New Kitchen

Let's face it.  In a Facebook world, it's just easier to upload pictures there and be done with it.

I'm sorry I let you down.

I'm sorry I didn't take the time to type a few superfluous words to go along with the pictures for you.

Would today be ok for that?

First, here is the chaos that covered the dining room table for 2 weeks.  Ugh.

And the dining room floor.  And we used that microwave on the floor for 2 weeks.

But, I suppose it was worth it...

Right side.

 Left side.  Have I told you that our microwave has a setting for softening butter?  And it does a dang good job.  Not melted butter.  Perfectly softened butter for baking.  For every single time I bake.  Because I always forget to set the butter on the counter before baking.

A few of my favorite things:

a deep, stainless sink.  

a subway style, tumbled stone backsplash. 

lighting under every cabinet.

a pantry!

The whole shebang.  Yep, it's still tiny.

Look at all that light!

Pendant lighting over the bar area.

Back in the Kitchen Again

Recipes for the week:

Bacon Breakfast Bake

Baked Pork Chops

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Pepperoni Pasta Bake

Tater-Tot Casserole

And maybe these...

Homemade Snickers

A Few Hiccups

Well, our kitchen isn't exactly coming off without a hitch.

Although the disposal seemed easy enough for the plumber to install, the motor burned out after 30 seconds of it running.

Although we are super excited about our new pantry, the sales rep didn't realize that it didn't automatically come with shelves, so we've been waiting since Feb 2nd for those to be ordered and delivered.

Although we love our new faucet, the built in soap dispenser was not ordered, nor was the hole drilled in the granite to accommodate it.  Wait, we must.

Although the water line was moved successfully to the new refrigerator location, the plumber neglected to check the fittings for our fridge, so we had to hunt down a pressure coupling on our own.

When trying to paint our baseboards, we realized that our trim paint was goopy.  Another trip to the paint store at the last minute.

Baby Changes

Praise the Lord for these two changes in the past 2 weeks!

Norah's found her thumb.  I personally prefer the pacifier since you can take that away at some point, but, hey, I'll take what I can get.  Sucking her thumb means she's self-soothing and that's a good thing!

Norah's gone about 5 days without an inexplicable bout of fussiness.  That is the biggest victory we've had so far!

In & Out

No, not the burger joint.  Instead, this is a post about the comings and goings of the various contractors it takes to overhaul our kitchen.

I thought I'd document the schedule for each step of our kitchen overhaul.
This is no tutorial.
This is no DIY project.
We are paying cold, hard cash for an entirely new kitchen (minus the refrigerator).   Some things are worth paying good money for :-)

As a side note, we are using Discount Floors Superstore to coordinate the whole shebang.  They were running a kitchen special over the holidays (which I think is still going on, if you're interested).

Thursday, Feb 2: Demo Day!  Cabinet, backsplash, countertops, flooring...all ripped out.  Electrician and plumber came by to move wiring and water lines since we are moving the fridge and dishwasher as well as reconfiguring our lighting.

Friday, Feb 3: New cabinets installed.

Tuesday, Feb 7: Tile laid throughout the kitchen and laundry closet.  Final measurements and template constructed for the granite countertops.

Wednesday, Feb 8: Tile grouted in kitchen and laundry closet.

Thursday, Feb 9: Walls and ceiling repaired, then mudded and textured.

Friday, Feb 10: Sink and granite countertops installed.

Saturday, Feb 11: Tumbled stone backsplash installed.

Monday, Feb 13: Plumber returns to install garbage disposal and hook up the sink and dishwasher.  Electrician returns to install 6 can lights in the ceiling, under cabinet LED lighting, and 2 pendants over the counter-height bar area.  The electrician will also install our new range and over-the-range microwave.

Tuesday, Feb 14: I will rejoice over a beautiful, fully functional kitchen that I've dreamed of since day 2 of living in this house.  I will enjoy every second of planning out how to most efficiently fill our new cabinets!

Kitchen Remodel, Part 2

Kitchen {DURING}

New Kitchen {CABINETS}

Kitchen Remodel, Part 1

Kitchen {BEFORE}