i am just so sad right now... i went downstairs to see how far they're getting with the painting (they looked like they were packing it in for the day). they finished all the ceilings, the paneling above the fireplace, and the primer on the walls. all they have to do tomorrow is paint the walls with the right colors. BUT, THEY PAINTED MY PANTRY WHITE!!! ALL OF IT!!! arghhhh!!!! all that work, all for naught... sad, sad, sad... i am so sad...

nothing new today. they put the trim around the door, and the window sill for the one new window. they did buy all the paint, though, which is now sitting on the floor in the kitchen. they start painting tomorrow. the new window for the family room is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so on wednesday, the new window goes in, and the painting should be completed. they marked on the walls where all the cabinets and appliances go. looks cramped to me...

finished with the taping, "mudding", and texturing of the walls, ceilings, and pantry. took the one guy 2.5 days, by himself.

they got all the sheetrock on the walls and ceiling. i guess tomorrow they have to tape and then put the texture stuff on? don't ask me; i'm not into construction.

love the big doorway between the dining room and kitchen now. really brightens up the front half of the house.

look at the ceiling of my poor pantry. they just screwed the cut up pieces back into place. hope they cover the seams and re-texture!

the electrician guys did all the wiring on wednesday, and finished up on thursday. all the can lights are up and working. on friday the regular crew was supposed to start putting up the sheet rock. but no cigar. guess the city inspector came late. at least the electrical passed the inspection. so i think the sheet rocking will start on monday. nice to have no workers around for the weekend.

no big visual change today. the electrician came today to put in all the new wiring. he still has to come back tomorrow to finish up; ron made a lot of additional changes to what was in the original plans. i almost had a heart attack when i saw the large cut-outs in my newly painted pantry ceiling!!! he had to cut out the ceiling to get the wires from the existing switches on one side of the pantry to the other, to the dining room. how sad!!! all that hard work; and the ceiling was the hardest part to paint... oh, well... the electrician must think that i'm really eccentric, with my very strong reaction to the pantry holes...

they put the french doors in where the bay window was, and put in a new big window where the old sliding glass doors were. they also made the doorway to the dining room from the kitchen twice as wide. i think we're gonna have to replace the one remaining window in the family room; it looks really out of place with black frame and old sill (all the new stuff is white). i guess it's true. as you progress into the remodeling, you just find more things you HAVE to do at the same time...

the cabinets were delivered this morning and put into the garage; it's getting awfully crowded in there!

workers have gone home for the day; a layer of dust covers everything! it smells like sawdust, too. didn't know they were gonna tear out the walls, too!!!

tomorrow they're planning to take out the existing sliding glass door and put in a new window, and take out the bay window in the kitchen and put in the french doors.

pix of the partial demolition. pretty quick. this was taken at about noon today, while the guys were taking their lunch break.

here are some pix of the "new kitchen". at least, for the next 6 weeks! hopefully not much longer than that!!! i wonder how long it's gonna be until i get tired of cooking in the garage? a day??? the real pain will be trying to wash the dishes, pans, and utensils without a sink. i got a wash tub, and put that along with my drying rack in the shower stall downstairs. hope the place doesn't start smelling. at least there's a fan in there!

the boys are now using up all my paint samples on the walls in the family room. i think they're actually getting more paint on themselves than on the walls!

pix of the old kitchen and family room, all emptied out...

okay, back to colors. changed our minds again about the dining room. i had this "great" idea; why don't i just use the color i picked originally for the big room for the dining room? it looks blue, with a hint of green. so i did paint some patches in the dining room with the original color "alameda" and i think that's what we're going with. boy, that's enough with choosing colors. no more changing my mind... probably, anyway...

nina came over today to look at the colors for the rooms. she likes the green we picked for the big room, but suggest we keep the ceiling the color it is (cream). says it will tie the rooms with the rest of the house. for the dining room, she liked the color "silence" (top right in the previous pic with the four swatches). gotta admit, it looks the best with the green from the other room (i didn't put up the green swatch to the colors for the dining room). i guess that's why she's works as a designer and i don't!!!

nothing much happening now. been trying to decide on the colors to paint the kitchen/family room. never realized that the swatches you get from the paint store are sometimes NOTHING like what it actually looks like on the wall! i had my heart set on a specific color (it's the top right color in the second picture). on the swatch it looked like green, with a tinge of blue. on the wall it looked downright blue!!! how sad... so the hunt started. ask michelle; how many handfuls of swatches did i pick up??? from lowe's, home depot, dales, kelly paints... so finally decided on the color that's on the bottom left, the lighter strip of color on top of it will be the ceiling. kinda hard to see the actual color in the pic, though.

the colors in the first picture are the colors for the dining room. while lying in bed on wednesday, i realized that the dining room is also going to be painted!!! oh no!!! more dilemmas. i wanted a blue with a gray/green tinge. okay, sounds easy to find. NOT!!! i think the guy who mixes the paint at home depot is sick of me. they had to refill their paint sample display today while i was there; did i buy that many??? i went there three times today. i think we're leaning toward the bottom right color. but in the pic it looks kinda purple, no? but it's not, more blue (i hope!). i think the ceiling in the dining room is staying white; i don't want to look at any more paint.

finished the pantry. i thought i was so neat, i kept my workout clothes on instead of changing into junkie stuff. oh, well, those exercise capris were getting old, anyway...

can't really tell the new color of the pantry (cream custard, a light, bright yellow) in the picture. but now it looks like the light is on even when it's not. i guess that's comparatively speaking, comparing with the old dingy wallpaper.

appliances have been delivered!!! now i really can't park in the garage even if i tried...

check out the refrigerator box; that thing is huge! the delivery guy said it was the biggest one he's delivered so far (oh-oh... ge profile not a big seller???)

here's a pic of the pantry, wallpaper removed and clean, ready to be painted. i should have taken a pic before cleaning it out (what a mess!!! and a lot of junk; there were things in there that haven't seen the light of day for over ten years!!! how long do spices last???).

hopefully i'll get around to painting today, after the appliances get here.

Here's some pix of the family room/kitchen, after we cleared most of the stuff out. bummers, i should have taken pix before all the furniture was moved out, especially out of the family room. don't think ron would be too accommodating if i asked he move everything back in (sofa, all the media cabinets, big screen tv, etc.) just so i can take some pictures... or would he???

the boys have been playing "baseball" in the empty family room, using nerf bullets/bombs for the baseball and who know what for the bat. this weekend they wanted to paint the dividing wall (which is gonna be torn down) with the extra paint samples i got.

let's see. talked to contractor yesterday. had to clear up some things.

no need to remove light fixture in dining room; since they're only painting and redoing the floors.

if possible, park the truck in the street so they can have the driveway clear. i guess ron has to do that over the weekend, cuz i've still never drove his truck and don't plan to!

realized that the floor vent in the kitchen will be right in front of the new door; they will have to move it. now the question is where to? i think against the wall between the pantry and the door to the dining room.

the new door will just be a standard wooden one, with 10 panes of glass on each side; active working door will be the right. nothing fancy. if i want a screen door, i'll have to get one after they're done; supposedly there's a lot of "after-market" styles to choose from.


the appliances are being delivered today. no more parking in the garage for the next two months. how sad...

Getting all the kitchen stuff moved out into the garage. I'd say about 75% of stuff is moved either upstairs in the bonus room (in boxes or on the floor) or in the garage. Ask Ron and he'd probably say a lot less. A lot of stuff left is my "junk drawers"...

The pantry has been cleaned out. The wallpaper is gone (thank goodness; it was getting outdated, put in over 20 years ago!). The glue was so old it was easy to pull a lot of the wallpaper off. The walls have been washed down, ready to be painted. Hopefully that will be done before the end of this week, before the actual demolition of the rest of the kitchen.