The Stevens Family

I'm off to the first interview of my adult life, for a career as a Realtor! Wish me luck!
I'll post a real update later. :)

After sitting around the house for months and months, the double ovens are finally in place!

Tomorrow the cabinet guy is coming to measure for counter tops, and to hopefully deliver some of the stuff we had to reorder. We still need to finish up the plumbing and run the gas lines to the stove top, and then we'll be fully up and running. We're hoping to have everything going by Easter, so we can have our first holiday meal here. :)

...that simply placing my dusty, still covered in protective tape, empty stove top that won't even be hooked up for weeks on my kitchen island invokes so much pleasure in me that I immediately feel the need to grab the camera for such a joyous moment?

Heather and Scott brought up my old twin bed today, so Jayden officially has his big boy bed in his room now! He's been keeping us up at night by rocking, it moves the whole bed and makes a horrible racket. We're hoping that if we start transitioning him to the bigger bed, he might sleep a little bit better. Jayden loves it so far, and was SO excited when he saw it in his room for the first time.

Jayden and Taylor getting a ride from Kimmie in her laundry basket. One of their favorite things to do!

Jayden playing with the rocks at Nana's house, right before he got his new shoes caked in mud.

Taylor showing off her cowgirl hat on Kimmie's new big girl bed!

Ethan, Jayden, and Taylor enthralled by something outside the window (I think it was a garbage truck).

Well, I finally let myself do something I'd been fighting against for months. I got excited about the kitchen. I actually let myself believe that it might be done sometime in the not so distant future. To the point of actually telling everyone to plan on Easter being held here. *sigh*
As I've written before, we had a few problems with our cabinets. The kitchen cabinet guy came yesterday, something I wasn't really looking forward to because I was afraid he'd get in a mood about it. He's kind of like that. I went over the list with him bit by bit.

• The drawer fronts were all wrong. They're flat fronts, when they were supposed to match cabinet doors. He said that the guy that did our kitchen as since been fired because he ordered a lot of stuff wrong, he even told me that he had an entire kitchen in his warehouse that he has to get rid of because it was completely wrong. He then went on to tell me that the drawers I want are much more expensive and that I didn't actually pay for that type of drawer.
• Our window wasn't centered between the upper cabinets, even though we moved the entire window so it would be centered above the sink. It wasn't something that we noticed right away because the kitchen was ordered before the window was moved. He said that we could get a 12 inch cabinet to replace the 15 cabinet that was ordered and things should be centered up.
• Two cabinets came broken, one completely busted. He just looked them over to see if they could be repaired, but they were pretty far gone.
• We were supposed to receive posts for our island from a different company, we received the stain so we could match the posts, but the actual posts weren't ordered.

In the end he said that he had a proposition for me. He would pay for the new 12 inch cabinet so the window would be centered, he'd pay for the broken cabinets (isn't that kind? the cabinets that came broken?) and he would pay for the posts. But he wanted me to pay for the new drawers. I said no, I already paid for drawers. His argument was that I didn't actually pay for the drawers I wanted and that they were much more expensive, my argument was that when I signed my check, I was paying for the drawers I wanted, and our loan is closed and we don't have pocket money for new drawers. Finally, he said "Fine, I just thought I'd see if you'd be fair about it all." Not the best thing to say. He agreed to pay for the drawers, but only because my mom is such a good customer of his (which he mentioned numerous times). I guess my business or happiness as a customer doesn't count. He said he'd order everything and walked through the house and out the door without telling me when the cabinets would arrive, or even a simple goodbye. I'd meant to ask him to go ahead and measure for the counter top, since most of the lower cabinets were okay...but I didn't get the chance. So now, after being so close to having a functional kitchen, we're stuck waiting again.

That's it for my rant. Hopefully I'll be posting about my nearly finished kitchen sometime before Easter.

This weeks topic for Photo Hunt is architecture. So, rather than just putting up one picture, I thought I'd put up a few of my home town, Burlington.

Well, it doesn't look like we'll have a done kitchen by the end of the weekend. Due to human error, and too much time spent in the warehouse, we've got a few problems to deal with. Such as the aforementioned problem with the butt ugly drawers that look like cheap filing cabinets (sorry to anyone that might have these types of drawers, they just aren't our style) and the warped drawer. We're also missing our posts for the island, and a small filler piece. The person that we ordered our cabinets through is no longer there, so apparently we weren't the only people that have had some problems. The cabinet people were very nice, and are coming on Monday to take care of all of the problems.
It's frustrating, but I have to say that I was definitely expecting something to go wrong. Something always goes wrong. I'm just glad that a) it wasn't my fault because it usually is and b) it isn't going to cost us any money.

We got a very good start on the kitchen cabinets tonight, thanks to so much help from so many people. I have no idea how we would survive without family! So far, there are a few problems: the drawers are wrong, they're flat fronts and they're supposed to be framed like the cabinets, and one of the doors is warped. So far, that's it. Otherwise, everything is starting to look really nice, our kitchen already looks smaller!

Now all we have to do is take them out of the boxes and screw them up on the walls. Piece of cake.

Of course, Jayden promptly got lost in the only cabinet that was out of the box, which happened to be behind many other boxes that I couldn't get through.

Our kitchen cabinets are being delivered tomorrow, so Josh and I are trying to do all we can to get ready for them! Last night Josh finished up the little areas in the kitchen that still needed to be sanded, and he got a coat of primer up on the spots that still needed it. We're going to put one more coat of paint up on the walls tonight, and then we'll be good to go.

I'm really trying to keep up with our house resolutions...but I keep forgetting about updating the list. I'm only a few days late.

Jayden's Room

• Touch up floor paint
• Install and paint quarter round and floor trim
• Finish shelving
• Install dimmer switch
• Blank covers for obsolete outlets
• Install lighting in closet
• Paint door
  

Master Bedroom

• One more coat of paint on walls
• Edging on ceiling
• Plate covers
• Finish Trim
• Install Door
• Install closet lights
• Run cable to our room

Upstairs Hallway

• Finish patching cracks
• Sand
• Primer and paint ceilings and walls
• Install lighting
• Switch plate covers
• Paint woodwork
• Install shelving

Kid's Bath

• Finish Floor
• Plumbing
• Order faucet for tub
• Sand walls
• Primer and Paint walls and ceiling
• Finish painting bead board
• Put up trim
• Put up and finish door
• Install Lighting
• Hang medicine cabinet

Stairway

• Sand, primer, paint walls and ceiling
• Sand and varnish woodwork

Living Room

• Finish woodwork
• Finish installing built in media cabinet
• Finish dresser
• Finish and install french doors
• Touch up paint

Family Room

• Touch up paint
• Put up woodwork
• Finish woodwork
• Install built in bookshelves

Dining Room

• One more coat of regular paint
• Top coat paints
• Woodwork
• Switch plate covers
• Door on closet

Half bath

• Put in ceiling
• Plaster and sand walls and ceiling
• Primer and paint walls and ceiling
• Paint bead board and woodwork
• Plate covers
• Hang medicine cabinet

Kitchen

• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Drywall walls
• Drywall ceiling
• Plaster, Sand, Primer and paint walls and ceiling
• Install and paint woodwork
• Sand and paint floor
• Install lighting
• Install cabinets
• Install appliances

Outside

• Scrape paint
• Primer
• Paint
• Begin landscaping

It doesn't look like much, mostly because we've been putting all of our energy into the kitchen. But, I'm really happy with the way things are going so far, and once we get the kitchen complete, it'll be easier to go through and finish up the smaller projects in some of the other room.

It was a long weekend, but we finally managed to complete our kitchen floors. Up until Friday we spent our time sweeping, scrubbing, sanding and vacuuming to get the floors ready to be painted.

and Ta Da!

We're very happy with the results. Of course, I can hardly stand upright after spending so much time on the floor, but it was worth it. It's nice and bold and the room is completely full of color, which I love! Later this week we will FINALLY have kitchen cabinets delivered. Hallelujah!

I've recently joined a Photohunt group on another blog. Basically they pick a theme each Saturday, and you post a picture to go with that theme.





This is me when I was pregnant in the Florida Keys. Josh and I went to Florida for our honeymoon, and were so excited to get in the ocean that we both jumped right in. We came up gasping and trying desperately to get the extreme saltiness off of our mouths. So now, when I think of salty, I think of the ocean.

Josh put up our final kitchen light, it'll hang over the island.