Kitchen re-model ... part 4

I thought for this post we would show one more time what the kitchen

currently looks like...with my notes.

We went on Saturday to the Home Depot and finalized everything, again!

Ordered the gas cooktop, electric oven.

Still need to order the dishwasher, garbage disposal,

faucets and lights

So here's what the kitchen currently looks like.....



So we're getting close now.

Today we will start packing the kitchen up

I know it's not going to be easy living without a kitchen for a few weeks

but it will be soooo worth it!

later......

Kitchen re-model ... part 3

This post is about a big lesson learned

As I have posted, Johnny and I were working with a kitchen
designer at the Home Depot. This has been a very good experience and we
have made all of our final choices for the kitchen.

But we still had to finalize plans with the contractor on taking the wall
out, electrical, wood floor and plumbing. A friend recommended a contractor
to us that her son worked for. So we met with him and really liked the guy.
And then we got the estimates from him and really, really liked the guy!

He came over this past Sunday and we finalized just about everything and he
said he could probably start the demo work on Thursday.

On Sunday night Johnny mentioned that it might be a good idea to
check the guy out with the BBB. uhhh, yeah, guess so!
ha.......we liked the guy so much we didn't even think about that

So on Monday, I checked with the BBB and he wasn't registered...
not a good sign

Next I checked with the Board of Contractors, he wasn't listed...
not a good sign

Then I checked with the State of Virginia for his contractors license...
it had been revoked in 2008!!!
def not a good sign

You know that ole saying that if it sounds too good to be true
then it probably is! Well, this was def a case of that

So I emailed the guy and told him we weren't quite ready to start
that I needed references and needed to verify that he was
a licensed contractor and insured in the state of Virginia

So later that day he emailed me with a list of references and
said he would email his license and insurance info later

and today I recev'd an email from him asking me if I had received
an email from his insurance agent with his info

I haven't answered yet....I didn't want to have to call him out
I was hoping he would just come clean but he hasn't
we'll see......

in the mean time, we have another contractor
he has an A+ rating with the BBB
is licensed and insured in the state of VA
has never had a complaint filed against him
and re-modeled our son's girlfriends parents kitchen
So I feel we are safe with him.

Hoping now to start this week coming up!

my tip ... don't make the "almost" mistake that we were about to make
check out your contractors from the get go......before you even
meet with them.
and if I email or hear back from the other guy, I'll let ya'll know the outcome!

later......

Kitchen re-model ... part 2

Just as with planning a wedding, planning a large re-model

could go a little easier if you had some good advice

We have not received any advice on the remodel so we're learning

as we go!

But I'm going to share with you what we are learning.

So our initial idea was to go to Home Depot and do the kitchen design

and order the cabinets and new appliances

Then the company that re-finished our wood floors in the front rooms

would come in and rip out the laminate flooring and install

the new wood floors

we would find a contractor to tear out the wall

we knew of someone who knew a plumber

we knew of an electrician

and then we were faced with the thought of how do we

coordinate all of this......and how do we know what order to have

all of this done!

for instances, some plumbing needed to be done during

demolition and then more plumbing done later

and then when do we paint!!

wow........it was really starting to feel overwhelming and we

haven't even started!!

Lucky for us that having a conversation with the contractor about

coordinating everything, he tells us it is easier on the homeowner

if you just let one contractor bring in all of the other components

of the re-model, they can do all of the coordination

BOO YAH!!!   win win for us!

Which means I do not have to coordinate anything!!

we hire him, he does everything

we are still in talks about what all he will be doing

we are still getting the design, cabinets and appliances from

The Home Depot as we are very, very happy with how all of that

is going. And we will probably get all of our lighting from there

We're getting close now.......I do worry that Thanksgiving could be in

jeorpordy but as long as it's finished before the Christmas holiday

then I'll be happy!

so our first tip .... Start with a good contractor who can take the

lead on the project. Include all you can with this person and then

if you want, go outside for other things like appliances, etc.

and just a couple of random pics from around the house because

whats a blog post without pictures!!

later....

Kitchen re-model ... part 1

No more wedding post or doggie post.......time to move on!

I'm going to post all of our steps in remodeling our kitchen

Our first step was done many years ago

Johnny and I have always known what we wanted to do

we have a wall of pantries in our current kitchen

yes, I know.....3 pantries sounds wonderful but seriously, look at it

it's just boring.....



and then we have this really nice dining room, lots of light with

2 windows and we only use it on Thanksgiving and Christmas ... and

sometimes during parties.

So our plan is to take out the wall of pantries and open the kitchen

up to the dining room. Because this is a load bearing wall, it is

not as simple as taking a sledge hammer to it. So we are currently

waiting on 2 different contractors to quote us on this job.

We have to also still get quotes on new wood flooring, lighting,

plumbing and painting.

We are working with a wonderful kitchen designer at The Home Depot and she is currently in the process of designing the kitchen.
We've met with her 4 times now, showing pictures and giving
her our ideas. We're taking out the breakfast bar so that we
can open up the kitchen even more. Below is a drawing showing the
breakfast bar gone and the cabinets now extended
all the way down to the door. My kitchen sink used to sit at an
angle......half looking out the window and half at the breakfast area.
Now it is moving over some and will be centered under
the 3 windows.

below is the kitchen hutch we have designed to hold all

of my seasonal dishes and china. I'll be giving up my china cabinet

so I'll need the extra storage. 5 drawers and 2 doors on the bottom and then

the glass cabinets on top to hold our crystal and china.

To the left of the picture is

the double doors to the deck and to the right is the doorway

to the bathroom, back staircase and garage.

between the new cabinets and the dining room will be

an island that is 78 inches long and 33 inches wide. It will also

hold a small sink.

We are going with white linen maple cabinets, the island and the hutch

will be black and done in oak.
So that's where we are right now.....waiting on quotes.
And we're really hoping we can start soon but we're probably
still looking at 2 weeks out!

later.....

Kitchen re-model ...

the time has finally come that Johnny and I are going to

re-model the kitchen!

It's something we have dreamed of for a long time but something

always got in the way

But now is the time

so since I'm always running short on blog post ideas, I'm going to

do a whole series on the re-model.

Now won't that be fun....hehe!

I had already posted some inspirational pictures in an earlier post

So now the planning has begun

We are waiting on 2 contractors to give us a price on tearing

out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.

Since this is a load bearing wall, it's not something we can just take

the sledge hammer too ... though that sure would have been fun!!

And we are having a 4th meeting tonight with the kitchen

designer to finalize the cabinets and the island

I'm also working on the details of figuring out the sink, faucets

and lighting.

We are really hoping to have everything figured out and lined up

to begin by the end of the month. It would be nice to have this complete

by Thanksgiving but I'm having my doubts.

later.....

Yard sale ...

I have said this before.........I hate yard sales!

they are just so much work for so little dollars

but yet again, I agreed to have one

We have been doing some major cleaning out.....every drawer and closet

in our house

we even cleaned out some of the attic!

and we priced it all, boxed it up, hauled it downstairs

got up at the butt crack of dawn

unpacked the boxes and set everything out

and then just sat outside and waited.......

waited and waited for people to come by and buy our junk

and some did, some just looked and some bought

but in the end, it still wasn't worth all of the work

I'm not doing any more yard sales

that's it......no more

But on the up side, I have de-cluttered my house beyond belief

and it feels so good!!

Bella Boo and Pippa Lou just had fun playing in

the back yard

later .....

Gardenia ...

I have gardenia bushes on each side of my front porch

some years they bloom

and some years they do not!

this past spring / summer there were no blooms

but the other day I was coming up the steps

and I spotted one bloom.....just one!

just had to clip it and put in a vase

and believe me...it smells heavenly!



later.......

Rehearsal ....

I know, you're probably tired of hearing about the wedding

but........

it was a huge event in our life! So I must make sure I document every bit

of it. So if you're tired of hearing it, you may want to check back in

later.....haha!!

We arrived at the Hilton at the beach on Thursday before the wedding



and as soon as we walked in we were greeted with

our kids names up on the board!

we had a low key day on Thursday.......took care of some wedding errands

then on Friday, the girls all went to the spa for nails and pedicures

then rehearsal was around 4:00......ha, I already can't remember!

then it was time to get ready for the dinner! We ate at a fabulous place and had a wonderful dinner hosted by the grooms parents.

and normally, I do a pretty good job of taking pictures but

at the rehearsal dinner, all of my pictures were bad! I think just a case of nerves, excitement and a lot of emotions, I just couldn't take a decent picture! oh well, at least we have some!

we gave the ring bearers and the flower girl tshirts to wear

to rehearsal and the dinner.

I thought they were really cute. Jacquelyn and Bucky gave each

of them a tote bag with their names monagrammed on them

and filled them with books, beach toys and flip flops!

seriously folks, I can't even believe I took pictures this bad.......ackkkk!!!

and here's my baby girl the next morning sleeping away

on her wedding day! She slept on a rollaway bed in our room.

Our last night with our girl.......

later....

Old news ....

I have been going through and editing tons of

pictures from the summer.

A lot that I never blogged and I def need to include this in summer of 2011

because this blog is my family journal

so our summer fun is part of our life that I don't want to forget

or for my kids to forget!

so here goes.......

As most know, we had family come in from Texas and Georgia for our

daughters wedding. And we just had so much fun spending time together and most of our time was spent just hanging out on the deck
as we were having such great weather.

these pics were taken about 5 days before the wedding.

Unfortunatly, the bride and groom still had so much to do

that they weren't around for some of the fun!

Below is my beautiful sister in law from Texas, Shay!

man oh man I sure do miss our family!!

and here's Gabe, making funny faces for us!

and the kids had fun playing in the water ....

my beautiful Chrissy girl ...

 

flowers that we were taking down to the wedding.....

we cooked on the grill most nights........just too many people to try and get

in to a restaurant. And we lounged around a lot....we just really

enjoyed being together.

Shay ran a lot of wedding errands with me so it was nice to have someone along. Plus it meant I got Shay all to myself! haha....
Shay and her husband Bobby, our niece Terri and her husband Jeremy, their 2 girls Trinity and Allie and her father in law Tim all stayed at our house. So there was always someone around to have coffee with, or drink a glass of wine on the deck! I just love having a house full of family!

My other sister in law Dee and her partner Jane stayed with our dear family

friend Libby as we didn't have any more bedrooms.
But they came over every morning and stayed until late in the evening.

One day after running errands, Shay, Dee, Jane, Libby and I

went to the movies to see Bridesmaids....how appropriate!

Tonya, one of the bridesmaids and sister of the groom and her boyfriend

Nick came by on Wed before the wedding with their pick up truck.

Lucky for us that they offered to haul down all of the wedding

stuff to the beach. Because we had 14 large crates to get down to the beach.

So fortunate and blessed to have our family and so lucky

that so many of them made the trip for the wedding.

I just miss them so much

later.....

Beef Stew ...

we had our first cool weekend which meant it

was time for stew!!

I love using McCormicks stew spices

Coat the stew beef in bisquick and brown the meat

cut large chunks of potatoes, celery and carrots

throw everything in the crock pot along with the spices and water

cook on low all day and serve over rice!!

yum yum

later....

New roof ...

Last Friday I had planned on working from home as

the guy was coming over to measure and take pictures of the

kitchen to give to the designer

to come up with our plan....plan A and plan B

Then on Thursday Johnny tells me that the roofers are coming to

start the new roof and put in new sky lights in our bathrooms

oh the noise....between all of the hammering and the dogs barking.....yikes, it was a lot of noise!

the dogs barked so dang much but around noon, it wore them out

and they went to sleep!

and it was quiet...no hammering on the roof

so I look out the window and look a there

lunch time!!

and they brought their own microwave!!!!

they had put all of our patio and deck furniture out on the lawn

so they set up their microwave and ran it to the

generator!

They were unable to finish on Friday so they were coming back

on Saturday.

I had plans to go shopping with my friend Cheryl but we weren't

going too early so I was in no hurry to get up.

I just laid in bed watching some DVR'd shows

then I remembered the roofers.......crap!

I needed to take a shower and the skylights are over the showers

so I get up and make sure the roofers haven't shown up yet

Jump in the shower......and kept looking up at the skylight to make

sure I didn't have anyone peeking in on me!! haha

They finished up on Saturday, cleaned up all of their mess and done!

the new roof looks great!!

later....

Kitchen remodel ...

We have tossed around the idea of re-modeling our kitchen

for quite some time

and I think it was the dollar amount involved that has kept us from doing it.

well, it WAS the dollar amount.......haha

But now we are re-visiting the kitchen remodel plan

not sure yet if we can pull this off or not......but we are looking into it

we have a plan A and a plan B

money will determine which plan if any that we go with

So this could end up a whole new series for my blog!

here are some of the ones that I am drawing inspiration
from.....



Plan A or Plan B??

or can we even pull this off??

stay tuned

later.......