Hey guys! We wanted to update you on the progress being made in our kitchen, which is so exciting. When we left for California last weekend, our kitchen looked like this:

When we came back from California four days later, it looked like this:

They had replaced all the electrical (it was old knob and tube), installed all the new recessed lighting and outlets and the hood vent for over the stove, which you can see hanging down in the middle of the ceiling. They also replaced all the insulation which was in pretty bad shape, and removed the wood floor from what used to be the dining room.

And as of this weekend it looked like this:

All the drywall is in, and they’re currently in the middle of the long process of mudding and taping and then sanding, which is the dirtiest part of the process. You can see in the above photo that we had them build a new little half wall on the left side of the kitchen, separating it from the playroom. There used to be a metal fence there, but we wanted a wall to be the back of the built-in banquette seating that we’ll eventually build there.

And at the same time they’re also working on the little half-bath. We figured while they were replacing the floor in the hallway outside the bathroom, we might as well have them extend the new tile right into it, which meant taking out the vanity and toilet … which we might as well replace while we’re at it. Renovations have a way of snowballing!

Here’s the hallway, facing from the front door towards the half-bath on the right and the playroom at the end of the hall:

One of the projects we haven’t really mentioned yet that we ended up tacking on, while we were at it, is that we decided to remove the closet next to our front door.

This isn’t a great photo, but there used to be closet doors across there that we had taken out, and they are fixing the drywall to make it all look seamless. We thought it was such a shame that the closet doors blocked these really cute little windows and all the light that they let in. We’re going to add hooks for coats and probably some small shelves for storage. I think it’ll be a fun project.

So that’s what’s happening around here! They’re currently about a week ahead of schedule, which is awesome, and we’re expecting about 3-4 more weeks of work. We finally moved back in over the weekend, after staying with Andy’s parents for a few days… so two adults, a baby, two cats and a dog all confined to the bedrooms, eesh. But it’s so nice to be home and to see progress!!