MPM - 12/9 - 15 Week Two of Kitchen Remodel

Wow what a week.  Look back over the last few post to catch up with the new kitchen remodel.

Now, for Meal Plan Monday over at Organized Junkie.  I have to be honest, I have no menu plan for this week, here is why.  I don't have a kitchen at the moment.  I have tried to cook, really I have, even bought a fancy toaster over that is also a rotisserie cooker as well.  Still trying to decide if I am going to keep it though.  At any rate, the problem with cooking is not really the cooking part, it is the prep part and the fact that I would have to wash all the dishes in the bathtub which kills my back.  The sink will not be hooked up until after the counter tops are installed, which is about three more weeks at this point.  Which hits during the week of Christmas, so if they can't deliver by the 20th, they will have to wait until after the 30th. 

However, I do have the old microwave hooked up in the garage so can use it now, which does help. My new appliances are being delivered today.  Hubby promised to install the stove and microwave this evening.   Also, the new fridge as well, it will need to run a while before I start putting food in there.  Here are some photos of how we have progressed.

 There is actually a dining room table at the other end of these boxes.  It is loaded down with small appliances (can opener, coffee maker, toaster oven) absolutely no room for any prep work for a meal.

First, the cabinets all arrived.  All the boxes were stacked in my dining area.  What a mess trying to live around these boxes.  I am just thankful that it was only for the week.  Hubby was waiting for his days off.  I am so thankful for his willingness to be my labor and for him to have the skills to be my labor.  He has some installing of appliances, repair to floor tiles and paint touch up yet, but actually for the most part he is finished until the counter top is installed (installation was included in the price) which thankfully, Home Depot was having a sale on.

And, hubby decided to let me know how he felt about my taking a picture and the labor he is doing.

I would be more than happy to help, if I just knew what to do and how. AND...if he would let me.

Hubby was hard at work Saturday morning, putting doors back on.  Notice the space between the wall and the cabinets?  They listed it as a 3in. space, added in a filler piece.  This just shows that  they do not look at these computer generated design diagrams (the designers turn in a set for each customer's job) all that closely, because there is not 3 inches of space left so hubby is having to cut down the filler board.  There is one other wall that the same thing happened with.  Actually, the bottom set of cabinets I just told hubby to leave the filler out completely.  There is such a narrow amount of space left that we just moved the cabinets all the way to one end and just left a little space between the cabinet and the doorway.  The counter top will still come all the way to end so it won't be noticeable at all.

So, how many people does it take to work on a sink base?  Several when you find out your home's wall is bowed.  Actually, the man in the yellow is our next door neighbor, he is a construction contractor and kitchens and bathrooms are what he does for a living.  We were so very thankful that he gave up a little of his time and popped over to show hubby some pointers and help get through some rough spots.

My daughter's cat is checking it all out.  You would think that with two cats in the house there would be no mice.  Not so, we have one that the remodel forced to relocate, unfortunately it is in the wall of our bedroom and making it's presence known at all hours during the night and early morning.  I have no idea how we will be able to get rid of the thing.

Measuring to cut out the back of the cabinet for access to the plumbing and electrical outlets to install the sink, dishwasher, garbage disposal and water line for refrigerator.

I think it is coming along so nicely.  Now, today, I get to position the cabinet shelves where I want and can start loading the food in the new pantry and what ever I am locating in the upper cabinets as well.

I plan to go to Home Depot this afternoon and see if I can exchange the faucet I bought for a different that I think will look much nicer with the over all design.  I have to have the faucet here tomorrow when they measure for the counter tops, so if they don't have it in stock I will just keep the one I bought.  I even have decided on the knobs that I will be putting on the cabinets and have already purchased all the outlet plate covers as well.  Was very lucky there as I found some that totally match the wall color and the glass tile for the backsplash which all matches the counter top I ended up going with.

Check back in a few weeks for the finished kitchen. This is the old fridge, but I just love the new design of the kitchen.  You can check older postings for the before photos.  Yes, once we get the floor repaired, some paint touch ups, the lights put back, new appliances installed, the counter tops and back splash all installed.  NEW KITCHEN will be done.  I am hoping to christen the new kitchen with New Year's Day dinner.  Wish me luck.

Oh My, It's November.

Well, October sure went by in a blink.  Not much of anything done to really be considered an accomplishment either.

On the other hand, some accomplishments have happened.  The kitchen remodel is paid for.  All the decisions on color, wood, counter top and design have been finalized. I am so excited and so ready to start emptying and tearing out cabinets.  I have had both grand babies several days this month so have not been able to get too much done as far as house work.

To top all that off, on Tuesday evening before Halloween my daughter, Miss Zebra, came home and informed me that she needed a priest or monk costume for the play this weekend and 100 cupcakes for Thursday morning.  So, being the great mom that I am, I spent Wednesday morning running around picking up ingredients for 100 cupcakes.  You know, mixes, powder sugar and Crisco for icing, paper baking cups, two more muffin pans so I could cook more at one time, decorations to put on cupcakes. Plus, since it was the day before Halloween had to go to two different shops to find the costume.  Then came home, ate lunch put Mr. M down for his nap and got started baking.

This is the first of three batches of white cakes, made one batch of chocolate.  Each batch was 4 dozen, but being the wonderful math wizard that I am, didn't realize when I was counting that 24 is actually 2 dozen, not 1 dozen.  I over cooked a bit.  I bought some white cardboard boxes to put the cupcakes in, each held 35 cupcakes.

I made the orange ones, daughter made pink. Those are molded candy melt bats.

I swirled these out as well. One row has caramel and sprinkles, then the caramel bag busted.

At 1:15am we flat wore out.  Our energy and ability just left.  We also ran out of icing and I was just not up to making a third batch of butter cream icing.  Really great tasting butter cream icing, if I do say so myself.  Now the bottom photo is the box Miss Zebra decorated, she has a thing for molded chocolate and made mummies, bats and jack o lanterns.  Not all of the molded decorations made it on to a cup cake.

 

Here is a little closer look.  We used the Wilton spray color, the yellow, silver, green and gold worked fine.  The purple and black not so well.   I can tell you this much, the Wilton cake decorating class that I took with Miss Zebra sure helped.  We didn't get as fancy or creative as we had originally planned, especially since reality of time sunk in, but we did a pretty good job.  I still have one box of cupcakes that have not been iced, but she took 3 boxes (35 in each box) so ended up with 105 cupcakes.  It was a food sale at school with the proceeds going to her school club.  I donated the ingredients and such for the cupcakes, would much rather spend $20 on something that they sell and get 100% of the earnings rather than buying a candle or cookie dough that is over priced and only gives them about 40% of what they make.

I bought a large star tip, thinking the larger tip would let me ice the cupcake quicker.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of a rigged swirl it makes a swirl that looks a lot like a rose.

I love this tip, will be using it a lot more.  Maybe next time, make a little smaller swirl and add some leaves.  It all turned out any way.

This is Miss Zebra working.  About midnight she pulled the stool up to the counter.  OH HOW HAPPY I will be when the new kitchen is done and I have more counter top space for doing things like this.  It was really hard for both of us to work in there at the same time.  She set up there because that is where the microwave is.  I ended up moving to the dining table.

Along the lines of the kitchen, I bought a new gift for me.

Isn't it just so pretty.  It has a bowl lift which is supposed to be easier to add ingredients with, a quieter motor and a soft stir setting to help the ingredients mix together a little before starting a mixing cycle which helps keep the dust cloud down.

As you can see, it is a step up from I already had.  Which still works just fine.  I just wanted an upgrade and different color to liven up the new kitchen.  All my kitchen appliances are stainless steel so the grey would look good on the counter.  In fact, will be going back to Costco to buy the Kitchenaid 13 cup food processor as well.

Thanks for stopping in, come back soon.  Please feel free to leave a comment, it is always nice to know that some one out there reads this.