I can't do without my kitchen man.

Two months, good heavens... I'd say that we've been terribly busy, and that's why I haven't posted anything recently. But mostly it's because I haven't been taking many pictures, and I couldn't bear to submit one more blog without any photos. I still don't have any pictures of the rooms we've actually finished, (and by finished, I mean construction-wise. Still no decorating aside from a few new pillows...) but I've got some photos of our current enterprise: the kitchen. I mean, we've textured and painted the walls and finished the floors. But we've actually gotten to the functioning parts of the kitchen - and right now, the focus is our cabinets.


I wish I had some better before pictures, but here's what I got:


So you can barely see that the microwave used to live on the countertop -- where this built-in butcher block from 1979 also lives -- with all of the germs accumulated since 1979..... blechk!!!

Now, however, you can see that the microwave has its own little home where there used to be a miniature wall oven. (Courtesy of my husband and his brother.)


You can also see in the before pics that there used to be a few cabinets hanging over the peninsula that really closed off the space. Those were one of the first things to go - thank goodness. It limits our storage space even more than before, but it's worth it for the room to feel twice a big. Plus, it's the perfect place for some pretty pendants - eventually.

This weekend, we removed and sanded down all the cabinet doors and drawers. David also cut out the section where the new range will go. As of right now, it's sitting in our garage. But here's what it looks like as of right now.



And while all the cool people of the world rocked out to Muse and U2, David and did the last bits of demo and started sanding the skeleton.


We're trucking along. This is the really messy part where we're limited to crock pot and microwave meals for - hopefully - just a few weeks. We'll hopefully finish priming this weekend, and there's a bit more construction to do around the range area, but we're making real progress. And that makes me happy. I've really been amazed at the things we've been able to accomplish. And while the whole thing has taken waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I ever hoped, little by little, I start to see things come together.

For example, the aforementioned pillows have brought a little more life to the living room.

There's still random furniture hanging around the room, as well as the vacuum cleaner, but like I said - progress. :)

And I can't remember if I've posted any pics of Fleck yet...




He's not the brightest dog on the planet, but I grow more and more fond of him all the time. Plus, he can curl himself impressively into a tiny ball that fits on the case of one of our couch pillows.

Not much else has happened since August, and I haven't felt all that insightful. But we've found ourselves with a bit more free time than previously, so I have hope that my brain will start to kick in again. Maybe then I'll have more substantial things to write about than renovations. But until then, happy home-owning!

"It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song..."