First things first, I'm Auntie Kate for the second time! Jake Andrew was born to my sister-in-law, Janelle, late last night, coming into the world at 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches! Mama and baby are doing well and we can't wait to meet him on Saturday. He was almost born on the birthday of two of my favorite girls, my big sis, Kacey, and good friend, Jess. Happy birthday, you two!!
Life has been quite exhausting this week, so I apologize for the lack of posting. I've been trying to set time aside to write but I'm just so darn tired all the time! I think I'm in winter hibernation mode. We spent all of last weekend in our kitchen, demolishing the soffits and existing coat closet structure, in addition to tearing out two layers of equally ugly linoleum and the sub-floor. I also tore out all of the ceramic tiles in the foyer all by myself, which, thankfully, was quite easy.
As you can imagine, we were quite sore by Sunday night. The kitchen floor demo took some major muscles so I let Jon take that on while I focused my attention on demolishing the coat closet. It didn't take quite as much strength but it was dusty and backbreaking work as I did a lot of sledgehammer and crowbar swinging above my head and on a ladder. In these few short weeks I think we've already learned quicker and smarter ways to get things done which will hopefully make this renovation a lot easier on our bodies and our time.
Jon has been in training all week in Virginia Beach so it was up to me to meet our HVAC guy to get a quote on upgrading our heating and cooling systems. The house currently has baseboard heating which we wanted to replace purely for aesthetics. Well, that and it's a bit noisy when it kicks on. We already had a quote from our general contractor (who will also be doing our plumbing and electrical) but we figured it would be prudent to get a second opinion. I'm so glad we did because this guy told me that baseboard heating is the "Cadillac" of heating systems and advised against replacing it with forced air.
I've only ever know forced air as that's typically what is used in newer homes, but apparently baseboard heating is a lot more efficient and actually much warmer. So I think we've changed our minds about tearing it out. We'll probably look into replacing the existing covers with the newer slim design ones. We do have to replace our 20+ year old AC unit, but at least overall we should save a bit of the budget we set aside for HVAC costs. (Are any of you still following me here? This was all Greek to me as of last week!)
For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of the latest kitchen demo. Take note of all that drywall dust flying around...then think about breathing that stuff in...COUGH COUGH!
Jon cutting into the flooring (and the coat closet right before I took it out!)
Me getting my crowbar on
The closet and soffits almost completely demolished (notice all the dust particles?)
The foyer before (and apparently I forgot to take an after picture) Also, there are amazing hardwoods stairs under all that carpet!
Bonus: Look at the bunny tracks I found in our backyard!
