Kitchen Day 6/7 - Life Without Lights

Dale came briefly to prep for the following day, which was a Saturday of electricity. I helped Dale fish wires through little holes. That is not the easiest of things, especially when you're trying to see the line up a little hole, but the line is knocking saw dust into your eye. Lindsey and I only stayed a few hours as Mom and Dad picked us up to scout our district opponent. So, Brian came over to help Dale. On our way home we got word that something went wrong with the 3-way switch and that we had no light in the kitchen and our refrigerator had been moved and plugged into an extension cord. It's inconvenient, but really not a big deal at all. -T

Dining Room lights

We're not having an island, but in the meantime, just to see what it would be like, we are using our refrigerator as an island.

It's getting closer!

Kitchen Day 5 - Soffit

Dad came over and extended our soffit, as well as plugged in a piece of wood where the wall used to be on the floor. -T

Kitchen Day 4 - Out-let me go somewhere else!

Dale was back to move some outlets. Unfortunately, the outlet in our torn out wall going into the dining room was on a 2x4 that was twisted, and of course it was loose. So, we moved that outlet over to the next stud over. On the kitchen side, we took the outlet out since there will be cabinets over that and we will also move the outlet on the wall where the basement door sits because there will be cabinets there as well. We will be moving them both right above (and below) the cabinets on the basement door wall. -T

Kitchen Day 3 - Spend Money, Theme Confirmed

Day 3 was continued efforts to figure out the electric. While we left that to others, Lindsey and I went out to spend all of our money! We officially bought our cabinets and countertops. We felt poor but good when we left! When we got back, Dad and Dale were ripping out our light above our sink. That was not in the plans, guys! Come to find out though, the electrical box in the soffit that went to that light was just loose in there and "definitely not in code." What does that mean exactly? It means that the theme of "poor workmanship" on the building of our house was very much confirmed further. -T

If only people could see what was in the inside of your house. For us, besides the cob webs is of course, "poor workmanship" as you can see the loose box.

Lots of confusion and thinking goes on...not by Lindsey and me though...we just shake our heads and leave it up to the masterminds to figure it out. This is our light being removed, despite not being in the original plan, but hey, now we get a cool can light for that spot!
Now we have a box to put electric in, however, we decided it needs to be bigger as we want a track light above the bar.
The telephone line runs through the 2x4's, a.k.a. progess!
Lindsey's old t-shirts from all her ex-boyfriends* came in handy to plug up the vent to the outside as cold air was quickly coming in once the range fan and cabinets were taken down. Oh and i think there's a person outside the window here looking in...creepy. -T

Where do you come up with this stuff?!?! -L

Kitchen Day 2 - Who built this thing?

Day 2 consisted of one common theme: "Poor Workmanship." Luckily, no one was referring to themselves in the present day. So, in 1968, when the house was poorly built, the builders at least left their mark, as you can see in this picture below with the 1960's Coke cup that was found in the wall. Uncle Dale spent hours trying to figure out how the electric was run and was extremely amazed at the poor workmanship. In fact, on Day 2 night, he laid awake in bed thinking about our electric. We thought about leaving a "dangling decoration" of light switches for the dining room and kitchen (see Picture 3), but Lindsey vetoed it. Dad was really excited about the designing of a plan to extend the soffit. To be able to get to that point, he spent the day cutting out 2x4's. As he cut out the 2x4's, and we yanked them out of what they were nailed into, we almost pulled down the dining room ceiling that wasn't really attached to anything. He was amazed at the...you guessed it...poor workmanship. -T

Thank you for the gift! They did this in Criminal Minds too! Although, lucky for us, it was a cup and not a dead body wrapped in plastic.

Dangler Switch Decoration? No?

"This is EXTREMELY poor workmanship!"

Definitely more open!

If we just kept it like this, we could have an indoor 25 yard hurdles event.

Seriously though...no dangler decoration?

Kitchen - Our new dining room - the family room

Look how cute my wife is eating lunch in the living room since it's the new place to eat now. She says, "It's just another way for me to show off my ring." Love her! -T

But really it's, "Don't take a picture of me while I'm eating." -L

BUT she really did say, "It's just another way for me to show off my ring." -T

Kitchen Day 1 - Smack Happy

Day 1 of "Kitchen Impossible" or "Renovation Realities" (see the DYINetwork or go to http://www.diynetwork.com/ to get joke...I should get paid for marketing) consisted of the best part - taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room! I would like to be able to see the TV from as many rooms as possible, SO...add the kitchen to that list! No, not really...well, that's not the main reason. I'm not sure exactly what the main reason is, but it's better than that. Anyway, we all got some smacks in on the wall...Lindsey too (not pictured), and down it came. Unfortunately, now the easiest part is over. -T

The Calm Before the Kitchen Storm

Our kitchen - pre-demolition.

Daggers of Doom

I actually really like the winter...I'd rather be cold than hot, but I've decided, that if I'm not going to get off work, like the days of old for school, that snow is just useless. I hate driving in it...Yetta hates to take me around in it, and like I said, it does me no good. We did set up some mailman traps from our gutters though, which are pretty intimidating. -T