The Kitchen Renovations Continue!!

 We are three weeks into the project.   Demolition has been completed.  We have had the plumbers in adding plumbing for the new prep sink and moving the plumbing for the dishwasher to its new location.   Electricians were here for a few days, pot lights added, roughed in the pendant lights for the prep sink area, and all the appliances are being moved to different locations and we have added a couple of extras that will be revealed once they are installed.  We had to get a new fuse box as the one the builder gave us was not appropriate for the size of this house and we had run out of room.  We had pretty much one full day of no power in the house during the fuse box replacement. It is worth it though.

We had a new patio door installed.   A garden door as opposed to a sliding door.   The old sliding door was getting more and more difficult to open as time went on and Dave has had to put the handle back on a few times.  LOL    This one is much better and has a dead bolt lock.

The new fireplace has been installed as well. And the old corner one has been removed.   Framing has been completed around the fireplace and we will be getting a custom mantle and the same stone used on the outdoor fireplace will be used on the indoor fireplace surround as well.  

We will be having heated floors in the main kitchen area to keep those delicate tootsies of mine warm and comfy on those cold winter mornings.

And the floor tile has arrived!!  There was a slight delay in getting the floor tile in, so the project is behind schedule, which is what we expected.  We have learned that when you are doing renovations expect delays and be patient or you will drive yourself crazy!!

Just have to say I love the tile.  When we picked it out, we saw just one sample piece. Now that the tile is here, and have had a chance to play with layout etc.  I have to say I love that each piece is different and will add some gorgeous texture to room once its completed. 

The laying of tile has begun!!  And walls and ceiling have been painted.  The sections of wall that are not painted will be covered with cabinetry, appliances, and backsplash tile.   We are starting to see real progress now!!   The cabinetry installation is suppose to start later this week, just a little exciting!!  

These next few pictures are to show you that when it comes to kitchen renovations it not just the kitchen that is being affected, its other areas of the house too.   My living and family rooms are a hot mess right now.   And we have had to do some moving of things in the basement so the plumbers and electricians could have access to the ceiling in the basement.  The furnace room area had to be cleared out, that is where most of the work occurred as the main kitchen area is directly above.  The closet where the fuse box is located was cleared out so they could work on replacing it.   And we had to pack up and clear out part of my studio *sigh*.  The basement family room is storing items from the furnace room, the fusebox closet, what was in the china cabinet and kitchen items not needed during this time period.   Most of my studio items are in Dave's office and the all the furniture is shoved to one side of the room, which makes typing on this computer really cozy.    LOL

Thank you for stopping by and visiting this little corner of the blogging universe.

Kitchen Renovations Have Begun aka I Have Lost My Mind and Felt I Needed More Chaos in My Life (WARNING: Picture heavy)

We are currently undergoing kitchen renovations.   It is exciting and scary at the same time.   I have been dying to get my kitchen re done for years.  Budget didn't have room for it, until now.   Last year we were getting ready to do the kitchen when the master bathroom had some major issues that needed attention.   So here we are almost a year after the master bath is completed and I am getting my new kitchen.   We chose Timber Barn to do the renovations since we loved how the bathroom turned out last year.    Big changes are coming.  The kitchen will set the stage for further changes on the main floor.

Below are the before pictures of the kitchen, family room and dining room.    We have eliminated the formal dining room from the floor plan and moved the family room in its place.   Now the entire back of the main floor will be kitchen and eating area.  

The dining room as an actual dining room.   Furniture is cleared out.  Chandelier is gone and a flush mount light fixture is in its place.    And right now its a cluttered mess and you don't need to see that.  

The kitchen.   My glorious, builders special kitchen.   No expense was spent when they built this kitchen.  LOL   Overall it wasn't bad. But over the years I found the space was not very functional or planned out very well.   This is looking from the stove towards the old family room.

The family room in its cluttered glory.  Fireplace in the corner, Dalwhinnie's dog bed and her toys.   A heavy and awkward coffee table that attracts dumping of clutter.  etc.

The TV worked best in front of the window.  We had tried other configurations.   Just an overall awkward room to lay out furniture etc.

See the lovely green bin sitting on the counter?  Thats because we had nowhere else to put it as underneath the sink there was an R/O unit that took up over half of the real estate in that cupboard.  The garbage can and cleaning supplies took over the rest.

The kitchen table in front of the patio door was awkward at times as people would have to push a chair out of the way to get outside.  The patio door was sticking and you literally got an upper arm workout opening and closing the door.  The chandelier was never centred properly above the table.

And the day before renovations started we had everything cleared out.   And unfortunately most of the stuff is in my living room, former dining room and now family room, basement and garage.   And this does not count the van loads of stuff we brought to value village and furniture that we sold or gave away.  

There were a number of things that frustrated the hell out of me when it came to our kitchen.  The dated oak cabinets, most of the drawers were gorilla glued to hold them together.   The massive space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling, so much wasted space, and an awesome grease and grunge catcher.   The oven has been non-operational since about February/March and the rest of the stove was literally falling apart.   The dishwasher was making weird noises near the end.  The fridge too.  We had a couple of corner cupboards you had to literally crawl into to get something from the back.   Just a few surprises when I emptied them out.   The counter top was cheap and ugly.  As you can see in the picture below, it was literally falling apart at the seams.  If you were wearing a knit top while walking past this and snagged the corner, said top was ruined.  And you can't forget the cheap vinyl floor, yellowing in spots, holes and dents from where knives, pots, lids etc were dropped over the years.

I was going to share pictures of the insides of the cupboards,  but they were looking really really bad. Again, something you don't really need to see.

We are about a 1 1/2 weeks into the renovation process.   One bin has been filled and taken away, a second bin is slowly being filled up.   We received a new electrical fuse box yesterday as the builder special one was not big enough for our house, kind of like the air conditioner they gave us.   I will share pictures as the project progresses.  Right now the subfloor is being laid for the new tile floor and its rather noisy above me.

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.  

New Orleans

What I have been up to.

Things have been busy around here the last couple of months or so.  Here are some pics of what we have been up to.

Old picture, I know, but Dave and I celebrated our 20th anniversary and looking back at our wedding photos all I can say is "Wow!!!  We were babies!!!" lol

We are having a drought around here, and everybody, has dead lawns,  I have managed to keep most of my gardens alive and have been having a few visitors.  This hummingbird has been showing up almost everyday just after dinner.

Another one of our children graduated from Grade 8.  This time it was Amanda's turn, and she found a dress in one of her fav colors, PURPLE!!!.  Can't believe how gorgeous and grown up my baby girl is.

Dance with her father.  

And because it was our anniversary I made Dave a card.  Haven't been to the Eiffel tower yet, but perhaps someday we will be able to go there.

And another daily visitor to my container garden.

And Daniel had a couple of of Birthdays, LOL.  First celebration was at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Cool candles that have different colored flames.  How sweet is that!!!

And then another celebration on his actual birthday at home, and we have more cake!!!

Following cake he sits in the birthday person's special chair to open presents.  Not sure how this tradition got started in our house, but we always have the birthday boy or girl sit in this antique Lincoln rocker to open cards and gifts.

And Dave cleaned out the garage, and trust me it needed it badly.  The tile guys cut their tile in the garage last fall/winter and that dust was everywhere, after hosing down the garage our driveway now has a film all over it.  Hopefully it will rain tomorrow like the weather man has said it will and give our plants much needed water and wash the film off the driveway.

And I wandered around my gardens to take pictures of the flowers I have worked hard to keep alive during this drought, dead grass surrounding it all.  LOL

For the first time since I planted my Oak Leaf Hydrangea about 7 years ago, it BLOOMED!!!!  Some of the flowers.  Love it!!

And preceding this hot and dry summer was an very warm and dry winter, and as you can tell our snowblower has not been used in a very long time.  Hopefully this coming winter will bring lots of snow and we can use this puppy again.  I love to have a real Canadian winter again,  with a few good snowstorms where we can't leave the house for a day or two.  So cosy.

Can you tell its 100 degrees outside right now?  LOL