Living Room in Progress!

Not only did Jennifer and Chauncey help us get our kitchen back, they did so much that made headway for the other rooms to be finished. Tim had worked so hard on the house before our family came that it was a humongous blessing that he could have someone else who was skilled (a.k.a., not me!) come in with the right tools and experience to make some real headway. Chauncey helped us patch the rest of the sheetrock and tape and bed what was new. When they left to go back home, not only did they leave us with a beautiful kitchen, they left us with the tools to make some good progress on the other rooms.

It was such an exciting time when we actually got to sit in our own living room, on our own couch and watch TV. I know it sounds really shallow, but it was nice to be able to rest in what was such a work-zone! I was able to stain the mantle and woodwork on the fireplace and paint the brick a nice, crisp white! Tim continued the texture from the kitchen into the living room, dining room & hallway. We definitely didn't shy away from color in this room, and I LOVE how it turned out!

Thanks to more help from my mom & dad, we finished painting the rest of the woodwork in the room a nice, clean white to go with the feel of the room. Because the entire room is an add-on to the house, it was discovered that the room was on an entirely different level than the rest of the house. It will take some leveling to make the floors in the two rooms match up neatly, but it is well on its way, thanks to Tim's hard work and creativity. Our floors are a beautiful, hand-scraped laminate flooring, and are currently in a large pile in the corner of the living room! Our drapes are a beautiful, cinnamon colored velvet drapes with crisp, white sheers. I cannot wait to get them up; the sun is brutal out here! Contrary to what the white paint spots on the floor suggest, they are actually clean! We're hoping, with the help of some family, to have it finished by Christmas! Enjoy what's finished of our living room! You really have to see the old, wood-paneled pictures to appreciate what it is now!

Our New Kitchen!

I'm so grateful to share with you what our NEW kitchen looks like! I cannot emphasize how we wouldn't be at the place we are without the help from Jennifer, Chauncey, and even Khaki (Cohen just hung around for a good smile!). It's really incredible to look back at the old pictures and remember both what it was like at the beginning, and what it was during the process. Whew!

To say our kitchen is beautiful seems like an understatement to me. Where an old door used to be, a refrigerator sits. The carpet in the kitchen and the linoleum hidden underneath were both ripped up (thanks to Seth Ashley!) and the new tile was laid in its place. The lighting was totally changed out and replaced with beautiful can lights. I don't know if I can pick a favorite thing in there, but I LOVE the pull-out trash cabinet, the dishwasher panel that matches our cabinets, the deep drawers for pots and pans and all of the no-slam dampeners on our drawers and doors!

All of this was made possible because of Jennifer and Chauncey. They worked tirelessly to help us clear things out, add insulation in the exterior wall from the kitchen, drywall, tape & bed and texture all of the walls. Chauncey designed the kitchen for us, putting together all of the small details that make us love our kitchen so much! We couldn't have done it without them, and it wouldn't be what it is without him.

I absolutely LOVE our paint color too. I don't think that the pictures do it justice, but you can get an idea! We still have some things to get finished in the kitchen, but we feel like normal, functioning people again having a kitchen. We still have to install the backsplash tile, a white subway tile, and finalize what we're going to put on the bar counter top. We're considering doing a custom, concrete countertop, but not really sure right now. I cannot tell you how much I LOVE our new kitchen. It is a breath of fresh air and a piece of normal life for us again!

The Journey to Our New Kitchen!

Tim and I have been so blessed over our short lifetime together with some pretty incredible things. The most important of these blessings has been the blessing of God making a way for us to have a relationship with Him through the death and resurrection of His Son. The next most important has been my wonderful husband. I couldn't imagine doing life without both of them! Well, God has given us another one of those amazing blessings through the help of our family. My sister, Jennifer, brother-in-law, Chauncey, Khaki and Cohen came out and helped us make some incredible head-way on our house. To say that it was one of the nicest things that someone has ever done for us feels like an understatement. On top of that, they are coming back out in about a week to help us finish a lot of the rooms that we have started.

This picture shows a glimpse of the work that Tim put into our home while we were waiting for Jennifer & Chauncey to come out. Tim closed off a door-way to the hallway, closed off a door-way leading to the back porch, tore out the furdown, replaced all of the sheet-rock, re-did a large portion of plumbing, and, with a lot of help from Lloyd Polk, grounded all of the plugs and added some new electricity! Nothing really stayed the same in the kitchen, including the flooring, but it was definitely worth it.

To say that this was an easy process would be a lie. There were times when we both really thought we would never get out of our insulation-exposed box we called a kitchen. However, God was so gracious to help us out. We had a temporary kitchen set up in the form of a microwave, grill and the ever-important coffee-maker (Thanks Mike & Pam!). It was definitely chaotic. Unfortunately, our computer went down and lost some of the really nitty-gritty pictures, but these give you a little glimpse of what we had. Next post shows how it was really worth it and all of the amazing ways that Jennifer & Chauncey helped us out! Here are some pictures to preview all that they did!