Kitchen Questions...

Katie...the track lighting was from Lowe's for about $50.
Sheri...the backsplash was from Home Depot for $10/ sq. ft.
Allison...yes, you can hang out in the kitchen. Come on over :)
Drama Queen (I don't know your real name) and Gia...The name of the granite tile that we used is called "Impalla Black." If you look at it up close, it looks black with specks of shades of gray. There are some zoomed in pictures of the granite if you click on the "Kitchen" tab on the right. You can just click this link and scroll down to see the other pics.
Hope everyone has a great Friday night!

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Drumroll please...

I can't believe the kitchen is finally done! I know I teased it last weekend and I just haven't had any time this week to do a super-kitchen post. But here it is!

Do you remember our old kitchen?

Now it is finally time for the before and after picture...

BEFORE
(please notice the floor, fan, faux-brick, white countertop and yellow soffit)
AFTER
Now we have a tile floor, no fan, cabinets to the ceiling, granite countertop, and real backsplash)
We just love it! On to more pictures!Remember the old, empty, half-wall with the stove?AFTER
I just can't believe the transformation of this wall. It really does amaze me. Obviously, we haven't gone out to buy new appliances. Old stove, fridge, and dishwasher. They are all in working order so we will hang on to them until they die. Thanks to everyone for their compliments! I am so happy it is finally finished and we have a working kitchen again. My amazing husband worked so hard on this kitchen and we couldn't have done it without Nick and Chris. They are absolutely amazing guys and we totally appreciate everything they did! YAY!!!

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Guess what will be finished tonight?

THE KITCHEN! Brace yourself for a major before/after post in the very near future:)

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Thank you, Mr. President!

A big THANK YOU to Washington and Lincoln for being such awesome presidents and giving us something to celebrate. My students were talking about why Washington and Lincoln were chosen for President's Day. Some answers were "their birthdays are close together," "they were obviously the best," and the hilarious question, "Do you think they will have a celebration for George Bush?" Um...probably not, darling.I love Presidents Day because I am off work and it comes a such a great time of year. It is always around report card time and I always need the break and extra day off. This year, my hubby took the day off to and we spent the holiday running around town.

This morning, another roofing company swung by to give us a quote. Again, we were told that our roof has 5 more years in it and we just need some touchups. These guys mentioned that we have A LOT of nails sticking out of our roof which are causing the leaks! Seriously?! For $600, they replaced all of the shingles and put in new nails! They also threw in a few other services like cleaning out our gutters "because they needed to be cleaned" (he actually said that) and sealing our chimney! We definitely recommend John Beal Roofing. They were so nice, honest, and did a great job!Yes, our lights are still up. I think I will go take those down now! You see the new lighter shingles? Those are the new ones! No more leaky roof!

We also headed over to my grandma's so Mike could do some handiwork at her house. She treated us to a yummy lunch at Bread Co. too!

After helping her out, we went to get some sealant for the granite tiles. This stuff is amazing! Here you can see the before tile on top and then what it looks like after the sealant is applied.The stuff was $50 and we only used a cap full. Anyone need this stuff for your kitchen rehab? We were very impressed!We also stopped at Home Depot to pick up some grout for the counters and backsplash (which was done today). IT IS ALMOST DONE! AHHHHHHH!

I think we may go celebrate with some happy hour drinks across the street at Bar Louie!

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Getting there!

The kitchen is so close to being done! The counter tiles are all down and the backsplash went up today! All we need to do is grout both, put the sink and fridge back in, and hook everything up! We will definitely have a functional kitchen by next weekend! WOOHOOOOOOOO!

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Kitchen Hiatus

We are taking a break from the kitchen right now. Everything is finished and ready to go except for the counters and backsplash. We had to order the tiles and they won't be in until this weekend. Mike's brother will be out of town next week so Mike is going to wait until he gets back to finish. Here is what we chose for granite and backsplash tiles.The goal was to be finished by Feb 1st but we got a little bit behind. We won't have people over for Super Bowl like we wanted but we will debut our kitchen sometime soon. Mike and I thought about having his birthday celebration at the house. We will see :) Stay warm, friends!

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Exciting Changes!

Mike bought a car! A 2004 Volvo S60! He is really excited so I am excited for him. The dealer is going to tint the windows tomorrow before Mike picks it up.He has been talking about getting a new car for awhile and I guess has been looking while on his lunch breaks. I can't drive a stick so an automatic was definitely needed:) YAY!

The kitchen is also moving along quite nicely. Of course there are a lot of tiny things to be done but the only major part is to do the countertops. Check out that crown molding!Have a great Thursday night! I am looking forward to watching Grey's and relaxing on the couch. My in-laws are coming over with sloppy joes for us tonight. YUMMY:)

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Kitchen Progress

The boys have been working hard on the kitchen. Since my last post, the floors has been grouted (is that a word...grouted?), upper cabinets have been hung, and the microwave has been installed. I am so proud of the work they have done.

An action shot of Chris laying down the grout...I thought I would make give this to Mike's mom for her birthday...The new tiles!This was the blank wall above the stove...We are going to have so much room!!! I am so excited!

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Paint and tiles

Things are coming together so quickly. I am truly amazed at what these boys can do! Last night, I contributed my only talent to the new kitchen project...painting. We painted that room so fast. Mike has been a little slower since he hurt his back on Saturday. All that we have left to do is:
-Finish floors and grout
-Install cabinets
-Choose granite and install countertops
-Hook up all of our appliances

We are gettin' there!

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We have walls!

Last night, our kitchen looked like this...and this...But this morning, I woke up to this!YAY! Now we are deciding on paint colors. We are focusing on a taupe/grayish colors (you can't really tell the colors from the picture below). Mike found some inspiration on HGTV's website for Rate My Space. Have you looked at that site before? The show is awesome and you can get a lot of great inspiration for redecorating! Here is what we are thinking for the kitchen.White cabinets, gray walls, yellowish/beige granite counters, and mixed tile back splash. Here is another kitchen with the same color scheme.The kitchen is coming along faster than I thought. However, we haven't picked anything out: paint, counters, tiles. Eek...we need to get moving on this! We are going to hit the hardware stores this weekend and get it all figured out!

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Current State of the Kitchen

I promise that I won't post a picture every day but I just can't get over the gutted reality of this kitchen redo. Here is where the stove once stood...Here is where the counter and cabinets were. Of course, they are constantly running into struggles. Right now, I think the biggest problem is that we have some rotted beams from water damage. They are currently replacing the beams but of course, that is taking time. I honestly don't think this kitchen will be done by the end of January. We shall see!

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It's gone...all gone.

I can't believe it.

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One Hour Later...

My fridge is in my living room, stove in the garage, and dishwasher in the basement. Mike and Chris are getting our first meal without our kitchen...McDonalds. What am I doing right now? Putting away Christmas decorations. We wanted to keep them up for another week but I thought I should take advantage of being off. AND, now we need room for the kitchen in the living room so the tree has got to go!

OH...and I am obsessed with our Wii! Check us out last night! My sister is REALLY good! I have a lot of learning to do but I am sure that I will have plenty of practicing ahead of me. Next, I want to get Wii Fit!

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Kitchen Demo has begun...

Goodbye nasty, vinyl floor that is peeling up at the edges.Goodbye fake, brick wallpaper that was our backsplash.Goodbye blank wall where the stove once stood. When it is finished, new cabinets will surround the stove and a new microwave will hang from the cabinets.Finally, goodbye little fan, old cabinets and countertop. Seriously, who builds a house with only 5 cabinets? Wish us luck! The next month is going to be pretty hard without a functional kitchen. So much for losing weight after the holidays. Our meal are going to be centered around delivery, take out, or just going to the restaurants. Mike and his brother, Chris, are doing all of the labor and I hope that the 3 of us get through this still loving each other :)

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