Flooring Follies

If there is one thing this kitchen remodel has taught me (well, I think it probably has taught me lots) but this flooring install taught me that the project NEVER goes as planned.

My dear husband tore up all the icky particle board over the last week or so.  A very dusty and dirty job.  We noticed a few spots that needed some help.  Had to reinforce the subfloor via the basement access.  Sigh.

On his day off, my amazing dad came over to help again.  We thought we were all prepared.  9:00 time to start the show.  Well.... found a few more spots to fix underneath.

10:30...ready to go again.  Tested out the nail gun someone loaned us.  Didn't work.  Grrr.

Lunch time.  Had lunch.  Still no flooring installed.  DEEP BREATH.

Dear husband and my dad ran to Menards and South Suburban Rental.  Neither had the right gun (and also had NO clue what we needed.  Ha!)  Now it is 12:30

1:00pm... finally got the right nail gun.  Go ABC Supply!  They totally knew what we needed and we were set.

1:30 ... started to install floor.

Now I won't bore you with a play by play of the install.  For the most part it went really smoothly.

10:10 pm.  We finished!!!!  I did get to help for the better part of the night and the three of us made a good team. 

Remember, the flooring wasn't what I had originally planned on it looking like, but I think it turned out ok!

Tile demo

To get ready for the kitchen floor to go in, we have to remove all the old tile that didn't come up and tear up all the particle board.  The boys took to this job with enthusiasm.  It became a game to see who could tear up the most tiles without breaking them. 

Who knew?

I am in LOVE with my new countertops!

After being so disappointed by the flooring, I as dreading picking up the countertops.  Hubby opened the box and I almost cried!  I loved them.  The color was perfect.  More then made up for the flooring. 

The next day Hubby was off.  I was so excited about the countertops, I think he knew the countertops were the next project to tackle.  And TODAY was the day they were going in.

For never having installed countertops, I think we did a great job!  It took most of the day, but we got them in with little problem.  There is a gap on the back where the walls aren't even, but the backsplash will hide that.  Where they touch the wall and the wall is crooked, I sanded, scraped, and filled in with joint compound (love that stuff!).  We reused the old sink.

Now, if I had know countertops (laminate) where inexpensive and easy to replace (somewhat) I probably would have done it years ago.

Anyways, here they are, my new countertops....

Easter Memories

When I was little, I remember always watching Jesus of Nazareth and the 10 Commandments at this time of year.  While neither is totally Biblicaly accurate, I feel they helped the Bible and Jesus become more real to me and portrayed some events in a way that really got to me (in a good way.)

I have tried to watch Jesus of Nazareth every year with my boys.  We have been watching it in bits and pieces over the last few days.  Since we have been working so hard on the house and other things that come with living a life, I feel that some traditions and things we normally do at Easter time have gone by the wayside.  But I was determined watching this movie would happen and I was going to watch it with them.

This movie brings forth several topics for conversation.  This year the topics were a bit deeper.  Forgiveness, demons, what is crucifixion, how does one's body physically die on a cross, ascension...maybe even topics I wasn't ready to discuss, such as Mary Magdelane, but you know what, I wouldn't trade anything for the chance to sit and discuss these things with my children.  I am hoping they will be life lessons and spiritual lessons they will always carry with them.  And you can bet I am on my knees praying for God to give me the correct answers and words.

He had RISEN, He has RISEN indeed!

Lessons learned from cabinet handles

With hubby only getting one day off a week, the kitchen isn't going very fast.  Plus when you see the state of our house and kitchen, it gets overwhelming.  I brainstormed how this could perhaps go a bit better.  Wanting to help out hubby, I made a list of what I could do.  I then thought maybe I should list everything else too.

Hubby came home, noticed my list (he couldn't miss it... it was taped to the cabinets).  I mentioned the blue highlighted items were my to-do.  On the top of the list was the cabinet handles.  I casually mentioned maybe we could do one item a week (really I wanted to say one a day) so we started with the handles.

My lesson in all this was that the whole picture is overwhelming.  I couldn't see the end of it.  I was overwhelmed.  Sometimes I think we are like that with God.  Wanting to see the whole picture.  RIGHT NOW!  But taking the bit and pieces and doing them bit by bit we learn to trust in God, let Him take care of the whole project.  Know that He is in control and He sees the big picture.  And that it is ok if I don't.  So now, when things get to be a bit much,  I can look at my cabinet handles and turn it all over to God and focus the bit and piece in front of me.

Removing the last of the cabinets

My dad was going to come over to help, so we quickly removed the last cabinets.

Then I took the boys and went off to the zoo.  That way I could keep the boys out of the way.

When we got home, the news was not pretty.  Our main water shut-off to the house does not work.  One of the shut-offs to the house broke.  Yup.  Water had gone everywhere.

Very long story short, finally the cabinets got in.  Thank you Dad and hubby!

YES!  All the cabinets are in!

Choices and disappointments

When you have champange tastes at a Two-Buck-Chuck budget (Trader Joe's reference), it gets hard to choose countertops, flooring, backsplash...

But I think we have found the winners:  take a gander at the finalists.

We ran into a hiccup on the flooring, had to pick something different.  Which one do you like?




Hickory or hand scraped maple?


We ended up going with the handscraped maple.  Now when we got it, I was very disappointed.  It looked much different then the store sample and was not what I was expecting.  Since I had convinced hubby this was "THE FLOOR" I felt super bad.  We laid it out at home next two the cabinets.  It will do and it looks nice, but it just wasn't exactly right.

I think it looks like laminate, but it is real wood.  Maybe when we get the rest of it in I will like it better.
What do you think?