Keeping it Real

Well, I really hate that the last pictures were the only ones I could find of how open this space in my kitchen and dining area.  Even though, that's not what I've been living with as far as the cabinets not painted and the island not in the middle of the kitchen floor, they look worse than what it really looks here.  At least I think so.  The darkness and grain of the pictures didn't help a bit either.  Oh well.

The guys decided when they were going to start building my wall before I could tell them when.  So, they start today!!!!

(happy dance time)


Only problem:  I don't have the doors yet!  I feel rushed in a way now, but I'm too excited to care and don't at all want to let anything keep them from doing their job.  So, it's off to wherever in a bit to look for my doors while they prepare the building of the wall.

Clayton's been working hard around here getting everything set up for building the kitchen cabinets.  He has to have EVERYTHING in order before he can begin a project.  I should be more like him in that area.  We still don't have a storage building, so he will be working under the carport.  The carport was so full of his tools just thrown around and still packed.  It was such an eyesore.  It's looking a lot better now and after he did a little work getting his things in order, I checked it out.

Look what I saw:

Wow, Babe, amazing what you find when you organize.

5, yes, 5 hammers.  Sadly, I know he has more than that and will find them when he finishes organizing his things.

I can't say too much though.  I know I own at least 2 other hammers myself and I have nearly an infinite supply of scissors.

I say we put the hammers to good use and hand one to each of the kids today, right?  Sounds like a plan to me!

For some reason, the girls (especially Morgan) had a great deal of working energy in them last night.  When we first moved in, the kitchen and dining room did have a small dividing wall (more on that in the real before pictures)  With the previous owners using the dining room as a living room, they had carpet put down.  So, after we took that hideous little wall down, that left us with putting the refrigerator in it's original rightful place which meant having to put the refrigerator on carpet.  (This will be easier to understand when you see the before pictures.)  Last night, the girls and I had to get the carpet out of the way for the wall to go up today.  Morgan did the majority of it, I think.

(wonderful camera phone pic again)

Awesome bunch of kids, I have!

Lovely, yes?  Ha!

And now, for the way my kitchen has looked for a long while now.

Well, minus the decor I put away for construction later.

Can't believe how terrible it looks without the decor hiding the yuck.  Check out those lovely green counter tops and back splash that yell 1970s.  How about those beautiful outlet covers?  Um, yeah.

As far as the paint job on the walls to the sides, let me explain a bit.

We have so little lighting in this house.  Notice the window above the sink?  That along with a set of patio doors in the dining room is the ONLY natural lighting we have in this large area.  The only other source of lighting is the light above the sink, the one you see in the kitchen and just one more above the table in the dining room that isn't visible in this picture.  So, with that being said, no paint I can find looks the true color.  I have a cream color on the walls to the sides when I went to repaint.  It still turned out blue.  It's more visible off screen.  I got tired of spending money on paint that would never work, so decided just to wait until my drywall was up and the paneling came down and all the remodeling starts. That, my friend, is why the paint isn't finished.  

I'm so excited to get these rooms divided up and have my kitchen closed off the way I want it.  I'm very much hoping I have enough room for a kitchen banquette.

Oh how I want one!

There you have it.  

I can't believe I actually put these pictures up on a public blog, but hey, just keeping it real.