The Kitchen - Finished (mostly) Product!

In the dining room, we just painted and updated/replaced the outlets. In the kitchen, we now have new laminate on the countertops, a mosaic tile backsplash, new cooktop and hood, new sink and faucet, and we painted and replaced the old outlets with updated outlets.

When I say 'we', I mean Joe. I'm so very thankful for his hard work. It's so nice to have a nice kitchen. It's even a little motivating to keep it clean!

 

Arrival No. 3

No. 3 is scheduled to arrive at about 830 a.m. on Wednesday, January 18, 2012.
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Climber

Stella likes to climb on things. We just got back from picking up different tiles for backsplash ideas (just me and Griz). I brought her in the house and ran back out to the car to get the remaining bags and this is what I came back to. I was gone for less than a minute. Yesterday I busted her climbing boxes. So, she'll climb about anything, but she won't walk.

Actually, she is getting closer to walking. She took two steps a couple days ago to get to her daddy.

And one more thing, just for the record, she likes to try use my belly as a step stool and a bouncy seat.

Kitchen Project: Part 4

Prepping counter tops for new laminate.

Removing old cooktop

 I'm not sure what's going on here. The counter that you see is particle board.

 The little kids' bar is done! Sort of. Still need to tile the back.

The sink area counter top is done!

The disaster of a dining room. It's in there somewhere. Going to re-upholster the chairs sometime soon.

Tomorrow Joe will finish up the last part of the laminate counter tops, install the kitchen sink w/new garbage disposal and faucet, install the new cooktop and hood and I need to figure out what the heck to do for backsplash. And then it is cleanup time! And from the looks of things around here, it feels like it will take a year to get the place cleaned up.

Kitchen Project: Part 3

Touching up the cabinets. Apparently, when you paint cabinets white they will turn yellow over time.

Kitchen in Progress: Part 2

This is really more about the kids than it is about the kitchen. Part two of the kitchen project was the trim. Before, there was gray, rubber, industrial trim. We 'upgraded' to actual wood baseboards. You can see a tiny corner piece in the background of these pictures. I took these pictures to show how the girls love their daddy.  Sami always wants to know what Joe is doing and if and how she can help. Stella is just a total daddy's girl. Notice how she manages to get herself into his arms and then clings on.

Oh, Sami's hair is goofy like that because it was Halloween, but at preschool it was 'crazy hair day'.

Kitchen: Backsplash I want...

This is the backsplash that I want and love. But have been told I should find something else. I want to find a way to make it work.  My only concern with this is how it would be for cleanup behind the cooktop.  Joe's concern is installation. So we are trying to figure out a different plan for the backsplash.

Kitchen in Progress-Part 1

Paint! From whatever blue this was to Mushroom Bisque (or tan).  We Joe didn't paint the backsplash area because we thought we were going to do this really nice backsplash (I'll post a picture later). It rocks. I love it.  BUT it would be a huge pain in the ass to install because it is glass and stone, and the stone part needs to be pre-treated and so on. So now we are still trying to figure out what we will do for backsplash. We are contemplating a couple of things: white subway tiles where the old backsplash was and then painting over the blue with the Mushroom Bisque, or doing mosaic tiles of some sort. Open to suggestions if you have them, but whatever we do, we need the stuff to be available so we can get this done already!

Kitchen Before

These aren't the best BEFORE pictures, because Joe had already got started when we realized we should take some before shots. But, you can click here to see the kitchen before we moved in. The funky blue walls were fun, but I was more than ready for a change. The backsplash was the same as the old laminate countertops from the 60's. Stainless steel sink and faucet from the 60's and I'm guessing that the cooktop and hood were many years old as well.

Hormonal or Crazy?

You might know that when I am pregnant I have no patience for bad parking jobs that leave me little to no room to get my kids and myself in my car. I've been known to lick my finger and leave special messages in the dirt on tailgates of pickups and leave not-so-sweet notes on the windshields of minivans. Today, however, I took it to a whole-notha-level.

After my appointment with my psychiatrist (ironic, isn't it?), I returned to my car to discover that I had less than a foot to get Stella and myself in the car. My first reaction was to write the standard "dumbass" in the dirt on their windshield. I even did it backwards so they would have no trouble reading it while inside their car. Then I proceeded to try load Stella in the car, which was not an easy task and she was not happy about the wedging that was necessary to get her in her carseat. Neither was I. Then I had to try get my pregnant ass (and belly) in the driver's door. I couldn't squeeze in there, and didn't feel that "dumbass" was sufficient for my level of frustration. So I gave the car a few good bangs with my car door, hoping that would help make more room for me to get in my car (no, not really. I was hoping to do some damage.) . Didn't work. So I had to hoist myself up so my belly was at the window level (about an inch more room up there) and squeeze my belly and ass through the small opening. Similar to birth, I am sure, except with me and my car.  I was beyond pissed after that, and seeing that my earlier door banging did nothing to the piece of shit car next to me made me even more mad. So I went at it again, except this time from inside my car with a little more force. Repeatedly. The guy sitting in his parked car diagonal from me was chuckling while watching me lose my temper and I ended up leaving more pissed off than relieved because after all the work I just went through to try do SOMETHING to that damn car, it was such a POS that if I did do something, you couldn't tell. I left wishing that I had a baseball bat in my car so I could have at least busted a taillight or something. Yes, I realize that's crossing the line. And that's why I think I can categorize this under 'hormonal' and not 'crazy'. Crazy would be not seeing any problem with it at all.  And if, say, I did feel that way about it, I would never admit it!