So far, so good....

We worked on the kitchen most of the weekend. Sunday, I was very tired and didn't help as much, but Nathan had Everest and my dad to help. Monday we started rearranging the kitchen the way we want it to look. Nathan had to move the stove, fridge, lights and light/outlet switches. I didn't have a preference on where the fridge went, but Nathan thought it would go best between the kitchen and dining room area. It turns out, I love it there. It is so much more convenient. 

Nathan cutting out the bulk head and checking out the light above the sink.

 

Nathan working on removing the florescent light. Neither of us likes this light. He also cut out the rest of the bulk head. Dad- making sure everything is ok. He helped out a lot. Thanks dad!

Dad thought it would be easier to pull all the ceiling down, instead of trying to patch it. It turns out it was a good thing, the builders used roofing nails to nail up the ceiling (you are supposed to use screws). Over time the nails started coming out and the ceiling was hanging about 1/4 inch lower  than it should (not the end of the world, but not a good sign either). We need to fix the rest of the ceiling throughout the house. We noticed bulges in areas when we moved in. Now we know it is the nail heads coming through. Nathan is going to put screws in all the dry wall and then patch or refinish the ceiling. A project for another day.
Check out the lights....Nathan put in recessed lighting. I like it so much better.

Everest really wanted to help Nathan hook the stove up into its new home. He was very helpful. He loves wearing the head lamp to help. These pictures are a little grainy, it was getting late and we didn't have as much light to work with.

Here is one side of my new kitchen. We are hodge podgeing our existing cabinets together for now. We want to live with it for a few weeks, while we decide if this is the way we want it. We are also using the time to figure out what types of cabinets and counter tops we want and if we will buy them or build them.

We want some type of floor to ceiling pantry type shelving by the door and an 8 foot island with a breakfast bar. We will also put in a window by the stove and pantry. So for now, my cupboard sizes do not match, my floor and ceiling are not finished, and my counter top is in 3 pieces, but I don't care. We want to make sure we like this before we invest the money into cabinets, tile and windows.

Once we get the cabinets situated the way we think we want them, I will post more pictures of that. For now, this is my kitchen and I love it. I was able to hold a conversations with my mom, who was sitting in the living room, while I was making dinner. It was really nice to be able to see and talk to her, and also see what she and the kids were up to.

Help from the boys

Nathan and I went to dinner Saturday evening. We had been looking forward to a nice dinner at a local Steak and Seafood restaurant. We have heard wonderful things about McGraws. People have told us to make reservations, but I completely forgot. We figured with Memorial Day weekend everyone would be grilling out. We were wrong. I called ahead of time (we were already dressed up), and they told us the earliest they could get us in would be 8:45, more than 3 hours wait. We were both hungry so we went to a local bar/restaurant, the Black Sparrow. The food was good, we were a little over dressed, but they were not too busy.

The whole time at dinner, we discussed our progress and plans for the kitchen. As soon as we got home, Nathan got to work again (in his nice clothes)

This is what the wall looked like when we got home. I started emptying out cupboards and Nathan tore them out.

We worked until about 10 and then called it a night. Most cupboard are down on the other side of the wall. Just in time.

The boys came home around 11:30 Everest was so excited to help out. We found his safety glasses (I got them from Montessori Services- they have real life stuff in kid sizes), and let him go to work. He tore down the majority of the wall. Leaf helped too, but he was in his birthday suit so no pictures to share.

Everest really getting into demolition. We have to be careful, he keeps going around the house asking if he can tear down the other walls.

Everest worked for a good hour or so. He was tired. He took a 3 hour nap later in the day. Maybe we can get him a job with a moving company and a demolition company.

No more walls. Hurray!! Wait til you see the what we have done today! I will try to post again tomorrow.

We have done a lot of clean up, and more clean up, and more clean up. I am sure we will have a lot more clean up in the next few weeks. We were supposed to do only one wall for now, but ended up removing 2 and a lot more.

This is what happens.....

This is what happens when Nathan and I are left alone for 2 days without kids. It has been 4 1/2 years since we have had more than a few hours alone. Most people would be having their "romantic time", which we did, but we also miss working on the house together. Something that is 10 times harder with 2 little kids.

We have hated this wall since the day we looked at the house. The house feels too compartmentalized for us. We love the open floor plans. I am not fond of the kitchen so we decided to change it! This is phase one!

 View from the living room.

My parents took the boys to a local hotel where they went swimming and out to dinner. Today, they went to the Imagination Station, which is like a small children's museum, and swimming again. 

Nathan and I went to dinner last night at Peaceful Greens. It is a new vegetarian restaurant in downtown Lafayette. It was really nice and the food was EXCELLENT! I had an incredible portabella sandwich and Nathan had a burrito.

The wall is coming DOWN!

No more dry wall. I can see out the front window from my kitchen. I love the view...and the light!

Our biggest challenges was going to be matching the hard wood floor. We only needed a little bit, but getting it the same was going to be tricky. To our surprise, the hard wood floor was under the wall. We are not sure why, but who cares. It stops at the kitchen, but we are going to tile the kitchen so it doesn't matter.

Very dirty!

Hurray! We got it done in a matter of an afternoon. It is not done by any means, but it has been started and there is no turning back. I love my husband.

Nathan saw our friends Courtney and Matt's house a few weeks ago. They have an open floor plan, except for the bedrooms and bathrooms. We both love it. The house we thought we were going to buy last year had an open floor plan (we put in a full price offer on a Frank Lloyd Wright style house, that had had no interest for over 60 days. The day we put in an offer, someone else put in one too and they got the house instead of us. Sad, I know. But if we would have gotten our dream house, we never would have met Doug and Lisa, so I guess it has been worth it.) 
Our plans are to knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining room too. We have to move the stove and fridge. The kitchen is my least favorite room in the house, and it is the room I spend the most time in. We are putting in a 9 foot island, tiling the floor and a back splash for the stove. This may take us the next year to be completely finished, but as long as it is functional, I am ok with that.