We have functionality!

Yesterday we completed everything that was left to do for me to have a functional kitchen. There are still a ton of little details left, but all the big stuff is done. I am so very excited! We started out by putting the granite tiles around the sink hole. This took several hours due to all the cutting needed, but it looks great now that it is done! Over the course of the day we worked on plumbing, getting the sink in, getting the water hooked up to the sink, fridge and dishwasher. We also got the door pulls/handles on the rest of the cabinets, the strip of wood that covers the gap between the old and new floors, we put the new microwave in and built the book shelf above it for my cook books. i also made three separate trips to the store for plumbing gear, and dad made one other. WE did finally get the plumbing done so all the trips were worth it i think. We probably did a bunch of other stuff too, but I can't remember now as I started working yesterday around 7:15am and finished around 11:45 pm and I am exhausted. The kitchen is looking awesome and I am so excited to be this far along. Now I just have to keep pushing to get all the little things done.

Guess what I am bloggin about today?

Ok, I know this is getting repetitive, but this is more for me than you, so I am going to blog about my kitchen again. Yesterday was another FULL day of renovations. Jon and I started off bright and early around 7:30. After feeding the kids, we unloaded all the stuff from the van that I had bought yesterday with dad. Then we started the process of putting down the plywood for the countertops. First we had to put some supports in the walls, then we cut and screwed down the plywood. Once that was done, we started the arduous task of painting the cabinets. I started inside painting the cabinet frames black and Jon started outside painting the doors white. I had less to paint, so I finished first and went out to help by painting the drawer fronts and some of the doors, then back inside for a second coat of black on the frames. Dad came over around 11:30 to help and we really got going then.

After helping Jon cut the cement board for the counter, Dad started figuring out the plumbing situation while Jon and I began laying the granite tile in the new corner of the kitchen. It went down pretty fast and looks awesome already! We can't grout untill it has set for 24-36 hours so that will wait until Monday. Dad took a break from the plumbing to help us cut some of the granite. Once the tileing was done, I started helping dad with the plumbing and figuring out how to get it from the old spot, through the cabinets, to the new spot. Jon did a second, third and forth coat of paint on the cabinet doors while we were working on the base cabinets. We finally managed to get them all installed and braced properly and ready for the plywood. Jon and I did the plywood while Dad began building the custom cabinet for the sink in the corner. The cabinet I originally bought wasn't going to work so my nice Daddy offered to do a custom one. The one he built was pur-fect! The hardest thing was getting the hole just right for the sink to fit in. We finally got the plywood hole right, then we had to do the cement board too. Finally the sink fit right in! Now all we have to do is tile it and get the sink and plumbing in!

We took a quick break from construction to clean up in the front yard. We had some old hay bales that had rotted, and the trimming from our bushes that we brought out to the curb for the big trash pickup. The yard looks much better!

After we were done outside, we realized that we had to built a frame around the dishwasher too, so we made one of those real quick. Once it was done we found that there wasn't enough stable support under the counter to take the Granite tile, so with a quick thought, we decided to get a butcher block top for the dishwasher, it will look nice, and be functional too!

The last thing we did was get the stove back into its spot and get it plugged in. Now all I need is my sink and dishwasher to be hooked up and we have a fully functional kitchen! We finally decided to call it quits around 9pm, so we cleaned up the tools and loaded the ones we didn't need any more into the van to take back to Dad's house. We Unloaded the van and visited with mom for a bit then we took the kids home and got them back into bed. Jon and I decided to push for a little longer and we started getting the handles on the cabinets. It is gonna look so good when it is finished!