What is this Mess? Uh...it's life during a renovation

When we moved to the farm, summer 2009, we had pulled up all of the carpet on the main floor, exposing the original wood floors, and had them refinished.  We also had drywall repaired, and retextured, to cover almost 60 years of a setteling house.  We didn't touch the kitchen floor, though, because under that carpet, was subfloor, not wood floor.  That was put on the "5 year plan".  I had been given the option, fix the floors throughout the house, or fix the kitchen, before we moved in.  I chose the wood floors through out. 

Before, our house had thick carpet. Almost each room, was a different color.  Our bedroom and hall had light grey carpet, one guest room had dark red carpet, another bedroom had Navy carpet, our office had blue grey carpet, and our living and dining rooms had pink carpet, although I was told it was Mauve, because that was much more appealing sounding than pink.  Either way, it was not for me.  It was heavy.  It made my house feel closed in.

Fast forward to Fall 2012.  We have a 2 1/2 year old, and have just found out we are pregnant with #2.  My husband turns to me, one day out of the blue, and says, "Would you rather redo the kitchen this spring, during planting season, or this summer, after you've just had another baby."  It was like being told I'd won the lottery!!!!  THE EARLIER THE BETTER!!!!  So, we started talking to my contractor/brother-in-law, at Thanksgiving.  In between 3 new builds he has going on, 1,500 miles away, where they live, he's going to help me with my renovation :)

When you gut your kitchen, be prepared for things to come up... weird things.  We are refinishing the stairs to our basement.  We've rewired the entire kitchen, and laundry room.  We insullated the two exterior walls of the kitchen (I only wish we could insullate all the exterior walls).  We are having the whole house replumbed!!!  THE WHOLE HOUSE IS GETTING NEW PLUMBING!!!  Our exterior doors are all getting new seals.  We are getting new cellulose insullation added to the measly 6", already there (like 30" more).  All of which leads to new drywall, new flooring, new lighting, new switches, new layout for new cabinets, new sink, new dishwasher, refrigerator, cook top, two single ovens, a microwave with a trim kit to be "built in".  And a bonus, a new faucet for outside :)  This really is a bonus, because to fill our hot tub, I run a hose through the breezeway, and out to the back, and to water the plants back there, it takes that same process, or 8 watering cans, every other day. 

And I can't forget to mention, hardwired smoke detectors, throughout the house, when one goes off, they all will.  Our dryer hose is getting a blower, to push the lint and heat out of the house.  The statistics are staggering.  It's something totally insane, like 90% of house fires start in the laundry room or kitchen... and it would be our luck, to spend all this money updating the place and have it burn down a few months later.  So, thank goodness for safer electric, and smoke detectors everywhere.

I'm not allowed to build my own house, until my kids are out of this one.  Then, I'll get one with lots of space, and a layout condusive to family time.  When it's just my husband and I.  But, I'm going to make sure this one isn't neglected.  And just because it was "good enough" for the generations before, doesn't mean it has to be good enough for me.  If I'm here for 25 years, I'm not doing bandaids, I'm doing surgery.  I hope to leave this place better than it was when I started.  And our checking account is reflecting that :)

By the way, it'll be done before baby #2 arrives. :)

Take care of your house, improve upon it when you can.  It's your home, you should want to spend time here.  And even with the noise and the dust, I'm liking it a little more each day.

toy blocks, in the wall...

Through out the remodel process (and this is JUST THE KITCHEN), we've found a few things, and scratched our heads, wondering how in the world it got there.  First, we discovered water damage, and signs of an electrical fire.  We found a recipe card, and then, a dead bird, that had been behind the drywall.  How did a bird get drywalled over way back in 1950? 

After today, I assume, a child was around during the drywall process, and thought it'd be funny to put it there.  For three weeks, we've had a cutout in our hallway, that was going to be for light switches, but then it was discovered, we could connect the old, low voltage system, to the new can lights in the hall, and all 8 of the hall switches would run them, so it's going to get patched.  For three weeks, it's been unmolested by my 2 1/2 year old, this open hole, that he can reach up to, if he streches.  But today, while the drywall guys work in the kitchen, he fills his tractor wagon with blocks, and drives it up and down the hall, and today he notices, really notices, that hole.  What to put in that hole? Hmm?  How about some blocks.  Why not. I am not sure how many blocks got dropped down that hole before he noticed they were not retrievable.  He asked me to get them out.  And really, the only way to get them out, would be to punch another hole, this time, at the bottom, to reach in and retrieve them.  That's not going to happen. 

So, I've decided I need to buy a journal, and keep track of things we do to this house.  Summer 2009, reattach all drywall with screws, get it all textured.  Uncover the original wood floors, and have them refinished.  Janurary 2012, put in the water filtration system, for the whole house (yeah, right, our plumbing is so screwey, we're lucky anything gets filtered). Spring 2012, pour a new patio in the back, for the hot tub. Late winter, early spring 2013, gut the kitchen, insulate the two exterior walls in the kitchen, rewire the kitchen and laundry room, add whole house smoke detectors, replumb the whole house, seal up some toy blocks in the wall between the hallway and the living room. I might as well do this, because this house belongs to my husbands family, and it will be passed on to our children, to raise a family in, if they choose.  Which is half the reason we are doing all these updates to it.  For them.

Creative Cooking part 1

With the Kitchen being gutted for a total renovation, and me not wanting to figure out how to move the stove back upstairs, from the basement, I've got a limited arsenal to cook with.  I've got the BBQ Grill (haven't used it yet), a panini press/griddle, an electric skillet, and a crock pot.  I've got a microwave, too, but I don't like microwave cooking.  The chest freezer makes for great prep space, and my gadgets sit nicely while I cook.

Spaghetti:
So, did you know, you can freeze your spaghetti sauce?  I did, and luckily I typically make 2 batches each time I make it, so I had some frozen, just ready for use.  I put it in the crock pot, and let it heat all day.  Why not all day?  I knew I wanted spaghetti, the day before, so I was ready.  I didn't even thaw the sauce completly, first, just dumped it in.  When it came time to cook the noodles, I grabbed my electric skillet.  It holds water, it heats up a lot faster than my old stove ever did, and in less than 10 minutes, I had noodles, ready for the sauce.  It was wonderful!

Chili:
Really, for me, the best way to do chili is in the crock pot.  When I cook it on the stove, it always wants to stick to the bottom.  Take your chili recipe, and put it in the crock pot.  Cook your meat first, use the electric skillet if you don't have a cook top :)  Let it cook on low all day, or high for about 3 or 4 hours.

Sandwiches, Gourmet:
Any sandwich, any bread, and a panini press, is an amazing combination.  Some mustard and miracle whip mixed up to make a nice little sauce, a few types of deli meat (several types of ham is kiler!), some tomatoes, some nice dark green lettuces, or spinach leaves, press for a few minutes, and you are a master of the laundry room kitchen!!!

BBQ Beef:
Again, the only way I do this, is in the crock pot.  A hunk of beef roast, and sauce.  Sauce: Katchup, worchesire sauce, a little liquid smoke, mustard, and some brown sugar.  Cook on low all day (or if you forget, just do high for 3 or 4 hours), throw it on some hoagie buns, and viola, you're a lean, mean, bbqing machine!

Stuffed Pork Chops:
Luckily, HyVee had these all prepared for me.  I cooked them on the panini press, and I cooked them at high.  I don't reccomend High, maybe medium would be  better, the outisdes got a little tough, but the flavor was delicious. I added a side of Rice Pilaf (cooked in the electric skillet) and a spinach salad.  All my meals come with a salad, or a fruit salad.

This is just what I've done, so far, along with Schwan's Chicken patties (those are pretty good on the panini press, too), and Schwan's fish sticks.  The fish sticks cook up really nicely in the electric skillet, foil on the bottom, lid on the top, cook about 5 minutes longer than the package suggests.  Delicious!

Hope that some of you find these ideas helpful! :)

kitchen reno #1

My husband gave me the "Go Ahead" to start renovations on our kitchen.  When we moved in, late summer 2009, it was on the 5 year plan, and that was just for new flooring, and to move the peninsula to be flush with the wall. 3 1/2 years later, it's a total gut job.  Our house was built about 1950, his family has always lived here.  And it's always been expected the next generation will live here, after the parents have gotten all the kids out of the house, and are ready to build a big new house in town.  I don't want to live in town, our big new house will be further back on the farm, allowing us more privacy.  Our house has been pretty well maintained, but not so much has been done to Improve upon it. Before we moved in, we pulled up all the carpet on the main floor, except the kitchen, because there was hardwood underneath everywhere, except the kitchen, and had it refinished... it's beautiful. The water lines were all full of gunk, but I imagine after 60 years, my body plumbing might get full of gunk too.  There was a leak in the laundry room water disposal line, so it got wraped in towels.  Some old galvanized pipe to our main floor bathroom had sweated so much, it leaked on the celing tiles in the basement, so they got wraped in insullation.  It's all getting replaced. Now it's a big project, not just a kitchen gut job.
   We are redoing the plumbing to the entire house, apperently our water lines all back feed, which is why it take about 20 minutes to get hot water to our main floor bathroom sink.  All the wiring to the laundry room (directly below the kitchen), has been replaced.  More lighting in our hall way, closing a door from the living room to the hall way, and one from the dining room to the kitchen, opening up an archway from the kitchen to the living room, new wiring in the kitchen (all new), insullation in the two exterior walls on the kitchen, new flooring, new cabinets, new fixtures, new counter tops, and new appliances, and new flooring for the stairs that come off the kitchen and lead down to our basement. And I think I'll have spent just more than my husband's new semi truck, and new semi trailer (maybe not that much), cost.  So, without a kitchen, I've gotten creative about cooking.  I'll post about the cooking on another post...  because I'm getting really good. :)

Here are a few pictures of where we are, so far, in our remodel:

This picture, is a "Before" (it's a mess, because I'd started packing up).  A 12'' soffet, on 8' ceilings, makes for a low height between the counter tops, and upper cabinets.  We will take the cabinets all the way up, and have the standard 18" backsplash.

Between the stove, and the refrigerator, is a doorway, to what was originally a dining room.  We aren't formal dining room people, it's a play area for my son, and a pass through to our living room.  There is no direct path from our kitchen to our living room, you either take guests through the play area, or half way down the hall way, to get to the living room.  Most guests never go past the kitchen.  Behind the pie safe, next to the refrigerator, is a huge mirror that was hung before the pie safe arrived, and I just kept it there, because I wanted to keep it, knowing a remodel would happen sometime.  Above the stove, in the ceiling, is the exhaust fan, that no longer sucks air out.  Above the stove, on the wall, is a heating/cooling vent.  And typically, about 5 minutes after I'd start something, it would start blowing air, right down on my stove, and onto me.  Every night, I smelled like food.  I hate cooking bacon and sausage, between the smell getting stuck on me, and my carpet, it was gross.  This is getting reconfigured.

These are the stairs.  They lead from our basement, up to our breezeway (where everyone enters our house), and to the kitchen.  The carpet does not match the basement, the breezeway is tile, and this carpet is the same in the kitchen.  I like continuity, so the flooring will match the kitchen.  The wood floor going in the kitchen will match the rest of the house.

Pie safe moved, this is the mirror, the door leads down the hall way to the bedrooms, the bathroom, the office, and the door way from the hallway to the living room. this door will stay.  When the kids are asleep, and we've got company, in the kitchen, we can close this to muffle the noise.

This is a picture of some of my construction crew, after they've made a hole from the kitchen to the living room.  This is where the refrigerator and pie safe were, before demo.  To the right of the hole, is the former door way to the dining room, now play area, it will no longer be a pass through.  There is an arch way from the living room, to the play area, that will be mimiced here, and from the kitchen to the top of the basement stairs. 

Here is some of my demo crew (my sister's in-laws are teriffic!  I'll claim them as my own 90% of the time).  The window in the back, is where the kitchen sink was, and will go again.  BTW, my kitchen is 22' x 13.5'

Here is our other exterior wall.  Our exterior walls had about an inch of wool and sawdust insullation.  It's about to get sprayed in insullation... much better.  Also, the peninsula, in the first picture, ran between these two windows, dividing my kitchen almost in half.  So one side you walked in, and walked around, the other side held the table (you could squeeze 8 adults, if you got creative, but was much more suited for 4), all the prep space, and all the cooking space.  It was a wonky layout.  I'm looking forward to my huge kitchen table, and functional lay out. :)

Tomorrow, the insullation guys come.  Along with the kitchen exterior walls, part of our basement has exposed ceilings.  Where the concrete block walls meet the wood exterior walls of the main floor, they're filling a gap with insullation.  This is about 1/3 of my basement that will get some added efficiency. :)  Tomorrow will be a great day, and I'll be out of the house while they do it.  Next up, drywall!