Kitchen Remodel: Phase Two

Floors
July 16th-20th

We have original hardwood floors through our home (lucky).  Most are covered with carpet (unlucky).  The floors were all covered with carpet when we moved in.  We replaced all the carpets except for in the dining room.  We left that exposed (as well as one bedroom).  It was VERY hard to re-cover the floors with carpet, but they weren't in good condition and we weren't going to spend the $$ refinishing the entire house, so we covered the areas we live in most:  Two bedrooms, hallway, stairs and living room. The dining room floor wasn't in the best condition, but we lived with them.

Our dining room hardwood floor. This picture actually makes them look better than they really were.

When we decided to do the kitchen remodel, I really hoped that there would be hardwood under the linoleum in the kitchen, and also hoped it would be in good enough condition to refinish it.  I really wanted a flow from the dining room to the kitchen.  Our house is too small to chop it up with various different flooring.  We lucked out, and the floors in the kitchen turned out to be hardwood, and in good enough condition to refinish!  Now we just had to live through not being able to use half of our house for a week!

Day one:  The floors were sanded

This is the kitchen floor after it was sanded!

Do you remember what they looked like before?

Linolium

Asbestos tile

Hardwood, but looking rather yuck!

Quite an improvement, huh?  We were so happy!

Then they were stained!

Kitchen

Dining room

 So, sanding occurred one day, staining another, and then it took three more days for the coats of polyurethane, and the floors were finally complete!  The girls and I fled to Cleveland, OH to live with my parents for the week.  The thought of dealing with two kiddos while only being able to live in half the house wasn't appealing.  Instead we had a good time with Meme and Papa while poor Todd had to stay home and make sure all the work was getting completed in a satisfactory manner!

And here they are...stained and sealed!
 

We are really, really happy with the final product!  So excited about the way the floors turned out!  Wish I had a picture of the kitchen floor to put here, but we promptly covered that with Ram Board to protect it from the contractors that would be in and out in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for Kitchen Remodel:  Phase Three!

A Good Listener

We have a spot right next to our front door where the shoes accumulate.  When we come in, I tell the girls to take off their shoes and put them where they belong.   They rarely end up in the right spot, so when I tell Reagan to go put hers by the door this is where she puts them:

Right BY the door...

 Little Miss Literal puts them exactly where I tell her to put them, doesn't she?  She's such a good listener...

Except when it comes to me telling her not to touch the roll of toilet paper, which oftentimes looks like this because I have to hand-roll it back onto the roll.

:)

Welcoming Baby Caleb

Bert, Trish and Charli's baby Caleb arrived on July 17!  We were so happy to hear that he arrived happy & healthy!

See this smirk on Todd's face?  He's gloating because he got to go meet Caleb in the hospital right after he was born.  The rest of us had fled to Cleveland for phase two of the kitchen remodel. 

 The rest of us finally got to meet Caleb yesterday!  He is ADORABLE!!!!

Jocelyn wanted to feed him!

See?  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

Proud Mama!

Congratulations Bert, Trish & Charli!  You did good!  We look forward to watching him grow...hopefully the girls won't be too hard on him!  ;-)

Kitchen Remodel: Phase One

Demo 

D-day was July 14th:  Kitchen demo day.  Note my lack of exclamation points.  I was NOT excited for the kitchen project to start.  Why?  Because I'm not a big fan of disorganization and chaos.  I wasn't looking forward to living without a kitchen.  I'm not a fan of cleaning up all the after-construction mess!  But am I excited to have a brand new sparkling kitchen that matches on both sides?  YES!  So I guess I have to deal with all the stuff that comes with it, huh?  

The morning started with removing the appliances.  In case you need to remember what our kitchen looked like before, you can see it here and here.  Good bye refrigerator, I'll be visiting you in the garage.  Good bye stove, I'll see you in a few weeks.  Good bye dishwasher, your help is no longer necessary.  We will be using disposable dishes for the next few weeks.  To the cabinets and linoleum:  Adios!  I will not miss you at all!  

 

 

 

Yep, that's my Dad.  Here to help!  :)

Cleaning up the cabinet and bulkhead debris

My Dad looking cool in the giant safety goggles

Todd looks just as cool!

Next to go:  Linoleum...

...and Plywood

"You mean we still have one more layer to go?"

Asbestos tiles gone.  That's hard wood under there!!!  :)

And that's the kitchen going bye-bye!

 
And after phase one there's always a  phase two...stay tuned!

Reagan's 2nd Birthday

Our baby girl is officially 2! 

To celebrate, we went to one of Reagan's favorite places:  The Zoo!  It was a great zoo trip.  All the animals were out and in view.  It was pretty cool!  Reagan like the elephants and giraffes the best.

 

 We also went to Pizza Hut, Reagan's favorite restaurant, for dinner.  Lucky for her it was a Wednesday, which meant all you can eat pizza at the pizza buffet!  Then we went to a friend's house for Reagan's 2-year-old photos and some family photos, and after that we sang happy birthday and opened presents.  Because Reagan's party was a week earlier I think she really felt like her birthday celebration lasted for an entire week! 

I made Reagan a GIANT cookie instead of cake.  She's not a big cake fan...

Reagan got her first basketball hoop!

 It was a really fun day for the whole family, but especially for the birthday girl!  We can't believe you are already 2-years-old!  Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!  We all love you so much!!!

Red, White & TWO!

 

We celebrated Reagan's second birthday on the 4th of July this year!  It was a really fun day of celebration.  We started the day off at the Brentwood Parade, then came home for lunch and a nap.  After both girls were well rested, the party started!  Reagan was so excited!  We had a cookout with family and friends and then afterwards walked to Brentwood park for the Fireworks display that I assured Reagan were just for her!  ;-)

Reagan posing with some of her 4th of July birthday decorations

"Me!"

Party Favors

Reagan is more of a brownie fan than a cake fan, so we had brownies and ice cream sundaes for dessert!

Food!

Happy Birthday Song

After she blew out the candles.  She did a great job!

Reagan gobbled up her ice cream sundae!  Her favorite!

The ice cream sundae bar!

Reagan also really enjoyed opening her presents.  She especially like reading each card!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Reagan!  

We cannot believe you are already two years old (well, almost)!  ;-)