Kitchen reno - Cabinets and shelves and messes-oh my

Thankfully there is a point in a project where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And I think we can see it.  

When I got back from the girls trip to PA, the cabinets were in the living room and half were set into place.  It was so exciting to see the vision of my bar actually in place....completely ready for counters.  The rest of the cabinets needed some prep work to get into place.  Namely yanking the sink out.  That is also now done.

Electrical ran in the bar and the cabinets in place.  I can finally see the bar that I've been seeing in my brain!!!!  And it is as great as I'd expected!  :)

These 3 little pipes held us up for a couple days.   But with parts from a local business (who I ordered the cabinets thru),  and help from my dad and a friend who is a plumber- I finally got it done.  We will have to buy a new trap and drain....and some pipe to plumb in the sink but it shouldn't be much. 

Now that the plumbing is done, we could get the sink cabinet and the rest of this wall of cabinets into place.

Just inside the pantry I was able to hang my aprons!  Its the perfect place for them.  :)

The king installed some of the shelves in the pantry.  They are sturdy enough he can sit on them.  :)

My pantry is filling up.  Still needs a few more shelves up high.

See all that space left up high.  That space makes me HAPPY!

This mess makes me SAD!  It was kinda organized but then we'd need something and dig and it got a mess.  And then we started taking shelves off the wall (because they became the pantry shelves-they are SO solid and perfect)...but that stuff got piled on top.  This picture makes me want to cry a little bit

Oh the mess....I'm going to try to work on it today.  But the cabinets a lot of it goes into all have pull out shelves that were mis-shipped....so I'm waiting for those.  Thankfully we aren't trying to use the woodstove.  hehe

The boys had taken all the boxes and put them in their room to build things with.  I wasn't sure how I was going to get them out of there without a huge fight.  Then they decided to build a fort on the porch in the rain.  Win/Win!  Yay

The nice ladies at Steve Jones came out and measured for my counters this morning (YAY!) and I'm slowing getting the cabinets lined and filled.  I feel like I am REALLY learning the adage that "it gets worse before it gets better."  :)

Took the Girls to Lancaster County PA!!!

My grandparents live just outside Amish Country in Pennsylvania.  They have never met L or my neices (D & d).  I haven't seen them in several years and haven't been to PA since I was little.  All of this equalled a girls trip out.  And boy was it FUN!

Nanny, H (my sister) and I took the three girls (ages 4, 3 and 1) on an about 12 hour drive to Lancaster.  We split it into 2 days both directions.  The girls did SO great!

Meeting great grandpa!

He chatted and they stared.  

Grandma and Grandpa were tricky.  They brought books and presents....

And M&Ms.

They are pretty cool people with books and M&Ms.  :)

D spent a lot of time holding her hose.  A. LOT. of time!   

H & d chillin before our buggy ride

D (still holding her nose), L and Nan waiting on the buggy ride

Me and L ready for the ride

L got to drive the horses....She is concentrating hard!

Duchess and Traveler took us on a nice drive around the country.  :)

Heading for some shopping

We got purses with crayons on a bus tour.  :)

And we loved feeding the ducks/fish at the pond at our hotel!

Seriously, we had the nicest trip.  Hotels in Wheeling and West Chester (there and back) were SO nice!  And West Chester was right next to IKEA!  (which we probably did on purpose-HAHA!)  And the "Amish resort" we stayed at in Bird in Hand was ideal for a trip with kids.  Such a fun time!

Kitchen Reno....day ?????

So I went on a trip (pictures to come) with my mom, sister and our girls.  When I got back the kitchen had undergone a lot of changes....which I didn't get pictures for so you'll just have to wait.  hehe


Then we got to the last (and most dreaded) section....the sink.  So once this is out I have no kitchen sink till the counters are ordered and it can all be installed....

Turned the water off to the sink and cut the lines....and the drain lines.  We are now without a kitchen sink

Old cabinet is out.

The existing plumbing.  We cut the trap and all out of the drain....it will all be replace.  There is a pipe running toward the fridge for the icemaker (which we do not use) and another heading the other direction for a dishwasher which we do not have.  Those both need to go so we can cut SMALL holes in the bottom of the sink cabinet to get it into place.  We do not have this plumbing

So I apparently measured wrong and there is 6 inches too much cabinet.  Thankfully this little wall is the only thing in the way so we can create the wiggle room we need.  More demo.

The paint line behind the fridge is where that wall was....Gonna have to do something about that.

The sink cabinet (and friends) as close to in place as they can get until I get parts tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll be able to order counters and the sink by the end of this week.  

Coming home from a trip with the bar and electrical in place was AWESOME!  Pulling the sink and hitting snags was discouraging.  Hopefully we'll be able to get back on track tomorrow night.

Right now I am sitting on my couch and looking at the kitchen....and I can SEE how great it is going to be!  We aren't on the coasting downhill stage yet but I can see the top of the mountain at this point.  Getting ready to order counters is TOP on the list right now (no sink till we can get counters).  Up next, while we wait for counters, is pantry shelving, shelf paper in all the new cabinets, lighting and putting things away.  Bring it!

Kitchen Reno days 3-5

Well, I haven't had time to get pictures off my card and onto the computer....and I don't have much time today. Once we start a project we don't mess around and we've been BUSY!  This post is picture heavy

All I did on day 2 was remove the cabinets that were along this wall. 

Day 3 started early (before 630) and we started by putting up "stiff legs" on either side of the stud wall coming down (the 2X4 in the foreground of the photo are 2 of them.  Then we took after the stud wall with pry bars and the big splitting maul.  Everybody who wanted got in on the action.

We added a 2X6 header (center board in this picture)  at the very top since this is the "seam" where the 2 sides of our modular were joined.  All the other lumber you see is part of the stiff leg set up and is temporary.

After the 2X6 header came three 2X6 on either side (which are hard to see) that are the posts....Then two 2X12 boards that were screwed together into a beam goes across the top on edge as a support.  That sucker was HEAVY but we got it.

Then out came the stiff leg.  The wall is out and the ceiling is still up.  Oh happy day!

I pulled all the paneling off the wall pictured above while the guys were doing the beam....

We took out a small section of the above wall that is the same width as the master closet on the opposite side of that wall....

We popped the wall back a few feet taking about 1/2 of the master closet (that was bigger than necessary)....now I have a walk in pantry (well 1/2 of one....still needs the stud walls and door on the kitchen side)  But that will have to wait for another day.

M helped daddy put one of the sheets of paneling inside the new pantry.

It is hard to stop now.  We are on such a roll but we've got other things we have to do.  Hopefully we'll be able to get the pantry completely boxed in this weekend....but I'm not sure we will.  I will be ordering cabinets on Monday (1-2 weeks for delivery) and getting paint for inside the pantry (we're using paneling we salvaged from different rooms and they are 2 different colors so I'm painting them all white) and chalkboard paint for the pantry door.  We have the lumber to trim out the beam but I will be staining those before we install them.  And pantry shelves to put in and food to put on said shelves.  So I'll have plenty to keep my busy while we wait for the cabinets to arrive.

It is so cool to see the vision in my head actually coming together as I'd hoped it would....

Kitchen Reno Day 1!

This has been a long time in the making.  I've been dreaming and planning and waiting and saving (and nagging) for a new kitchen for a couple years.  In the last few weeks we've been pricing out options and figuring things out and today the work began......

The Before of what used to be the living room and will be the dining room now.  I am standing at the front door

My totally gross, cluttered kitchen.  it is so hard to know where to put things when you are doing demo....and finding time to do the demo AND clean up the mess is hard.  Demo won today.

From the sliding glass door into the wall that we are working on today.  cabinets doors are open because the cabinets are empty  (except the 2 that you can see that have just fallen off)

First step....remove base cabinet....all by myself.  Fun stuff

G gets in on some removing trim with the pry bar action...

A steps up to get some more trim down

M could not be outdone
(yes he is wearing swim goggles---actually Minion swim goggles to be more specific --He couldn't find his safety glasses)

The little closet had to go.  May have practiced some side kicks on the paneling....
My good friend came over to help.  If we ever need jobs we are going to start a demo business (maybe we'll learn how to rebuild too) called "I'll just do it myself"

Cabinets, closet and all paneling is gone.  Ready for this stud wall to come out on Friday....need help from the King and my dad.  Have to put in a 16 (ish) foot header so the ceiling stays put when the wall comes out.  

Now I need to go rest and ice (do something)to my hammer swinging arm so that I can make it thru TKD tonight.

Hopefully I'll have good pictures of the studs gone and the header up in a couple days.