Kitchen Update, or Lack Thereof

I wish I had a lot of new stuff to show this week of our kitchen. Unfortunately though, the only thing I have to show is the misery that it entails.

We demolished our kitchen 12 days ago. We thought for sure we'd be finished painting and starting on tiling the floor by now. But as most house projects go, it always takes a lot longer than you think. Part of that is because Mike is doing ALL the work himself. And he is learning a lot of it as he goes. One of those is electric work. He refuses to pay someone to do work that his two hands are perfectly capable of doing. I appreciate his Mr. Fix-It talents however one thing neither of us anticipated was how long it would take to learn it and maneuver around the maze and struggles of a 60 year old house. We are re-wiring all sorts of new things. Light switches, moving the oven to an opposite wall, moving the sink-disposal switch to the wall, instead of inside the cabinet where it used to be, ect. All in all it will be much more functional, however its a pain to have to do it. It still isn't quite finished yet (almost!) but in the meantime, he has started working on the walls. Mudding and sanding every night until its smooth and ready to paint. This is something Mike knows how to do well, as he did the walls in Emmett's room, and also the walls in the hallway project. Both look great. So if our lights don't turn on, and our tiled floor is mis-matched at least we'll have great looking walls!

Its been an interesting 12 days. Going into it I said the one thing that will keep me sane is by keeping the rest of the house clean and organized all the time. I'm the kindof person that gets stressed and uncomfortable when my space is neither of those. I don't think I would say I'm a neat freak, because my house gets messy plenty. But it doesn't mean I like it. Here's the problem that I didn't realize would occur: ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP CLEAN. Dust and dirt fly everywhere. I dust it up, and the next day its back again (after an evenings worth of work in the kitchen). Also, walking in the kitchen adds dirt and debris to your feet, then it gets tracked into the carpet and the rest of the house as you go, and since our dining table is still in the kitchen right now, it gets tracked a lot. I vacuum every single day. If I didn't I think we'd need to replace our 2 year old carpet by the time we're done, its that dirty. And since the dining table is still in the kitchen, it also gets covered with dirt, dust, tools, and everything else you can imagine. Not exactly sanitary for food. Emmetts high chair gets a nightly wash instead of a wash after every meal. And the few dishes that we use get stacked up in the bathroom and washed every other day. (We are using mostly paper products). I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

Here's some pictures of the house. I'm only posting these because no one is allowed in our home until the project is over. That is unless your a kind neighbor that is coming to help my husband (thanks Grant!), or coming to offer us dinner. Because you know not much cooking is going on around here.

Our meals come from either the fridge, outside BBQ, or the microwave. The oven is not plugged in.

Clean dishes drying off.

This is our half-bath. (We have 2 bathrooms upstairs) Instead of Mike running up and down stairs into the basement to his real shop, he's adopted this as easy access to keep his tools, and other various work supplies. Obviously it isn't getting much use other than that.

As you can see not much cleanliness is going on around here. Mike is already promising this is the grand finale project in this house. (Stay tuned on that one...)

And here is one thing that does keep us happy around here. Chocolate cake.