Indiana Road Trip

This weekend, Chris and I headed out to spend time with some of my family at their home in Carmel, IN. My cousins, Grace and Chad, we're in our wedding and we miss them so much! We had an amazing weekend that included good food, good wine, the Olympics, bowling, and turning our family into the mafia. :) Here are some pics from our family bowling tournament...

Chris and Chad:
Aunt Pam, Uncle Joe, and Chad:
Chris, Grace, and Me:
This pic about sums up the relationship between Grace and Uncle Joe:
Chad had kicked my butt in any game we play, starting back in the day when he was two and loved Rugrat Uno. Well, this weekend, I got revenge. I beat him in bowling. Here's the proof:
While Chris and I were gone, Skittles (our puppy), got to be spoiled at my parents for the weekend.

Here she is recovering:
And fast forward a few hours later when I told her that her "daddy" would be home soon:
And this is where she will remain until she sees Chris' car pull into the driveway. Too cute.

The Finished Kitchen!

Here are the before and after shots of the kitchen. Get ready to be amazed!

First we have where the sink use to be. Note how there is just a sink and a fridge. That is all.

Gutted to the studs:
And transformed:
Now the entry to the dining room:
Down to the studs:
And finished!
Now for the fridge area:
And finished!
Last is the island. Obviously the ghetto kitchen was too good for an island before, but we love ours now! Skittles and Ziva wanted to get in the picture, too.
So that's it! A lot of hardwork, tears, and margaritas went into this kitchen and we couldn't be happier with it. Hopefully, a future homebuyer feels the same way!

Last shift of three in a row!

Woot!!!!!! The end. :)

Here's to a new house?!!?

I spent the day cleaning and meeting with our realtor. Chris and I are ready to have the finishing touches put on this house so it can go on the market in the next 3-4 weeks!!! That is enough to make my stomach do flips. To make it do a complete gymnastics routine, our realtor got me really excited about the idea of building a house. You may remember that we tossed this idea around before we got married and decided it would be too much. So, prayers said and fingers crossed that maybe it will work this go around!!

When it Rains...It Pours

Sunday was demolition day. The walls and cabinets were out in just a few hours leaving the lad work and the soffet above the sink. Chris had received information that the soffet was hollow, so he and Josh proceeded to chip away at it just as they had with the cabinets. (We probably should have known better than to actually believe this. Of course the soffet wasn't hollow! It was being used to support the ceiling! But I digress...) During one particularly big swing a deafening crack was heard. Looking up the guys saw the ceiling giving way. Josh threw himself up against it as best he could while Chris ran outside and up into the attic to try and save all of the brand new wiring that was run for our new lights. Just as he finished cutting the wires, the entire ceiling collapsed, revealing this:
Who doesn't want a pink plaster ceiling with a giant white diamond in the middle?! I mean really. This kitchen must have been remodeled during the seventies... Thankfully, no one was hurt and the demolition continued.

Monday was cleanup day. Mom, Alex, Chris and I spent the afternoon and well into the night working on the kitchen. Alex handled the lad work at the very top of the ceiling, Chris the electrical work, Mom the shop vac, and I (yes, platinum) found my inner carpenter and attacked the lower lad and insulation with a vegenance. (That's what a few difficult patient's parents will do for you.) Chris and I are so thankful for all the help and are proud that our kitchen now looks like this:
The last task on Monday was to draw out the island on the kitchen floor so the contractor could rough out the location for our lights. We attacked this task eagerly only to find out the end of the island cleared the door by a mere two inches!!! So this morning I headed into to see our kitchen designer at Lowes with words in my head taught me by my grandma, "I am a Kirchoff woman, hear me roar!" After many designs and breakdowns with both Mom and Chris, we have the design we want! The tile is being laid tomorrow and the drywall put in Friday. If all goes well, our goal this weekend is to paint.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming! Goodness knows we are!

The Top Four Reasons We're Gutting Our Kitchen (Plus a few more pictures)

1. Our "grade school gym" kitchen floor:
2. The old cabinets: *Disclaimer* I don't live here yet. Please excuse the bachelor pad accessories. It's the latest trend from Paris.
3. The entry way into our dining room. Apply *disclaimer* again:
4. And the pantry/side door entry/stairs to the basement:
This is where the "desk area" is going to be:
And last but not least, the construction guy, hard at work:
More pictures to come!

Get Excited!

I know Chris and I are. So much has been happening lately and it's all falling into place. (Hence my complete lack of posting.)

For those of you who don't know we decided we didn't have enough to do planning our wedding and decided to completely gut the kitchen at Chris' and start from scratch. (Pictures of why it needed to be gutted coming soon.) We went to our friendly neighborhood Lowes and picked out new cabinets and countertops and with the help of our new BF Perry, designed a kitchen where every item in it has a purpose. We couldn't believe it!

Perry told us our items would arrive in 3-4 weeks so we began searching for a remodeling company to do drywall, finishing, lay tile, electrical work, and plumbing. Who knew this could be the hardest part? Too many bids later we finally signed with Briddell Remodeling: http://www.athomewithron.com/ Ron has been great to work with so far and we can't wait to see what he does.

We also received some very much appreciated help from our good friends with our appliances. They will never know how grateful we are! We promised them dinner from our brand new kitchen ASAP.

Yesterday Chris got an exciting phone call. Our cabinets are in! They will be delivered on Wednesday. Chris has recruited some of his friends to come in and help with the removal of the existing cabinets this weekend so that Briddell and his team can come in and start Monday or Tuesday. We went to Lowes last night and purchased our hardware for the cabinets, tile, sink, faucet, and lights. We are so excited and cannot wait for these next few weeks to pass so we actually have a functioning kitchen.

Lots of pictures to follow!