What We've been up to... {a Kitchen redo}

Lots of memories here ~ sweet ones of family,

Amanda baking with me to procrastinate just about anything else we had to do ,

Sarah {my niece} and Rachael taking turns SITTING in the bottom drawer,

Jason and his buddy, Glen, making mac and cheese {almost every day}

Muffin hiding from thunderstorms under the sink,

cookie dough and mile high apples for pies.

I remember when the kitchen was not opened to the dining room
and we took the wall half way down!

--- loved getting a peninsula---

always - always dishtowels in multiple locations!

It worked hard for us for 25 years, but the bottom cabinets really needed to be replaced.

They look okay from a distance, but up close ~ different story!

... and so the work began...

I did a lot of packing up and cleaning up...

and came home from work each afternoon to new surprises of how much Chris got done during the day.

Off with the school clothes and on came my "construction dust" clothes.

We've been working until midnight.

I'm always so amazed at how brave Chris is as he measures and cuts

sheet rock, adds new outlets, plans for extra lighting...

Everything he does is just right!

Saturday morning, we looked out over our kitchen space and said,

"Thank Heavens we're on time!"

The installer was on time too ~ 8:00am bright and early.

Here's a peek at the top cabinets.

I put a tea set on the shelves just for fun.

We kept the soffits; lots of wiring runs through them and 

I discovered that everything you change adds a lot more $$$ to the project...

so we changed very little.  We were very disciplined at reminding ourselves that

we just needed to replace tired old cabinets.

...some crown molding will dress up the dated soffits...

we hope :o)

There are still some things that need to be done.

{finishing work, counter tops, and resetting the appliances}

{I'll be without a kitchen sink for a while, hopefully not too long!}

 *

Thanks for visiting and catching up with me!

I'll keep you posted on the progress and do my best to catch up with everyone.

Have a wonderful new week dear friends and family!

 I pray that God bless you always

as you all are such

blessings to me!

Maria

ps.

Pinterest and GardenWeb's kitchen forum are such valuable resources

for gathering ideas and information.

I also thank everyone out there from whom I received great advice!