In The Beginning!

We have lived in our house for about 6 years now (they all seem to run together).  In that time frame we have literally worked on every square inch of this place.  I never new how much paint one house could hold!  It has been a fun and stressful time living and working in chaos.  I remember one time during our kitchen remodel that I was doing the dishes and looking out over what used to be my kitchen window into a dark, ruffed in, empty shell of a "kitchen" and crying b/c there were exposed wires hanging in front of me...I saw no end in sight!  But now I truly have my dream kitchen and I am greatly blessed to have a husband and great friends that know alot about building.  We did it all ourselves and it is VERY rewarding!

I was looking around my computer for some play set pictures that I stashed somewhere and I came across these lovelies!!  I forgot that I had these.  If I would have known then what I know now, I would have taken many more photos to document this 6+ year journey!  Remember these are all BEFORES.

The front of our rancher! 2004-5

Back of house.

Attached garage.

Back of house again.  That sliding glass door on right was a night mare to fix...more on that later.

Back again we have a great large lot!

And there she is again. Digging the brown!

Galley Kitchen.  if you look closely you can see the 3rd (yes 3 layers) layer of wallpaper and border cute rabbits in baskets!  That is the "window" that I looked out over and cried many times as we remodeled this baby!  Notice the window coverings, I really didn't touch anything for a few months.  One day I scraped those counter tops w/ a credit card and some green goo cleaner stuff.  Can I tell you what came off!  about 15 yrs of kitchen that's what.

Left side of galley.  at the end the door went into the laundry room!  Ugh cooking and laundry within 3 feet of each other!  that was enough to send me over the edge right there.  Oh, see that ceiling?  That beautiful drop ceiling?  Well I am 5'10 and I felt like it was going to fall on my head at any moment when I was cooking in there.  so one day I just threw it out the back door.  Yes took it down and chunked it!!

Chunked that ceiling out these bad boys!  back doors leading to a screened in porch that was about 9x9 and covered w/ a green fiberglass roof!  Now mind you it was cozy and covered, but your skin looked a little like the hulk that's all I'm sayin'!

Said green fiberglass roof!

Dining room check out the panelling!  Sweet.  All through the house thank you very much.

Back doors leading to the Hulk patio! Note brass chandy-I still have it! (not brass any longer)

Hubby thinking "what were we thinking?"  Look closely up above and you can see the railing where I threw took out the drop ceiling tiles, and also where the paper ended.



We started doing work in the laundry room.  Washer in the kitchen?  @ least it is not on the front porch!  LOL (did I tell you I am originally from Arkansas!)  Glad I can make fun of myself!



Ahh-look closely here and you will see the panelling has been painted and the back Hulk patio has been removed.  However my pantry was moved to the dining room b/c of fixing the laundry room!  Never ending chaos.

Oh look-- the hulk patio has been removed and the ground excavated for new kitchen.  OOoh note white windows and gutters and new siding!

We actually had some workers lay the cinder block and concrete when we had a slab poured for the detached garage.  Should have done that ourselves b/c we think they were either drunk or stoned when that was done b/c it was a little "off" to say the least.  Oh well.

The makings of a kitchen.

Just like legos a house can be built!  See the deck!!! that's another post!

We added enough space for the kitchen to give us a large walk in closet.  It is there on the left side.  That's my little precious flying a lego ship into the camera for distraction.

It all came together nicely, no one was killed or divorced or lost any limbs during the making of this remodel.  If you look on the right side of the picture you can see the roof line of the detached garage.

 Well stay tuned for more details to come - during the next phase I didn't document very well so be patient.
later-