Disclaimer: This is not the final kitchen post. SORRY.

Home renovations are not for the faint at heart.  We knew this going in but it's sort of like someone telling you what it's like to be a parent; you have to experience that shiz before you can proudly call yourself a member of the club. When you choose to DIY said renovation, there is a whole new level of cray happening because you are the only one to blame for mistakes and delays. But it's way cheaper. And Nick and I are frugal. Like, we love a pair of rhinestone jeans as much as the next guy but why pay $100 for some at the store when you can bedazzle a pair you already own?*

*This example comes from a real life conversation he and I had.

Saying all that, I think we did pretty good on The Great Kitchen Makeover with regards to both time and budget. Coming in at 6 weeks for a total transformation seems encouraging when you consider we both work full time, have a 22 month old who loves to "help" and one of us is knocked up with a baby girl.  We most certainly had some hiccups along the way but we count ourself lucky that it was nothing major.

So let's pick up where we last left you. Our beautiful new hardwoods were in and the slate was blank.  Our mighty troops rallied that Saturday and we began to put shape to the room. 

Ever the project manager.

All of our base cabinets (if you remember, had been assembled over the prior weeks in preparation for this day) were set in place.  The new IKEA line (SEKTION) has some pretty noticeable improvements from its predecessor, AKURUM, which we installed in our den.  Most noteworthy being ease of installation.  By securing a rail to the wall (that we checked to be level) the cabinets hooked on to the slots and were supported by adjustable legs in the front.  Similarly, the upper cabinets hooked on and were secured to the rail.  This was nice because we needed to do some adjusting of the uppers to ensure our future counter would align with the uppers, making for a straight termination point for the backsplash.  All I can say is: MATH. 

I had grand aspirations of setting up my phone to capture the process via time lapse but it honestly went so quickly that I missed my chance.  It was really quite simple. 

Best reno picture ever?  You decide.

Feeling accomplished, the other half of our crew painted the walls with Sherwin Williams Quietude.  Our muddling master, Melissa, turned out also to be a professional edger.  Her, Coach, Crissy and I knocked out the walls in a no time.

Look at her go!

Our momentum was deceiving.

The counters were due to be templated that Monday morning and so everything needed to be level, square and secure.  We spent our precious few hours of Carter's nap Sunday to make sure that was the case and waited for our guys to arrive.  It would take a week to fabricate the counters so we were in a bit of a holding pattern with no real progress to be made.

GET LEVEL, YOU JERK!

Cabinet shells in, cover panels on.

If you ever wondered how they template countertops...

Let me give you a quick glimpse into our lives that week.  With our kitchen offline, we had a makeshift kitchen in our den (with the refrigerator, microwave, a few plates and silverware, snacks and basic staples), our cereal bowl-sized sink in the bathroom down the hall for washing plates, and everything else from the kitchen in the living room. ("Honey, where's the salt and pepper?" "In the small box by the fireplace in the living room on the other side of the house."). As someone who prides herself in efficiency, this was about as far from it as it gets.  But it was just a season.  We grilled out one night for dinner, used the crockpot one night, my mom made a lasagna for us one night, and we went out a few times to eat.  Carter's obsession with waffles (or "laffles " as he calls them) developed that week as using a compact waffle iron was a tricky way to get a warm breakfast without any real appliances. 

This got old a lot quicker than you'd think.

One thing that we were able to knock out was installing the trim and shoe moulding in the dining room.  Nick's Dad trimmed out the newly widened opening and floor moulding while we were at work one day.  It went a long way in making the space look more finished.  I eventually (as in last weekend) got around to puttying, sanding and painting all of that trim.  I woke up the next day after crawling all over the floor feeling like someone had used me as a punching bag.  It's always cool when you realize you aren't 18 anymore.  Bruises in weird places...butt all knotty.  Youth...you elude me.

Seeing the truck pull up a week later with our gorgeous counters in the back was one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen.  ''Twas the sight of progress.  I had selected Hanstone's Pewter Quartz and my sales rep recommended The Countertop Factory for fabrication and installation.  They did a lovely job.  Seaming at the waterfall edge was my biggest concern (it's a bit of a tricky detail) and they did a fantastic job.  I only had two seams planned based on the slab size (never over a dishwasher or sink) and they virtually disappeared.  And within a few hours, our kitchen was really looking like a kitchen.

Waterfall edge and offset cabinets allow for stool space.

If you look close you can see the seams...but I've seen a lot of counters in my day and they did a great job.

Once the counters were in, it was finishin' time.  Hang doors, install drawers, drill for and install hardware.  Adjust doors to sit level, add bumpers, install toe kicks.  Install shelves and other organizing voodoo.  Move crap back in!

We had two drawers that hadn't been put together yet.  According to my sister, they are now the most important drawers in
the kitchen. 

"What's the situation, Dad?  Do we adjust the doohickies?"

One miiiiiinor hiccup.  Don't worry.  We resolved it.

See the wonky panel next to the sink?  That's the dishwasher with integral panel front.  It took some adjusting.

Glass upper cabinet doors in, toekicks installed, hood (with no vent pipe) up.

Post its are my preferred method of organization.

Dining room side.

It's a short paragraph (a lot of pictures), but let me tell ya, it's the kind of work that sucks your soul dry.  The only thing I can figure is that it's all tedious, semi-time consuming work and yields very little visual results.  So maybe we just didn't feel like our results matched the effort we were putting in.  Or maybe it was because we were doing that work after Carter was down, on week nights, after long days at work.  Adrenaline was waning by the 4th week and we had to take turns being the cheerleader for the project.

But we did it! And ahhhhh, to have a functioning kitchen again was a thing of beauty.  The only major thing left to do was the backsplash. 

The *#@&! backsplash...