Sweat Equity

This past weekend's trip was all about carting the appliances down and measuring for the appliances and counter tops. Meg had ordered some things online and we picked up some other things from an appliance showroom. She loves to cook so the plan was the kitchen of her dreams, within budget and reality of course. She picked up a six burner range top and double convection oven that were displays so were discounted, woo hooo!! She also got a new sink and faucet, a wine fridge and a pot filler from O.com (a great place to find stuff for the kitchen). We knew that we would have to refit the cabinets to accommodate the new stuff, so she just picked what she wanted and we were going to make it fit. Sorry Kenny.

If the Clouds had a coat of arms, the motto on it would be "Oh, we can do that. How hard can it be?" Kenny will be laying hard wood floors on over 500 sq. ft., by himself, redoing cabinets and making concrete countertops. They do this stuff on HGTV all the time, how hard can it be? He has even done hard wood floors before, so it's that much easier. We will also build a pergola and fashion a smart looking wainscoting for the eating area. I will also be making drapes and upholster some furniture. Again, how hard can it be? I've done all this before, just not all at one time.

The new hood. Not as wide as the opening so we will be tiling all the way up.

The range top. Isn't it wonderful!!! I can't wait to cook on it. It fit perfectly so it's now teacher's pet.

The wine fridge. This was an addition so we have to move the big fridge over and add counter top and cabinets above the wine fridge and a wall around the fridge.

The double oven REALLY doesn't fit so there will be some major redo there. We have to run water over to the cooktop for the pot filler and we have to get gas over there, too, since the cooktop they had was electric.

This is the eating area of the kitchen. It had painted paneling (not the pretty kind) so we took it down this weekend. We took out the vinyl earlier.

Every time we go down there, things get worse, so things should start looking up soon, right? Our plan is to go back down in a couple of weeks to try to put in the concrete countertops and start painting.

The back yard is my baby. These are the figs that are growing in the back yard. Jealous? I can't wait till they're ready!

I still have a lot of pruning to do in the backyard. The shrubs are still out of control on one side of the yard. I need to take them out and put in others. Makes sense, huh?