Bald Eagle Watching

According to the sign, 15 mins from our house and in late November is the best place east of the Mississippi River to bird watch Bald Eagles.  We found this by accident but was super peaceful and amazing watching 30-40 of these majestic birds swooping down for fish and gliding across the air.  We were by far the most amateur watchers.  Hundreds of "professional" watchers with cameras and lenses worth thousands $$ pick there spot and wait all day in the cold for the one money shot.  We enjoyed it for about 45 mins.  We aren't that hardcore but we learned we should invest in some nice binoculars.  Here are a few shots from my point and shoot camera but the batteries died quickly so I didn't get that many.

Kitchen Plan Revealed!

The Fridge will go next to the pantry cabinet and the range, microwave, and dishwasher in the marked spaces.  The sink will actually be a D-shaped undermount with yet to be picked Corian countertops and the faucet(not the one shown) will be to the left of the sink to balance it out under the window. Not pictured are our ugly soffits that have to stay but the planner wouldn't let me put them in. 

And the island shown in the first picture will be "hacked" to be on locking wheels so it can be rolled around out of the way when I want to open our drop leaf kitchen table.  We also had to give up the corner lazy susan cabinet because it would have involved moving our whole plumbing set up and that just seemed dangerous for 2 new DIYers! haha.

My Inspiration...

I saw this in House Beautiful the other month and I love the darker rich cabinets with the lighter flooring and the Stainless Steel toe kicks are lovely and would look dashing with our new, yet to be picked out but Home Depot is having a big sale, Stainless Steel appliances.

Photo Credit: Annie Selke's design featured in House Beautiful.

Sample pics and soffits!

These were taken at night but you can get a good idea!  On the left is the Maple color option we have and the right is the Hickory Natural.  I like the lighter I think.

One for fun...checking out the soffits.  Realized we have a small section of duct work and the drain vent pipe that runs up to the roof to deal with so the soffits are staying sadly.  We thought about shortening their depth at least but then they would look goofy next to the pantry since they are built to run the same width as the pantry.  Oh well, but it means demo is almost over and less work for us.

What Floor should I pick?

Here is what we are thinking. We know we don't want laminate so either real hardwood or engineerred hardwood.  I found this at our local Home Depot Store.  3/4" thick, 3 1/4" wide plank solid Hickory prefinished hardwood for $3.98 a square foot.  It comes in 2 colors-Natural and Gunstock.  I'm leaning towards the Natural.  The product is cheap but its a Special Buy for HD and it gets good reveiws on their website and from store employees. They say they sell a ton of it and never had complaints. Since the cabinets are darker, I don't want the floors to be dark too and the reddish brown color is hard to match. 

Natural

Floors:  Lighter in person. Not as much brown tone. I'll try to take a pic of my sample tonight.

Gunstock:  No samples available.

And they have a Maple Option: No sample either :(

Cabinets:

Hi Ho Back to Work We Go.

Welcome back.  We are back from our break and I'm capable of helping out now.  I was out of commission for a few days.  Yesterday and today we tackled the floors and the rest of the cabinets that needed to be removed.  All that luan plywood underlay and vinyl is awful and I beg you to never put down vinyl in your house let alone 2 layers of it!  We also managed to get the water and breakers shut off to remove the dishwasher, garbage disposal, and sink.  Thanks to DIY Network and Youtube since we had no idea how to do any of this before today!  Not much else to tell except that my wonderful Husband let me stay upstairs yesterday babysitting the cat and watching movies while he did all the gross work of cutting and prying the floors since he didn't want me around all the chemicals and dust.  All I had to do was help with the shop vac cleanup last night and make lunch and dinner runs.  You are amazing :) (for that and other stuff too like putting up with me the last week or so).   Some pics for your enjoyment!

Oh the best (not really)  part of the day today was when we took apart the drain arms under the sink and all this nasty smelling water came running out into the bucket and it smelled foul!!! We were running around trying to get it and the pipe out of the house ASAP.  And to wash the husband's arm off where it spilled all over it.

 A huge pile of the nasty floors we've had to pry up over the past few days. 

 Unhooking the disposal.  Water and electricity make us very nervous but I'm a champ with the breaker box.  A daughter of an electrician knows how to work it ;)

 Prying up the sink...which has been my nemisis all these years.  Shallow, scratched, dented and a crappy faucet.  Oh and I don't bother to brush my hair on demo days apparently.

 Needs a bigger crow bar I guess.  Got a little help.

 Finally!  It feels amazing except when I realize I now have no sink.

 Or dishwasher now.

 Decided to just cut the cabinet apart from around the pipes.  Also we had to cut the countertop since it was so big we couldn't get enough leverage on it to get it off in one piece.

 The last remaining parts of our kitchen. 

 Surveying my empty shell .  WTH did we do??????

Lucky we are doing this reno. Our crappy faucet and disposal had been leaking into the sink cabinet and rotting the whole bottom around the pipes.  We didn't even have to cut this part. It just fell apart with a tap of the hammer.  Luckily, the cabinet absorbed all the water. Our subfloor and wall are fine.  But how gross is this?

Demo Break

We are on a demo break probably until Saturday.  I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday that will put me out of commission for physical labor Thursday and probably Friday and my nerves can't take ripping up more of the house on Wednesday. 

However we have a plan to rent a tool from Home Depot on Saturday that will pry up the 2 layers of vinyl and Luan board while cutting through the million staples so hopefully this eases our burden a little because after 4 hours last Saturday we had  like a 2x2 section done and it was awful.  Its a Makita mini jackhammarish tool that you attach this thin spade like blade and get between the floors at an angle and pry and cut.  Should be interesting but I trust Mike the Home Depot man.  Fingers crossed.

On a side note, please keep us in your thoughts for Thursday.  Its a big, scary day for us and something that we've needed to do for 2 years.  I really wish we had some more support but it's just what it is.  Our families don't really seem to care or ask about what's going on and we accept that but sometimes you just wish you had someone to share things and bounce ideas and fears off of.  We still have each other and that's what is important and some great friends who ask and don't mind my sharing all these personal details with because they understand that we need to talk things through and blow off steam and worry aloud and give encouragement and share similar experiences and  if we held it all inside, we would either kill each other or explode haha.  I know its a taboo subject and sometimes you don't know what to say, but asking"Hey what's up or how are you feeling?" isn't hard and if we don't want to talk about it that day, we'll politely say so and ask what's up in your life.