The bathrooms...

Last year, we remodeled the kitchen. It was not a small job, the room was gutted, and we had no kitchen for around six weeks, (I've tried to forget and so I'm not completely sure on the amount of time we went without a kitchen.) After that fiasco, I have sworn we will never remodel again. However, it's looking like the kids bathroom might need a minor overhaul sooner, rather than later. They don't need a huge new bathroom suite or anything, just a new cabinet and counters, and some towel racks would be nice too. We've already redone the floor in there and the tub/shower is pretty new as well.

If I had unlimited time, space and budget, I'd probably enjoy the remodeling process more. I'd love to have a kid's bathroom with big clawfoot tub, a seperate shower, a linen closet and double sinks. Realistically though, that's probably not going to happen in this house. I think there's room in there for double sinks, but that's about it.

If you could have your dream bathroom, what would it have?h

Kitchen update 4:

Well we're two weeks into the remodel. I was initially told it would take two weeks total, but I figured that was a bit optimistic. The cabinets are just about finished.

The first three pics are from earlier in the week, the next two are close ups of the crown. It's hard to take pics in there right now because everything is covered in tape and plastic because it's all getting stained today.

After the cabinets are done sometime this weekend, no one is going to be here working again until Wednesday. Hopefully then we'll get the granite templated and put in. Then we'll just need to get the drywall patched and painted and the back splash installed. Lastly will be the floors. Hopefully in another week or two we'll have a kitchen again. :-)

Menu Plan Monday- Remodel edition

I haven't been posting my menus lately. In part because I've been busy with other things, but also because I figured it's not like I'm really making great meals with no kitchen, and no one wants to hear about that. Well apparently I was wrong, I got an email yesterday from someone who is about to embark on her own remodel, and she asked how we're surviving with no kitchen and not eating out much. So I'm going to post our menu for the week.

First let me share what I have to work with. I have a nice toaster oven that's large enough for my small casserole dishes. I have a microwave, a crock pot, a microwave rice cooker (it was less than $10 at Target I think) and my regular fridge. I don't have a big sink though, so I try and keep the dishes to a minimum, because I am using a tiny bathroom sink which nothing fits in, so I have to wash the crock pot and casserole dish in a plastic dish bin. Our veggies every night are mostly frozen, there are bags in the freezer aisle that just pop in the microwave as is. I've been buying the prepackaged bags of salad as well. I've also got a few prepared meals from Fresh N Easy. They are just in the refrigerated section and the meals are pretty tasty for prepackaged food. The price isn't bad either at around $7 a piece. Each meal is good sized too, they feed us for dinner and have enough leftovers for the kids and I for lunch the next day.



Monday: Chicken breasts baked in cream of chicken soup, broccoli, brown rice
Tuesday: Turkey dogs, fruit, sliced cucumbers, salad. (my kids love the "cucumber chips" as they call them. :-)
Wednesday: Prepared meal from Fresh N Easy, corn, salad
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: Pork Chops (in the toaster oven), salad, broccoli, mashed potatoes
Saturday: Fresh N easy meal, salad, veggies.

Breakfast is usually frozen organic waffles, instant oatmeal, whole wheat toast, with fruit, yogurt etc.

Lunches are PB&J on whole wheat, leftovers, soup, fruit, and once or twice a week I let the kids have a frozen meal.

So yeah, that's what we're eating this week at our house. What's for dinner where you are? Leave me a comment if you participated and I'll come visit your blog. Need more menu ideas? Go to orgjunkie.com

Oh krap!

That is exactly what I thought when I walked into my kitchen and saw this.





I was busy keeping the kids from helping with the Demo, so I really didn't get a good look until they were all done.

It's a little bit scary. The cabinets are in pieces, the counter tops are in the dumpster and I sold our appliances, so there is no way to put it all back together again. Eep.





The weird pattern on the walls is where the ugly faux brick was. I'm not sure it was pretty when it was originally installed and a bad paint job over the top did not help.


That used to be my pantry. We took it out completely and will have cabinets there. Before it just looked like an odd closet in the middle of the kitchen.

And there's a before picture.

I just keep reminding myself that this will be all beautiful when it's done. For now, this is my whole kitchen. I have a card table I can put up to prepare food on. And our new fridge is in the corner of the dining room. (Yes that's my son trying to run off with the cheerios while I take pictures. LOL)


I know I said I'd update on Fridays but I just had to post these pictures after I had a mini freak out yesterday. I'll be back with another update on Friday.

Kitchen update Part 2: Sinks, Faucets and more

So I finally picked the granite. We're going with the new venetian gold. Apparently, different places have different versions of each stone, and I finally got the samples from my granite place and it's definitely the one I like best.

And here's the faucet I picked. It's from Ikea, although I did check Costco too, thanks for the idea Sarah! :-) If I hadn't found this one, I would have gotten the one from Costco. This one was only slightly more and I like the goose neck faucet the best.



I finally found a sink! Thanks to a home remodel site a friend referred me to, I was able to find some websites for more inexpensive sinks. This kitchen project is totally on a budget, so I was really hesitant to pay $400 for a sink at home depot. Instead I found this little beauty on overstock.com. With shipping it was half the price of Home Depot. And, it's a nice sized sink, the smaller side is the same size as the basins in my double sink now. So, it will be nice to have a bigger sink on one side. The faucet will be offset a bit, the large side of the sink is going to take up most of my counter space. But I think I like that look. I'll let you know when it's all done.



And here's the details in case I need them later.



o Elegant stainless steel undermount sink is a perfect way to spruce up your kitchen
o Sink adds a modern look and feel to your kitchen decor
o Get peace of mind with a durable 16-gauge stainless steel sink
o High quality basin is fully undercoated and padded to reduce noise when in use
o Sink contains scratch-resistant satin bowl finish
o Minimum 34 inches required cabinet space
o Standard 3.5-inch drain holes
o INNER Dimensions: (Right Bowl) 15-5/8" x 18-1/2" x 9" Deep (Left Bowl) 13" x 16-3/8" x 7" Deep
o Total Dimensions: 32" x 20-5/8" x 9" Deep
o Over $75 dollars in FREE products!
Includes:
o Template for sink cutout
o Mounting and installation brackets
o Two rinse sink grids
o One regular strainer
o One basket strainer



I have my temporary kitchen all set up, and the real kitchen is almost empty. Some things still need to be packed away or put in their temporary home, but the pantry, the fridge and all the cupboards are empty.

I'll post some pictures of the demo process, the temporary kitchen, and the cabinet stain. ( I should get my finished sample tomorrow.)

Kitchen update

I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about my kitchen. ( All three of you who ready my blog! ha.) So, I'm going to try and limit my updates to once a week. We'll try for Fridays. Of course, since I'm easily excitable, I probably won't stick to that for long. :-)

So I found a picture of the granite I think I like best with my cabinets. What do you all think? This is a sample of the Giallo Ornamental with a cabinet stain pretty similar to what my cabinets are supposed to be. Whatcha think?





As of now they're starting demo in about a week. Our cabinets are being custom built, so we're just waiting for the cabinet maker to do his thing. I'm not complaining, the longer it takes to start, the longer I have to get things ready here. We did finally pick out a fridge. And we even agreed on it. It's similar to the one Jeff wanted in that it has a ton of features, but I found this one at a great deal, it was almost $1k less than the other fridge, and it was about $500 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else. It's going to live in the corner of the dining room until the remodel is done.



Isn't it pretty? Yes. Appliances can be pretty too. And, it will be very pretty until the kids start putting their dirty little hand prints on it. It definitely has some spiffy features though. Check out this picture.




It seems that I never have enough room for tall stuff in our fridge. See over on the left how the shelf folds up? And on the right, the shelf slides back? That's so cool. And this fridge has an alarm so if one of the wild animals my children leaves the door open, after three minutes it plays a little chime. It's loud enough that I'll know the fridge is open, but it's not so completely irritating that I will want to kill myself while I'm putting groceries away. That's a plus.