It's been a little over two weeks since we last posted and a lot has changed. My parents came out over the President's Day weekend and helped Mike and I install the kitchen cabinets. It was a weekend long project, screwing the cabinets together, leveling, shimming, etc. First, we had to hang plywood on the walls since our studs weren't exactly where we needed them. We also found a bunch of nasty stuff built up in the sink pipes (pictured below).
In addition, Mike had to build out the valance between the cupboards and the ceiling since we added more cabinets than were originally in the kitchen. He also had to turn the inner 90 degree corners into a diagonal since we bought actual corner cabinets. Installing the cabinets was a frustrating project, but it was definitely worth the money we saved by doing it ourselves.
While I helped a bit in the kitchen, most of my time was spent sanding and painting with my mom and my cousin Lauren. We got all the trim and doorways painted in the hallway upstairs and the doors painted for the linen closet. I also had the fun task of trimming and customizing all of the heat registers and cold air exchange registers. The molding around them needed to be trimmed back about a 1/4 inch.
After my parents left, Mike and I took a bit of a breather during the week, but I was able to get the linen closet put back together with new black hardware. Mike and I worked to get the trim painted in the dining room and worked on finishing the valences by taping, plastering and sanding them so they looked like walls again.
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| Mike's half mustache |
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| Our grid shelves |
Last weekend, Mike and Kevin worked on installing the flooring in the kitchen. Holy cow, what a change once that was done. It was a bit of a frustrating job but they did a great job. I worked on getting the house decorated a bit and cleaned the kitchen cabinets.
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| Monet, our dining room Betta |
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Mike and I also bought new chairs for the dining room since we only had two for the table. Mike mounted the tv in the living room and cut the molding for the kitchen during the week. Since Mike got moved to working nights, we've been trying to get things done, but it's been a bit difficult. We did manage to get the molding ready for install and some of it is put in. I installed the transition strips for all of the new flooring, so it's starting to look really nice.
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The stove
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Mike and his friends got all of the appliances in the house and hooked up the fridge and microwave. I managed to hook up the gas stove without blowing myself up and I installed the pendant light above the sink without electrocuting myself. I feel a bit like Bob Vila.
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| The dishwasher |
We managed to get the house ready enough to have some friends over for a housewarming party on Friday night, complete with ice cubes from the new freezer. We are now only waiting for the counter tops and sink to be installed on March 14th and the house will be mostly done.
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| The start of our entertainment system. |
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| Callie loving her house! |
The exceptions are replacing the windows, finishing the basement and painting our two spare bedrooms and both entryways. There are also a ton of little things we will eventually want to replace like light fixtures, a runner on the stairs and all of the outside yardwork, but we're going to take a little break once the kitchen is done to unpack and relax a little bit.
Mike and I have continued to stay busy with the house, but we've slowed considerably. We've taken time to enjoy living in a home that is all ours and get things unpacked and where they need to be. In addition, we have started to get back to enjoying our old hobbies, cooking and sewing for me and computers and video games for Mike. 
I finally fixed my sewing machine (it was broken in the move) and made curtains and a new lunch bag for myself for spring. Mike was finally able to get the entertainment center of his dreams hooked up, complete with all of the cables and wire zip tied and organized. He also finally constructed his monster computer. 
As for projects around the house, I raked the backyard...again. It likes to collect leaves and garbage. The kitchen still has some work to do but I've slowly been working on the finishing molding and installed the flip out sink tray on the drawer front below the sink. I also found homes for everything in the kitchen and started to unpack all of my clothes. Mike replaced the plumbing in the basement to the laundry sink and washer with CPVC piping to replace the nasty old pipes that were down there. 
My favorite thing that we've gotten done in that last few weeks was finally getting some window treatments in the living room. It was tough to decide what to do for the bay window that would give us privacy without breaking the bank, and allowing Callie to still use the window seat as her lookout. We got a good deal on cordless cellular shades from Lowes, thanks to the machine breaking and having to wait forever, we wound up getting all three curtains for $100; I also had a $70 tax incentive gift card that Lowes gave us for buying so much there, so we paid $30 out of pocket for $200 shades, needless to say, I was pumped. 
In addition to all of our work, we've celebrated with a few house parties. I am surprised at how easily our house cleans up after a get together, we might owe that to our friends though. Now for some pictures and close ups of what we've been working on! 
