Not in love with oak cabinets

The kitchen it all of its loveliness or NOT! Isn't the fruit behind the stove just ugly!

Yes oak all the way around... 

So the very first thing that had to go was that stupid tile behind the stove.  Yes all that we did was take off the tile and paint.  Yet I do not have any need to look at that tile ever again.  Most grateful it is gone!

All painted and restful!  

Oh but that florescent light is sticking out like a sore thumb!

The view from the great room past the breakfast table to the kitchen

And just like that he replaced the florescent thing with a can LED light.
Yes I have a chandelier over my sink and over the breakfast table.  I like chandeliers A LOT ok.  I was able to get a good deal on them in Czech when we lived in Germany.
Again Ric put so much hard work into these spaces!

Pantry

Well here it is pretty standard.  Just a place to tuck groceries and spare platters and cake plates.  I asked Ric to move the shelves around a little so that I could put the cafe within easy reach.   The shelf he took out of the center he added at the top. At a later date he will put a light and electric into this space to clean it up a bit.

  See the cute little chandelier I found. 

Master Bathroom

YAY!  We are getting rid of the nasty carpet in the master bathroom!

The bathroom before we bought the house,
 but basically what it looked like when we moved in.
See the counter is one very long section.  It was wasted space really.
We aren't into the oak look.  

Everything out!  What a disaster area!  About this time we had a childhood friend come spend a while in our home while deciding if he was moving to CO.  He was so much help to Ric!  Thanks Pat!

Painted walls we found yellow and black
under the lights and counter.

Yikes!  Self leveling... not really!  So messy!

The floating membrane so tiles
won't crack as easily.

the closet was tiled also.

Well the toilet had to go somewhere!
It is in a trash bag... EWW!

 It seemed to go ON and ON and ON!

Finally grouting!  Whew and still so far to go!

 Done!  Well with the tile.  Nothing is back in yet.  You know the sinks and toilet!  Oh my how I missed the toilet in my own bathroom.  Oh and did I mention I had the flu at this point?  Oh yes... The toilet was put back quickly at that point.  :)
So the next things Ric did were paint the cabinets cream and cut the counter down to fit the cabinets.  Then we took a piece of furniture we bought in Korea and put it between to and a linen closet to the bathroom.
Proud of my groom this was a tough project!  Is it perfect no.  But come on carpet in the bathroom??? eek!  The sad gross person who came up with that.
Oh did you see there is HEAT under the tile... ahhh such a blessing!
Ric also put in new lights, those hollywood lights are gone.  If you check out a slight peek Ric also put a chandelier in the bathroom.  Me and my crystal.

And here it is!

Pergola

 

The pergola before we bought the house.  The back span is to far to go the single piece of wood is bowed down badly.  The only thing holding this together is that they have screwed the plastic trellis to the wood about ever 6".  They added a back support and put two pieces of lumber on each side of each column.  Check out that pretty angle on the edges.

I failed to get pictures of my dad and Ric building this in February.  Here is a picture of my dad with Ric during that trip.  They did a great job!

Ric is painting it in May.

Grass!

I love rocks!  No really I have bowls of them in my home.  Yet when we bought this house it was xeriscaped.  Really that means we don't want to spend any time or money in the yard.  Well that is not who we are.  So the 2nd thing we did to the house ok maybe the 4th...  I don't know but early on we put some grass back in the yard.

Here is what we started with.  The center is filled with mulch, the outside is
all rocks. 

             

leveling out after removing
all the rocks

We have since moved the shed and added more grass in
that corner.
Beautiful grass!  See the pergola, it is falling down.  And isn't
so lovely.  

The pile of rocks from the back yard.
Someday these will go to Nikki's.

Home Sweet Home!

Well we finally found a home and bought it!  It fits us well, which is great since it is our intent for it to be home for a long time.
We signed papers on 10 Aug 2012 and Ric moved in on the 12th.  He was painting some of the rooms.   On the  13th we received House Hold Goods.  We have spent the last 2+ weeks unpacking.

See here he took old cabinet from the bathroom and put the work sink into it.  Since the work sink was so wobbly it sure does make it lot nicer to use now.  Great job Babe!

Here is kind of what the bathroom looked like to begin with.  The tiles in front on on the side of the cabinet did NOT match the rest of the tile job.  They had cut it funny to only have to make easy single straight cuts.

Toilet, cabinet and tile removed

ready for tile

Really it is only 40 pieces a breeze Babe! :)

Ric decided it would be wonderful to have a new cabinet and sink on the main floor.  So he bought the sink/cabinet.  Well then starts the morph.  It was one of the rooms to be painted so it had been painted already.  Then he looks at the floor and says ugh the person who put this tile in did a weird job and the sink can't go on top of the half done tile job.  So he pulls out the old tile to lay down about 40 new pieces of tile.   Thank God (and a gracious friend who gifted him with a really NICE saw) for a tile cutting blade that made these cuts go like butter.

Almost ready for grout...

Ready for grout

yikes... well the grout is there now!

And NOW it is all done!  He did a spectacular job!