It's me - I'm Back!

Hey everyone - long time no post, huh?

Been a busy month around the ole homestead - remodeling!

If you remember, Dr. Destructo has, to date, remodeled the guest bath, replaced the patio and its cover.

During the past month, he's also totally gutted the master bath, due to massive mold, and rebuilt it! Here are some photos:

Here's the guts - down to the studs.















And here are the end results. I LOVE my new shower - the decorative strip is quite beautiful and the showerhead is amazing!




















I never seem to remember to take photos once everything's back in place, so you never get to see the finished results - meaning AFTER the shower curtain and other curtains are in place!

I'll try to do that one of these days and let you see both bathrooms - finished!








After destroying (and rebuilding!) the master bath, it was time to move on to the kitchen.

So, Dr. Destructo struck again - pretty much took this room down to the studs, too - especially behind the cabinets, since he had to re-route water lines and electrical fixtures.

Here are some Before photos:


















I'd already started taking things down and washing them before thinking thinking to take these photos.

Notice the overflowing cupboards, shelves, and other flat spaces!



Lots to clear out before Dr. Destructo could even begin, wouldn't you say?










And here's my friend, Karen. She came over and helped me unpack all those cupboards and cabinets and box everything up to be stored in the POD out in the driveway until the reconstruction could be accomplished.

She did a great job, too - marked the boxes well, so that during the whole thing, I was able to find the few things I needed.








The whole process took an amazing three weeks!

That's wonderful! I've known folks (my parents included) who've slaved over remodeling a single room for YEARS!

Dr. Destructo can tear it apart quickly - but he's pretty awesome at putting it all back together pretty quickly, too!

Everything in cabinets/cupboards came from IKEA. They were great to work with, considering we forgot cabinets, didn't get piece parts, had to go back for replacement pieces, etc. Normal remodeling woes, I'm sure, but since I've never done such a thing before, got to be a little frustrating and draining for me. Thank goodness Dr. Destructo was more calm, cool, and collected...

And Home Depot - another place that saved my bacon more than once... In many ways, it's good they're so close to the house - and in many ways, it's not - made it almost too easy to run over there for something or other at least once a day!

One day I went back five times and commented to the clerk that it was trip #5. He told me I wasn't even close to the record! When I asked what that was, he told me EIGHT TIMES! I'd have had to really control myself if I'd had to go that many times in one day.

In the middle of the master bathroom and kitchen constructions, Dr. Destructo also got to deal with replacing the hot water tank (not on his list of things to do!) and fix a water leak in the attic (also not on his list!). But he never lost his cool, even though both events threw his self imposed schedule of by at least two days.

He had a reason to get the jobs done by July 1st - he was starting a "real" job that day, and didn't want to leave me hanging re: getting everything pulled back together again.

But let's move on to the "AFTER" photos, shall we?

So, without further ado, here are the construction photos:

The poor cats' food and water dishes got moved twice a day. During the day, they all hid in the garage, so I'd take everything out there for them.








And then at night, I'd try to make us a "home" in the kitchen, no matter where it was in the process - so their dishes were in a different place every day it seemed. They were OK with it, though. And they got to do "inspection duty" every evening, making sure things were going as planned.





And here's the finished product - minus the things that will make it personal, of course. It's turned out to be BEAUTIFUL! And I've even still got two empty drawers to fill! And trust me, I'll have no problem doing that!




















Isn't it GORGEOUS?!!? I particularly like the big country kitchen sink. It's huge and deep!

I decided we'd (Karen helped me unpack everything, too) bring in the essentials and find places for them before bringing back the cherry items that used to sit on the various shelves. So,the rest of the personalizing items will be put up slowly. And the back splash still needs to be done.

Found something I REALLY liked for that, but it wasn't going to fit, so I'm working on Plan B. That will get done later - probably August some time, assuming I can get my idea to the stage where it's ready to be installed. I'll tell you more about that as I work thru it.

Anyway, I hope you didn't all give up on me - I just didn't have the time nor energy to post while all this activity was going on. But I'm back now, and have some card ideas to share with you in my next post!

Thanks for dropping by to share my giddiness with me! Leave me a comment - what do you think?