Category: Holiday

Sorry for the lack of posting, we were up till about midnight every night Wed, Thur, Fri with working on the kitchen and birthday party prep.  I’ll try to recap how the rest of the week went.

Wednesday I finished filling nail holes and caulking the installed trim.  Then I stripped the last 4 rosettes.  When Ryan got home he put up the last bit of door trim and baseboards (caps haven’t gone in yet though).

Next up we got the backsplash finished (tiling) and this time I got to help so I did some cutting and some installing – it was just the top half of the one wall left to do so it went pretty quickly.

 

Thursday was recycling metal day (2 trips to recycle stuff in the yard -old pipes etc) and i lost count how many trips to the dump.  Ryan did all that while I cleaned the upstairs of the house and started on the downstairs.  In the afternoon and evening we got the fridge installed which was NOT easy!

But totally worth it!  I ended the night Thursday by sealing the floor grout right before bed.  It was one hour and was exhausting at 11pm but no worries for the party now!

Friday was more cleanup, Ryan installed the toe kicks, I installed the dishwasher (finally screwed in!), Ryan grouted the backsplash and installed the window apron so the window looks trimmed out now.  I started the tool room cleanup and by 9pm the diningroom and livingroom were cleaned up for the party.

So we got enough done on the kitchen that we could enjoy the party!  By 9pm I was able to start baking the cake and cupcakes for the party and my sister arrived shortly after and helped with all the party preparation (thank goodness, I would have gone crazy trying to do it all).  One more late night but Saturday went off without a hitch thanks to the hard work of everyone.    No one tripped over a saw or loose nail (thank goodness) and we had a TON of people stuffed into our mostly unfinished house 🙂

Here’s a view of one of the unfinished areas we used for the party – livingroom diningroom where most of the adults hung out – this is after cleaning but pre-decorations:

I’m so glad it’s over.  Now we can just relax and finish up the kitchen (painting and crown molding left) and get started upstairs on the bathroom!

Well this weekend did not go as planned, that’s for sure.  The one thing that did go as planned was getting the plumbing in the kitchen done thanks to Jason.  Well mostly done, we still need to hook up the freezer/ice maker and install a pot filler.  But the sink and dishwasher are all hooked up to the new pex!

We also got both the pendant lights installed and the center kitchen light.  The outlets are all installed (using a GFCI double pole breaker instead of GFCI outlets).  The cabinets are slowly getting filled up and the kitchen is being used!

What didn’t go as planned was that we all got sick this weekend and missed out on Groudas family christmas.  Alex got a stomach bug Thursday and had to be picked up from daycare.  Ryan caught it friday night and I got it on saturday.  Saturday was a really bad day, Ryan passed out most of the day, me mostly passed out and Alex still fighting her bug so extremely cranky and fussy.  We are all on the mend finally and I took today off to keep Alex home since she was still sick yesterday (she can’t go to daycare until she’s healthy for 24 hours).

Alex is eating food today and holding it all down (I’ve been sticking with plain dry food).  Tomorrow she’ll be back at daycare and it’s finally back to work for me, besides a short week last week it’s been a long time since I was at work!

Well unfortunately Christmas week was fraught with sickness.  Alex got a nasty cold and passed it along to us.  Christmas morning she awoke with a pink/swollen/crusty eye – fun stuff.  So I did’t get any great xmas day photos 🙂

Wednesday and Thursday we kept alex home (ryan had to work) anyhow, and Alex and I just relaxed trying to get better.  Friday she seemed much better so I took her to daycare and got much worse myself with a fever.  Saturday we were hoping we’d all feel better, but no such luck and by saturday night it was clear that alex was coming down with something else (ear infection?).  So sunday we took her over to the doctor and yup, double ear infection.

We had the plumber coming Monday morning to install the gas line for the stove so Sunday night we got the wiring ready for the stove and hood.  Then we spent the whole evening installing the hood after getting the first 2 upper cabinets in!

On Monday we finally all felt better, although I still have a cough (asthma) and Ryan is still not 100%, Alex was good so we took her to daycare and enjoyed our day off working on the kitchen.

At 2:30pm our neighbor stopped over to help out a bit since I had to pick up Alex at 3:30pm, so we ended up getting the rest of the upper cabinets installed and progress on the fridge wall of cabinets!  Then today, Alex and I relaxed with Sarah and Ryan finished up the fridge cabinets!  All cabinets are now installed!  This was actually planned, we are very excited!

There is quite a bit happening still… tomorrow the counters are being installed!  Friday Jason is going to do the plumbing so we’ll have a kitchen sink again!  Just in time for all the family to come out for Groudas Christmas.

Once the counters are in I can start filling the lower cabinets.  We have handles and knobs to install and doors to straighten still but the cabinets are in so it feels like a real kitchen!  Next on the list  is to buy tile for the floor and backsplash.  We still have all the moldings to install too.  Lots to do but it feels so close to done 🙂