Progress!

Our home finally has a laundry room in the main house. We think this is a major improvement in the 80+ year old design. :)

Bathroom remodel - the progress continues

My dear friends and sympathizers of home remodeling pain, progress is being made on our bathroom project. Can I get a yahoo for a leaky shower pan? The shower in the bathroom is nearly complete, so the boys began demolishing the rest of the bathroom (except for the tube that is our current shower location until we can use the new shower) It's odd to walk into a room and see only the studs and remnants of old electric. 

View of the bathroom from the door. To the left is the location of what was once a sink.

The north side of the room around the window. 

 And, presenting, our new shower!!!

Marble surround with a glass mosaic floor tile makes me smile!

What makes me smile more is the knowledge that we will have a complete bathroom very soon. Also exciting is the arrival of our vanity for the bathroom. The furniture style vanity includes a granite top. 

I'm excited, can you tell?

Bathroom remodel - week 3

Let's not focus on the number of days that we have been involved in this project. Let's focus on this one point - 

Progress is being made on our shower enclosure. When complete we will have a gorgeous marble shower!

Bathroom Demolition Days 2 through...well, let's call it Day 6

Before one can have a new bathroom, the old must be removed. Returning to our former renovation glories, progress on our main bathroom continues!

Construction will most likely be on hold for a week, as next week is concert week.

On the plus side, we have heard from the insurance company about the water damage, so that will certainly help with our progress.

Demolition Day 1

Friday night the demolition of our main bathroom with the removal of the shower pan. The verdict is out on the actual age of the shower pan, but we do know a few things:

1. It was installed more than 30 years ago, likely a project in the 70s.
2. It has been leaking for quite some time.
3. Water can do some damage.

However, this is all signs of progress, and it means the long time storage of a pallet and a half of marble may soon be over. Yahoo!

The bathroom remodel begins

A long, long time ago we bought a house that we thought would have a few fixer upper projects.

Ha.

A long time ago, we bought marble because some day we might remodel our main bathroom.

A not so long time ago, someone thought that they could unclog a simple shower drain.

Unclogging a drain in our house is never simple or fast.

And now, because of a simple clog, we must remodel our entire bathroom. The adventure begins tomorrow, and on the plus side, we will no longer be storing a pallet of marble in our house.

Now, to make some important decisions before they begin the demolition tomorrow.

Why did we buy marble for our bathroom now?

It's a valid question, why did we buy marble for our bathroom? We have yet to start the project and it's not even on the list of shortrange projects (at least, it was not at the beginning of last week.)

However, sometimes you have to seize an opportunity.

This is the marble we purchased. (Note the value price!)


If we would have purchased the same piece of marble across town at the other store location this is the price we would have paid.



Yes, both prices are for a 12x12 piece of marble.

The savings...almost 99%! How can we refuse a deal like that?

Sometimes home remodelers must seize the opportunity - and yes, the bathroom reno is now on the short range list (if only to be able to move the pallet of marble out of the house!)

The home remodeling continues!

It's true. Just because we finished the kitchen remodel, does not mean that we have ended the quest to remodel our entire home.

For example, a few weeks ago, I left for work and there was a double divided light window in the garage room (it will have a better name eventually - honest!)



The view of the garage room window when I left for work that day...


A few short hours later, the project was finished. :)


I'm assured that yes, it was really as easy as that. Ok, most likely not - I've seen the pile of debris that the project created and the receipts from Home Depot.


This project marked the beginning of our exterior renovations.

In the next edition of the White's "This Old House", the siding gets replaced!

We have achieved completion of the kitchen!

This is a collection of photos that only tells part of the story of the reconstruction of our kitchen.

View 1 - The Refrigerator Corner
August 2009


January 2010


March 2010


June 2011


View 2 - From the Living Room Entrance
August 2009


January 2010


June 2011


View 3 - Sink Wall
August 2009


January 2010


June 2011


View 4 - Oven Wall
August 2009


March 2010


June 2011


View 5 - Breakfast Nook
January 2010


March 2010


June 2011


View 6 - Cooktop Wall
March 2010


June 2011


The Detail Work


This is a detailed view of the cabinet trim feature. (This might be one of our favorite parts of the kitchen. We both enjoy the subtle graphic detail. Ok, to be honest, there are many favorite parts to this kitchen.)

It has taken two years, but our kitchen is finally (from a construction standpoint) where we want it to be!

To my loving husband, thank you! Thank you for working so hard to make our dream a reality. I love you!

One reason why we need to finish our kitchen remodel

Kitchen Update

We are making significant progress on our kitchen remodel. It's true, we might near completion in a mere TWO WEEKS! At this point, all we need to do is install door knobs, drawer pulls, and magnetic catches. Sadly, we are waiting on our online order to be delivered. (I say sadly because it would have been great if those items had arrived by Friday so that we could install them this weekend.)

Anyway, I thought this might be a great opportunity to show you some of the progress our kitchen has made since we purchased the property in August 2009.

August 2009



March 2010



May 2011



Once the cabinet hardware is installed I'll photograph the room in the angles that match our first set of photos taken in August 2009.

TWO WEEKS!!!

Yahooo!

The Cabinet Doors are being hung, the cabinet doors are being hung, the cabinet doors are being hung!

Can you tell I'm a bit excited? It's because I am! Yahoo!!!


The cabinet doors have been painted over the course of the past few days. This is the paint booth that was erected in our back yard that made it possible for the process to be complete in spite of all of the wind we have had in these parts.



Soon all we will lack are the door knobs and drawer pulls. If only I would have ordered those sooner! My bad!

A sure sign of Spring

A sure sign of Spring in Amarillo is a blooming Snowball bush. Some say that once the snowball bush blooms we are past the threat of a hard freeze. I hope that is so, because our bush has been blooming for several days. On the plus side, it also smells great. And, since I have yet to do any landscape planting at our house, this bush is sort of "it" when it comes to any interest in our lawn.



Maybe next Spring there will be a few more blooming plants!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Bryan and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for some of the White Family at our home. I spent most of Wednesday preparing for the feast. I like to cook - and I had a grand time cooking in our kitchen.

By Thursday morning, the flowers were arranged,

the table was set,

and I had very little to do except wait for the cooking to be complete.

This was the first time I cooked a turkey, and I must say, it was delicious. I'm usually not a huge fan of white meat, but the white meat is this turkey was absolutely succulent!

I think the key was the brining. I used a brine recipe that was featured on the Pioneer Woman
we also cooked the bird "low and slow" and massaged the turkey with a compound herb butter during the last hour of cooking. Delicious turkey!

To join with the turkey, we made a giblet gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with a pecan crumble, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, cranberries and three pies - chocolate bourbon pecan, pumpkin, and apple.

Doesn't that apple pie look delicious? It's an illusion! This apple pie looked delicious on the outside, but when we opened it we learned that it did not cook well - in fact the bottom crust was still raw. :( Oh well, that's why there were two other delicious pies! Including this bourbon chocolate pecan pie!

Besides good food, we enjoyed spending time with Bryan's parents, Lem and Ken.

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with good food, family and good memories.

The Not so Lonely Jimson Weed

Our back alley is filled with many varities of native wildflowers. (Ok, honestly, many of these wildflowers are not so much flowers - and are more accurately weeds - it seems one of our neighbors is a connoisseur of the fine weeds of west Texas.) One of these wildflower varieties is the Jimson Weed.

The flowers open after dark - during the cool part of the day. I'm sure they are also open in the cool early morning hours, but let's be honest, I'm not the most high-functioning gal in the early morning hours. And if I was, trekking to the back alley is probably not where you would find me.

I suppose it would be best to capture these blooms in the early morning sunlight that will be a project for another day.

You might recognize the flower, the Jimson Weed from a Georgia O'Keefe painting, Jimson Weed. O'Keefe was commissioned by Elizabeth Arden to paint this image for Arden's New York Spa. Bryan and I saw this painting at the O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe on our honeymoon last summer.