Five days...

 I took a couple extra days off from work
so we could finally complete several projects. 

This is what we finished yesterday...

Got Red Plastic paint...

I saw this done on
"Mango and Tomato" a beautiful blog.

such a simple thing...

 

spray the knobs,
 make sure they are super clean.

Took several thin coats...

WOW! what a difference.

Pinch Me! It's so pretty.

When I got up yesterday I made coffee
 and scraped out the caulking grout we had used.
We went back and bought some
more of the regular TEC Grout

and did it again.
Kenneth applies, I clean.
We also went with a little darker

shade, it looked like cocoa in the jar.

Much better...

painted trim boards and 

It's Done!  Who wants something baked?

Scroll on down to see what all we got
 accomplished it the last five days...

Today I get to go back to work...

Check back soon, there's more to come.

Remember where we bagan...

Before...  We started remodeling March 8, 2012...

See the full story here.

After...

(We do still need 8 more doors)

Before...

removed the electric stove top and oven...

After...
Now we're cooking with GAS!

 

Added slide out shelves...

Before...
Not enough storage...

 

Built in a Pantry...

with a cleaning cabinet.

Before...

Took out the china Cabinet, moved the refrigerator here...

After...

Added a cabinet over the refrigerator.

 

After...

Added a Baking Center.

Before...still had the panel walls.

After... Kenneth allowed me one yellow room.

We still have a few things to do and if you've following

along, we have moved on to the Living room.

We've made the spare bedroom into an office/craft room.

Stay tuned...

there's more to come.

A BIG Fail...

We decided the grout "caulking" we put in the baking center  this 

morning is not going to work.  So tomorrow we will be

scraping it all out and using the same "real" grout we used on the back splash.

But on a brighter note...

we finally got the new dining room light installed...

I had to turn it off to get a picture...

night photo of the under cabinet lights...

and a little teaser...

check out "Mango and Tomato"

This Mornings Project...

We caulked in the baking counter top...

we used unsanded grout caulking,

not sure this was the correct way to go, we'll

see after it dries.

We may end up scraping it all out and using sanded.

waiting 24 hours for it to dry.

this is what we used...

UPDATE...

We are also adding more lighting to the kitchen...




under cabinet lighting...



 this is not an easy thing for my contractor...

 but very nice...

WHAT???

Wouldn't you know it...

as soon as we finished the grout

 I received this email!

No More White Back Splashes!

 

That's right!  We just finished and we're out of date!

It's a Process...

This is what Kenneth and I continually say to each other...

because as we have discovered over the years

when you start a project it will always take longer than

you ever think it will.

(This is also something we've learned after 37 years of marriage
which is also a continuing process)

Usually because, well, we take a lot of breaks, or

I have to stop and figure out the design plan, or it's summer and

we move to projects outside, or as we discussed yesterday

I'm just a little afraid to moving to the next step because

its something we've never done before and I have this fear of 

totally messing up what we have already done.

So we watch shows, You tube videos, read other peoples ideas,
lots of research on the best kind and then

take a deep breath and plunge in...

But after a year and people asking "When are you going to 

finish the kitchen?" Because as you know I wanted a mantle

for Christmas and we started on the Living Room.

(which by the way drives my contractor crazy...aka: Kenneth)

we grouted the back splash yesterday, for my birthday

we steam cleaned the area...
look how shiny!

Note: I debated on using gray grout but in the end
decided to stick to the original design idea and use white.

and got it ready....

we should be able to knock this out in a couple hours... NOT!

this much took us three hours.

Putting on the grout was probably about 45 minutes,
 we mixed the groutin 2 batches.
 The clean-up is what was more time consuming, 

wipe, wait, wipe, wait, wipe ...

You get the idea. 

But Kenneth had planned to take me out for my birthday...

can you guess, we had mexican...

and some special guests...

the "Baking Center" went a little faster,
It took 1 mixed batch and finished in 2 hours.
Only one more wall to go.

Happy Birthday to me...

"We" got a Big Boy recliner...

I had been looking for a couple years,

so when we walked in and they had this

bad boy in Gray...

It just had to come live in our new living room.

Installed shelf lighting and new material for the window seat...

It is soooo me...

we've been doing a lot of the little finish projects...

made a new curtain...

still need couch pillow and a cushion for the window seat...

Kenneth got all the doors painted and

we installed them yesterday and added the pulls...

WOW! what a difference...

to go with the "Industrial" theme we put the television up on wheels.

as you can see the girls are really excited about all the changes...

Today for my birthday we're finally finishing the back splash tile by grouting..

wish us luck...

growing up...

they were playing dress up the other day...

fairy, witch, princess...

she dressed herself...

 First mudding trip...

It was exhausting...

 

I think they need one of these...

a Tread Climbing Rock Wall!