New Year's Dream

I'm dreaming of a new kitchen.

That's what I want in my new year. I'm not making any plans for some grand or exciting night tonight. I'm thinking of the long list of to-dos and the increasingly small budget we have.

And yet I am tempted by these-



They are the stock cabinets at Lowes. I just discovered them. They are exactly what I would want. A beautiful shaker style. And they are 20% off through today. The price could not be beat. Maybe not even if I built them myself.

What to do......what to do......?

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Paint Sprayers Rock

Oh yes. They do.

The paint sprayer has made a huge difference in the amount of time it takes to prime our paneling.

I am so thankful we have been able to use this sprayer from Scott's work.

Look at this magic.













It is SO much brighter in here!
Loving it! I am hoping to be done painting this weekend and start laying floors at the beginning of next week.....hoping....

We should have had him in a full suit. Oil-based paint is no fun to get off your skin and out of your hair!



Lesson learned!

Have a great weekend :)

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I Smell Pine!

That's right. We have received a delivery.

Wood floors!

We found our flooring guy on ebay.com. We decided not to go with Lumber Liquidators. I kept reading their reviews about how a lot of the flooring was waste and very short pieces.

These are not short pieces. They are 7-9 foot pieces. And it looks so beautiful.

If you search for red pine on ebay, you will find him.

We got our flooring for $1.89/sq ft. And it is good, quality stuff. It turns out we knew our flooring guy. He used to be the boss of my brother-in-law in Detroit! What a small world!

He gets this flooring from some nearby Amish. It is all milled and dried in a kiln by them. He is their middle man that gets business for them.

It is so exciting to walk into the house and smell that beautiful pine smell. Lately it has been mixed with paint fumes but I will talk more about that tomorrow.

I just want to hurry and get the floors down!
Now to decide on the finish......

I've been reading so much about different ways to finish pine floors I feel like my brain is going to burst.

Let me know if you have any opinions or knowledge on the subject!

Cabinet Problems

These kitchen cabinets are original to our 1970 built home.
They are custom-made and built into place.

Here's the problem.
We wanted to take out the low ceiling and move around the configuration of the kitchen a little. That is not possible when your cabinets are built into place. We couldn't take the ceiling out without getting the taller cabinets out of the way. And we couldn't just detach them and move them. They were put in place piece by piece and had to be removed that way. And they don't come apart in nice clean pieces.

So they were scrapped once we started the process. I guess maybe Scott taking out the pantry was for the better anyways. It was coming out no matter what. What was left was only a few of the original cabinets.....

....so we decided to wipe them all out and start new.

We are laying wood floors and it makes sense to lay them down and put the cabinets on top of them. This means we will be moving into our house without a kitchen, at first. We will build our cabinets as we can and put our kitchen together piece by piece.
We couldn't take out our sink cabinet yet because the sink pipes don't have a shut off valve and we would have to shut off the water supply to the whole house to remove it. But eventually it is going away also.

As you can see from the photo we got the ceiling removed too. It was a lot of hard work. It's plaster so it also had wire mesh mixed in along the edges and corners. Fun stuff to remove!

The only problem we encountered was the hood vent. It comes below the level of the future ceiling. But it might be able to be fixed. We had already removed the bottom portion of the vent in this picture but you can see the rest in the very corner of the room. JJ is helping to remove nails out of the floor. He is a big helper!

So we have a LOT to do in the kitchen. But now we are not in a big hurry to do it. It isn't holding up the laying of our new floor. Other things are doing that. Like- PAINTING.

But the painting has started and will be featured soon!

On the list-
Get all staples removed from floors downstairs
Repair all holes in trim and walls
Sand
Get lighting and vent in kitchen ceiling done
Put up drywall in kitchen
Prime walls and trim
Paint everything
Lay flooring
Stain and seal floors
Move in

Something like that.

Thanks for looking!

Merry Christmas!!!

Today I am staying in my pajamas all day and watching old classic movies like Holiday Inn and White Christmas while the boys enjoy their new video games :)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve is a little different than last year's.

We lived in our own house. Had our own Christmas tree that we decorated. Hung our stockings on our wall. It was definitely different.

But I am so grateful for being able to live with my in-laws while we make our new house a 'home'.
And I'm grateful and thankful that we get along so well and love spending time together.

Tonight we are turning off gaming devices, watching Christmas movies together, playing games, and eating cheeseburger soup. Definitely not our typical Christmas Eve, but still very special.

Have a great night and make sure you take time tonight to reflect on the TRUE Reason for the Season!

Time Out

I took a time out from house projects to help out at Cole's Christmas party today.

It was so much fun. I love that I am able to do it.

We did various crafts, relays, played Jingo (Christmas Bingo), and ate lots of treats.

Here are some pictures from my morning.













We hope to get some things done this weekend. We have another Christmas party on Sunday. I'm so excited to start this Holiday vacation!
We have done a little painting in the house and aim to do more. Tip- When painting the ceiling, where a hat and goggles!







Have a great weekend!

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Christmas Celebrations

We had a very long and busy weekend. But so much fun!

We had two different Christmas parties. One with my hubby's family and then one with his dad's side of the family. This is the reason we didn't get too much farther on our house projects.

Here are some pictures from the DeWitt Christmas.

And then some from the extended DeWitt party.

Scott's cousin brought the little gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. They were kits that came with a candy Snoopy. My boys loved it. They were engrossed as you can tell from the photos. Some of the adults really got into it too! (me included) :)
What a great idea!

Overall the weekend was a huge success. Lots of great memories made with those we hold so dear!
I love this time of the year.

Oops. That rhymed but I didn't plan it that way. I'm not THAT corny!

Removing Staples

It's not fun.

In fact- it is literally a pain in my....hand.

I didn't even realize I had created a blister until it was popped and burning. Youch!







And we are only halfway done with the staples :/

A blister in the middle of your hand makes everything a little more difficult.

I have been trying to remove this old carpet pad from the hallway floor upstairs. It is very stubborn. And gross. I have the sinking feeling that the nearby bathroom has a temperamental toilet and it has flooded a time or twelve.






Kinda disgusting. But I will win. I will not be beaten by carpet padding!

Hope all is well with all of you.
By the way- I've fallen off the wagon and am back on caffeine. It's the only way I can make it through this!

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