Before pictures - finally

So KimboSue has been nagging me about before pictures of my kitchen. So, I finally took a few this weekend. As mentioned in a prior post, my house was built in 1996, which is very obvious when you see the color scheme! We are keeping the cabinets because they are solid oak, custom built on site for my house.


The one other thing that doesn't have to be replaced is my cooktop. We replaced it with a bigger, stainless steel one about 18 months ago.

This is the bar that we have extended with new cabinets built by my dad. The barstools are gone - as is the water dispenser since our new fridge will have water/ice in the door.

Don't you love the wallpaper and diamond tiles? I HATE it but they were stylish in 1996!

We started trying to peel off the wallpaper and it didn't go so well. It was put directly on the sheetrock before so it is stuck REALLY well. We decided to just primer over it and paint it. So, next week had to sand the areaswhere we'd pulled it off. This is how it looked after our attempt at removing.

My dear hubby working on removing backsplash.

Can you believe that big hole? We didn't create it. When we removed the backsplash we saw it near the electrical outlet. Guess the builder missed their mark and left a big hole they just covered with tile!

This is how my kitchen looks right now. The backsplash didn't come off very easily because the builder used sheetrock instead of cement board. We have to do some sheetrock repair this week/weekend before we get the call for the countertops to be installed!

Moving along

We went to Home.Depot last night to finalize payment on our countertops since we've had the official measurement done. While there, I told that they'd only given us $300 off instead of the full 10%, which should have been $420. So, she made an adjustment but she left the $300 discount too! So, we got another $720 off in addition to the free sink and edging. I'm loving this.

We then went through the stressful decision of picking a backsplash. We changed on our mind on what we originally wanted because I was worried with the pourusness (is that even a word) of the stone. I was afraid it would stain in the kitchen. So, we ended up going with a slate/travertine combination. I love it because it has all the colors of our countertops. Before we adhere it to the wall, we will wait until the countertops are installed and just prop them up to make sure we still like it. Here is what we picked:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100669860

We spent almost 2 hours at Home.Depot - way too long for me. The whole time Ethan kept saying "we should go to Low.es"! We bought our new stainless vent hood and new knobs for the cabinets.

We've decided now to put shutters in the breakfast room because I've been wanting that forever. So, now I need to schedule an appoinment for that! It is getting crazy! But, I'm sure the end result is going to be worth it.

Kitchen Remodel to Begin

After putting it off for about 2 years, Charles and I have decided to take the plunge and remodel our kitchen. The house was built in 1996 and it just "screams" that year with the white corian countertops! I've known all along that I wanted to do Sile.stone countertops and a new french door refrigerator. That was about the extent of the decisions. About a year and a half ago, we had to replace our cooktop and went with stainless at that time in preparation for if we ever did the redo.

This past weekend, we bought the new fridge - although it won't be delivered until 7/20!! I want it now!! We ended up getting the titanium instead of stainless because of the cleaning issue. It looks just the same, but hopefully with less fingerprints. And, we got a fantastic deal - all the better!! Here's a link to our new fridge: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04680066000P?vName=Appliances&cName=Refrigerators&sName=Bottom+Freezers

We also picked out our Sile.stone and made our initial payment. We are SO excited! The color is called "Mountain Mist" and it will look great with our oak cabinets. We aren't changing the cabinets because they are solid oak and were custome made for the house when I built it 13 years ago. The picture doesn't really show it's true colors, but here's a link: http://www.allcountertopsla.com/web---Mountain-Mist.gif

We've decided to take out all the countertops ourself to save a bit of money. Luckily, they are VERY easy to get out. We already tried with the island to see how big a task it would be. It popped right off, which is actually a little scary.

We'll be doing new backsplash and ripping out all the wallpaper to paint. The wallpaper will have to be taken down from the kitche, breakfast room and the little hall to the garage. I think that is going to be the biggest job of all! I will try to take before, progress, and final pictures as we go through the process.

Random Updates

My friend Kim told me that I was slacking by not updating my blog in over a month so I figured I'd throw some random updates out here. PaMac and Margie, I hope you are still reading this and haven't given up on me!

Shauna and I went blackberry picking at a lovely orchard this last weekend. My parents went along too. We had originally planned to go to a place where we could get both peaches and blackberries but we waited a little too long and the peaches were almost gone, so we chose a different spot. It was EXTREMELY hot, even though we got there at 9:00am.

Here is Shauna showing off one of the blackberries. They had an excellent crop and we got some really sweet blackberries. I picked about 3 pounds because Shauna got tired and wanted to quit. My parents picked about 8 pounds!!

Shauna is showing off the loot, but she is not happy here. She said it is way too hot and she's too sweaty to smile for the picture. It looks a little deceiving but there really was 3 pounds there. I got home and froze about 1/2 of them and we've been munching on them the rest of the week. I like to just eat them fresh. My parents froze all theirs because they prefer to make blackberry cobbler with them.

We've had a busy first month of summer because Ethan is playing 7-on-7. I think it's the high school coaches way of making football last year round! We've been to a tournament and have had weekly league games hosted by Ethan's school. Last night's game was interesting because my son's team got kicked out of it's own league for the night for fighting. There's a team they've played before that is always trash talking and this got a little carried away. I'm proud of Ethan that he wasn't involved in the fight and thought the whole thing was stupid - the way the other guys were acting. He's a firm believer in proving your better by showing it on the field instead of trash talking.

We've had to put a lot of money into Ethan's car the last couple of weeks. He had two tires blow out, so we bought him two other new tires so now he's riding on all 4 new ones. We also bought him a new gas tank because the other one was rusting out and causing problems with the fuel line. Up to now, he's been paying for repairs himself, but he ran out of money. He didn't ask for the help but we didn't want him to be too stressed about it. He's working so hard at his job at Kro.ger and I felt sorry for him! At this point, I think everything mechanical on the car has just about been replaced so it should be good transportation for him now.

Shauna is doing great on her swimming now. We have some awesome neighbors that are letting us come over to swim whenever we want and Shauna's lessons have paid off. This is the 3rd year we've done lessons for the summer but the first she's had such an awesome teacher! I love our new neighbors. I've been in the house 13 years and never had these great of neighbors! The only downside is we may become winos because they like to drink wine so much!

Life goes on even with dear hubby recuperating from surgery. Shauna had her recorder band concert and I had to tape the entire thing since Charles couldn't attend. This Shauna's first year to play in the band. She gets to "feeling" the music more than playing sometimes I think!

Hope PaMac and Bopka get to see these videos!

Here is a clip of them playing Yankee Doodle:

Shauna had her last regular season softball game. Charles did make it to the game even though he was still extremely sore from the surgery. She started off the year hitting great but then had a bit of a slump, so the coaches started working with her. Poor thing, they've got her all confused now and she can't seem to hit anything until time to hit off the T. Here's a video of her hitting of the T. We have an end of season tournament in 2 weeks. Go Lil Rebels!!

Crazy Week #2

We started off the weekend with our normal Saturday activity of attending Shauna's softball games. During the 2nd game, Charles started not feeling well. (On a side note, I hadn't blogged about the fact that we had taken Charles to the emergency room at 3am Saturday morning of the previous weekend. He was in extreme abdominal pain. I was sure it was gallbladder issues, but they couldn't find anything and sent him home at 9am.) We went to lunch and he ate a bit but still wasn't feeling great. His stomach was bothering him again. We were scheduled to have my parents down to celebrate Mother's Day a day early and we went ahead with that. We bought a fabulous brisket that the Pattison Area Volunteer Fire Department cooks every year for a fundraiser. We had the brisket for dinner but Charles didn't feel like eating, so it was just me, my parents, and Shauna. I felt really bad about eating without him. About 7:30 Charles said we needed to go back to the hospital. So, pack clothes for Shauna and drop her off and at my parents for the night. Being a Saturday night, it was CRAZY at the emergency room. We waited about 2 1/2 hours before we got taken back to a room. We saw an amazing doctor this time who immediately asked if they hadn't done an ultrasound the previous week. We told her they didn't and she asked what time we'd been there. Well, apparently, there isn't an US tech there after 1am, so that's why we didn't get one! This time, that was the first thing she ordered, along with the order to not eat or drink anything in case emergency surgery was needed. At 12:30 the doctor came in and confirmed Charles had gallstones and would not be going home. They admitted him and he got a room about 2:00am. He sent me home to get some sleep. I headed back to the hospital bright and early on Sunday. About 2:00pm, the surgeon came to see Charles and said they would operate on Monday. I asked if that meant he could eat now since he hadn't eating since noon on Saturday. They allowed him to have just liquids, some broth (which Charles wouldn't eat), jello, and shaved ice. About 8:00pm, we were told they'd do the surgery at noon on Monday. Luckily, they kept Charles on mor.phine and Toro.idol so he didn't hurt anymore. On Monday, they ended up coming in to get him before 9:00am, so that was a pleasant surprise. The surgery usually takes 1 hour, but it took 2 1/2 hours. I was started to freak out a bit when the surgeon finally game out to talk to me. Turns out that the gallbladder was hemorr.ghagic and was huge - like the size of a baseball! Very lucky for Charles, we had an amazing surgeon who was patient enough that he worked on it before he gave up and just sliced him wide open. They were very worried about infection because of how bad it was. Charles had to stay that night in the hospital and was told he'd probably be staying two more nights because it was so bad. However, he did remarkably well (we did lots of walking around the hospital floor) and was able to go home on Tuesday evening. He still can't go to work or drive for the rest of the week, but he's recovering quite nicely. I am so lucky that I have my parents nearby because they were able to take care of Shauna for us. I took her to school each day, but they picked her up and she spent the night with them.

Ready to start a new week

This has been a rough week. It started off Sunday evening when I noticed the area around our septic looked a bit strange. So, dear hubby lifted the lid on the 2nd tank (not a fun task, by the way) and we noticed it was completely full! Okay, time to freak out a bit but we placed a call on Monday to the septic company, who couldn't get anyone out until Tuesday. That guy came out and pumped out the tanks, at a cost of $560 by the way. He said he thought our pump had gone bad but he didn't work on that part of the system. Apparently, as I've learned, the septic system is very specialized. We did get a recommendation from him and called that guy immediately. He said he'd be out Wednesday but to be careful with showers, don't do laundry, etc. HELLO, we are family of 4, that can't go on for long. Septic pump guy comes on Wednesday and says that it is the pump, but he doesn't have the right one! argh... he must come back the next day. This after I've already taken a day 1/2 off from work to deal with this. At least, we finally did get it fixed last night, at a cost of $679.

My mobile device decided to quit working for receiving email while I was home on Wednesday and it still isn't working right. Frustration because it only works when I'm home through our WiFi... kinda defeats the whole purpose of the "mobile" device. I need to be MOBILE!

On another note, I noticed that there was some mold/mildew on the wall of my closet. Of course, that always gets big attention so we noticed the carpet was wet. EEK! So, we had to tear out the sheetrock to see what was going on. Luckily, it didn't turn out to be a big deal, but we had to dry out the carpet and pad. Now that it's finally dry, we'll have to put in insulation and new sheetrock because we had to get rid of the old since it was moldy. I want my closet back!!

Then, yesterday afternoon when I picked Shauna up from school, she was sick with a stomach virus. It has continued today and she missed school. Hope she's better tomorrow because she has two softball games and a school carnival.

I'm definitely ready to get this week behind me! Next week has to be better.