Welcome Inside....

I forgot to include this picture in my previous post. Nick and I had the most amazing sellers ever! They left us a gift basket at the house full of goodies. They also left this picture frame and inside it is a picture that says...

"Bread so you're never hungry, wine so you won't be thirsty and salt so your life always has flavor." With it was a jar of salt, a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread from Whole Foods. THEN to top it all off, they left us a giant binder full of how to's for the house. This binder includes information on local parks, names of numbers of the neighbors, manuals of all the appliances, and the best part...where to stand in the house to see the most rainbows (I am not kidding here).

Anyway, onto the house. The kitchen was a little 1992 with the laminate cabinets so we knew that would be the first to go. Thus far, Nick has replaced the floor and built us a wall. We have all new appliances installed as well. By the way, appliances are a pain! There are about a majillion different choices and price points and unless you know exactly what you want it can be a bit overwhelming. We got the fridge from the Sears Outlet in Livonia which is now my new favorite appliance store because the prices were awesome!

BEFORE

On the right side you can see part of a chili poster. That is a cabinet that opens into the foyer. Nick and I decided it was a waste of space and tore it out. Nick and Caleb built a wall there and the stove will be over there instead.

The island you are looking at goes into the middle of the dining space so that got torn out as well. We will be replacing it with a smaller version.

This wall cabinet thing is actually pretty cool but it gives you an idea of how long ago these cabinets were built. It is going to look the same but with updated cabinets and appliances.

DURING

First thing to go was that island. Under it we found dog food and crazy amounts of dust. This picture also gives you a better view of the cabinet which was the second thing to go.

The island picture from another angle which shows you the dining room side of the kitchen. On the right hand side is where Caleb ripped out the baseboards. There was baseboard heating in the house long ago. When the previous owners upgraded the heating system, they left the baseboards in. We ripped them out of every room and created a Craigslist ad for "free scrap metal". Within 10 hours of the listing, I had 22 emails and the metal was gone within 12 hours. Craigslist is a beautiful thing....that and people will take anything!

Nick started on the floor next. It was just a plain white linoleum floor. We decided we wanted to work with the brick wall and went with a reddish brown floor. These were peel and stick tiles. He did a fantastic job!!

Here is a view of the room with the cabinet torn out. It really opened up the kitchen.

Behind Ben is the new wall Nick built. At the bottom of the wall you can see the gas line he and his dad installed. Thank you so much!!! I am so tired of cooking on electric stoves!

APPLIANCES

The brand new oven and microwave!! That is actually our second microwave. Nick blew up the first one by plugging it into a 220 circuit breaker....oops!

New fridge! We searched high and low for a french door fridge with a freezer on the bottom that wasn't a zillion dollars.....good ol' Sears Outlet!

New dishwasher. We couldn't understand why it was so quiet since we didn't splurge for the fancy dishwasher. Then we realized after a load of still dirty dishes that we forgot to reattach the water to the dishwasher. It's a little louder now but still pretty quiet! Pictured above the dishwasher is a Pear Vodka and Apple Juice Martini. Thanks Jo and F for the "recipe"! Nick and I might be stealing that for a signature drink!

We are waiting on the new cabinets and then we will be replacing the counter top. Stay tuned!