The Great Escape

It was a nice day and I left the front door open to let in some warm sunshine.  Kellyn spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to escape out of the front door. 

First, she grabbed the stool out of the bathroom and brought it over to the front door.

Then she climbed up.

Then she spent the next 20 minutes unlocking the door and trying to figure out how to open it.  She figured out the unlocking part, but thankfully she didn't figure out the opening part.

In the meantime, Aric was feeling a little left out and wanted some time in front of the camera, too.

He's a pretty cute subject for the camera.

Outside

I was so thankful last week for the unseasonably warm temperatures that came our way.  We spent all week basically living in our basement, which gets pretty cold.  The warmer temperatures outside made for a pleasant living space for us.  I also took advantage of the warmer days and took the kids out to burn off some extra energy.  That was my intent most days, but somehow never seemed to work.

Regardless, they had fun while outside and discovered the decorative landscaping rocks in the front garden. I hate decorative landscaping rocks. I told Ryan he could use them in the gap underneath our front sidewalk. It needs filled before the sidewalk falls and those will work perfectly. In the meantime, they are a good source of entertainment for the kids.

Now that our unexpected remodeling project is winding down we are beginning a new project:

We're having our backyard fenced in.  We've been using this for our current fenced yard to contain the dog:

While we don't live in a homeowners association our neighborhood apparently has rules.  That fence does not conform in anyway to their rules.  If truth be told I'm really not sure who exactly enforces those rules or what they can do to us since we don't have a homeowners association.  With that being said, we feel we've pushed the limits a little too long and the weather is getting better for fence installation.  It'll be nice to have a big, safe backyard for the kids and the dog to play in.

And me, well, I'm just glad fence installation doesn't require anyone to enter our house.

A Little Before and After Comparison

Here's a little comparison to show how far we've truly come in our changed kitchen:

One thing Ryan and I really wanted was more usable workspace.  We didn't have too much in the old layout and realized that since we were having all new cabinets put in we should make the changes now.

We eliminated the blind cabinet in the top corner and added an easy reach angled cabinet.  We were limited to the cabinets that were in stock since we decided we didn't have the time nor the money for special order cabinets.  The cabinet on the left of the stove was only 15 inches and had 4 more inches between the edge of the cabinet and the edge of the wall.  We decided to upgrade the size to an 18 inch cabinet, which still left an inch on the end.  One thing we are missing is the 24 inch drawer base that was next to the sink.  They only had 18 inch drawer bases at the store.

 This is the view that changed the most:

The old location of the fridge created a huge bottleneck in the hallway that leads to the garage, pantry and laundry room.  If anyone had the fridge open, the person coming from that direction was stuck.  The fridge, stove and sink were also not in a "proper" work triangle before.

We changed the placement of the fridge and moved it to the opposite end of the wall bringing it into a work triangle with the stove and sink.  That opened up the hallway and eliminated the problem of the bottleneck.  We added another 18 inch cabinet on the wall giving us more storage and counter top space.  We now have a prep space for cooking and a counter located near the pantry.

We've cooked a grand total of two gourmet meals (pancakes and grilled cheese), but already we are enjoying the new layout and extra space.

Now That's More Like It

I must confess that after the last round of kitchen pictures Ryan and I were a bit concerned with the color of green on the walls.  It's the same color it was before, but it didn't feel quite right.  After getting almost everything back in the kitchen, the color is working quite nicely again.

We'll eventually replace the matchstick blinds on the windows.  They came with the place and right now they are functioning, but we're not completely in love with them.  I decided to forgo the cabinet curtain piece over the sink.  Originally we bought a single pendant light for over the sink, but Ryan mentioned yesterday that we might want to get something a little bigger to carry the space more.  He was right and I'm glad we bought a different light.  It fits well.

Our living room carpet is stretched back in and we have the living room mostly put back together.  Tomorrow the plumber will be back out to do some more work on the sink and the water mitigation company will clean our carpets.  Other than some paperwork for the mortgage company and some small concerns we would like the contractor to take care of, we are finished.  It'll be nice to have everyone out of our house!!

It's a Start

Well, they ran out of time and didn't get the kitchen completely put back together, but it's well on it's way.  I am pretty excited about it and really liking the way it's coming together.  I can't wait to see how it looks when everything is put back together.

Sweet Surprise

On Valentine's Day Ryan told me my gifts would be a bit late.  Over the past two days I have received both of these in the mail:

The gifts are touching, but what means more is having a husband who thinks to give me things that will remind me of my brother.

For the Kids

Remember this photo?

Ever since (and maybe a little before) I have wanted to do this:

We picked a small wall in the basement and painted it with chalkboard paint for the kids.  It finally cured and this morning I let them use it.  Kellyn was more interested in putting the chalk away.  Aric kept asking if he could draw on the doors.  Obviously this will not be an unsupervised wall until they are older and a bit more trustworthy.

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue

We snuck away for a bit this afternoon to go swimming.  I put Aric in this floatie contraption that was too small last year and a perfect fit this year.  Of course, giving him wings made him believe he was Buzz Lightyear.

I see the resemblance.  Don't you?

Tile Phase 3

...ain't so pretty.

The grout is in but the tile is now covered in a haze from the grout.  I have to clean it with a dry towel sometime later tonight or tomorrow.  Overall I'm liking the tile and the grout.  I am pleased with my choices. 

Tomorrow we'll see if I'm pleased with my cabinet and counter top choices.  We're scheduled to have the kitchen put back in tomorrow.  I am more than ready for that!

Tile Phase 2

The tile installers just left for the day.  They finished laying the tile and will be back tomorrow bright and early around 10 like the last two days to grout the floor.  I picked the darkest color of grout I could find that will blend with the tile and dirt.

The angled tile in the pantry was a bonus.  We had just planned to leave it with the previous vinyl, but the installer thought it would look nicer tiled.  I wasn't going to argue.

The sales person at the flooring store over estimated the tile and we have two full boxes leftover.  I don't mind, though, because we plan on tiling our entryway to match.  I think I'll only have to buy one more box to get that done and we'll still have some leftover just in case.

Tile Phase 1 and Other Bits

Yesterday tile installation began.  Exciting and very messy.  Even though I sold flooring for five years it never dawned on me just how messy it is.  I was up early today vacuuming construction dust out of my living room, fully realizing I'll probably have to do it again tomorrow. 

Much to my chagrin, the installers don't seem to be in too much of a hurry.  Of course they aren't the ones living in the basement and washing dishes in the bathroom sink.  (Thankfully I now have a nice basement to live in.)  This is what they accomplished yesterday:

Hopefully they move quicker today!

Last night in celebration of Valentine's Day we had a romantic family dinner at IHOP.  It gets tiresome eating sandwiches and washing dishes in the bathroom sink.  Eating out for dinner is somewhat preserving my sanity and keeping Ryan from asking the contractor to add a padded room for me. 

Dinner was quite comical.  Aric decided he wanted french fries and mac and cheese from all of the choices Ryan offered him.  Aric was quite happy with his decision until our plates arrived and he realized everyone else had pancakes.  I've never seen Aric try to hop over the table before after food.  We pacified him by splitting his dinner with Kellyn and giving them the best of both worlds. 

After dinner we headed to the mall to walk around for a bit and allow Aric to burn off some extra energy.  The hit of the night was a ride on the kiddie carousel:

It was such a hit that it was the first thing Aric talked about this morning.  He asked to go back and ride it again.

Living downstairs hasn't been all bad.  The room is finished for the most part and I don't worry about it not being safe for the kids to play in.  The other night I painted a post for Ryan:

Yes, it's purple.  A little piece of K-State.  He keeps talking about painting powercats on it.  I think I should get bonus points for painting it while Ryan was sitting nearby watching the K-State basketball game on TV.  My project for the kids isn't quite finished.  When it is complete I'll share that too.

Aric and Kellyn have really enjoyed having their play area put back together.  For the most part they play well together.  Yesterday I took this picture:

Which reminds me of this picture:

Except for the over-exposure of Aric's underwear (which happens more often than not), the kids are bigger, on different sides, wearing different clothes, and you get the point.

Finally, I leave you with something that may be slightly disturbing for some viewers.  Yesterday Kellyn was "shopping". 

Nothing too disturbing about that unless you are one to freak out about a child riding in the basket of the shopping cart and not the seat.  It was even cute since she brought along her purse.  It was this photo that was disturbing:

I didn't realize this was the proper procedure for pulling a baby out of the shopping cart.  I guess that's why little girls are given baby dolls to practice on and not real babies. 

Sorry Raggedy Ann for the torment you are going through.  (And now I know I've watched Toy Story one too many times!)

Valentine

This sweet girl...

... is holding her first Valentine from a boy!  It came in the mail on Saturday addressed to Miss Kellyn.  Daddy was not the least bit pleased.  Apparently no boy is good enough for his little girl.

Back to In-Progress

After back-tracking way too much for my taste, it finally seems like we are moving forward.  I was up early this morning to paint two accent walls in our basement.  It went much quicker than I originally thought it would.  Ryan and I spent time this afternoon during the kid's naptime getting our basement put back together.  I am so pleased with the way it's turning out.  Without further ado here is the progression of our man-cave/kids playroom/exercise room:

Boring white when we first moved in:

Earlier this week as part of our restoration the contractors painted our basement:

With color:

After the kids go to sleep tonight I have a couple of things I'm going to paint.  Something for the kids and something for Ryan.  I love how warm and inviting it now is compared with the starkness of when we first moved in.