Week 7- What the plumbing?

That's right, there's plumbing in there! I would have never guessed that would be the case. I thought soffits were purely decorative! This was a huge problem since our cabinets go to the ceiling! Fortunately for us we need storage in our laundry room... so you guessed it, the tall cabinets are going in there and we're ordering new cabinets for under the blasted soffit! It's not really a big deal since we have to place an order for the stuff that Ikea didn't get us/got wrong on our initial trip up there. Don't you worry, we're still going to get our soffit-less look. My handy hubby has a plan. Keep reading and you'll see in the weeks to come!

Home improvement never goes smoothly when you aren't really experienced! We have found that out time and time again. For us, it's the only way we could afford this, so even though we get frustrated, we just have to smile and move on!

Weeks 5 and 6- Grout and Shopping

On week 5 we grouted the floor. This went pretty quickly. Travis put the grout on and I cleaned it up. The floor still doesn't look as good as it could because the dust is still settling, but it turned out great. The grout is white, although we thought we were getting a color that matched the tile. It'll work, but I'll just have to be more careful and clean more! I haven't taken any pictures of it, but you'll see it in the finished photos!

On week 6 we took one nightmarish road trip to pick up our cabinets. The whole trip was a disaster and we ended up coming home with some of the wrong things and some stuff missing. (This was noticed after the 5 hour trip home.) I have to say that the price is probably worth it, but the customer service is rotten at Ikea in Schaumburg, Il.



There are cabinets filling up my back room. It's a good thing we decided to finish the kitchen before the back room!

Week 4- Down goes the Tile!

Travis started laying the tile this weekend. I was pretty worried because I had to work this weekend and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to sleep with all the noise. I slept just fine! It took him all day Saturday and Sunday to do the kitchen/dining room. He'll be working on the hallway tonight. We need to get the tile saw back to the rental place! Travis was so sore and worn out last night that we decided we would just rent the saw for another day! He is working so hard! It looks great.
We picked 12x24 tiles and laid them in an off-set pattern. They were more difficult to lay than Travis had anticipated, but then, what goes smoothly when you are renovating? Hopefully we will be grouting soon. We'll also be repainting the walls and taking down the upper cabinets.
You may be able to see the texture on the tiles if you click on the picture to enlarge it. I absolutely love these tiles and they may be my favorite part of the kitchen. Once upon a time, I told myself that I'd never pick a light tile again...they get so dirty. I guess I'll be cleaning my floor more often from now on!

Prep Work... Week 3

First things first. Everything out. What a convenience... a refrigerator in the living room and the coffee pot... where else, but the coffee table.
Before you put down concrete, you have to prime the floor. I think this was (and will be) Travis's favorite part of the remodel because is wasn't painful.
The application of the concrete went pretty smoothly. We just needed a smooth surface to start with when we lay the tile. Travis got a new drill out of the deal. And I got to use it first! He poured the concrete into the bucket and I used the drill to mix it.
Here is our new level floor! It looks pretty good. It is nice and smooth (and not dusty!) Travis moved the fridge and oven back in today so I could cook until we lay tile next weekend. We can use the downstairs bathroom for water now too, so things are getting better!

Out with the old... Week 2

Week one didn't get off to a very quick start. The tile stripping was going very slow, so we did a little research and ended up renting this tile stripper, which worked great on the light tile but didn't budge the brown tile. Once the white tile was up, we had to rent a little handheld jackhammer to get the brown tile up. This pretty much took all day Saturday.
This is what my kitchen looked like Saturday afternoon. We spent a couple of hours cleaning it up and are still cleaning it up today! There is a nice layer of dust all over my house despite my best efforts to keep it contained!
Travis used the snow shovel to get the tile out! It worked very well. He also took my cabinets out today (just the lower ones!) And finished getting the tile up that was under them. This was a messy job!
Like most renovation jobs go, there is always something unexpected. It seems as if the last time the remodeled this kitchen they also redid the plumbing. Unfortunately, it looks like they put the cabinets in and then put the plumbing in. What this meant for us is that we had to completely demolish the lower cabinet to get it out. It also means that we have no idea how we're going to get the new cabinets in. I have a feeling that hiring a plumber is in order! Things just keep getting more and more expensive!
Sophie and Aiden hated staying upstairs all day and spent a lot of time on the stairs looking through the plastic. There is dust everywhere and for all of those who know me well, I'm spending most of my time fighting off a panic attack! I can't stand the chaos and disorder. It makes me anxious.
I cooked dinner last night in my electric skillet in the back room. That was a treat! I'm now doing dishes in the bathtub (upstairs) because there is no water downstairs. So next time you do dishes, just think that Kyndra is having to take all her dirty dishes upstairs and wash them in a bathtub and then carry them back downstairs... dishes don't seem all that bad now, do they?

Getting Started

First things first, right? We moved the table to the kitchen and taped plastic over the doorways to keep the dust out of the rest of the house. I know this won't completely fix the problem, but it should help. We're doing the dining room first and kitchen last, saving the part that's under the cabinets until the end. Hopefully I won't be without a kitchen for more than maybe 2 weeks. (It'll probably be more like a month, but here's for hoping!)
This project is getting off to a pretty slow start. Travis got the wood strip off and then only a chip in the tile before he realized that he was going to need more tools to get the job done. So we trucked off to home depot for some more supplies that included gloves and knee pads! He's hoping to get those 5 rows of the brown tile done today. It is a painfully slow process. (And noisy and just plain painful. I owe him bigtime!) It'll be worth it in the end. We wouldn't be able to do this if we had to hire someone, so please pray for no injuries during this process!

Kitchen Before Pictures

This is the Kitchen. We had to buy a stove and fridge when we moved in, so those will be staying and we'll be replacing the dishwasher and microwave.... if any one wants to buy a used (in good shape) microwave and dishwasher, you know where to find me! The cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling. (We're taking out the sophet.) They will have an espresso finish and will be the frameless type. We are also going to put canned lights in the ceiling (if we find an electrician that can do it!) We will add a corner cabinet where the trash can is and then exend a breakfast bar out from that. I'm really excited for the added cabinet space and counter space. More room for baking!
You can see the two different floors in this picture. We have already replaced the light fixture and will keep that. The table is new and will stay, but we need new chairs. I'm thinking the rug will go. Again...anyone want a large rug??? I've got no place for it!
Here's my nasty sink an faucet that NEVER come clean. I'll be looking forward to replacing them along with the laminate countertop that is terribly stained! We're looking at Silestone and an undermount stainless sink. Yippee! Don't worry... I won't try and sell you this... you wouldn't want it!
This is a good shot of our mismatched tile floor (and my comfy socks.) There is a piece of trim that separates them... seriously, they could have just grouted them together. It couldn't have looked any worse than this. The bad part about the tile is that it is laid on a concrete slab. That means lots of hard work to get the tile up. We have picked out a 12X24 tile that is a light cream color with a linen type texture to it.
This is our blacksplash and it really isn't horrendous, but we'll have to replace it when we take out the cabinets and countertops. This tile is in our downstairs bathroom too and we're leaving it there. The only thing we haven't picked out is tile for the backsplash. I'm thinking about red glass mosaic tiles. Tell me what you think!