April has been a busy month for us... We started off helping "move" everyone back to their homes so Grandpa and Grandma Beal can have their house back when they return from their mission in New York. Thatcher is still a bit confused on where everyone lives now and still looks for Cocoa at Grandpa and Grandma Beal's house. Poor kid. We also celebrated Grammy's birthday with some family and friends. Thatcher was helping us organize all of Grammy's books before people came over, he even picked out a few to take home.
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| (I was feeling rather un-domestic so we opted for a super yummy Costco cake) |
Thatcher is starting to try and keep up with all the big kids around. The Craig family was playing a game throwing the balls around a circle (kinda like a life size version of hungry hippo) and Thatcher decided he wanted in on the action so he ended up in the middle. He thought it was pretty fun to see all the balls fly by him.
We also started on our biggest home re-do to date! WAHOO!! The kitchen was started... This is our installer "Larry" he has been to our house a few times now and gets to come back one more time.
He used a foamy board (technical term there I know) to measure and make out template. It was kinda cool watching him measure and cut everything. Then when he was done he just folded it all up and walked out the door! If only it was that easy to make the actual counter top.
Thatcher passed the time by reading books to himself. He loves books! He will frequently collect a few and sit or lay on his tummy and just jabber a story to himself. It's pretty cute if you ask me.
Before they can install the new counter tops we need to remove the tile back splash and the old counter tops. I was hoping it would be an easier job but it was a lot of pounding with the hammer and I gave up after just a few tiles, hoping there was some secret I was missing. One of my Uncles saved the day and volunteered to come and use his expertise/tools to get the rest off, hopefully doing less damage to the walls.
Since we are getting new counter tops we thought now would be a great time to also paint all of the cabinets. We have tossed colors around the past few months and ultimately landed on white. Hopefully it will help brighten things up a bit. Luckily we have an empty-ish room to use as a paint room so we can put a gate up in the doorway to keep little hands/paws out of the paint.
Here is day two of our demolition- removing the tile/backer board/plywood counter tops. Lucky for us my brother and two cousins stepped up to the plate and helped us out! (I may have bribed them with dinner). I was glad to have their muscles to help- it was quick work for them.
Day three was removing the bar. I had looked and looked at the bar and could not fathom how it was magically attached to the wall. So we called in a Grandpa to see if he had any ideas. Mike, Lara and Carter came to help a bit too. Mike was able to disassemble our sink and remove it while Grandpa and I looked into the bar. We eventually decided to use the same process as before and just remove it by layer.
Since the bar came off a bit faster than I had anticipated we decided to have Mike and Grandpa help us cut out the damaged Sheetrock so I could start to repair it before the counter tops showed up in a few days. Add that to my growing list of talents- sheet rock. Once we got the little pieces cut to repair the holes I screwed them into place, taped them, and added a little joint compound.
As I was going back through pictures I once again neglected to take very good "before" pictures. I just get so excited to jump right in and get started on the project. :) So I dug up these bad boys from when we initially walked through the house before we bought it... there haven't been many changes other than the hardware on the drawers and cabinets.
Another little project was fixing the gate we installed. The bottom anchor was coming out (I am guessing because the baby monkey will sit and rock himself against the bars and the little doggy wiggles under). Thatcher was pretty excited to "help" mommy. I had to get him his own screw driver because he kept snatching mine.
Jack is loving the amount of time we are spending at Home Depot the past few weeks. It is one of the few (possibly only) stores that he gets to go to anymore. This particular trip he even figured out how to roll down his own window- he was pretty proud of himself.
Here is our barren kitchen, no white tile in sight! FINALLY! Just waiting for the installers to come... I am so glad we just had a few days of this. No sink, no counters. Luckily I had stocked up on paper plates/bowls/silverware and we only had to do a few dishwashing sessions in the bath tub.
Thatcher and I decided that we needed a night out (mostly because mommy was going nuts without a kitchen and staring at all the work to be done). So we went to a fun little frozen yogurt place in Meridian. Thatcher loved his vanilla yogurt and strawberries.
Well, here it is! The new sink, faucet and counter tops!! What you can't see in this particular picture is the GIANT dent in the sink. Yup, somehow the loader/driver put a big ole' dent in my sink... the sink I paid an extra couple hundred dollars for because (and I quote the sales lady) "it is more durable, it won't dent or scratch". Apparently she needs to update her little sales pitch to include a disclaimer about their trucks. :) So we have this half "temporarily" installed while they fab a whole new section and sink... so two more weeks! At least our installer was nice enough to get us the damaged one so I could have a semi- functional kitchen. (He is getting cookies when he comes back).
So, that is where we are now. We have plenty of yard work that needs to be done still but all of our time has been focused on the kitchen (I will have to take a picture of our rather impressive dandelion forrest). I am looking forward to our little family vacation in June, we had it planned before we started on the kitchen and I have to say that it will be perfect timing! Hopefully we will have the cabinets painted, the backsplash up, and maybe some new curtains before we head out after Memorial Day.
