward to learning!! 

Praise God, the project has gone well thus far...

We've opened a can of worms

It has been a few weeks since the last post, I know.  We have been busy...opening a can of worms!!  My wife confidently announced a few weeks ago that our summer project was going to be the kitchen. While we have bounced around possibilities and ideas for a while now, we hadn't really come up with our master plan.  We knew we wanted to build a pantry larger than what we had but that was the extent of our final plan...and so it began.

First, let me show you a few pics of the kitchen prior to remodel.

To give a little history, our house was built in 1982 so the kitchen design is 30 years old.  A previous owner did replace counters and backsplash which are very nice.  So in all of this, our goal was to keep those in tact if at all possible.  We knew our cabinets were not real cabinets in that they are only 3 sided and are attached to the drop down ceiling.  They are also all connected meaning you tear one down, they all come with it.  We knew this going into this project.  

So my wife began by tearing down the block paneling in the breakfast area.  You can see a small portion of the bear sheetrock in the third picture above.  We were expecting to have to put sheetrock behind it but much to our surprise, we didn't need to do that, it was done.  (woohoo!!).  So while I was at work, my wife decided to begin the demolition.  

I came home from work one evening to find that one whole wall of cabinets was gone.  It was then that I knew that she was serious.  The small square hole in the drop down ceiling was so that I could stick my phone in there and take video to make sure there was no wiring or anything we needed to watch for.  Fortunately, all clear!!  So over the course of the next few evenings, I tore down the drop down ceiling while during the day Lauren continued to demo the cabinets...within 48 hours, this is what our kitchen looked like.  

This is a buddy of mine who came to help

Did I also mention that while we were building a pantry, in the mean time, we lost our pantry so our table became our pantry...temporarily.  

Can we say...CHAOS!!!  I realize now that DIY projects are not for the weak at heart.  We have now been living in this mess for two weeks.  We are working hard to get things done.  But once we tore into one soffit, we knew they all needed to come down.  

Fortunately, I talked a buddy of mine into coming to help me last Saturday.  With his help and the help of two of his family members and a 14 hour work day, we were able to make some real progress.  We put in recessed lighting, took out the fluorescent light in the middle of the kitchen, capped a water line where the fridge used to be, capped a gas line where the double ovens turned bookshelf used to be; hung sheetrock, and framed out the new pantry.  After our work day on Saturday, things were looking better.  Mind you, two nights before I was awake for over two hours thinking, "What have we done?!?"  Needless to say, I felt better after all we had accomplished.  

While she spent most of the day watching the little ones, she did jump in a time or two.  

Even Colin got to help a little.  Nailing beadboard as the back wall of the pantry.  

Measuring a piece of sheetrock.  Measure twice, cut...three times?!?  

Coolest tool ever...it beats trying to drill into 30 year old concrete slab to anchor the frame.  This tool packs a punch.  

Much lighter and brighter.  

The recessed lighting really makes a difference!!

The new pantry...in progress.  It is 5 foot wide and goes all the way to the ceiling.  We will be putting french doors on it. 

THe new location for the fridge and a tall broom cabinet.  

All upper cabinets removed.  

The crew...great guys and hard workers!!!

Hanging Sheetrock

So there you have it...Demolition is almost done.  We are tearing up the tile floor and should have it done tomorrow to lay new tile.  Pantry should be shelved tomorrow, braces are already in place; just need to cut the plywood for the shelves.  We are making progress...will the dust every end?!?  I have gotten my first lesson in taping and floating sheetrock...it is definitely an artform, but it is going well.  We have a big work day scheduled tomorrow...hopefully we will get a good portion of the flooring laid tomorrow.  We have one week to clean up all of the dust.  My parents are coming into town and we don't want this disaster awaiting them.  I also promised my dad...no projects while he is here...ha ha.  He doesn't enjoy them as much as I do.  

So after a long week...night-night!!!