Out with the old, in with the new!

We are all back together again, after a great weekend in the northwoods. The meetings were great, and we'll try to post highlights ASAP.

Our prayers were answered, in that everyone and their respective extremities were safe and sound upon our return. Daddy and the kids did a great job, and as we pulled up to the house and disembarked, we were happily greeted by a moldy, soggy, disgusting pile of our former kitchen cabinets...the source of untold generations of over-wintering mosquitoes, bacteria, and odors.


The wall cabinets, which were successfully removed intact, will be recycled somewhere.


Here are Joanna and Hannah, who were in charge of meals and only the most necessary of house chores for the weekend. They are scrubbing the wall on which the single run of base and wall cabinets were located. They did a great job, filling bowls of shredded wheat, and producing pans of cold bean dip to go with tortilla chips, frozen burritos, etc.

Zak is installing the toe kick for the new sink base cabinets. We were happily surprised that the floor under our leaky sink was sound and did not need to be replaced! The new sink will be nearly in the same place, but we will run new pipe through the floor when ready to install that.

This is the sink base cabinet. The sink is on the floor. It is one of those cool plastic types, and we got a floor model, so its already set into formica (undermounted). It was a very good price, but having such a small finished counter around it was quirky. However, we are redeeming that feature by elevating the sink, as we have heard that a higher sink is easier on your back. So, either side of the sink will be smaller, standard height counters. I am excited that with the really good finish on the sink, we should have no problem with water getting between the sink and counter connection. Since we will not have an automatic dishwasher, we will probably be using a rolling wire rack for a dish drainer, we we have liked in the past (as you don't waste counter space with a dish drainer).

Dave came up with the idea of using matching formica to finish the exposed sheetrock. We had that at our old house and it is so easy to clean! So that is what we hope to do.


They moved the stove to a safer location to be the anchor for the L shaped run of cabinets. So, when we order the counter, it will be a straight piece, finished on both sides. This part will have drawers and then a pass through under the counter, where we will have access to trash cans from either side of the counter. The drawers are sitting in the pass-through right now.

Anyway, the house in in a shambles now, so we will post more photos after getting things better organized. Lord willing, the next step is to do the wall cabinets, which Hannah has begun staining already. Zak would like to get the cabinets all done before doing all the doors, so he can do the doors at one time. We hope to order the counter tops by this weekend. In the meantime, we are doing dishes outdoors!