Days 26-30 It's finished!

So sorry I haven't updated before now. We have been working hard this past week and wanted the kitchen to be totally (well less a couple little things that aren't noticeable to you) done before giving an update and posting pictures. Oh the drama. Anyhow...here's how the final days went down...

Day 26: This was a long day for Randy and my uncle. They worked until about 9pm and then my uncle had to take the 90 minute drive home. Anyway, this was the day they put the granite countertop in. I can't remember if the sink was also put in this day or the day before. But all I can say is it's awesome! Randy brushed up on his granite installation skills and I have no doubt is now a pro. We also ended up having to run out to get a new faucet because something was broke on our old one. There have been lots of unanticipated expenses, which I will say more about later. We also ended up having enough granite to do a full blacksplash behind the stove and also added a shelf behind the sink, we love it!

Day 27: Hmmmm...I don't recall what we did on this day. But I do know that Randy went back to work (he took Tues-Thurs off) and I'm pretty sure we did some stuff that night after work, but I can't remember! Oh wait, yes...we did do a few things, but we had our Fantasy Football draft this night.

Day 28: Hmmm..again, let's see, what did we do? Moved in and hooked up the dishwasher and range. I know there were LOTS of trips back and forth to Lowe's. We are SO done there! But overall, it worked well for us. Oh yes, back to what we did. I think I organized and painted the pantry. Randy has spent the better of this day and the next 2 on plumbing. Plumbing takes a long time and seems to be pretty frustrating, especially since we don't really know what the heck we are doing :) Well, I don't, Randy seems to know what he's doing, or at least he sure does act like it and there is no water leaking!

Day 29: Clean the fridge and move stuff in day! Also included was sealing the grout in the laundry room. All I can say is EWE about the fridge. It had been sitting since we did the demo and ewe ewe ewe! My lovely husband took on the role of cleaning this out, and boy did he! It sparkles like a new (white) fridge. Yes, as you can see, the white fridge doesn't exactly match, but it really doesn't look that bad...right? Maybe I'm just distracted by all the other new prettiness of the kitchen! There was also a lot of time spent trying to hook up the water line to the fridge. Apparently the previous owners used a copper pipe...not that good. After lots of trial and error, Randy called it quits for the day with the water line. But I cooked my first meal in my new kitchen this night!! WooHoo! It was our favorite yummy chicken! The smell of home cooked food in this house after a month of eating out, was just delicious! I spent the day putting stuff back in the cupboards, lots of organizing and cleaning. Oh, I had to wash every dish and utensil that was either covered in construction dust from inside the house or from the garage. That was fun. Although, I must admit that doing dishes in a new sink is a bit less painful than before :)

Day 30: This was today's work, our final big day of work. Randy spent again, the better part of today on the damn (can I say that?) water line to the fridge. He must have gone back and forth to Lowe's 3 or 4 times to get the right tools. After a couple hours of trying to work with the copper pipe, he got a better idea. He used some flexible braided stainless steel supply line thingy. Yes, that's the official title. The problem was that we had to get it from the fridge, behind the stove, behind the ROUND cabinet, behind the dishwasher and to the water line under the sink. We tried many different techniques before finally...um..threading the needle, so to speak. He actually had to take out the Lazy Susan to get the line back there and then put it back in. I'm getting tired again just thinking about it. He was the brains, I just did what I was told. But, we have the best tasting water ever!

Let's see...we also moved in the laundry facilities! Yay! Before doing this, Randy had to cut, paint and install the baseboards. There was also some minor repair that needed to be done on the dryer. Has Randy ever worked on a dryer? Not that I'm aware..but he figured it out! I finished organizing the kitchen, cleaned the granite, and just did what I was told. Oh and Randy also did the trim for the pantry door area as well.

So..in conclusion...um..we are done! And we have a kick ass new kitchen for less than $5000. There were lots of unexpected trips to Lowe's. Not that we thought we had all the tools we needed, we expected to have to go back and forth, but jeez! This weekend, we went probably 7 times. But it is all worth it in the end.

We did all the work ourselves with some expert granite and cabinets help from my uncle. And...we are still married! I must really hand it to Randy..you know what they say...that handy Randy! He really is amazing. His focus, determination, thoroughness and overall awesomeness really is what got this done. Yes, there were ups and downs and a few disagreements, but overall we are very proud that we did this together and now have a beautiful kitchen.

Not sure when I will update this blog next, but we are already thinking about our next DIY project, so stay tuned....

Day 25

We have lower cabinets installed! We also have the granite which will go in tomorrow. It's all moving so fast now. We love it!

Day 24-We have cabinets installed!

I came home from work today to upper cabinets installed! They look awesome! My uncle came out to lend a hand in light of a pending deadline. He will be installing the granite and is leaving town this weekend and we wanted to get the counter top in before rather than after he gets back. He is coming out tomorrow with the granite, they will finish installing the lower cabinets and whatever else they can do!

After my uncle left, Randy and I installed the cabinet doors. Randy also installed the hood for over the range. As I type, he is out purchasing the sink which we need to have so that my uncle can cut out the counter top. We decided on a stainless steel, single, undermount sink.

So, I'm hoping that we will be able to move back into the kitchen this weekend! Yay!

Oh, and I'd like to add that we plan to also paint the dining room the same color as the kitchen, so there won't always be that bold line of color that you see now between the dining room and kitchen.

Days 19-22

We have a kitchen floor AND a new pantry door! Randy was very busy while I was away this weekend! I wanted him to write this since he is the one that did all the work, but I guess he is too tired..can't imagine why?? Randy took Thursday and Friday off work. Thursday he spent installing a new pantry door. Remember the other ugly one? Well, we have a new pretty white door! We still have to paint it and add trim around the door. Randy said he spent Friday cutting the tile. He initially was able to borrow one from someone, but it was too small, so he had to rent one instead. Saturday was spent tiling the kitchen and laundry room and today he did the grout. I was a little hesitant about the grout color choice (even though the color made my list) because I thought it might be a little too light and it would stand out too much. But it looks awesome!!! We are so happy with the look of it.

So this week we have to get our cabinets installed because my Uncle is hopefully coming out this weekend to install the granite countertop. So, now I've got to go pick out a sink. It's all coming together now and I could possibly, hopefully, have a new kitchen in the next 10 days or so. WooHoo!!

I'd also like to take this time to remind you all that we still have a lovely, working white fridge which will not match in our new kitchen. The accountant (BofA) says that we can't afford a new black fridge (which will match), so we are still taking donations to put toward our new, donated, working, black fridge :)

Oh, and did I mention....that Randy has never done any of this before? Um, yeah. He rocks.

Day 17

Wow, I can't believe I've been without a kitchen and laundry facilities for this long. I think it's starting to get a little hard, especially the laundry part.

So, I came home from work today to find that Randy had finished setting all the backer board and screwing it in. He learned not to follow the directions on the bag of thin set and used his "gut". The process was much easier for him today than it was on Sunday. He said it took 4 hours to lay the thin set and screw all the boards in. Might I add, that when I got home from work, not only did he have the kitchen stuff done, but he also had mowed the lawns in the front and back and pulled out a dead tree! Wow!

Then we spent the rest of the evening dry laying the tile to decide on a good pattern. Not so easy but it sure looks pretty! We had to shift it around several times and still haven't found the exact right spot. We decided on a diagonal pattern because, well it looks better! But we then ran into problems transitioning from the kitchen to the laundry room and also around the edges. So we still have some modifying to do, but it definitely feels like it's coming together a bit more.

I probably won't update again until I get back from Oregon on Sunday. Randy plans to set the tile this weekend while me and the dogs are gone.

Day 15

Another productive weekend is behind us. Although, we both did take it a bit easier this weekend. The next step for us is the floor, which we have decided to do next weekend (well, Randy decided) because I will be out of town and can take the dogs with me. I guess you aren't supposed to have anyone/dog walk on the floor for 72 hours. So being gone allows the time to do the floor with out an extra 8 feet in the house.

Anyhoo-over the week Randy cut and laid out the backer board (HardyBacker) so it was ready to go today. He mixed up the thin set, which the first batch turned out to be pretty thick, thin set, despite following directions. We managed to lay the backer board in the laundry room and just a bit into the kitchen before we ran out of thin set. We then had to put screws in it as well, which earned us both some blisters on our hands.

Also did some touch up painting. Last week when the tape was pulled down, it took some of the paint with it. So we had to fix that up as well. Hopefully no more painting!

I included pictures of the kitchen from the usual vantage point as well as a close up of the laundry room floor. Sure doesn't look that exciting, but boy was it a lot of work!

Day 9

I came home from work to find a painted kitchen! Randy put 2 coats on the kitchen and in the laundry room. WooHoo!

I have the hardest time choosing paint color. We chose this color together and even held it up to bright white to make sure it was different enough and it was. But, the color is very light, lighter than I anticipated. You can barely tell a difference from the white ceiling. I included a picture of the corner and you can see a slight variation, but not much. I just hope it's not too bright of a contrast for the rest of the kitchen. But yay! One more step done!