And so it begins…

It’s official. We are starting the kitchen! Sorry you missed a blog last week, but we were back in Atlanta to take delivery of the cabinet boxes since Ikea doesn’t deliver to the mountains. We also made a big decision to not try to be overachievers. Initially we had thought we’d buy the boxes from Ikea and make the drawer fronts and doors ourselves. Then sanity prevailed and we realized that we would have to be SOOOOOO exact and it would be really hard and incredibly time consuming to make everything work. So, I did a little research and we went and looked at Ikea, and there is one door style we like. The reason we haven’t loved the Ikea fronts is because they are a little shiny and most of them are a color we aren’t as crazy about. They have a little-known front style called Akstad which they don’t even really have sample kitchens of in their Atlanta store, but it’s more to our style and we think it will look really good. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/axstad-door-matt-white-00426079/ is a link to them. They’re matte white and we have officially ordered them. They won’t show up until September so we will just focus on boxes for now. And Ikea is still out of stuff even online so it’s a little bit of a gamble as we are hoping the four door fronts/drawers we weren’t able to order will come back in stock sometime soon! Darned Covid is impacting so many different things.

As I mentioned, we took delivery of all of our boxes. They were supposed to come on Monday but in typical Ikea fun, they weren’t delivered until Tuesday morning. All 137 of them, but who’s counting! And that’s before the doors show up! We rented a U-Haul truck to carry them up to the mountains since there was a chance of rain. Loading them in the truck was so hot but we got it done.

When we got up to the mountains, I ended up being on a work call which lasted for close to two hours, so poor Keith had to unload them by himself. After he unloaded them, he organized them by Item # so we can easily find each part we need as we start assembly.

137 is a lot of boxes, isn’t it? The plan is for us to get the island installed and functional, since it will have our range and allow us to have a semi-functional space. Once the island is functional, we will demo the rest of the kitchen. Then electrical, plumbing, insulation, drywall and flooring repair will be done. At that point, we can finish up our shiplap ceiling and start cabinet installation. While Keith is working on electrical, plumbing, etc., I will be able to assemble cabinets and get them ready to go. And then we will install them. That’s probably 2-3 weeks away, so don’t expect pictures of that too soon.

Back to the island. Keith had some spare time during the week so he went on and assembled the island cabinets. He and I demoed the island yesterday and moved the assembled the cabinets up to the kitchen.

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Last night, my sister and brother-in-law brought my mom back up here. This morning we were sitting outside on our new comfortable outdoor furniture enjoying the peace and cool temperatures, and lo and behold, there was an earthquake! The deck was shaking and we were all looking at each other saying, “is this an earthquake”? What else will 2020 bring????

Now back to that island. My brother-in-law wanted to help Keith with it, so I worked on some exterior painting (more on that in a bit) and let them have fun with the island. Plus, Jeff was able to help Keith get the range from the basement up to our kitchen, and I’m super happy I didn’t have to help with that!

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We have to have our gas company come hook up a gas line for our new range, since it’s considered a commercial gas line, so right now it’s just sitting in front of the island. Hopefully we can make that happen in a week or so and then Keith can run all of the electrical and then the real fun begins!

Stay tuned for updates, but we are excited to be to this stage of the renovation. This week we were also able to finish up the trim on the stair surround, caulk and paint risers, finish hanging the bamboo shades, etc. None of that is too exciting so I won’t bore you with pictures.

One other big accomplishment this week was finishing up our beverage center. When I showed you the bookshelves a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned we were working on a similar piece for the house. Here it is! We are so excited about it!

Isn’t it great! We are really excited about it. We still need to organize it more and buy some more glasses, etc., but it is functional and we think it looks fantastic! We did have a little fun with some exploding diet cokes as we were loading the fridge, but we both have a little PTSD about that and can’t really talk about it!

Now, let’s talk exterior. Let me remind you what the exterior looked like on March 20 when we closed on the place.

From the moment we decided to buy the place, I knew I wanted to paint it white with black trim. It’s been slow going, and it’s not completely painted yet, but it is starting to really look great. I mentioned that my sister, brother-in-law and mom are here. My brother-in-law has a really amazing drone and took amazing footage and some great photos. He’s going to put a video together which I’ll post next week, but in the meantime, he got some great still photos as well. So here goes….here’s the “after” shot! Again, it’s not completely painted yet but what do you think? I LOVE IT!

Here’s another little before/after of the side of the house.

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Here are a few other great drone pics that Jeff got. I can’t wait to see the video he’s making and share it with you! You may notice that the deck isn’t yet painted and part of the back and side of the house is still being painted. Hopefully that will be done in the next week or so and we can officially call the painting complete.

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I hope everyone has a good week. For those of you praying for my cousin’s wife, she is out of the hospital, reunited with her baby and doing really well! We appreciate all of the prayers.

Until next week, I will leave you with this gorgeous shot of dusk that I just took right moments ago!