Time to Dig!

Well, the cuts have been made, and oh, let's throw in a karate tournament this morning.

HA!  James and Gwyn did great! But no rest for the weary!

James proceeded to pull up every slab he had cut (while we dusted -- thank you, Mom and Haley!-- and watched in amazement)

Sweet girls helping out

And with the concrete gone, it's digging time! (That's 10pm on Saturday night, for those of you who were wondering)

All closed up for the night (so no one falls into the trench in the dark). :-)

The Dustiest Day That Ever Lived

Time to cut a trench through the kitchen to put in the plumbing and electricity for the island.  A BIG DAY!  And we're ready to go!!! LOL. 

We hooked the rental saw up to our shop vac for the promised "dust-free" experience. Um...

Within seconds, the house was covered in dust, and we were just starting...

About 2 hours in, I called Mom in a panic -- can the girls please come to your house???  The noise. The dust. I just couldn't do it to them.  So Granbee and Poppy saved the day. And we had another glorious date day. HA!

SEVEN HOURS (and one replacement blade and nearly 70 feet of cuts) LATER.  Done.

Here we go...

The kitchen. It's time.  And the first step? Plumbing. Of course.
Which means the hammer drill, of course...

So.much.noise.

All for that little hole.  LOL.  

The Clean-Up Crew

James spends most weekends working on the house, and in the process, makes a few messes. :-) He is GREAT about cleaning up!  But on Monday mornings, we girls get to work finishing up -- putting things back in place (sometimes new places), dusting...

 And everyone's favorite: removing sheet rock mud from the carpet

This Monday, we emptied and bookshelves to rearrange the living room. 

And then spent time putting everything back in place in the playroom!

Fixtures

Checking out the new fans!

 My favorite part: saying bye-bye to the (9yo) "temporary" blinds!

 Getting there!

Tape, Bed, Texture, Paint, Repeat.

For a month, James has spent every possible moment taping, bedding, texturing, and painting in the living areas, dining room and kitchen ceiling. SO MUCH WORK.  I so admire his determination.

Monkey see, monkey do...

It feels SO good to have the walls and ceilings nice and PLAIN. :-)

Little Details

With the big chunks of this step done, time for the details.  Switches, plugs...

And a plan.  We were all having a hard time visualizing the kitchen layout, so masking tape to the rescue!

Can't wait to recreate this pic -- Darcy on the island. Hopefully she won't be too old when we do. :-)