We finally got to open all of those boxes...

The cabinets were finally freed from the boxes, and let loose from the dining room they had called home since November.

I don't have any pictures of them actually being hung, but here are the results...

The two cabinets to the far left of this photo were the first ones we hung.

And then rehung, since we mildly screwed up the filler that we put between the cabinets and the wall. :) Once we got that situated, we did the entire wall to the right. By the time we finished that night, nothing was quite straight or flush, so the next night was dedicated to minor adjustments ensuring all of the faces of the cabinets shared the same plane, and all were plumb and level. See that four foot level waaay above the fridge??? It got a LOT of use. The old busted fridge that came with the house looks so tiny and pathetic in the space allotted for the new fridge!



This is the view as you walk into the kitchen from the dining room. That cabinet you see all the way on the bottom left is a mixer stand cabinet. That means my kitchenaid mixer gets to live in that cabinet, and will stay plugged into an outlet built into the wall behind it. When the cabinet is open, the shelf the mixer is on swings out and up and locks into place. Woo hoo! This is my favorite cabinet in the whole kitchen! I can't wait to use my mixer!



This is the view as you walk into the kitchen from the foyer. (Again, to the bottom left is the mixer stand cabinet.) Those giant spaces on the bottom are where our oven and dishwasher will be. That's right, I said dishwasher. Since Joe and I have lived together, he has been the dishwasher. I promised him a long time ago that when we bought a house, I would buy him a brand new shiny dishwasher. I kept my word, and the dishwasher is in the dining room, waiting to be installed. Joe, say goodbye to dish pan hands!



Here's Joe, standing by our sink cabinet. The top of the front should have a little door that opens out with trays inside to hold sponges and stuff. Unfortunately, the screws holding it on weren't doing their jobs and we had to take that piece off so we can fix the holes that screws have to fit into.



I wish those loose screws were our biggest setback...

What you should see to Joe's left, I have cleverly cropped out. That's because there are no cabinets there. There was a measuring snafu between us and Home Depot and the cabinets we had for that space did not fit. Long story short, we have to reframe, re-sheetrock, re-prime, and re-paint the wall around the door that leads to the basement so it will add 3 inches to the wall that somehow became too short for the cabinets we already have.

Sigh. The adventures you face when remodeling your own house.

Setbacks and snafus aside, the kitchen is finally coming together. There is still molding to be installed, not to mention many shiny handles. Then we have to get the countertop installed. We have ordered a sparkly blue Silestone countertop and included in the price is installation. A break for us. :)

Somewhere in there we also have to tile the floor and purchase new appliances.

But we'll get there. And I'll post pictures!

Into every life a little paint must splatter.

Before you paint you must prime. And we did, like good little house painters. We are old hat at this, since before we moved in, we primed and painted every room in the house, barring those slated for remodeling.

We primed the entire kitchen.



When it came to painting, we very carefully cut in and painted edges and areas that would remain exposed after cabinet installation.



Where cabinets were to be installed, we did not paint.



The color is called rolling hills, and looks very different in person.



Joe and I are happy with the color...it looks good with the colors in the adjoining rooms, and the contrast between the white ceiling and green walls is very crisp.



Now we were ready to install the cabinets....

and TAPE! and MUD! and TAPE!

For those of you who have ever hung sheetrock, you know that, while hanging it can be a pain in the ass, taping it and slathering the walls with mud is an even less desirable task.

First, you tape and mud the seams. (By "mud" by the way, I mean joint compound, and enough of it to build a very small fort.

Joe tackled one wall, not looking very excited.



My dad started on the ceiling.



I think the smell of the compound went to Joe's head... ;)



My mom tackled everything she could reach. I'm not quite sure why she was upside down...



I actually spent that day hanging strips of sheetrock to cover the bottom most six inches of all the walls, since sheetrock comes in 4'x8' sheets, and our ceilings are 8 1/2' high. I also spent much time applying tape and mud, though, being the photographer, there is no evidence of this.



Every seam and every screw hole had to be taped. Or covered in joint compound. Or both.



That's EVERY seam, and EVERY screw hole. There were a lot.



What you see here in one post, actually took abut two weeks in real time. That's because when the mud is dry, you have to go around and sand all of those previously mentioned seams and screw holes to a very smooth finish. Not so bad. Except then you have to apply a wider, smoother, second coat of mud, and again, wait for it to dry. Then, yup...you guessed it, sand it to a very smooth finish. Finally, (and do you see a pattern here?) you have to go around and apply a third, watered-down coat very nicely and super smoothly and wait some more for it to dry. Then, one last round of sanding to what kind of finish? Class? Super smooth! Yes!

This, by the way, makes a giant mess. The result mimics what you would expect to see if you decided to dump a container of baby powder in front of a very high powered fan.

We were covered in sheet rock dust just about every night for a week and a half. Joe did most of the ceiling, working mostly right over his head, and this was the result.



When working, always wear safety goggles, so you, too, can take a picture just like this!



I was working on the walls, and therefore managed to stay a little cleaner than Joe.



My feet got the brunt of it. My sheetrock version of a Teva tan.



This got us ready to prime and paint the whole kitchen.

You guessed it...that's for another post.

Sheetrock is not my friend.

Sheetrock is heavy.

Ceilings are high.

This is not a good combination. Luckily, my folks came up several weekends in a row to help out. We started doing the sheetrock while I still had my kidney stone, so I am heavily medicated and, now, thoroughly surprised it all came out all right. :)

The people we bought the house from had made braces for hanging sheetrock on the ceiling. Unfortunately, they made them a length appropriate for the LOWERED ceiling they were installing. Anyway, we used them and they sort of working.



Joe and I my dad did most of the heavy lifting, while I screwed in the sheets.





It worked ok until Joe knocked our 18V drill off of the top of the ladder down onto my back as I was kneeling on the floor getting the rotozip out of the bag. I won't mention that it landed right above my stone-laden kidney and flopped over directly ONTO said kidney. Nor will I mention how, as I was crying on the floor, my dad nicely told me I was ok, and my mom said that that was one way to knock the kidney stone loose. Ahh, the support group I have. Needless to say, I did not help out the rest of the day.

That day my dad and Joe finished the ceiling.



Over the next week, Joe and I worked every night to get the walls covered.



Including all of the odd angles...



...and tricky corners. Also notice in this picture our Little Giant Ladder and CordPro, extension cord keeper.

These are possibly two of the best inventions, EVER.



Eventually the whole room was done.



Then came taping. But that's another post.