Problem Solved (drama over)

The window problem is solved, sealed and drywalled! Mr. Contractor came in this morning to mud one more time before sanding and painting and we went over measurements one more time.

HE came to the conclusion that the window was too high related to he read the blueprint wrong and thought my bottom cabinets were special ordered at a higher height. He immediately starting correcting it ... and the outlets will work. Only ONE single outlet is truly an eye sore to me .. but I can live with it. I would have preferred it lower since it's more in the center of the room, but it's also right beside the stove .. so it will do. I didn't have the heart to make him rewire my kitchen for just one outlet. The others are more towards the outer walls and I can deal with it.

WHEW ... I would just hate to have had to kick his butt! Ha!

Now my fret is whether to paint the ceiling bright white ... and paint the dining room ceiling a light contrasting color with the walls ... and I'm thinking I'm going to have a 18" Medallion above my Kitchen ceiling light since Mr. Husband will never go for taking down the ceiling fan in the Dining Room or the Living Room. I love the look and this is my only chance!

What do you think? Medallion or NO Medallion in the Kitchen?

Kitchen Drama - Part Never-ending!

This is the view looking into my kitchen. Most of this used to be a wall, but now it's opened up and going to be awesome!

This is also the view I'll see when the cabinets are all in. That far wall used to have a a bunch of windows, but as you can see, now we only have one little bitty window THAT THE CONTRACTOR PLACED TOO HIGH AND HAS TO MOVE IT! (according to me).

I may not be a Carpenter, but after all the planning and looking at cabinets and books, even I came to the accurate conclusion that my base cabinets are only maximun thirty-six high with a thick counter top!. Mr. Contractor told me that they were forty inches tall and with my counter's back-splash they would be forty-four inches! WRONG!

All the electric receptacle's are based on his measurements and are too high. We'll be lucky if the bottom of the top cabinets don't meet up with them. I am so upset ... and pretty much angry! This has been a disaster since Monday and now he's finishing up and only has to mud and sand one more time and then paint.

The recessed lighting is now done and I love them. There are two on each end and they'll have a bronze ring around them. I still have to pick out my main light fixture, and that's how I'll be entertaining the kids this weekend ... a shopping trip to Lowe's!

So what would you do? Live with it ... or insist that he lower my window? I'm only five foot tall and I can barely see out of it. I'm opting for FIXING it ASAP.

Now for what everyone's been wanting to know .... how we are living in here during all this with three kids. It's called CHAOS! (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrone) Are we in for a bad weekend or what? This is the dining room and we have a path and standing room only!

The new cabinets are in the garage waiting for next Thursday ... so stay tuned in for more progress!

I Think I'm Fired ...

Well .... it's day two of the kitchen remodel, contractor people, mess, chaos (can't have anyone over syndrone) and I'm not faring as well as I was yesterday.

Yes, it's still early in the day and things aren't going so well for me.  My expertise is not carpentry as I had thought it was earlier this morning.  I've only chimed in twice so far and gave my opinion ... and I really don't think it was well received.  So I'll just stay out of the kitchen space with my camera until THEY leave.

I don't think they wanted me in there anyway.  I went to pee and when I came back there was a big gray canvas curtain covering the entire eight foot opening!  I got their drift .... loud and clear!  So now I'll just be going to work and be right on my merry way .. right after I finish this!

MM bailed out on me and hit the road right when they got here, and left me to fend for myself.  My first question to the guys went something like this, "Ummmm, the new window doesn't have a screen????"

I noticed that all three guys looked at each other, then at me, then back to the Boss!  He nonchalantly said, "Oh we can order one for you."

Then I had to point out that I didn't see a spot for a screen, and that I HAVE to have a screen because we have a barn with cows right on the other side of the driveway and all the flies in Gibson County hang out here in the Summer.  If I don't have a screen, then I can never open the window!  Then in the nicest voice I could muster up ... I ask him, "you won't have to exchange that window will you?"  Point.

A little history:  Two different times I had ask if I needed to go pick out my own window.  It's a woman thing you know!

Then about 10 minutes later I heard the buzzing of saws and I just had to check out what they were doing.  I'm curious you know.  We had already discussed the layout of the recessed lighting and where I wanted them to be.  There were four perfect little circles in just the perfect places ... except I noticed that they were a little close to the wall, and it hit me .... Are they a tad bit too close to where the crown molding will be?  So I ask the question, after I secretly snuck off to the bathroom to call Lowes and ask how far out the crown will come.

I swear I wasn't smug when I announced that 14.5 inches away from the wall would probably butt up against or lap over the canned rings wouldn't it?  That wouldn't look very pretty now would it.  I did tell him that I really wasn't very picky, but I sure would hate for him to have to redo the entire lighting ... it's easier to fix that now than have to redo the entire thing ... after all, at this point there is only four circles cut in the ceiling!  Yikes!

(Whew ... good thing I noticed that!)

So the decision was made to just go ahead and replace the entire ceiling with new drywall since those holes won't work.

(I sure am glad we have a proposal instead of paying Mr. Contractor by the hour.)

I'm going on to work now since I can tell that they don't want to talk to me anymore and they can't cuss in front of me because I can tell they're very nice men.

So, tonight when I get home, I've got to figure out exactly where I want the electrical outlets to be and how I'm going to decorate.  I certainly can't have a plug-in interferring with my decor!

However, I do have a plan.  In all this mess, I found a black permanent marker and I'm just going to draw my plan on the walls in there with a picture of a outlet with a line through it.

Think they'll get my drift or just ask me to come back next Monday?

Kitchen "Day One" (plus some cute kids)

Bright and early this morning the kids were on watch .... and when the Contractors pulled in with their trucks and trailers and all their supplies, my kids were absolutely ecstatic. This was a first for them! Now I'm wondering how in the world I am going to survive this week!

Jay had his Binocular's out and was watching them as they started carrying tools and dry wall, boards, drills and hammers into our house.

Our appliances, new and old are in the dining room. The table is shoved up against a wall and the walls are stacked with a lifetime full of kitchen stuff. Where in the world did I get all this stuff!

Our living room is walking room only for all the totes of pots and pans, dishes and utensils that are stacked every where. Why do I need two Wok's and three electric skillets and a couple of crock pots? I have dishes from my Mother, Von's Mother, my Grandmother, his Grandmother and my own collection of oddballs. I have every day dishes, good dishes, and my Fiestaware dishes that are totally off limits.

Don't even get me started on Tupperware, Rubbermaid and Butter bowls ... and all the lids that couldn't possibly have had a matching bowl for the past two decades .... and I've only lived in this house for eight years!

In my opinion, we couldn't have picked a better contractor. He's as nice as can be ... and works fast and counts for every minute. In less than an hour, my old cabinets were gone!

These two guys are his helpers. They told me to tell you that they're both single and "looking." Ha! The young dude on the left is a whiz bang at texting and hammering at the same time! Anyone want his number??

This is the only part that makes me kind of sad to see go. For some silly reason, I loved this old corner cabinet. Even though I never knew the Grandmothers that lived here before me ... I kind of pictured in my mind that this was their spice cabinet. I like the old beadboard that it was made of, and I like the shine of the old varnish on it. So I had them to save it ... and I have it all in one piece with all the little shelves that were in it ... and maybe, just maybe ... I can talk MM into putting it back up on our closed back porch! So give him some blog love and tell him to get with it!

The double windows on both ends are now gone as I type this and they're starting to box it in .... by tomorrow it will be a whole new room!

Oh yeah, look at this guy below. His last years suit fell out of the ceiling when they took out the old soffet over the cabinets .... he sure was a big ole guy ... and I'm hoping he's moved on down to the neighbor's house by now!

I'm sure he thought it was morally and ethically wrong, and I'm sure it was totally against my husbands will, but I had to insist that he give me a bit of help this morning before the crew got here. For forty-five minutes straight ... we cleared my kichen and I was under my estimated time of one hour! I am good B.A.B.Y!

I call it skill .... he calls it procrastination!

Kitchen Remodel: in for the long haul

Here's a picture of the cabinets I've chosen for my 'new' kitchen. 

Everything has been worked out for me to utilize every little bitty square inch of space that I have.  Along the back wall, it will look just like the picture ... but the Island will look different.  Half as small on the back side, and the legged side will wrap around a short wall with cabinets above it and come out into my dining room.  So, really it will be a island/hutch/bar/cabinet/hiding place/storage kind of thingy!  Not getting the picture, eh???  Me either ... really!  But that's what the designer man came up with and I love it!

I went for a farmhouse look in the cabinets and I love the legs on the Island, but the REAL reason I choose these cabinets is that I LOVE the range hood/light.  Of course mine will be against the wall and will be centered in the kitchen, and I absolutely LOVE the chimney of little drawers.  I figured I'd skimp on other things such as not getting a tile floor and getting Laminate counters instead of ROCK!  Oh, and some of my wall cabinets will have glass doors.  I couldn't skimp on that either.

This has been a long time coming for me.  MM and I are as different as night and day ... when I say that, I mean total opposites like trying to force magnets together that are turned backwards!  But he's coming around ... slowly and with a bit of force.  He could literally live out of a paper sack and be happy.  I can't.  But I can be happy out here if I have him and a new kitchen.  :)

Honestly, we need a new kitchen.  It's the only room in the house he had not redone.  It has the original cabinets that aren't 'mouse' proof and have no backs, and that I can't live with.  The rest of the house is good, nothing that a good color change won't fix ... and a new decor!

Eight years ago, when I came here ... to this farm, I had a great vision of how and what I would do to this house ... then life happened.  His parents death, miscarriages, triplets and a long rough road getting them to this stage ... but now, life is easy again and my vision is rearing it's head.  I'm getting sublimal messages that wake me up in the middle of the night with little messages and images of flooring, appliances, paint colors and faucets!  It's time.

I'll keep you posted .... and I'll let you know if MM doesn't recover from this project.  If not, I guess we won't be moving on to ripping out the west side of the staircase and making the hallway and stairway just one big opening!  If I was betting ... it's not in the cards anytime in the near future.  Oh well ... I can dream, eh?

Down Comes the Wall

Today marked the era of an historical event!  Marlboro Man committed to and began a project that he was totally against .... only love could have moved him to do this, or the fact that I told him if I he didn't ... he had to buy me another house.  He took the cheap way out and took out the wall!

We live in a almost 200 year old farm house that his Great-Grandfather built when they came over from Germany many years ago.  I kind of think this house is the homestead, but I wasn't around back then and don't know all the history behind it.  I love the house ... but the kitchen was the only room that MM hadn't modernized when he bought this house and restored/remodeled/updated/fix'd-er-up!

When he did this about ten or fifteen years ago ...  he didn't know me yet.  I definately would NOT have put my kitchen stove in front of a window, and today ... it had to go.  I no longer could deal with a greasy window.  No more!

One day last week I met up with MM at Lowe's and we began this project.  In one hour and ten minutes, I picked out a new stove and refrigerator, countertops, floor tile, ceiling light and cabinets.  Talk about decisive ... that would be me!  Then I changed my mind and decided to have the cabinets custom built by a Amish Cabinet maker.  Even MM agreed with me on that move.  So it's all in the works and construction has begun!

We have, or should I say ... had a galley kitchen.  It sure was a long and skinny little thing!  But now it's an alcove off of the dining room and WOW ... what a difference it made.  The kitchen was a add on years after this house was built and the main wall is all windows.  I only have a thirty inch piece of wall in the entire kitchen and that will be the home of my new stove.  My sink is being moved to where my stove was ... my stove is being moved to where my fridge is and my fridge is dancing down to the end of the kitchen where a few glass cabinets will be knocked out!  Three floor length pantry's are coming and another one will be around the corner in the dining room. 

Not even this picture cold excite me as much as getting a new kitchen!  Only thing is ... everything in my house is covered in dusty dirt from the wall being ripped out, and MM told me I am not allowed to make any changes at this point.

As I sit here and blog while he's asleep ... I'm thinking now that I don't want woodwork around the big opening ... and I'm already planning on how I'm going to paint and what http://www.quotethewalls.com/ saying I'm going to put above the entry way! 

I think I'll just leave him a note about the woodwork ....