Baumhover Babble: Bye bye blue kitchen

I need a few more hours in the day and then maybe I will be able to keep up with this blog. I am so behind now I fear I may never get caught up! In the midst of our busy life, we have decided to give the kitchen a little facelift. Simple enough, right? Paint the cabinets, pick out a countertop, sink and faucet, refinish the floors, and do it on a very tight budget. Oh, and let's do it all ourselves, cuz we have all kinds of free time with two kids, work, and traveling over the summer. Who needs to use the laundry, kitchen sink, or dishwasher for a while anyway? And let's do it when it's 1000 degrees outside too. Throw in that the "designer" (i.e. ME) happens to get a little OCD when it comes to picking things out. I blame it on my background as a researcher. I would never have thought deciding on a kitchen sink would drive me this crazy! Single bowl, double bowl, single bowl, double bowl. You get the idea.

Can you tell I'm excited? No really, I am. I can't wait to see the finished product, but the process is a little daunting. We are making progress though. Brian dug up our floors to run a gas line, patched and refinished the wood floors, we've cleared out all the cabinets and set up a make shift kitchen in the dining room (one perk, no one expects me to cook), and now we are adding some trim to the old cabinets and prepping them for a paint job. Now, if I can just decide on the color. How many shades of white does the world really need? Gheez.

Here are a few photos of the progress so far...

Oct 2009. Where is all began...

Oct. 2009. Within days of closing... the popcorn on the ceiling came down, and the wallpaper came off. This is pretty much how it has looked since we moved in.

I don't have photos of the floor destruction since I was in NM, but here it is post patching and sanding with the first coat of poly going on. Boy howdy, did it smell good in here last week.