The end! (almost)

I have such exciting news! You have all put up with my little progress reports for months now, but I am happy to tell you my kitchen is done!
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.After peeling wallpaper, fixing drywall, moving cabinets around, painting walls, painting cabinets, changing lighting, redoing electrical wiring and switches, putting in a dishwasher, new sink and faucet, putting down new counter top, tiling, removing old floor and putting down new - my wonderful husband has transformed my kitchen!

This is the before of the dining room. You see the green flowered wallpaper and border. Now my dining room looks like this:

The color on the walls is actually a Terra Cotta shade, although it looks red in this picture.

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This is the main part of the kitchen in the middle of the mess, but it shows you the color of the cabinets and what the counter top, sink and faucet looked like.

Here's what that same area looks like now. The cabinets used to end at the dishwasher and there was a small peninsula there. The kitchen is much more open now.

This is a closer view so you can see the tile backsplash and counter top.
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This is the vinyl floor that I really disliked for all the years we lived here, coming off!

And - here is the new wood laminate floor along with the area rug that is under our table.

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Here is one more view of the kitchen, taken as you come in from the back entry.
Of course, there are a few things to do yet - paint touchups, window treatments and some things have to go on the wall. I'm happy to have it done, I'm happy with how it turned out and I'm happy to have a husband who is able to do all those things.

What are we doing tonight?

Yes - we are still working on that kitchen! We are at the final big step. Tonight we tore out the yucky old vinyl flooring. I have hated this floor since we moved in and am not at all sorry to see it go. Bob rigged up a scraper and did the hard work of scraping it up, while I hauled pieces away and moved things as he got to them. What a messy job!

Here's the floor as it looks now. Beautiful, isn't it? Bob's going to do some sanding to it and is hoping to be putting the new floor in on Saturday.

More Kitchen News

I'm happy to report that there is great progress being made in our kitchen. While I was lazing around in a campground last week, Bob was coming home from work and getting lots done in the kitchen. He got the counter top on, the sink, faucet and dishwasher all installed and running. I was thrilled to come home and see it!

Here is my new sink and faucet. The basin in the sink is really big, so whole pans can fit in it. I also love the tall faucet. The counter doesn't show up too well in this picture, but it looks like dark marble.
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Here is a view that shows more. Do you see that lovely dishwasher? I have been enjoying using it all week.
As I post this, Bob has finished putting up the tile for the back splash. It just has to set, and then it can be grouted. The floor comes after that. It's almost done!

How's that kitchen coming?

It's time for another update on the kitchen. It seems it is taking forever! I told Bob we need to take a few days of vacation just to work on this, but he can't do that with such short notice. We do keep making progress though, just a little at a time.

We painted the Dining room area last week and we are happy with how it looks. I intentionally didn't show you the color - you'll have to wait for that!
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The cabinet area is looking like more of a mess. Bob took all the doors and drawer fronts off, so he could clean and sand them to get ready for painting. Now I'll have to put up with open cabinets until we get everything painted. Soon I'll have to empty them out, so I guess right now I'm happy to have them available!
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Here is Bob, out in his shop, cleaning and sanding the doors. He did get that all done, so we are ready for priming and painting. After that comes, the painting of the kitchen area, followed by the counter top and flooring. I'll update again when I have more to show.

Kitchen Update

We are still working on our kitchen. It's been a slow process, with taking a trip to Virginia, having Andy home for a short while and Bob working a lot due to this being the busiest time of the year for him. You may remember that Bob was in the process of hanging a cabinet when it fell on his head. Well - he doesn't let a little thing like that stop him when he gets going. He did get that cabinet hung, then took out the old kitchen light, did some rewiring and put in new recessed lighting. It's looking good, but what a mess!

When you are cutting holes into your ceiling, it seems the insulation comes down. It was over everything and the air was cloudy. After sweeping the floor and wiping down everything else, I was disturbed to find a layer of dust had reappeared a couple of hours later, after it settled out of the air. I cleaned up again and soon we will be ready to paint the ceiling and then the walls. Progress is being made!

Here's what we've been doing

Do you know what this is a picture of? If you guessed wallpaper, you are right! We are doing some work in our kitchen and dining area, and we started by taking down the paper. I loved it when I put it up about 17 years ago, but it's time has passed. No more flowers! It was pretty resistant to coming down though. It came off in shreds, first the top layer, then the paper underneath. We were happy it was only on the bottom half of the walls! Bob was helping and told me if I ever put up wallpaper again, it could be grounds for divorce! So the paper is down, there are color swatches painted on the wall to help us decide what color, but we have quite a bit to go before we are ready to put that paint on the wall. Don't hold your breath waiting, but I'll be sure to post more pictures as we go along!