And the Work Continues...

When my mom arrived, we decided that it would be good to continue our hard work in the kitchen. Up to this point, we had changed the cabinet hardware, removed the countertops and installed new ones (yes, Justin and I did that by ourselves...I'm pretty proud of that), installed a dishwasher where none existed, taken down wallpaper and torn out the horrible backsplash. While we redoing the countertops, we had a pumbler and electrician help us move the sink to the island and the cooktop to where the sink had been. I didn't like the idea of a hot surface on the island/bar where little hands could get burnt. I love the new change! So, our next step in the transformation was to tile the backsplash. As with many projects, that took longer than expected and we didn't have it totally completed when company arrived. But here are some pictures of our kitchen transformation thus far.


The kitchen at Easter before any changes have been made.


Old hardware


New hardware...it was amazing what a difference that made


Wallpaper removal


Closeup of the wallpaper design


The spot for the new dishwasher and the beginning of the tile removal


Justin jamming on his I-pod while removing tile...a messy job


All the ugly tile is gone


The old cooktop is gone


Countertops are gone


Drywall for the tile backsplash is put up


The new countertops are here!


Dishwasher is in...thank goodness!


Countertop and new cooktop in!


New island sink...love it!


Beginning the tile backsplash


Almost done!


A few decorative tiles are spaced throughout


All the tiles are up!


Justin is very happy to be done with his part of the backsplash

I will still have to grout the tiles next weekend. And at some point we will have to tile the floor, as you can see in some of the pictures, the flooring is very dated as well. But I will probably try to paint the walls and put up window treatments first. The kitchen has come a long way though!

Of course, Justin did most of the tile work, so that was done in the evenings while my mom was in town. During the day, my mom would watch Garytt so that I could get some painting done. I was able to paint the dining room and the formal living room. I do still have to do some touch ups but it looks a lot better than before. I have to say that I like the dining room color but it was an "Oops!" paint that I found at Lowe's for $5. So, it probably isn't the exact color I would choose but, hey, it was $5!


Dining room before paint


New color on the wall


New curtains up


We started to hang some of our pictures


Living room before changes


Living room after



Thankfully my mom was here to help me put up the curtains in the formal living room. She made the curtains for our house in Basehor where they were attached to a board that doubled as a shelf to put decorative items on because we had such a tall window in our living room there. So, we had to modify them a little to work on a normal curtain rod. But I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Of course, we still have a ways to go in all these rooms...mostly the flooring and the light fixtures have to change. We will be pulling up the carpet in the dining room and living room soon and we hope the hard wood floors underneath are in good condition!

We are very thankful that my mom was able to come up and help us out. She did a lot by watching Garytt and then she helped with the projects if he was napping. We enjoyed her visit but unfortunately were so busy with taking pictures of the progress on the house, I don't have any pictures of her this time. We hope she enjoyed her time with Garytt while she was here!