The Kitchen Remodel Post

This is it!  The day finally came when we were ready to turn this functional but very dated kitchen into a place of beauty and light. As a reminder here is theBEFORE:

And now the fun began, time for demolition!
DURING:

Raising the ceiling and scraping the popcorn ceilings, very necessaryJ!

About this time Devin and his girlfriend Brittany came for an extended Thanksgiving break to help out with the remodel.  This was Brittany's first introduction to our home.  So lovely.

This is the room we lived in while the rest of the house was under construction.  Ya, nice.

Ah, the ceiling is beginning to look so good!

Time to throw out the beat up cabinets and the old flooring the Keith Devin and Brittany sawed up into pieces and removed.

Ah the old lazy susan, she never did enough work to keep her around.

The flooring served us well but was well past her prime.

This is the lovely sheet of granite that now graces our counter tops.

Painting ceilings, lots of ceilings and walls too.  It was never ending.

 I would still be painting if these great kids had not come to help!

Once I saw the hood over the oven, I knew I was going to love this new kitchen!

The big open cabinet above will be transformed into the cutest microwave cabinet you've ever seen.

Picking up a pallet of flooring way down in Puyallup at 8pm on a weeknight just so we can keep the project moving along.

 We got as much done as possible, then we left to go to Hawaii for a week.  While we were gone the plumber and electrician came and finished their jobs.  All done to perfection.  Even lights in and under the cabinets.  

When we got back the finish trim above and below the cabinets was done.  I love it, it turned out so much better than I ever expected!

And now, the finished product, just in time for Christmas!

The much anticipated AFTER:

And just for fun, a little side by side comparison.

It looks beautiful and I just love it!

Christmas 2014

We celebrated Christmas a few days early for Devin and Brittany, then they drove to Brittany's house to be with her whole family on Christmas.

This was just the beginning of an all out nerf war. Three weeks later I am still finding the ammo in odd places around the house!

We had a nice Sunday evening with Grandma Hart and Grandma Schenk.

I remember we had barbecued salmon for dinner because the french door swag is all sciwampus from going out to the grill in the back yard...

We hated to say good bye to these kids.  They were super helpful and lots of fun.

On Christmas Eve we got to pick up Diane and Dennis to spend a few days with us.  First stop, Grandma Schenks for the traditional family gathering.  Brittney got to come home from Virginia.

Trey was all by his lonesome, all the other boy cousins were out of town!

Oh ya, you know it's coming, another all out nerf war.  They look a little too excited about it if you ask me, haha!

 Then at 10:00 am it was time for the best part of Christmas, skyping with our missionary!!!

Elder Schenk looked great and was able to talk for almost an hour.  He is doing fantastic.  We also read the White Envelope from the kids while talking with him.  They each found individual ways to discover, embrace and share "He is The Gift".  It was so heartwarming for us as parents to feel the blessing of our children's testimonies of our Savior.

A couple of fellow missionaries.

Later in the day we had the Hart family get together here.  We played games!  I loved it. Then we had a short program and gift exchange.

Mom gave Wes a Money Machine!!!

Paul got one too!

And Mom got lots of puzzles!

Just before Diane and Dennis had to head back home we ventured up to the mountain.  Baker finally had just barely enough snow.  It snowed on us lightly all day so it was a good day for skiing except for the one little thing...

Keith skied the trees early on and had a little mishap with a tree stump. The stump won.  Keith broke or cracked five ribs in the scuffle.  It was super painful, so he skied with great caution the rest of the day and took a nice long break at lunch. But we loved being there with Diane and Dennis and were so glad they came home for Christmas!