Happy Birthday to my Man!

Mike turned 32 yesterday!! By the end of this weekend we will have had 3 birthday parties in 3 days...we have eaten good!  Sure love this guy!

Happy Birthday Katelyn Girl!!

Sure love my Katelyn girl!  She turns 5 tomorrow--can't believe how quickly time flies!

Kitchen Remodel, phase 1

The time has come!  Finally I feel ready enough to post about our kitchen remodel. Is it done? Not completely.  Will it ever be done? Maybe not! :)  But, it's close. Really, really close.  So here is our journey!

Kitchen before:

We had a good deal of counter space, and mostly adequate cabinet storage.  We had a horrible drop ceiling, which I HATED, and awful lighting.  Our vent fan was a piece of nasty, greasy junk, and I hated the honey oak finish.  When we moved in I knew that a kitchen remodel would be on our list someday--so lucky we were able to do phase one only 2 1/2 years after moving in (instead of doing it right before we move in order to sell. I hate when people do that!).

Our June plans were CRAZY NUTS, but we decided to start memorial day weekend all the same.  I knew we wanted a big weekend to demo and put back together, and frankly, I was too excited to wait until Labor Day for the next free holiday! ;)

We started by moving all the attic insulation from above our kitchen.  My awesome hubby climbed up in the attic with our leaf blower and moved it all to other parts of the house. Even still, I was totally shocked by how much insulation came crashing down into our kitchen once we removed the ceiling. It was unreal.

 First swing of demolition!  Whoop!!

   

 At the end of night one (we start working Thursday night, after the kids when to bed.)  It was quite a task to get all the insulation cleaned up enough that the kids could be around.  I wonder how much got in our lungs?

  

My family sort of thrives on house projects. Mike and I love them. My parents love them. My brother, Kasey, especially loves them!!  It makes it very nice  to know there are a lot of hands to help when one is doing big projects. I think every member of the family was in the kitchen at some point, or watching kiddos.  It was so appreciated!!

Once we got the ceiling down, it was time for wiring.  Lucky me, I married a jack of all trades and I am sure there is NOTHING this cute boy can't do if he puts is mind to it!!  Enter Mike the electrician!  (Also enter: going over budget!) Who could have known that putting in can lights also meant re-doing all the wiring.  Oops!  We went over budget and lost some time the first morning while we waited for the wiring to be done.  But--when I cook in my new, well lit, beautiful shiny kitchen, I am so glad! 

Sheetrock!!  Not my favorite job--or any one's, really.  But alas, we are cheap and had lots of free labor at our disposal so Sheetrock we did.  My Dad is a master mud and taper, as well as ceiling texture-er so once again it's handy to have a handy family! :)  By the way--check out the perfectly cut and spaced circles for the lights. Yup--that's my engineer man shining through!  Boy, he's nice to have around! :)

The vent fan.  I was able to get Mike to agree to a kitchen remodel when I promised we would get an external venting vent fan--and one with umph!  Enter our Bosch wonder.  We love Bosch at our house, and after using our vent fan for a month I can say that once again, they did not disappoint! 

Because it is externally venting, I lost the cabinet space above the stove. Not big deal, I secretly wanted to do something pretty there instead! :) 

 Here's where we got to by the end of the Memorial day weekend. My goal was to be functional again--we succeeded at that. We were FAR from pretty.  

After that weekend, I basically worked my tail off during nap time to get us closer and closer to done.  Here are the daily shots as I progressed.

I stained and stained and stained like a mad woman. I used THIS tutorial and it was amazingly awesome and easy.  I will never stain with anything but General Finishes again! And I even found a local store that carries it so I saved myself the shipping (boo-ya!)  I used two quarts for my whole kitchen (only one quart of poly) and I LOVE IT!  So far, it's wearing very well and is hardy and beautiful.  Let me know if you have more questions.  Love, love, love it!

We were basically MIA for the rest of June so my poor kitchen sat like this for 3 weeks.  A bit cleaner, mind you, but still unfinished.  

I painted the last week of June, and put up my ceiling decoration. I love it all!

Here is where we stand currently. 

 And here are some of my favorite parts...

I have touch up painting to do. 

 I still need to solve a little door pull issue (I may or may not have miscounted...?!)  

We are going to put doors on the top cabinets.  

I am going to rid my kitchen of the honey oak completely by re-doing my bar stools. 

And, of course, I haven't done any fun decorating yet and my brain has been mulling lots of things over!

Phase one!  Check!! Sometime in the fall (or more likely early next year) we will do phase two...counter tops, sink, and back splash.