The (semi) finished product

The granite was installed while we were at a wedding - so we couldn't even validate our decision until well after it was installed. Thanks to Steph's mom, we got frequent updates throughout the evening. Thankfully, when we came home we were VERY happy with what we saw…


A beautiful stove that is just WAITING to be used…


Even the floor is accentuated by the new colors.


We have no idea what we are going to do with all the cabinets, but I am sure that we will fill them with something!


The double-oven… so… beautiful…


Beautiful running water…


I think I'll boil some water…


And make some delicious breakfast!






We even got the under-cabinet lighting hooked up! So much light!!


We still have a fair amount of work to be done - we need to install a hood, put up crown molding, put down baseboard, touch up painting, pick out and install a back-splash, and so much more - but we are so happy with how everything has come out so far. Now its just the "little" things… yeah right…

Building the kitchen.

We started this whole house "project" with a new kitchen as the cornerstone of everything. Steph and I love to cook so despite the fact that our bathroom doesn't have molding or baseboard, we are still using our basement and future bathroom as a pantry, and we don't have deck rail up, we knew that as long as the kitchen was done, we would be happy. In case you forgot, this is what our kitchen looked like when we bought the house:


We had a dream, and it is finally coming together…

After weeks of meticulously planning every last detail of a kitchen that was going into an addition that was not built yet, months of waiting for drywall, insulation, electricity, etc, and using a utility sink as a kitchen sink for too long to be proud of, it was time to begin work… We started with the "easy" stuff - no problem here….


This is going to be where our beautiful double-oven will go. We just hope it fits…


Next, we had to start to work on the top layer of cabinets. Steph's dad had a spacer to ensure that the height of the cabinets was uniform. This thing must have been 30 years old (unfortunately no picture :( but envision a Gandalf-esque staff with a piece of carpet on the top), but it worked!


Always have to start with the corners.


After we were all done with the top, we had to start working on the bottom - this is always fun when your floors aren't 100% level. We had to cut this cabinet from 3/4" to nothing to be sure the countertop would be level.


The view from our kitchen table. Its starting to come together…


Don't mind all the wires hanging down. Our electrician forgot to factor in that we were installing a floor when he measured for under-cabinet lighting so everthing is about 2 inches short. Oh well - whats a little more spackle.


We were seriously concerned that everything wouldn't fit, but in the end we were able to squeeze it all together (after shaving a few cabinets and using a whole stack of shims)


After all the cabinets were installed, the next decision was the granite - and it was a big one. We were going back and forth between black granite (either honed or polished) and a more "traditional" granite look. We spent a couple hours in the granite warehouse going over different options and ultimately settled on "Steel Gray." The 2 weeks it took to get delivered was very nerve-wracking. All we had done was look at it in a huge room with other slabs - we had no idea if it would fit in our kitchen. There was no turning back now…..

The two-toned house

I know it has been a while since we have posted anything, but we took a little bit of a hiatus from anything house-related to regain some sanity (and get some sleep). It is my job now to get you caught up on the work we did before the break! As you may or may not remember, on day one of renovations we took large chunk of siding off the back of the house where the new addition went. Now we had to replace it...

We had a ton of conversations about what the best way to attack our siding problem would be. It came down to the following three options:
1. Match the new siding with the existing siding.
2. Re-side the whole house
3. Re-side only the back and the side where the new addition is.


We quickly crossed off option 1 when we realized it is VERY expensive to get aluminum siding (and most places don't even carry it). There would be no way to match the same color using vinyl siding, and we didn't think the current yellow color would be in the long-term plan for the house. We would have loved to go with option 2, but alas time and monetary constraints kept us from going down this path. So we were left with the third option.

We picked out a color that we could see ourselves liking long-term and wouldn't clash too much with the current color of the house - after all, its only the back. We went with Savannah Wicker - we are thinking that this color will go very nicely with black shutters and a black door and some white trim (but that is all down the road).

As you can see, we only did the lower portion of the house. Here, you can see the contrast between the two colors. Surprisingly it doesn't look bad!


On the side of the house, you can see the difference between the new and old siding. We were just happy that the new addition was perfectly square - it made for an easy job lining up all the pieces!


Since we just did the back, the view from the front and side is unaffected!


Well… almost ;)


From this view, it almost looks like a new house!




This was definitely the hardest part of the siding. We had a huge window where our future bathroom is going to be. We had to re-use aluminum siding to patch this space up. It took a lot of patience and persistence…


I am not sure if we will reside the whole house ourselves when the time comes or if we will just hire someone. It definitely wasn't a "hard" job, but very time-consuming. The real question is how long can we live with a two-toned house…