Lights

I didn't realize how dark our kitchen was, until we got all of our new lighting in yesterday. It turned out great! We are really happy with the electrical work that has been done this week, and seeing the kitchen all lit up and bright makes me so much more excited to see the finished product. This weekend we will get the drywall up and next week have someone come in and mud, tape, and sand it. Should be looking very different this time next week!

Basketball Season

Marcus is in the grey shorts

Matching up for defense

Dribbling the ball up the court

Marcus shooting the ball

Marcus is playing YMCA basketball this winter, and Saturday was their first game. Levi is coaching his team, so he is super excited about that as well. One day Marcus was talking about it, and said, "yeah Dad sure must like basketball if he wants to coach." I told him that yes his Daddy likes basketball, but he LOVES Marcus, so that is why he is coaching...he just got the biggest smile on his face. It was precious.

Saturday he did very well in his game, and worked hard. He dribbled the ball up the court a few times, and shot the ball twice, making it once. He passed to his teammates, something you don't see too much out of kindergarteners, and had a great fun attitude. We had fun watching him, and really enjoyed the day.

Kitchen Island

Beginning stages of framing out the island

Primed beadboard lined bookcase for my cookbooks

The rope sticking out of the side is for the electricians tomorrow, who will put in an outlet on that side of the island.

Primed beadboard on the back

Primed beadboard on the side

Brought the edges out for sturdiness of the countertop
With one layer of countertop on
Back view of island

Levi's brother David is really good with wood working, and has really enjoyed it as a hobby. He has taken on some jobs here and there, so we hired him to make our new kitchen island. The old island was tall and bulky, kind of not very usable to sit at, and not really our style. We had been looking online and in stores, getting ideas. David was able to make EXACTLY what we were looking for, and explained to him, and we couldn't be more thrilled! The only thing left to do is put the trim on it, which he will do. I will prime and paint the island, and Levi will make the countertop. It's been a fun project, and we are very thankful for David's work on it!

Kitchen Progress

Back side of new island

Plaster and lath removed, working on new wall

The guys built a small wall on one side of the refrigerator
The east wall of the kitchen, where the pantry used to be
Sealed off while taking plaster down...reminds me of a scene from ET

Other side of the kitchen sealed off from dirt and dust

Grandpa Jim

East wall of eating area down to the studs

Eating area of kitchen with plaster and lath completely removed

West wall of kitchen, plaster still on

Kitchen island

On Friday we began working on the kitchen again. This weekend the goal was to get the island(except for the top and trim) done, get the plaster and lath all pulled down and cleaned up, so that we are down to the studs. We are now ready for the electricians to come in tomorrow and hookup our new lighting we installed, and also upgrade the electricity to the kitchen. Jim, David, and Levi worked very hard getting all of this done, and we are SO excited to see it start to take shape. Thank you guys for all of your hard work! It was a very messy job, but they did such a good job sealing off the area where they were working with plastic, so it kept whole house from getting to be a dusty mess.

Our Kitchen Remodel

Demolition

Tearing out the island

Cole working with Daddy

Levi tearing off the wallpapered paneling

Levi cutting the holes for the new canned lights
Marcus giving a hand with the demo
Carson taking some boards off

The twins
Time out to play with Miss Xena

She is growing like a weed!

Part of the new island, premade cabinets.

View of the kitchen with the old island out, notice the wallpaper :)

Another view

We've been very busy to start off the new year. We decided to give the kitchen a bit of a remodel, which will be done in two phases. The first phase started this month. We will be taking down the old walls, rewiring, putting up new walls. Also, taking out the old pantry, the old island, and building a new island. Levi's brother David is doing the island work for us. Also, Levi is putting up all new lighting. The next phase, in a year or two, will be new backsplash, new countertops, and new flooring. We are excited to make this house our own, while still leaving the neat original things about it alone.

Before we did anything, there was wallpapered paneling on the walls from the 70's. We hadn't seen anything like this before. We took it all down, to find regular wood paneling beneath it. We will take that down this weekend, where we will find plaster and tear it all out down to the studs. The electricians are coming Monday to update the electric and hookup all the new canned lights Levi and his Dad installed this past weekend. I scraped the soffet only to find 6 layers of wallpaper on there...it took a whole day to get very little done. In the end we decided to just put beadboard over it, which will tie it in with other parts of the kitchen later. Yeah! No more scraping for me!

The boys have had a good time watching, and helping with the demo. We tore apart the old island last Friday night, each boy got to use the tools to help Dad tear off boards...then before long they had all of their play "tools" in the kitchen helping more.