When we started our kitchen remodel on October 18th, we all knew that we were up against a time crunch. My family was coming to visit, starting with my mother’s arrival on November 19th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The kitchen had to be complete before Sunday. Our contractor, Kyle Hunt, was here until 10:30 pm on Saturday night finishing up the last of what had to be done. ‘Whew’ we did it!

Now that the kitchen was done there was so much to do. Everything had to be put back into the kitchen, which meant removing the items that had made the dining room it’s temporary home. This was a job only I could do. This was a job that I wanted to do, on my own, giving thought to the placement of things. My kitchen is a working kitchen. Fortunately, I had started putting items back into the kitchen as soon as I was able to, so I had a little jump on that.

Cleaning, however, was a job I happily gave to someone else.  

Yes, I know my limits. I knew if I tried to do everything myself (which was probably impossible in the time limit) I would totally stress out… just in time to see my family. Or, I could have someone here for 2 days cleaning, dusting, scrubbing, etc. Seriously, there was a fine layer of dust throughout the house. Even though we kept doors shut and had plastic hanging up, somehow the dust managed to find it’s way into every square inch of this house. The dust wasn’t from the kitchen so much, as it was a result of the remodeling being done in our workout room. We had a glass sliding door put into a concrete/brick wall. That concrete was eight inches thick! End result ~ a great exercise room, so we can work off some of the delicious food I look forward to making in my new kitchen.

Seems like everything is going smoothly, doesn’t it? Well, not so fast…

I’m putting whatever I can back into the kitchen on the Friday before Thanksgiving and decide to roast some garlic. I think to myself it’s a nice way to break in the new Wolf Range. Right?! Anyway, I turn the oven on to preheat, and walk out of the room. Next thing I know, I smell gas. Really smell gas. I run into the kitchen to see black smoke coming from the oven. I’m so upset. WTH?

Turns out that the Wolf Range is set up for natural gas and we have propane. Hello, installation team? You’d think they would be aware of that. Especially living out here in the country. Result: there’s a conversion kit you can get for this range, but it’s not available for two weeks. Two Weeks?? Um, Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I’m flipping out. I call Ferguson’s, the company where we got the range. They realize the situation and remedy it by sending over a KitchenAid 36″ – 6 burner gas range as a loaner. It fits into the kitchen perfectly. I’m happy again.

I like the way the KitchenAid looks in the kitchen. We decide to keep the KitchenAid instead of the Wolf range. Ferguson’s comes and takes the Wolf range away.

My family is here. The house is full. I turn on the oven to make something and it turns off after one minute “Cooling Fan Error”. Yep, one minute. I turn it off, back on, and sure enough it happens again. I call Ferguson’s and they don’t know what’s going on with it. They suggest I reset it by turning off a breaker. Sure, I’ll try anything at this point. But it doesn’t work…

How did I cook Thanksgiving dinner? I cooked it by turning the oven back on every minute until the turkey was done. Not only did we have turkey, we had dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes with banana and marshmallow, green beans, sauerkraut, fresh cranberry sauce, hot yeast rolls, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. Before Thanksgiving I even made Rum Baba’s for my father!

In the pictures below you will see the KitchenAid range. This range is not staying. The KitchenAid repairman didn’t know what’s wrong with it. He said he could troubleshoot it but it would take weeks. This time of year is not the time to be without a range. That’s for sure. So, the Wolf range is coming back tomorrow, and being converted to work with propane gas on Friday. I will be happy to have it back and working properly (pic above).

It has been a whirlwind of family and food for the past week. I haven’t been on the computer at all. It was a nice break and I loved having everyone here! They’ve all gone back to their homes now and I’m getting more settled into the new kitchen.

At last, here are lots of pictures of the finished kitchen. I think it turned out incredible. I absolutely love it and I love being in it. It’s the heart of our home and lots of deliciousness will be produced here. The first thing baked in the new kitchen was the Rum Baba’s. Oh, they were so good. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow, along with pictures.

The pictures below show cool features that we got…

There’s still lots of dishes and things that still need to be moved into the kitchen, but at last I have enough space. The laundry/pantry room is wonderful, since we’ve utilized the old kitchen cabinets in there.

The dining room is finally back to normal. Now we can enjoy the new wall color!

I love my new kitchen. I loved having family here with us on Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for… not just on Thanksgiving but every day. I’m also thankful for you, if you’re reading this.  Thanks for following along on our kitchen remodel adventure. Stay tuned for lots of great recipes and more!  

We’re definitely making progress. Counting down to the day that family arrives here for Thanksgiving on November 18, 2012. Eek… that’s only 10 days!! I must admit that I’ve had a few moments when I freaked out (to myself) thinking that it wouldn’t get done in time. But, I’m confident it will.

The cabinets are going in. Yay! Notice the corbel on the range hood (top right in the pic above). I love those. They match the larger corbels that are under the bar (lower left in the pic).

I’m going to post some pictures below with captions so you can see where we’re at now.

The Hutch (above) is going to provide so much more storage space. I really need it. Also, the two big doors located just above the counter open upwards, meaning that they pull out a few inches and then go up parallel to the upper cupboards. I plan on using that as a liquor cabinet. When we have parties we can just raise the door up and there you go!! Also, two shelves go into that center space. We’ll be buying a new flatscreen TV to put there. Gotta have my food channels.  

We love the Garden Window, but weren’t sure what to do with the frame. Remove some and make it thinner? Hmmm… we finally decided that we’re going to remove the bottom of the frame and put a little window sill there instead. I’ll post some pics of this when it’s complete.

Yes, the house is a mess and everything is out of place. My desk/office is temporarily in the living room. The floors are dirty, and just about everywhere there is a fine layer of dust. I don’t mind. Just get it done by the deadline and I’ll be a happy girl.

Our pets are going through this turmoil with us. Our cat, Inky, does not like the construction one bit, and for the most part has been staying away. He comes in at night to sleep, but that’s about it. The dogs don’t like it either but they’re more tolerant. Well, our older dog, Sophie, she’s not been too disturbed because she doesn’t hear well anymore. Xena, our German Shepherd puppy, thinks the contractor and crew and here to play with her. But poor little Duke, he’s had to stay in “jail” a lot of the time because he’s… um, let’s just call him “very curious”.

The highlight was the stove being delivered yesterday. I was so happy. I’m really looking forward to cooking our Thanksgiving meal in this oven. I have so much to be thankful for. Especially, that my family will be here in Tennessee to share Thanksgiving with us this year. I’m so excited!

Stay tuned for the finished kitchen. Only 10 more days! We need countertops, desk top, bar top, tile backsplash, under cabinet lights, painting, new light fixture hung, can lights trim finished, and floor is going to be re-grouted… however, that may happen after Thanksgiving. The construction crew said next week is what is called “hell week”. I just know everything is going to work out perfectly. Life is good!

Now there’s a lot of holes in the ceiling and walls.

Plumbing issues were taken care of.  The stove will be where that small ladder is, and there will be a pot-filler above the range. So happy that I will have that!

One exciting thing did happen this week, at least I think it’s exciting. We had the garden window put in the kitchen, above the sink area. We bought the window from Home Depot. After checking out other garden window options, turns out Home Depot was the best. Funny, it’s not as big as I thought it would be, but I do love it. Such a vast improvement over the regular window that was there. My husband is now fearful that I will be putting some knick-knack type of stuff in the window, along with some hanging things. Oh, how did he know? Of course I am. Not too much stuff, but that’s what makes the kitchen mine, mine, mine.

Now it’s time to fill the holes that were made. Gotta get ready for the cabinets that will be delivered soon! Kyle Hunt (below) of Trust Hunt Construction in action.  

The truck is here with the cabinets! YAY!! We got our cabinets custom made from Smithport Cabinetry of Smithville, Tennesee.

Check out our porch (in the pic above). I’ve been painting it for the past week or so. Going to have it finished in the next few days. Things are starting to look good around here. We’ve actually had a lot of painting done in the house over the past month. Dining room is now painted red. Love it! One of the upstairs guest bedrooms was also painted the same red. That’s the room my Dad & Step-Mom will be staying in when they visit for Thanksgiving.  The living room went from “pumpkin” colored to a really nice rich brown. the brown color will also be in the kitchen… once the remodel is complete, painting will be the final touch!

Bring on the cabinets!

All the cabinets are now in the house. That’s Jon (below) of J.D. Nelson Cabinet Installation & Design, the man who is going to install the cabinets. There’s so many of them and they’re gorgeous! I’m going to have tons of storage space, too. So happy!!

See the really tall cabinet above on the right? That is the cabinet that will go on the left side of the fridge. I’ve been wanting a cabinet like this for a long time… it’s a pull out for all my spices. I actually think that ALL the spices will fit. We shall see, but I’m very hopeful.

Meanwhile, I’ve been managing pretty good with the makeshift kitchen (pic below) in our laundry/pantry room. Honestly, between the microwave, toaster oven, BBQ grill, slow cooker, waffle maker, Cuisinart Soup Maker & Blender… we’ve been eating very well.  No complaints here, whatsoever. The “saucy girl” is a Happy Girl!!

Stay tuned for more of my kitchen remodel. The cabinets are being installed as I type this. Can’t wait to see what they’re going to look like!

We’ve finally come up with the perfect design for the kitchen backsplash. I love it so much! Can’t wait to share it with you all, so I will have a mock-up of what it will look like in the next post.

The entire kitchen remodel must be done before Thanksgiving. My family is coming and I want everything to look perfect. They will actually be arriving here in Tennessee on November 19th.  Nothing like a little pressure.