It's Time!

Ok, so this is slightly off the seasonal topic of Christmas and snow and such, but I am so excited to tell you that our kitchen is FINALLY DONE that I am going to blog about this today anyway! A "10 day" project that turned into a 9 month headache is finally finished, thanks to a lot of hard work and long hours from Philip. We hired a contractor to do most of the work, but ran into some quality problems with some of the materials and work. This first resulted in a 2 1/2 month delay in all of the cabinets being installed and then Philip wound up doing much of the finish work himself, which turned out to include remounting some of the cabinets and putting up all the molding. Needless to say, we learned a lot during this whole experience and if we ever have to do a kitchen remodel again, we'll do some things differently! :) Anyway, it's finally actually done and I am very glad! Below are some before, during and after pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Here's a review of what we did:
changed the floor
replaced all cabinets
replaced all appliances
replaced and relocated all lighting
removed the soffit to add 12" extra inches to the cabinets
replaced the countertops
removed the peninsula and made an island
repainted the walls...twice
repainted the ceiling...twice
added the tile backsplash
replaced the sink and faucet

Here is the kitchen when we bought the house in February.

Here we are having lunch in the gutted kitchen a couple days before we moved in in March. The only thing that hadn't been removed in this picture is the soffits and the old light fixtures. Don't you love our kitchen table? :)

This was the kitchen the day after we moved in. That's right, no countertops, no stove, no sink. Made food prep a little tough. I had never been so thankful for a kitchen sink and stove as I was the day those two finally went in! We were very thankful for Costco's frozen cooked chicken during those 10 or so days. Amazingly, we only ate out once!
Yeay for a sink and stove! Only 10 days after we moved in!

This is how the kitchen looked for several months while we waited for the replacement island and desk/pantry cabinets to arrive. We had quality problems with the originals and decided to order different ones from Kraftmaid...in another color, but similar style. In the meantime, we couldn't use this "placeholder island's" cabinet space and the desk area was just an empty hole. It made totally unpacking the kitchen a challenge. You can also see in this pic that the walls were primed, but not painted and the cabinets over the fridge and microwave were the wrong size and had to be replaced or remounted.

And finally, the kitchen yesterday. All the finish work done and fully functional! Interestingly, in the picture the off-white island looks kind of out of place, but in real life, most people don't even notice it's a different color.

Snow!

Yesterday we got our first snow of the season...an early one at that! It's very unusual to get snow in December around here, and certainly the first week! We got 3-4 inches. The boys and I had to go out to Bible Study in the morning and cut our errand running short since it was just cold and miserable! When Philip came home, he shoveled the driveway. Caleb and Joshua "helped" by cleaning the snow off of the bushes. Although, by the end, Caleb had a shovel too and was trying to actually help. I was amazed that he stayed outside for a good hour yesterday and today. That's a big increase from his snow endurance last year! Yeay!
Joshua cleaning the snow off the fake flowers!

"You're Putting Christmas Up!"

Over the weekend we decorated the house for Christmas. This was the first year the boys really paid much attention to what was going on. Caleb, in particular, is SOOOO excited about Christmas coming. As I was hanging garland and lights on the stair rails in the house he kept saying, "you're putting Christmas up!!!" We let them help decorate the tree on Saturday night and they both thought that was great fun. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Hines, both boys have a collection of ornaments with their names and/or pictures on them, which the boys got to hang themselves. We are also doing an Advent Calendar with them for the first time this year. Apparently, they just "can't wait that long" for dinner the next day to come to open the next flap. Ahhh, the enthusiasm of a child! I am looking forward to experiencing the whole season with them this year from Christmas songs and celebrating the birth of Christ, to all that Christmas baking that I love to do.

Merry Christmas!

Who ARE You?

This is the daily, hourly question around this house. Depending on what's happening, you could get quite a variety of answers.

From Joshua:
I'm Dave!
I'm Goliath (knock me down!)
I'm Jonah
I'm a BIG fish!
I'm Bob the Tomato
I...AM...THAT...HERO! Call me "Larry Boy!"
I'm Joshua David Hines
I'm Tigger!
I'm a spider

Caleb is generally just:
Larry the Cucumber
Pooh or
A Big Fish

As it would seem, the boys have quite vivid imaginations. They love to act out the stories they hear. This morning they were playing with Play-Doh and LIttle People (a favorite combo) and were acting out the story of Joseph and his special coat.

The staging area for most of their play is the brown couch in our family room, which we inherited with our other house. It was not in fabulous condition at the time, and is certainly not better now! Because of this, the boys are allowed to jump, run, plop and generally smash into it. It is the springboard for their imagination. :)

Caleb's Room Makeover

Despite the long silence, we did actually finally make a decision on what to do about Caleb's room. I gave in and bought a gallon of orange paint, so he now has one orange wall (although he is apparently a little distressed that the border covers some of the orange). The rest of the room is two nice shades of blue, with a sports border through the middle. We are very pleased with how it turned out and it definitely looks much nicer than it did before.
A reminder of how it looked before.
The boys hanging out on Caleb's bed right after we put the room back together.
The Orange Wall that makes Caleb so happy.

Climbers in Training

On Wednesday, we enjoyed the nice warm "typical" Virginia in November weather...70 degrees...that's normal, right? by taking a family outing to Great Falls Park. The boys had an absolute blast...at least when there were rocks to be climbed. Apparently, Philip (an avid rock climber in days of old) has two little "up and coming" climbers. The bigger the rock, the better. Caleb and Philip at a point they climbed out to.

Joshua just getting warmed up right after we got there.
Maybe next time cousin Forest can join in the fun too. He's still only 9 months old.
Philip and I actually got engaged at Great Falls Park 5.5 years ago. I felt almost as good that day as I did on Wednesday. I had mono and it was about 100 degrees...yuck!


Here's the whole family. Lots of Hines boys...'bout time for a girl, don't you all think?

Sick, Sick, Sick!

Blech...what a week (or 10 days) this has been! First Joshua was a little sick, then Caleb got a little sick, then Joshua got pink eye, then I fell off the "sick cliff" and had one of the worst cases of cold or flu (whatever it was) I have ever had. Six days later, I am still not back to normal, but I think I have finally turned the corner and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Wowzers. The good news is that despite the fact I was nearly single handedly (or would that be single-nosedly?) keeping Kleenix in business, I never completely lost my sense of taste, so I could sort of enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, but I am still largely eating jello and bland stuff. But hey, great way to not gain weight over a holiday! Philip's family has been here since Tuesday and it was such a bummer to be sick while having company. Additionally, I have essentially lost my voice, so I have to whisper to communicate. That's a challenge when trying to handle a rowdy two year old! :) Despite all the sickness (which also included Joshua randomly breaking out in some allergic reaction every afternoon after his nap for several days and Caleb getting a mild ear infection), it was a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful time with family. Below is Caleb enjoying Puzzle Time with Grandpa and Uncle Paul.