The Beard Will Not Live To See Another Day

From Bad To Worse: Well, Ok, Not Really

Today after work, I came home to this:

Is it a mess? Is it progress? A little of both, I suppose. Hubs tore down my newly-built spice rack and the under-cabinet DVD player/TV/radio. He taped and mudded the window that he had removed and patched up a year ago with sheet rock. This was a project that got started, but due to various reasons was set aside. So I really can't complain that the kitchen is a disaster. Progress is progress, right? :)

More progress on the opposite side of the kitchen:

Joshua finished up the corner cabinet next to the dishwasher, and moved the microwave onto the counter. Now I can put all the pots and pans away, and if I need to microwave something, the micro is much more easily accessible (it used to be in the dining room).

Nice to see things moving along! Now if I could just get those Christmas decorations put away! ;)

Daniel's Cup

And here it is. Daniel's cup. I'm not so sure what was so special about this cup. But he took a picture of it. So it must be important.

Gotta love it!

Kitchen Remodel

Lots of remodeling going on at the Boren household. Joshua's gotten the bug with the new year. You can click here to read up on some of the changes I posted in my Balancing Act Basics blog that lead up to the changes listed in this post.

Today's progress included decluttering the recyclabes that had taken over. Like my new spice rack? Hubs made it for me. The DVD player is an old one, and the under-counter TV/radio was a Christmas present. Something to keep me entertained whenever I do my monthly freezer meals. The two white bins on the bottom left are for recyclables, but they're going to go away. I'm going to take out all the cleaning supplies that are currently under the sink and store those in the laundry room cabinets. That will free up the space under the kitchen sink. My plan is to buy some plastic totes and put them under the sink, and use the totes for our recyclables. Each tote will be for something different (paper, plastic, glass, etc.). Then when it's time to take the recyclables to a transfer station, it'll be as easy as grabbing the totes from under the sink. Our house didn't come with a dishwasher when we bought it, so we bought a portable/rolling dishwasher, and it used to be located in the spot where the rolling cabinet or island you now see. This island had been in a different spot of the kitchen, but we moved it here for now. The plan is to build new cabinets in this particular spot, which will add more storage. The rolling cabinet will go back to its usual spot once it's time to build the cabinets.

Prior to Joshua building the spice rack for me, I had my spices on 3 different spice racks. Kind of made it difficult to find things. When I moved all my spices, I discovered that I had a few duplicates. It wouldn't have been an issue if they were closed, except the duplicates were open. I debated about getting rid of the one spice rack next to the breadmaker. It was one of the last things, in fact it was a wedding present, my mom gave to me before she passed away. So it has sentimental value. I decided to keep it since it reminds me of my mom and brings back a lot of happy memories. I really love the location of these new upper cabinets. They used to be directly over the counter to the left (you can barely see part of the counter under the black cords in the bottom left corner of the picture). Joshua told me that his project for this coming week is to take down the spice rack he built me so he can go ahead & tape/mud/paint the wall, then put the spice rack back up and that'll be one more project of his crossed off the list.

Here's the new location of the portable/rolling dishwaher. There used to be a cabinet and the flatware drawer here on the side closest to the fridge, and on the left was a lazy susan corner cabinet. Joshua took out the drawer and cabinets, lowered the height of the portable dishwasher and put it here. The dishwasher itself will not be permanent, so the plan is to sell it sometime this year, maybe next year, and buy a permanent dishwasher to replace it. Joshua had to cut out part of the counter to get the dishwasher to fit. Which isn't a big deal because we also plan on replacing the counter tops, or at least put down new formica.

Here's the spot where the lazy susan style corner cabinet was. There was also so much wasted space with that type of cabinet. Joshua tore out the lazy susan, plus a narrow cabinet that was next to the lazy susan, then rebuilt it and installed a shelf and new door. It's not complete yet. The "stick" like feature you see is not permanent and will get tossed. Joshua had to buy more wood and will finish that section of the cabinet. The hose you see is the water line to the fridge and ice dispenser in the freezer. The nice thing about this rebuilt cabinet is that we'll be able to utilize ALL the space. I plan to store #10 size cans of rice, beans and wheat in the far reaches of the cabinet, since I won't need to dip in them very often, and it'll be difficult to reach back there anyways so I storing something that I'll need to get to frequently wouldn't be such a good idea.

Here's what it looks like with the dishwasher pulled out.

Some of the final plans include stripping the varnish from all the cabinets and then painting them a really beautiful cream color. All the hardware will get replaced. I'm currently considering a burnished copper color, but haven't quite made up my mind. I mentioned the formica will get replaced (I really can't stand the "wood laminate" look).

We're going to put up some kind of tile above the backsplash of the cabinets, but again that's something that I haven't settled on yet. It could be a long while before Joshua is able to get to that part of the remodeling project, so no sense in getting in a hurry and buying everything up right now. The flooring is also going to get replaced. When we moved into the house, the flooring was the absolute ugliest dark brown. We tried putting down vinyl flooring over the top. But we were buying a little here, a little there because our budget was tight and we couldn't affod to buy all the material. And wouldn't you know Lowe's stopped carrying the vinyl. So all of the flooring was complete excluding 6 inches or so right in front of the cabinets. Bummer. But that's ok, we decided we didn't like the vinyl after all anyways. Lowe's had ceramic/slate type floor tiles on sale for $0.58/sq ft several months ago and we bought up enough to do the kitchen, dining room, hallway plus the bathroom. The tiles have been sitting on our back deck ever since because there hasn't been time to do anything with them. But they were a bargain and worth buying at the time, and although Lowe's still has the same tile, they haven't been on sale for as cheap as we paid for them.

I think that's it for now...until next time!

Holiday Pictures

You're probably thinking, "It's about time!" I know, it's been awhile since the last family post. Here are some pictures from our 2009 holiday happenings for you to enjoy.

Watching Voices Of The Heart perform in The Heart of Christmas Show in Fayetteville, NC.

Daniel's field trip to see The Nutcracker Ballet. We took Raelee, too. She LOVED seeing the ballerinas! She takes dance class too, and her favorite is ballet, so this was right up her alley.

Making gingerbread houses at the Arts Council Wonderland Breakfast.

Touring the Meadow Lights.

The kids with their school in the Christmas Parade.

Taking a family Christmas photo.

The kids' Christmas program. Above: Daniel in the black shirt, back row, standing next to cousin Ashley. Below: Raelee, bottom row, in the white & red top and green hair bow.

Driving around, looking at neighborhood Christmas light displays.

Annual Christmas Even family photo in front of the Christmas tree at Joshua's parents' house.

The kids' with their cousins, Meagan & Ashley, showing off Christmas decorations that they made on Christmas Eve.

Spreading special reindeer food out on the front yard on Christmas Eve right before bed. Santa's Reindeer get hungry, too!

Raelee & Daniel on Christmas morning.

The grandkids re-enacting the Nativity. The cousins were Mary and an angel. Daniel was a wise man. Raelee insisted on playing the part of Joseph...? Why...?

Camping out under the Christmas tree. A one-time special event for both kids on Christmas Day night-time.

First Blood (of the season)

Joshua debated on whether or not he was going hunting this year. Since the season started, it seems as though we've had one thing or another going on, eating away at any available time he would have to hunt.

Our house is on the edge of the woods. He has a tree stand in the woods behind our house. It's in a good spot because the trees and brush provide a lot of cover for the deer. Plus, there's several streams nearby, and deer also want to be near a source of water.

Joshua did put out some corn a few months ago, and the deer ate that right up. One morning, when Joshua opened the front door, he & Daniel both saw 5 deer right there in our front yard, munching away on acorns! We have NEVER, EVER, seen deer in our yard. We just figured they didn't come around too close because of our two big dogs out back.

So Joshua bought a hunting license a few weeks ago. I think he went "hunting" just twice, if you call spending about 30 minutes in the tree stand actually hunting.

The kids' had their school Christmas program this past Tuesday, so I took a 1/2 day vacation. That meant we all got to sleep in. Joshua took up the opportunity to get some true hunting done, and he promised himself that he would stay out until 8:30am.

And guess what? He shot himself a doe! Just in time to bring it to the house (not an easy task considering he had to cross 2 streams, 3 logs, and climb uphill on his hands and knees!).

It was a small doe, and only the 2nd deer Joshua has shot (the 1st was a 4pt buck when he was 16). But we got 30lbs of ground venison out of it. We wanted some backstrap, but Joshua wasn't sure how to field dress it, so he left that part for the processor to do. And by the time it got to the processor, it was too late for backstrap. No big deal, we can still make plenty of chili and other yummy goodies. :)

Daniel's Santa Tracker

Daniel whipped out his Lego's a couple days ago and made a really cute sculpture. I saw it was outside, and brought it back in the house. Daniel informed me that this was his Santa Tracker and it had to stay outside so it could track where Santa was.

It has a radar, just like at the airport, so it can track Santa's sleigh and reindeer during their Christmas Eve run. And there's a yellow light to help guide Santa to our house.

Can you believe this??!! Who knew that our 5-yr-old was so creative? It warms my heart!