Kitchen Remodel - End of Day 3965

Well, its starting to feel like its been that long! It is actually the end of Day 5. Progress continues to be slow although the kitchen is starting to look like a room again instead of a natural disaster area. Most of the studs are now covered by sheetrock and the the taping and mudding process has begun. The only area still uncovered is the area around the sink. The plumber will come out on Saturday and do his thing so I can get that area covered also. Today will consist of more taping and mudding and the start of the cabinets. I will go to Lowe's today and by the plywood for the upper cabinets and the sink cabinet. My goal for the end of the weekend is still to have a functional kitchen, albeit one that still needs alot of work. We're getting tired of living out of a small corner of the living area and washing our dished in the bathroom.

Karen and I are going to a counter-top store this morning. I'd like to go ahead and put some good counter-tops in place while we're in this process but we'll have to see what we can afford.

Jon-Jon is still sick but seems to be getting better. No fever or vomiting today but he is very lethargic. We're worried about strep (sp) so we have another call into the doctor.

Kitchen Remodel - Days 3 and 4

I'm not sure if the title of this post is correct or not. There hasn't been a good deal of remodeling going on the last two days. Karen, Jon-Jon and I came down with a stomach virus of some type. Jon-Jon took it the hardest and has missed two days of school. Karen slept alot the first day. I continued to work on the kitchen but progress was very slow. I just didn't have the energy I needed to keep things on schedule. Right now I'm about two days behind schedule because of the sickness. I started coming out of it about 1PM today. I got so tired around 10AM this morning that I had to lay down. I slept like I haven't in a long time until 1PM and woke feeling much better. This allowed me to get most of the sheetrock hung in the kitchen. Tomorrow's plan is to rent a sheetrock lift and install the ceiling plywood. That will take most of the day but I hope to get some taping and bedding done, let Karen start priming and painting the ceiling and getting the last few electrical items in place. That's pretty aggressive but ya gotta have goals. If things go well, I should start on the cabinet on Thursday. Again, that's a good two days later than I had hoped but when you're sick, you're sick. What's really important is to get enough of the kitchen in place so we can start using it again. That means a sink, the appliances and a few other items.

Hopefully, tomorrow's report will be better. We are all feeling better now. Jon-Jon will go to school tomorrow. Karen is feeling better but still tired. Unfortunately for her, she is my sheetrock helper and that stuff is heavy.

More to come.

Kitchen Remodel - End of Day 2

Doesn't look like much happened today but there was a bunch of wire pulled and several electrical fixtures put in today. Jamie, Karen's brother, came over and did most of the thinking (OK, he did it all but I have to save some of my dignity here) and some of the worst attic work in the process. The only things left to do are to hook up the rest of the recessed lighting kits (see the kits in the second image - at least the two I was able to connect in today) and to pull the telephone wire through the attic. Both of these will take some serious attic gyrations but shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. After that is completed, I have a few boxes to hang. Jamie will stop by this afternoon and do the rest of the hookups and we will be finished with the electrical.

After I pull the telephone wire through the wall and the attic, I'm ready to sheetrock the kitchen. After that, the much dreaded taping and bedding. I don't know how those sheetrock guys do that so well but I'll give it another try.

If you've never had the pleasure of working with a "real electrician," it is quite amazing. As much as I try, I can't seem to get a mental picture of how electricity works and moves through wires. I've tried to used the "water flowing" metaphor but it only helped a little. Its interesting to watch Jamie look around and think, knowing that he is creating this picture in his mind of how it all fits together. It helps me realize how people feel when I talk about computers, a discipline I have been involved in for 25 years and can easily make a mental picture of.

Hopefully, I can get the wiring and the sheetrock work completed today.

Kitchen Remodel - End of Day 1

These are pictures of the kitchen remodel after the first day of work. I was able to gut the entire kitchen. Today's tasks include getting all the electrical wiring completed as well as getting the recessed kits for the kitchen lighting completed. Other things to add is a separate switch for the light over the sick and the wiring for under-the-cabinet lighting. Jamie, Karen's brother who is an electrician by vocation will be coming over to help (read as "do all the hard electrical stuff").

I have called a plumber in also to cut back the various pipes and drains so I can hang the sheet rock. Once the sheet rock is hung, he can put the water fixtures back in place.

Thanksgiving in Dallas

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Dallas with my sister, Sharon, and her husband, Mike. The day was exactly what you want on Thanksgiving day: lots of food and nothing to do but watch football. The next day before we left, we had the boys sit on Uncle Mike's Big Dog motorcycle for a picture. They felt really big sitting on such a cool motorcycle.

The last picture has the boys, Mike, Sharon and their dog, Mandy.

The Kitchen Remodel Begins

OK, so its a bit of a lie since I've already started the project. But, at the end of this week I will start the bulk of the kitchen remodel project and try to complete as much as I can by 12/3/2007. This first phase involves removing all existing cabinet, sheet rock and lighting. From there I will re-sheet rock (is that a word?), redo the lighting and wiring, including under the counter lighting if I can impose on Jamie for some help with that. Then I will rebuild the cabinets focusing first on the ones we need for the sink and other essentials. All this in about 9 days. I don't really think I will get all of this done but you gotta have a goal ... and there it is.

Here are a few pictures of how the kitchen looks at inception. I will post updates daily or more often if they're warranted. And, yes, you are welcome to come help if you have the time and the inclination. If nothing else, stopping by will be good for a laugh!

We don't know what we are going to do for countertops yet. That will come after all the cabinets are in place. In the interim, I will put plywood or MDF down as a temporary countertop.

Wish me luck.

Joshua at Safety City

I spent part of the afternoon with Joshua and his 3rd grade class from Taylor Elementary at Safety City. For those of you that may not be familiar with Safety City, it is a center here in Abilene that teaches kids about pedestrian, bicycle and car safety. They get to walk, ride a bike and drive a car on small roads that have all the traffic controls they would see if they were doing any of these on a real city street. Joshua did really well with the walking and biking part, naturally, but also did a great job with the car. It was a little cool today but we both had a good time: Joshua liked the biking and car driving especially and I enjoyed watching him and taking a few pictures.

Jonathan's Art Work

Here are two pictures that Jonathan, our 2nd grader, drew. He is very proud of them. He did not trace these out of a book. He checked out a book from the school library that showed how to draw these pictures and did these free-hand. He did the picture of the dog first because he said it reminded him of Junior.

He said, "I'm a pretty good illustrator!" Then he said, "I bet I can write a book with these pictures" and added the captions.

So, here is the first rough draft of Jonathan's new children's book. No name for the book yet but stay posted.

Jason at Enterprise City

Each year, the 5th grade class at Taylor Elementary participates in an event they call "Enterprise City." In this event, each student takes turn buying and selling goods or services like they would in a real city or town, just on a smaller scale. Each child is given a checkbook and register with $5 in it and are required to buy items that fit into their budgeted $5 or sell items if they need or want more money for another item. They are divided up into teams with each team taking their turn at buying, selling, banking or any number of other services normally provided by a town.

When I arrived, Jason still had his $5. When he saw the Snickers bars, however, that changed. Jason loves Snickers bars and couldn't wait to buy one and eat it.

Our hope is that experiences like this help Jason realize the value of saving and budgeting his money. The Lord knows his parents are the best example in the world.