I love coffee.  I hardly make it through a day without a cup, although these days it’s decaf.  Because of this addiction, Noah and I have spent several mornings watching strangers and playing on furniture at Starbucks.  I love Starbucks.  Well yesterday as we’re driving home from school he says he wants a treat from Toolbox.  It took me a few minutes but I finally asked him “Starbucks?”, his face lit up and he said “YES!”.  I guess we both love Toolbox, umm, I mean Starbucks. 

As promised I am updating our kitchen photos.  We hope to have it COMPLETED this week.  How exciting if we can actually cook next weekend!  Here are photos from last Thursday.  Things should be moving by Tuesday and done on Friday if all goes well. 

Very unfortunately our refrigerator will be the last appliance to be replaced.  We purchased it with everything else but the new model is on backorder until the middle of August.  Luckily we have this one in the meantime but it’s just such an eye sore!

And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is DEAD SPACE!  It’s in the corner between the refrigerator and sink and it is absolutely killing Walter.  I wish they could just put a counter top on already so it didn’t hurt so much.  He would love to find a solution where he could cut a hole into the cabinet in order to use it but I’m afraid we would be sorry we did it.  I wish our contractor actually LISTENED to us but it seems the more money he gets and the closer to the end we are the worse his hearing, uhhh… listening, becomes.  Oh the joys of home ownership!

I also had Walter snap a few photos of Kate and Noah this weekend.  Unfortunately I had to be in the photos too.  I’m definitely bigger around this pregnancy and getting a lot more of the lovely stranger comments (“You must be due any day!”, “Are you sure you’re not having twins!?”, “You may want to double check with your doctor, you must be further along!”).  I’m fat and pregnant people, get over it.  Hopefully I don’t get too much bigger though!  It’s a hot summer and I’m already starting to waddle!  Noah wasn’t very interested in being a part of this exercise so we’re lucky to have gotten something.

He and Walter love to talk to Kate.  They lean down, bury their mouths and in their loudest, deepest voices say “Helllllooooo Kaaatttte”.  Noah felt Kate kick for the first time this weekend.  He jumped and said “Oh!  Do it again!”.  Just wait until he finds out she’s moving in!

We seem to have become a home improvement blog.  Did you know – we have a two year old too?  Just kidding.  It just seems it’s been awhile since he’s made an appearance.  So, here you go – some new photos.  On a side note the kitchen cabinets are all done, I’ll show you later!

Noah is loving swim lessons and now could spend hours in the tub just floating, swimming and playing.  I couldn’t resist grabbing the camera the other day.

And here’s how you know it’s summer.  Check out that WHITE BUTT!  He tans up very quickly!  Too bad mom doesn’t have that luck!

The first photo is the proper response to “where’s your smile?”.  These were just before a haircut.

Walter is lovingly referring to anyone (ahem, Katie and Warren) who wants renderings with all their options to help decide on details – TROUBLE MAKERS.  But for you (and for us) he has done a rendering with both countertops.  He wants to point out that it’s a very quick mock up and not nearly as pretty as his usual work but we have a two year old and it’s what he had time for tonight.

Seeing this makes him waver.  He was so into the dark countertop but now he’s afraid it will just look black because we don’t have great lighting in the kitchen.  The beautiful detail will only been seen on the pass through to the patio and I think it makes him nervous.  I think the other looks a bit matchy-matchy though and quite leopard print in the rendering.  So here’s what you asked for – now which would you choose for YOUR kitchen.

P.S.  We went against the grain and opted for faucet number two.  It’s more expensive but we love it and we are the ones who have to use it, right?  We also heard an awful story about a pull-down faucet (that had as long of a moving neck) that eventually got tired and couldn’t stay up against the rest of the faucet.  We’re hoping the pull-out faucet (with much smaller moving piece) of a better quality brand can keep it together a little better.  Thanks for your votes though! 

We have half of a kitchen!  Woohoo!  The first set of cabinets arrived today.  The rest should come tomorrow.  They’re beautiful!  It’s so nice to see it all coming together.  Below are some photos.

Onto our dilemmas… almost everyone loved faucet one.  We love faucet two.  Faucet two is way more pricey.  What to do?  I’m sure if we never gave you a choice you wouldn’t care or know any better.  Now that you do we are even more torn.  Dilemma two – granite colors.  We’re trying to decide between a light granite with dark accents or a dark granite with light accents.  This is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.  I’ve never been an indecisive person.  The first one matches our tile and cabinets and has a general masses appeal I think.  Not that we’re moving anytime soon so we’re not worried about resale at the moment but it should be considered.  The second one would be way contrasty and modern looking I just wish some of the accent specks were closer to the tile/cabinet color and not as silver/green.  The cooktop would look seamless on number two but that’s not the only thing to consider.  Any thoughts?  Once we decide it will be a week until it’s installed.  They need the time to cut holes for the sink, faucet and cooktop.

And here’s what was done this morning.  Please continue to ignore the dining room disaster and the horrible dust conditions that now coat our floor.

Ummmm, I wasn’t drunk when I took this.  I don’t know what was going on but I’m not going back out there to get another one, you’ll have to wait until Walter comes home to take the gorgeous glamour shots.

You can see the start of the hood here.  The brace is hung.  I hope they can patch our ceiling so it doesn’t show a 25 year difference between the new and old paint and popcorn!  And yes, some day we will update our lighting to something cool.   Someday. 

Here is a photo of our gorgeous handle that will go on all the doors (straight up and down, not at an angle as pictured) -

We have a dilemma.  Which faucet to get.  There is a significant price difference between the two we are considering and it’s really hard to justify.  They have similar features (pull out neck, spray feature, general faucet duties) and they’re the same color but they look pretty different from each other.  We definitely have a favorite but please tell us what yours is.  We’ve been back and forth about why to get the less expensive one and why to get the more expensive one but we’re still so torn.  Which would you choose and why?  Thanks!

Ignore the white streaks in the photo of Faucet 1, it’s a photo of the box because we couldn’t find the promo photo anywhere – including the manufacturers website (is that a cause for concern?).

Faucet 1 -

Faucet 2 -

Our kitchen consists of a stove and a refrigerator.  No counters, no cabinets, no sink, no running water, no ice.  It’s pretty pathetic.  We’re trying to eat in as much as we can and while we don’t mind the plastic utensils, plastic cups and paper plates the PB&J’s aren’t appealing for long.  We are attempting to grill tonight and defrost frozen side dishes (after we find a place for our microwave) but it’s certainly not healthy.  Eating out constantly isn’t healthy for our budget though and believe it or not that gets old too.  Anyway, just a vent.  The cabinets arrive on Tuesday and then a week or so until we get our countertops.  We’ll be having you all over in no time but for now we’re taking all the invites we can get.  We’re even taking offers to wash sippy cups somewhere other than the bathroom!  Pray this all comes together right the first time.  I don’t know if I could handle a delay.

Here are some current photos of the kitchen…

And because everyone asks how big the new office is since the photos of empty space give no relation to size, here’s how big it is – it can hold our entire kitchen, all of our new appliances and the beginning of closet storage from the office.  No, we still haven’t moved in.  I don’t know if we ever will.  I have a feeling we will finish the kitchen, move into the office, move all the nursery furniture from Noah’s room to Kate’s new room (yes, he has two bedroom sets in his room at the moment) and paint the nursery about a week before the baby arrives.  Can you say exhausting?

This photo of the “office” also has a beauty shot of our new hood parts.  It is by far my favorite kitchen purchase (and probably the most expensive).  The contractor opened it and promptly asked if we were opening a restaurant.  Of course not, not with my cooking!

And our pantry -

One nice thing about moving all our stuff out of the kitchen is finding that we were storing A LOT of garbage.  We have about half as much junk to move back which doesn’t make the trip worthwhile but definitely shows us the silver lining!

I have tried so many ways to describe what we’re doing with our kitchen and I usually confuse everyone and get a “that’s nice” so I’ve decided to share our rendering.  Bless my husband’s need to be nerdy, er… technical, I can always count on a perspective before we do anything (paint a room, move a photo, change furniture around).  He loves doing it and I love teasing him so it works out.

Here it is before (from the other day) -

And this SHOULD be after (you can click on it to enlarge) -

He was going to put crap all over the counters to make it more realistic but I’m guessing from the daggers I shot him he decided against it.  We’re really looking forward to having a lot more cabinet and counter space (there are cabinets under all of the countertop “L” closest to you in the photo.  He even rendered the appliances we purchased so this should be incredibly realistic.  I love how much more open it looks without the 70′s soffit to hold the range vent.  Walter is nervous about our fridge.  It’s massive and it’s going to stick out as far as it shows.  He would have much rather had a counter-depth version but GE doesn’t make one with ice and water through the door (which is a requirement for me).  We will keep the old fridge in the garage but with the size of this one we may not need it.  Then again we’re going to be chilling juice boxes for several years so who knows. 

Thank you for letting me share my excitement!

Some of you know that Noah has started a new school.  This is his second week at Summit Montessori Private School.  We chose to make the change because we felt he would get more out of the montessori environment and while we’re not expecting him to be a master of statistics by kindergarten we figured if he was going to a school he might as well learn something, even if by accident.  His previous school (which I loved to pieces) sent home progress reports with their weekly lessons and unfortunately it was “This week we learned about ice cream!” or “This week we learned about cookies!” and I’m not exaggerating!  While its great for them to focus I think dessert is something they’ll learn all on their own in the real world, and definitely in our home!

So at the new school he has 9 weeks of swim lessons during summer camp and they spend a good majority of their time outside.  They play on the playground, they have lunch on picnic tables with the other classes, his teacher plays the guitar and they all sing in a little circle in the mulch, and in between all these super fun summer activities they do lessons in their classroom.  I think all the outdoorsy stuff and physical activity is finally catching up with our little guy though.  Today was the third or fourth time he couldn’t keep his eyes open on the way home.  I couldn’t resist taking a photo, I thought he looked adorable and as you can see he’s still madly in love with monkey (who is a little worse for the wear). 

Construction on the kitchen has officially begun!  Today they started ripping out the wall that encased our stove.  It will still be a wall but much shorter and not nearly as 70′s.  We will also no longer have an island but instead a whole bank of cabinets connecting to a new set of more cabinets and tons and tons of counter space.  Why the kitchen was ever designed like this is beyond me but we’re very excited for the finished product.  Unfortunately I’m sure the time between now and then will be riddled with dust, dirt and plenty of frustration.  Let’s see if you really can get sick of eating out!

So here was our kitchen yesterday (after we cleaned off the countertops, all of the junk now residing on our dining room table in the back) -

Here it is during the wall demolition (sorry about the shadow – I had to shoot and run!) -

And this is how it looks right now -

They will be back tomorrow to cut down the steel pieces and extend the back wall to the side wall.  The range will be replaced by a cooktop so don’t worry, there won’t be a huge unsightly piece sticking out like you see now.  I’m not sure where the hot pots go once they come off the stove and I’m also not sure where dinner is supposed to be eaten.  If I had absolutely no shame I’d give you a close up of our dining room table but that’s just too embarrassing right now!  Wish us luck – and patience!