Weekends are for work!

It's crazy how our weekends used to be filled with fun things that we had going on, now during kitchen remodel it's more like...how do we pack Friday, Saturday and Sunday full of projects?? Well after 2 steady weekends of jam packed projects, we only had 2 simple projects to complete. Simple and projects are an oxymoron! Nothing is simple! So our simple projects included hanging our microwave, venting it, and flooring. Easy right? No! We were continuing our flooring from the living room into the dining room and kitchen, so we know what we are doing when it comes to install! The flooring we are using is by the far the best(in my opinion) flooring for kids, dogs, and habitual furniture movers like myself! It's called Allure vinyl plank flooring. It looks like hardwood, without the scratching or refinishing! It's also super water resistant too! We had this flooring in our house in Gillette, but in cherry color. We love this flooring! Ok so the biggest key to this flooring is making sure you do your prep work ahead of time! This means a lot of sweeping and vacuuming! It has to be tidy or you will feel the tiniest pebble under your toes!  We decided to install the microwave first because like I said, we need our kitchen to be clean. Installing the microwave and venting it includes lots of drilling and cutting holes in cabinets and in the ceiling. It's messy! Installing the microwave also meant that I hold it on these little brackets while my husband mounts it to the cabinet. It's a good thing I work out, because I stood there for a long time. Ok here are some pictures of our weekend projects! 

See Reo with a broom...keeping it clean! 

He looks so good with a broom! 

Here it is!! Please don't mind the messy countertops! 

It's so gorgeous! It makes me so happy! No more crappy linoleum! Granite comes in 2 weeks! 

Cabinets are installed!

2 weeks ago I was laying in bed, thinking I have to start demo tomorrow on my kitchen. I was petrified because what if it didn't work, what if our timeline was too extreme, what if our cabinetry didn't work. It was a very restless night wondering about the what ifs. Well tonight, exactly 2 weeks later I am laying here with a functional kitchen with cabinets installed!! Granite countertops ordered, and other odds and ends ready to be installed! 

One more time just for fun, let's remember what our old kitchen looked like....

Ok remember also that we bought our cabinets off Craigslist. These cabinets were not designed for our kitchen, we are making them fit! We've had a design on paper but it definitely changes once you start laying it out with the real thing! Saturday we devoted to working out the kinks. 

Reo figured out a plan that worked soooo much better than the original plan! Then our good friend Cynthia was in town and lent some good ideas and helped in the problem solving process. Then we ate pizza and drank beer! My mom and stepdad came up from Casper to help! 

Ok here it goes! Sunday morning we started screwing them into walls! This meant that my kitchen sink and dishwasher were temporary out of commission! 

They look so pretty

Good bye sink! 

Definitely looking good!!

Here comes the uppers! See my sink is back! Reo placed our old countertop with the sink back on the new cabinets! Welcome back sink! 

Building off the corner

Yay! One wall finished! 

Here is the finished product! I love love love it! 

It looks so much bigger! 

And here I am with my honey, in our kitchen! 

I kind of want to cry, because I love my new kitchen! Such an amazing labor of love. 

Texture guns are super fun and paint

Well after sanding, more mud, and more sanding...we are ready to texture!!  Our local Ace Harware rents a Hopper texture gun for $8/ day! That's awesome! So we watched some You Tube videos and away we went! 

Turns out you have to tape off everything you don't want textured! 

Running the Hopper! 

He's good at running the hopper! It took us 30 mins to texture the kitchen, dining room and ceiling! So easy and kind of fun! 

And now we celebrate!!!!

Ugggg! Now I have to paint! The ceiling!! Ewwwww

I hate painting! 

But now I have a helper! She's awesome! Our cabinets are a fox tail maple finish so they gave a reddish hue. Our counter tops are coffee with a bit of creamer color with black flecks and some reddish brown color. So I wanted to paint the walls something that compliments without going too beige. So this sage color is pretty perfect! It will look great with the cabinets, countertops and rubbed oil bronze cabinet pulls and fixtures! 

Obviously there are purposeful places I didn't paint... Because tomorrow the cabinets will be installed!!  

The one thing I requested was one of these...and my sweet husband obliged! 

An outlet with USB ports for charging devices! LOVE IT!!! 

Mudding and Sanding....it gets gritty!

So if mudding wasn't fun enough...sanding is funner! 😄 Said NO ONE EVER!!  Ewww! There's freaking dust EVERYWHERE! Do I clean as we go or clean once we are done??? Ewww Ewww Ewww! Sanding is pushing me over the remodel edge! 

Keeping me clean??? I feel like even in my awesome space suit, I am dirty! 

I can't see you! 

Don't lick your lips! Joint compound dust tastes really really bad! Just take my word for it! 

It's looking more like a kitchen!

Gosh we were able to accomplish a lot yesterday! I honestly didn't do much but my brother in law Matt and Reo really knocked it out of the park! We have all of the electricity finished! Yay! We also were able to re-insulate, put up drywall, and start taping and mudding.

It's electrifying!

Well progress is definitely being made. What needed to happen this past week was demo and we were able to get that done even with Reo being so sick! That pour guy! We had to have all the demo done for Saturday 2/7 because we had the help of my brother in law, who is pretty handy especially when it comes to electrical stuff! It's way easier to work on outlets and lighting when there isn't anything in the kitchen and we already have to do drywall work. The kitchen had a total of 3 outlets...and that is just not enough for me! Plus we also needed to change the location for our 220 volt for the stove and change the location of a light so I can have a pendant light over my sink. We are now going to add 7 outlets to the kitchen. No more power strips yay!! 

The rest of these are coming out! 

All I have is a kitchen sink! 

That's a whole lot of wires! 

Yes we are letting Wylee help! 

Yay! Who knew I would get so excited for some outlets?  

Admiring accomplishments! See my stove behind him, that's where we moved it to! 

New location for the fridge! 

Today we will tackle moving the vent for the microwave hood, more outlets, and hopefully start some drywall work! 

Day 2

Today sucked! Well I knew I wouldn't be as productive today because Kenley has preschool on Tuesday mornings, plus we had a bunch of errands to do afterwards. My agenda was to rip up the old flooring. Well just the first layer of linoleum because we aren't sure if the base layer has asbestos. Not sure what kind of glue they used, but it was still holding strong! Let's just say flooring was a bust! Unfortunately I have a very very sick husband who came home from work sick. Here is what was accomplished tonight. 

That's the yellow flooring that had to go! Unfortunately most of it is still here since it is crazy stuck down! 

Next was time for this horrible cabinet to go! 

This bad boy needed to come down!!  

And this too!! 

There it is... GONE! And one big mess! 

Still have somewhat of a functional kitchen! Which makes me happy!