Today, I fixed the email sign up portion from the first version of this site. So this post will be the test to see if it’s working. If it works, I will probably pause it until I get it all back together.

The hardest part about rebuilding has been figuring out which pictures I posted the first time around. I was thinking about once I get it all back up and happy, I will go through my .jpgs and do some “revisiting” posts with more thoughts and pictures.

BULK paperplates, plastic utensils, water bottles

primer+1, all in one paint…just sucks!!  waste of money!

if you get the opportunity to wrap your tub with isolation, do it!  really makes a difference when you lean back

17 cabinets = 41 pulls

when in home depot/lowes and even ikea, use the same credit card

if you cant decide between 2 things, buy them both, you can take everything back after the project is complete, and you wont need your receipt for homedepot/lowes as long as you have the credit card….sure as hell beats going back a second time after every trip

the weight of 200 ceramic tiles can actually test the support of your car…also, people in Lowes don’t care if you cant stop the cart when you are using your full body momentum to move it forward

buy what you know will be happy with even if it cost a few extra bucks…you only want to do this once!

Well, at least the kitchen!  There are still a handful of out of site things to do, but for the better part, we are done!!

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Some of the final touches have been happening this week!  Final coat of sealer is on the countertop!  All the cabinets have been vacuumed and the drawers have been wiped out…meaning all the doors and drawers are now in place.  Some of the food and glassware has been brought back up

Scott finished off the trim and baseboards this morning and started on the toe-kick for the cabinets.  I also received the door sweep and the Up/Down shades, so the door sweep was installed too.

The shades came in too, but preparing the window for these may be a project in itself..maybe tomorrow.

Saturday, we went to Lowes in DE to get a new faucet…believe it or not, they had more bronze ones than HomeDepot…and I was still pissed at them anyway!!  We also went to a bunch of furniture places to see if we could find a table that will fit in our ‘bistro’ corner…no luck there!

Sunday, installed the new faucet!  no leaks!  Once that was done, we put the first coat of sealer on the countertop, from what we have read, we are supposed to do this every 6 months to a year…so worth it!

I went internet surfing for some stuff…found a slate bistro table that we are hoping works with the rest of the kitchen, if not, I am SO prepared to spray paint it black and be done with it, I also ordered Up/Down shades on clearance at jcp.com and a door sweep that automatically drops when the door is closed…awesome little device!!  Let’s hope it’s all here by Thanksgiving!

The sink is in place, the dishwasher and garbage disposal all work…one remaining problem, the faucet…the hot water doesn’t turn off

Scott says just take the cartridge to homedepot, they should be able to replace it, no problem. Yeah, right, no problem…they still sell the faucet, but not the cartridge…argh!  I was so fired up in home depot that I wasn’t going to spend another dollar there tonight!

Today Scott worked on his own and kicked some ass on the plumbing.  I think he was disappointed with what he didn’t get done…but it wasn’t an easy job.  He had to break through a concrete wall down in the basement to run the sewer pipe in a straight run, install some stop valves further back in the line….besides the electricity, he only needs to connect hot and cold to the sink and install the trap on the second sink (and a vent)

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The dishwasher is in place, water supply connected, sewer line connected…garbage disposal in place and connected…all that is needed is electricity….

hopefully that will happen tomorrow…as long as the nor’easter doesn’t dump snow on us…

Today we got this project started…

Unfortunately, I had to make a work trip to Harrisburg and onto Richmond and Norfolk, so we only got the long countertop done.  After wiping away the haze, we are 100% happy with our choices.  There are a few places that we weren’t able to tell if there was enough grout, so my guess is, we will be doing a second/touch up coating…no biggie

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Just when I thought that Scott wouldn’t make it because it was getting late in the day, he showed up! woot woot!  I was also able to step away from work to help and Jen was able to break away too.  After lining up the backsplash tiles, we started cutting away what we needed for the front and the top…with Scott’s guidance, we got them all in place fairly quick.  I thought for sure that it was getting too late and Scott still had to go to another job, but he decided to go ahead and stay and finish the bullnose.  So he made the corner cuts and Jen and I buttered up each piece to get ready for Scott to put them in place.  There were a few tiny glitches, but for the most part it was painless…and it looks awesome…

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next, grout…black grout