General Conference Sunday

Our kitchen had been demolished before the October conference, so we were all happy to resume our tradition of crepes and conference bingo this morning. Conference was great, as usual—I especially loved Elder Bednar's talk, and the one just after, with the concept of spiritual home improvement. Hopefully that process won't be quite as traumatic as the physical remodeling!

59 days

Here's what things looked like around here before September 2nd. Not bad, but outdated.


Since I couldn't get any time off my full-time job as mom to work my second full-time job as general contractor, I really neglected documenting the whole process. Here are a few shots of the many steps that went miraculously fast: demolition, removing walls and building new ones, new windows, plumbing, electrical, insulation, drywall, redo of one wall and bar (thanks Davy & Dad!), paint, fireplace, tile, finish work, cabinet installation, countertops, shutters, and finally carpet, on October 24th.


We're still moving things back upstairs, and need to get furniture and curtains in the living room (I'll post photos later), but everything major is done!



In case you're wondering which food was first prepared from the survey, it was E) none of the above. After spending the day unpacking boxes on Saturday, I made the kids some oatmeal for dinner while Rob went to the store for groceries. We did have a spaghetti dinner on Sunday, and finally made brownies on the 30th, after getting the walls ovens connected. I'm looking forward to getting back to cooking and adding recipes here.

Quick photo update

As the general contractor of our remodel, I haven't had much time to document the whole process—maybe a few weeks from now, when everything is done and I've cooked a few fabulous meals so that photo scrooge feels like this was all worth it, I'll have time to do a recap. In the meantime, we now have hardwood floors:
and a front door:
a pantry, which I'm very excited about:
shelves in the new den, which photo scrooge is very excited about:
plus doors for said den, so he can shut the rest of us out: 
Tomorrow we'll have a railing and the cabinets will be delivered!

We should be cooking within two weeks, which leads to the all important question in debate around here: what to make first? Cast your vote in the sidebar poll, or leave a comment. 

It will all be worth it

Photo Scrooge is in danger of being renamed "Remodeling Scrooge." He is not dealing well with the chaos, as you may have read here, here and here. But now that the demolition is done, we will be seeing some progress—the new walls are in, the cabinets have been ordered, the plumbing will be done tomorrow, the electrical on Monday, and the insulation on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll get the drywall started on Wednesday. Anyone want to help me pick out countertops and flooring?