THE NEWTON'S

I was out of town again and got some pictures of a new project Rich had started.  I came back the next day to help with the rest of the project.  Those were the two individual wall ovens...   We pulled them out- and Rich ran a new larger electrical line and upgraded the breaker for a larger line.  Then reconfigured the cabinet for the new double oven.  The carpets got replaced, and I didn't get pictures- but we are enjoying all our flooring being done.  Now we are working on projects with the kitchen cabinets- adding trim to make them look nicer, and some crown molding to the kitchen.  And that gets us caught up...  Still lots to do- but we are getting there... 

Let's just say there is a lot of dust that gets kicked up with remodels.  Once the fireplace mantle was moved- we got someone in to patch the drywall from the wall removal- and texture all the walls from the repairs and in the kitchen where we took the wallpaper out.   They also painted the kitchen.   The very next day was installation day for our tile floors in the kitchen and laundry room.   Our temporary kitchen- And the new floors ❤️ We had a day to enjoy our new kitchen floors- and then everything got piled into the kitchen so they could install our new wood floors in the living/dining/foyer and a hallway of the first floor.   Leveling the floor with leveling cement-  After two days of fans going all day (and night) the cement was dry enough to install the wood.  

With the flooring pulled up in the kitchen, we chose the replacements and then had to wait for installation thanks to the floods that had happened in May and the back log of work installers had scheduled.   While I took a trip out west to see family with the girls, Rich and Alex were home and kept working on projects.   Some electrical work to add another outlet in the kitchen.   At this point I feel like our demo'ing was mostly done and we started to see some progress and the vision of the new space.  The day finally came and we got our new countertops installed!  A new sink- one large deep bowl instead of the shallow double small bowls we had before -  And the plumbing jigsaw that we hadn't thought through beforehand- was a "fun" little wrench in the project- but we figured it out and love the new sink/faucet and counters!  Next was the backsplash-  We still had the stud wall in between the two rooms- and it had to be taken care of before the fl...

The next few months focused on our kitchen.  With the wallpaper removed- Rich skim coated the entire kitchen to repair the walls from where the wallpaper pulled off the top layer of paper on the drywall.   The stud wall in between the kitchen and the living room stayed as a stud wall for a few month while we figured out if we wanted to do the work to frame it- or find someone else to.   The theme of my summer was that I would be gone traveling- taking the girls to visit with friends and family- and Rich would dive into projects at home.  Rich started with the flooring in the kitchen- bye bye old work out pine floors!  They went out pretty smoothly- a few hours of hard work and he had everything out through the laundry room.  The next day he rented the concrete polishing machine to grind down the black glue that had been under the wood.   The next day he spent most of the day cleaning from the dust that it kicked up!  I was happy to be away from th...

With the main area's of the house all painted... we focused our attention on the kitchen: We Started with white appliances, white laminate countertops, white square backsplash, and a white shallow bowl sink. Pine wood floors with worn spots, and a narrow doorway from the kitchen to the living room. First... we started pulling off wallpaper... We got "lucky" and not only did we have one layer of wallpaper with a border on top- but two layers below the first layer! With the wallpaper pulled off, we had torrential rains here and flooding that caused schools to be closed one day.  I came out of my room where I had been talking to a friend to find Rich was bored and had started pulling off the backsplash. A few more weeks went by, and then Rich decided to see what was in the wall between the kitchen and living room.

Amazingly Spring Break in The Woodlands, and spring break in Edmond were on the same week.  By the time it rolled around- our girls were really missing friends, and we all needed a break from the house projects.  We decided some time up with friends would be just the right thing. Happy to be seeing friends: Breakfast lovingly made by Alyssa and her friend Brenna as we stayed at Brenna's house: We managed to surprise Ashley's best friend- she didn't know we were visiting... :) Ashley and Alyssa were willing to have an Easter Egg hunt with Angela on Easter.