I have terribly neglectful of our blog this summer. I guess I have been busy doing other things. We have been doing a giant home remodel and it is nearing completion. I also need to post about the other things we did this summer: Brynn's baptism and birthday, the races I participated in, some new haircuts for the girls, and a few other fun things. I will start with the remodel. It has been all-consuming for months now and I can't believe we are almost done. So here is a huge picture rundown of what we have been up to:
Kitchen before. Notice dark cabinets, wall by stairs, and ugly lamp over stairs. Soon they will be gone.
Living room before. Notice entryway with it's special posts, the stairway that is not up to code (plastic latticework) and the decorative railing behind the couch.
Living room/kitchen before.
Cabinets coming down. I did this by myself in an afternoon. I must say it gave me a bug to destroy everything. Demolition is so much fun! The girls sat on the deck and watched me. They were my cheering section. "Hit is again, Mom!"
Cabinets gone. We should have done this years ago. I have not missed the cabinets for two seconds. They were so narrow you could not even fit a dinner plate into them.
This banister is up to code, right?
Shawn and Dad discussing the important things in life: How do we rip this railing out of here?
Shawn working on taking the fireplace out. We had to cut the wall out to get to the stovepipe. We had to cut through the stovepipe, which was three layers thick.
Fireplace gone. We were left with a super creepy hole in the wall. The stovepipe was left hanging there. We thought it would be fine. Shawn tarred around it up on the chimney to close a water leak and everything looked good. We came home from church to find the stovepipe had fallen through the chimney and was sitting on the floor in the wall. There is now a 14-inch hole in our chimney where the stovepipe used to be. We just left the stovepipe in the wall and sheet-rocked over it.
We took out a little wall here by the stairs. My new can lights are in place and we have started painting.
This is the sheet rock repair job where the fireplace used to be. It was so nice to not have a giant hole in the wall anymore. The cat had been crawling around in the hole the hour before we closed it up. We made sure we knew where she was at before we closed the hole.
Stair banister gone. I tore this out by myself one morning. Again, I think I like demolition a little too much. Claire is practicing safe stair-climbing technique in the picture. Do you all want to send your kids over to play at my house. I promise it is super-safe.
This is the wall where the fireplace used to be, patched and painted. You would never guess there used to be a fireplace there.
One of my new light fixtures. I LOVE them!
Just a happy kid. Our kids have been so patient with this whole thing. Such good girls.
This is what we found underneath the floor when we tore it up. I think this we the original linoleum in the house. Isn't it pretty? Claire was calling it our treasure floor. The girls loved it and wanted to keep it. It is still down there, so I guess we kind of did.
Old kitchen floor gone. Kind of.
New laminate going down. This was an exciting day. I love this floor and the new feel it gave to this space.
New floor just about done!
Old carpet coming up. My parent and Jake came over and helped us pull staples for hours. Then as payment I gave Jake the old carpet. It is headed for his garage. Heehee.
Old sink on it's way out. Countertops gone.
New countertenors. They are so pretty! And I love the way they make the cabinets pop. It is finally starting to come together!
New sink. I have wanted a stainless sink for years. I am so excited
New carpet. We finally can start putting the house back together. The carpet looks great! The girls spent all afternoon rolling around on it.
New ceiling fan. We have had no ceiling lighting in the living room up to this point. I am so excited about this lamp, and anyone who know me know I am hot all the time so the fan will be great!
We cased all the windows and put up new molding. This was a huge job, but so worth it. It all looks great and really finishes everything off.
That is about it. I will post some more pics when we get the furniture back in. The bookcase will probably go in around November. Shawn has worked so hard. Thank you baby!! Also thank you to my parents who helped so much. THey would call every day and ask what I got done and what I was going to do. I think they were worried that they would get stuck with the work so they were highly motivated for me to work hard. Seriously they helped a ton. We can never repay them.
So now for the next month I am going to sit on my couch and look at my pretty new house. Come over and you can sit next to me and we can stare together.
