Just checking in...

Hi all!  I thought I should check in to my poor neglected blog and let my followers know why I have been such a bad blogger lately....

We decided to start a complete kitchen reno this summer.  I could stop right here and I'm sure you'd all understand, but I have pictures to share! 

Important NOTE: I like to think of myself as a scrapbooker, but I am 15 years behind on my pictures so I figure if I blog it then it is an actual recorded event...am I right? (I am also taking Stacy Julian's online course 'Finding Photo Freedom' at Big Picture Classes right now, so maybe someday soon I will stop thinking that I am 15 years behind with my photos...wish me luck with that...I'm already 4 weeks behind on the course!  Remind me again why I thought I would have time to do a 10 week online workshop while I was starting a kitchen reno???? I'm glad that my registration allows me unlimited access to the course materials so I can revisit this as a winter project.)

Here is my kitchen BEFORE:

For a 30 year old kitchen, it's really not that bad...

But...the counter top is all chipped and the flooring is in really bad shape.  The cabinet color isn't so bad, but those stupid door pulls in the middle of the doors have always bugged me, and the drawers are warped and don't work very well anymore.

And since we moved in 11 years ago, we have wanted to knock out this closet/pantry wall to open up the kitchen and family room.

This was the kitchen last week.  Removed the cabinets and scraped off the backsplash tiles. Discovered some creative wiring behind the range hood, and realized we forgot to mark the stove outlet on the plans and would have to move it to the right 6 inches...and of course there was not enough wire so we had to fish a new electrical line in. There was some colorful language when my big hubby had to crawl into the tiny attic space to do the wiring, but we are still happily married (for now, things may change by next week).

Here is my kitchen today.  Making progress.  All the drywall repairs are done, ceiling almost finished. Don't you just love my new plastic drapes?  They are all over my house right now until the wall sanding is done, but even with the plastic there is a lovely film of white dust covering virtually every surface in my home.  I should be able to start with a primer in a couple of days, then I have the ultimate joy (not) of painting the ceilings.

My new cabinets are scheduled to be here on July 25th, and before then I have to prime and paint my kitchen and laundry room (and I still can't decide on a color, I'm thinking teal blue), repaint the ceilings, and remove all the yukky peel and stick vinyl tiles from the floor. And hubby has to fix the holes in the subfloor, move a couple of floor registers, and cut in the stove outlet. In case anyone else is worried, we do have a real electrician coming to do the work on the breaker box and hook up the stove outlets. My man is a trained plumber however, so he will come in handy when we finally get to put in the new sink and dishwasher. Hopefully that will happen before the kids go back to school!  Then I can get him started on a new bathroom...

So, now you know why I haven't been spending much time in my craftroom this summer. Fear not! I am having severe paper withdrawal symptoms, and the new CTMH Idea Book will be out soon...so just as soon as I can find the time I will get back to creating! I have been keeping up with blogland over my morning pot cups of coffee, and have been following along with all the CTMH gals tweeting from the big convention in Disneyland (I really wish I was there!)

Thank you all for hanging in there while I renovate!

Lorrinda