Day 12 and 13 of remodel

A lot got done on Friday and today. Ren came over and finished the sanding and put up the molding. It looks AWESOME! It is ready for me to prime and paint!

Looks great. Lucky us, Ren used to do molding, painting professionally. So he really knew what he was doing!

Working hard...

Look at the finishing detail on this end piece. So nice!

Later that night Jeff and the whole family came over. Gunnar was a great little helper and Brecken was a great cryer and Kristi was a great paint picker helper. I always love seeing either of my sisters though so that was fun. Anyways, Jeff came over to help with the floor. We realized our floor was REALLY uneven. Jeff decided to go down in the crawl space to make sure our kitchen floor was sound enough and the beams were going to support the weight over time. I was nervous that we were going to hear bad news and that we would have to replace something under the house. But, nope. Safe and sound! We didn't get the floor evened out Friday night and the Miller family left at almost midnight. Thanks for staying so late and helping!

Gunnar loved weiring those eye goggles. What a good little helper!

Our own man hole at our house. This is our crawl space. Kinda weird and different than a newer houses.


At least the crawl sapce is lined with plastic and somewhat clean. This is under my kitchen/house.

Ahhh... cute.

Brecken... always eating

Saturday morning remodel started early. I had to go to Home Depot to get levelquik to fix the floor. Jeff and Gunnar came to help at 8. We ended up having to cut a hole in the floor because there was a bump too big to sand or level out. At the end of a long remodel day, we almost got the floor leveled, we have a plan for laying the tile and had a successful day of nobody getting hurt! Tomorrow I am going to get painting done on the "cave" and the paint color Kristi and I picked out for the cabinets!

The leveling stuff. This is what our floor looks like now

Day 10 and 11

Day ten of remodel was a nothing night. Rillz and I were both feeling sick. Bad headaches, stomach aches. Maybe something we ate the day before? I don't know. So therefore all we did was lay in bed and watch t.v. with the dogs.

Day 11 Rillz was busy finishing the taping and thinset of the wonderboard. Ren is coming over today to finish sanding and putting molding up and Jeff is coming tonight to help level the floor to prepare for tiling tomorrow! We are pretty close to having a kitchen back!

I feel like a hoarder

Since our kitchen remodel, we have things EVERYWHERE. Dining table, curtains, chairs, microwave in bedrooms. Silverware, fridge, oven in the living room. Everything is covered in saw dust. Our house is small so when something is misplaced it's very obvious. This last week in a half I feel like I belong on the hoarder show or clean house show. Oh yeah the best misplaced thing is yesterday I was given a crib for free and I want to wrap it in plastic before I put it in the shop so it doesn't get dirty. Well there is NO room in the house and we put it in Rillz's Honda Civic hatchback that isn't working for safe keeping until I get to wrapping it up in plastic. How bad is that. (And no I am not pregnant. Haha). Now I have a glimpse of what it would feel like to live in a hoarders/ non cleaners house.

Beautiful isn't it...

My poor living room. There is even a door blocking my front door so we can't open it.

Those red drawers are my kitchen towel, silverware, and utensil drawers. I went to eat my cereal this morning and couldn't even get to the spoons.

So this is what we are living in! Hopefully not for much longer. I just keep telling myself... it will be so worth it and look great when the remodel is done!

Day nine

Yesterday was day 9. Rillz and Ren worked really hard on sanding and applying mud on the cave and doorway. They also cut out the dishwasher space, which I am told was difficult because those walls were nailed and liquid nailed and really thick. Also, the doorway got some wood on it to cover the exposed interior wall. The project is really coming along. And the wonderboard is all permanently down.
It's starting to look like a nice finished doorway

Dishwasher space.

Rillz finishing the scewing of the wonderboard

We got to bed early at 10:30 last night! Today I have had a terrible headache all day and a screaming 3 year old hasn't helped.

kitchen day 8

Good thing we took Sunday off because after I got off work today we really worked hard. Rillz had sanded the fridge cave and put up another layer of mud. We continued to mix thinset and apply it to the floor to adhere the wonderboard to the floor. It's the only time I am happy our kitchen is on the smaller side. It will be well worth it but just putting the wonderboard down so we can put the tile down is a lot of work. My knees are really angry with me right now and I am pretty sure in the morning I will discover muscles I didn't even know I had. Tonight was still a successful night and now that its 12:15 I am ready to retire to bed until morning.

Jeff was so kind and patient to show us how to do the tile process. Well after you lay down the thinset and wonderboard you have to step all over it. When Jeff was doing the process it looked like a dance and had Rillz and I laughing to ourselves. Tonight, Rillz and I decided to record the "Jeff Miller dance" for all to know and enjoy.

Sweeping, sweeping all day long...

screwing in all the screws for the wonderboard are a killer.

We took off a strip of wonderboard to prepare the floor for the thinset and it looked like an airport runaway. Up, up and away!

The sanding and mud work. All Rillz and Ren. I had very little to do with that.

Day 9 will consist of Rillz and Ren working together to get the doorway trimmed up and the dishwasher space cut out. Ok goodnight yall

Remodel day7

Yesterday was day 7 of remodel. We got nothing done and took a nice Sunday rest. I floated the river with some friends and Rillz had to work. We both got home around 3 and headed to my parents to pick up some stuff needed for the kitchen. We didn't intend to stay long. We arrived at 5 and my mom had just got done making bread so we sat and ate. Heidi and Ren came over and wanted to make peach crisp. Then we invited Kristi and Jeff over to eat it too. We ended up staying until 9:30. Oh-well. It was a nice Sunday break.

Kitchen day 6 and garden

Ren came over for remodel day 6. They put up the rest of corners for the fridge cave and continued the mud work. They also moved the last outlet that needed moved. Thanks Ren for the help today.

My garden is doing ok. The squash are starting to go crazy. The tomatoes have stayed green for a while now but one plant is getting a ton of little ones on it. My pepper plants only have 1 green pepper. My sugar snap peas grew really well and I got a lot from them. My cantaloupe and cucumbers are struggling because the squash plants are overpowering them. And my jalapeno plant is doing well. The little jalapeno peppers are so cute. For my first garden, I am just happy some plants are producing fruit/veggies. It's my first year of a garden and it can only get better from here.

My sugar snap peas... they are on the end of their life


Look at those squash plants. They just took over the box.

The little jalapenos are so cute

Kitchen remodel day 5

Rillz and Jeff started working on the floor at around 4:30 yesterday. Of course they had their trusty side kick Gunnar. Gunnar was afraid to go into the backyard because he didn't want Simon to get out again. Rillz and Jeff got all the wonderboard cut and laid on the floor. Jeff showed us how to adhere the wonderboard so Rillz and I can finish doing it all this weekend. Then Jeff will come back over sometime next week to show us the tile part. Jeff and Gunnar left at 9:30 and we were ALL so tired. Rillz and I still needed to get the mud up on the fridge area. Poor Rillz had to put up with me because I was exhausted (of course he was too) and just whiney. We got done with it, Rillz did more than me, and went to bed at midnight. The week of late nights and early mornings is getting to us. Rillz woke up this morning so sore! He said he felt like he worked out at the gym all day yesterday. Today Ren is planning on coming over to help with the "doorway" I think. I am not totally sure but I will find out! Now I am off to go get my nails done.

Can you believe Jeff is helping us with all this when he is 7 months pregnant? Crazy. He better take it easy.

Laying the stuff that wonderboard sticks to. (Forgot what its called) Thinset maybe?

Working on the fridge cave

The wonderboard all laid and cut on the floor

Kitchen remodel day 4

Rillz and I got off to a late start. I didn't even get off work til 8. When I got off work Rillz and I went straight to Home Depot before it closed to get wonderboard and screws for the floor. Jeff and Ren are coming over tomorrow. We wanted to make sure we had everything for the flooring so we didn't have to waist their time and Jeff can start showing us how to lay down the wonderboard and then the tile. We got back from Home Depot about 9:15 and immediately started on finishing the "cubby hole" where the fridge is going to be. We did finish the drywall for the cubby hole and we wanted to start taping the sides but didn't quite happen tonight.

Instead, we ripped out the linoleum and ugly rubber molding. Luckily, it was easy and really not even stuck to the floor. We then swept and vacuumed it. So now the tar on the kitchen floor is sadly the cleanest thing in the house right now.

It is now 12:30 a.m. and Rillz has to work at 6 and I work at 9 so off we go to bed.

Kitchen remodel day 3

Today was day 3 of the remodel. Rillz and I both had to work. I got off work at 6 and we decided to get most of the fridge area dry wall done. I was excited because it would be the first day I could really help. The project went much better than it did yesterday. I got to screw the dry wall up and measure everything. Rillz cut the dry wall. We were a great team and had fun tonight. We will finish the last few inside fridge drywall pieces tomorrow when I get off work.

Me, hard at work measuring our first drywall piece

Who wears short shorts...
Rillz screwing in the last drywall piece for the night. Thats our new little planter shelf.

This is our new fridge space. I will have extra cupboard space with doors above too.

This is a view from the far wall of our kitchen into our living room. Still really dirty. Oh well, what do you expect during construction.

I am really liking the process of this. I think it is fun to be doing it ourselves. We are really learning a lot from Jeff and Ren and could NEVER have done it without their help.