The kitchen is no longer just a black, soulless void.

It's blue!

We're thiiiis close to putting in the maple floor. Just have to do some gas line work for the oven, and we'll be ready. Pretty much.

The beadboard ceiling is painted. The crown is painted. The walls are painted. Once that floor goes in, we can drop those cabinets. Then it will officially be a kitchen again. It will!

Here are some photos of the priming and painting procedure:


Robyn's a UNC hoops fan, but our kitchen won't be Carolina Blue. This is just the primer. Although, I would like this for a kid's room.




A closeup of the detail on that outside miter, courtesy of our carpenter-friend Nathan Geier, who luckily will work for cinnamon-raisin bread.


The final shot of primer-only.


Jonsie, rollin' it.




Sweet Jehova -- a light fixture!


More photos to come...

A Few Shots of the Kitchen, Mid-Reno.

So the thing we're in the middle of right this very moment is the kitchen. It was the first thing we wanted to tear apart (after the carpeting) once we bought the place, because it was so heinous. Please see initial blog post for a photo of it before.

Last Fall we just started ripping it up. Holidays intervened. Financing worries intervened. Malaise intervened. But now we're so close to being done with the thing, and we already have most of the materials, so we're plowing ahead.

The following photos are some I took the day we installed the beadboard ceiling. You may ask yourself, "why is there 1/2" plywood sheathing on the ceiling, underneath that ridiculously warped and knotty (and cheap) pine beadboard?". The answer to that is twofold. First, we installed plywood with the intention of putting up tin, which turned out to be too expensive. Second, we have a major tearout planned for the 2nd floor bathroom, which resides directly above the kitchen -- so, to avoid any damage to our sparkly-new kitchen ceiling, we used the plywood to protect it. Which is kind of why we thought we'd do tin...it's kind of confusing.

Anyway, enjoy the following photos. Within a couple of days, I'll show you what it looks like now, with primed crown molding, a professional drywall job and baby blue primer all over the walls.

Sabbatical, Bloody Sabbatical

I've been away from working on the house lately.

Concentrating more on trying to find a job...and my latest back injury (not a bloody one, as the title may imply, btw).

But I'll be back at it again soon. We do seem to have a need for a functioning kitchen, what with three kids under 7 and all.

Until then, here is a photo of our messed up (roller coaster-like) kitchen ceiling in mid-install: