I have a Kitchen

After so many delays, I now have a working kitchen.
Our plumber, Larry worked all day Wednesday replacing the drain pip from the kitchen all the way to the sewer line. He came back Thursday, put in the kitchen sink, and connected the dishwasher,  disposal and refrigerator.

Rod and Kandi Rutledge came Friday and installed our wall outlets and hooked up the appliances.
So, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, our kitchen is up and running. It isn't finished. We still have a lot to do, but, this morning, we made coffee in the kitchen... not the bathroom!

 I really think it looks better in person, but here are some pictures.

 

I don't know what is up with there picture of the stove wall, maybe a funny angle. To me, the proportions are funny, like it is a child's kitchen stove.

 

I am so thankful!!!!! 

My New Adventure

Next week, I (Jeannette) am starting a new adventure in ministry. Our church, Cottonwood, has for some time wanted to start an Immigration Legal Resource Center to assist aliens in working through the INS paperwork, to obtain work visa's, to gain residence status, to bring family members over legally, and even citizenship when appropriate and other actions needed involving immigration.
Also, as part of this resource office, we would help them to enroll their children in school, find medical assistance, maybe look for jobs, just assist in whatever way we would be able to.

We feel that God has called us to this. The Bible is speaks clearly that God's people are to reach out and care for the widows, the orphans, and the aliens (or strangers).
Lev 19:34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. This has proved to be a formidable project, because it involves working with the Immigration Office and having knowledge of immigration law. In order to establish this type of ministry, someone from the church has to be certified to work with INS. Although I am very supportive of this ministry, I have not been a part of any of the planning meetings. Last week, our mission pastor asked if I would consider going to a week of training, along with another woman from church, so that we would both be certified in this area. He felt that this new ministry would reach mostly women and that it would be good for me to attend the training and help with this ministry.

Since I intentionally default to a "yes" to ministry opportunities, and let God tell me "No" if he needs to, I felt that I needed to really consider this. I talked to Les about it, and he was unconditionally affirmative, even though it means I will be gone the whole week of our anniversary.

So, Sunday night, I will head off to San Antonio with Linda McDowell, to be ready to start training on Monday morning at 7:15.

Hopefully, Les will take some time off remodeling to keep you up to date. 

Graduation Day

We actually do still have a life outside of house remodeling. Last Friday, we took a break to celebrate the High School graduation of our oldest grandson. 

Carter is a fantastic young man. He is tender-hearted, loves the Lord, loves his family, loves to serve others. He is a great big brother to his sister and two brothers. He honors his mother and father.
Carter is a very talented musician and has a heart for worship. He has been on the worship team for his Christian school for three years, and serves on his church worship team now.

 

This is the family who gathered for dinner before graduation (except Emily and her family who got there a little later.)

 

 

Carter leading worship at their church.

 

This is from a recent mission trip.

Leading worship at school.

 

This is the kind of big brother he is.

 

 

We are so BLESSED. We have amazing daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. Carter has set a wonderful example for all the others to follow. We could not be more proud, or more grateful.

 

 

Laundry hall and teeny bath

The kitchen has been stalled for a while. Les has spent many hours doing the grout on the back splash, but we still haven’t been able to complete the kitchen. Meanwhile, we have been working on another area of the house.

Behind the kitchen, we tore out several walls.

Right behind the kitchen wall there was a hallway, with washer and dryer connections. If a washer and dryer were there, we could not have opened the dryer door because it would have hit the wall. I could not figure out how it would have worked. Fortunately, there was a closet right behind the laundry hall, so we could remove the wall and put the washer and dryer connections against the opposite wall of the closet and make a nice size laundry room.

 

Then, there was a door to a teeny, tiny bathroom. In an area that is 6 by 6 feet there was a shower, a vanity, commode, and a closet with a water heater. We could only open the door about halfway, squeeze in past the water heater to get to the commode.  

 

We tore everything out of the area but the shower and the commode. Les tore the floor out to level it. There has been a lot of water damage which has caused the floor to sink in the laundry hall a lot.

                                         

Having the floor out also has been helpful for the plumber and the electrician.  We hope to get this all put back together as a nice big laundry room and normal size bath…next week. 

So, next week...

It’s become a joke. For four weeks I have said, “Next week I will have a kitchen.” Things just keep happening. Last week should have been a really big week. Larry the plumber was coming on Thursday, and he could install the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the garbage disposal, and the really important thing, the one thing that I really want, the kitchen sink.  We called the appliance store to have all the appliances, which we ordered 6 weeks ago, delivered on Wednesday, so that they could be installed.

Gifford’s delivered the new dishwasher, refrigerator, the range, but said that the disposal was not in, that it would come in on Tuesday.  Larry did not want to install the other appliances, and have to come back to do the disposal, so the kitchen was delayed another week. Friday, we called the store and found out that the disposal was actually in the store. I picked it up on Saturday.

Larry came back today (Tuesday) to finally get the kitchen set up. The first step was to put in the sink. When Larry opened up the drain, it was COMPLETELY clogged. How could a pipe get that clogged?

 

 Larry said that the pipe was clogged all the way to the outside. He has to replace the whole line.

He is coming back tomorrow.

So, next week, I will have a kitchen. 

Back Splash Installation

So, I picked up our "too good to be true bargain buy" back splash tiles last week. Saturday morning, while I did some little projects with some of our grand kids, Les got to work putting the tiles up. Later, I joined in the project. I cut the 12 inch tiles into three inch strips so that we could mix the colors.

 

Since we were able to buy our tile  at a super great too good to be true price, we decided to put tile above the cabinets. It sounded like a good idea at the time, and it does look good, but getting it up there seemed a bit dangerous to me. After all, the cabinets were really high. Les said it wasn't dangerous, that he did similar things all the time working on signs.

 

 

We haven't finished the grout yet, and there is a lot of finish work to do, but we did get a lot done for one day.

Backsplash “gift”

Right after we committed to buying the new old house, we happened upon tile that was PERFECT for the backsplash, beautiful mosaic 12 in square tiles on clearance at a great price. We bought what the store had, which was the right amount for the backsplash area.  Something like this.

When we decided to redesign the kitchen, we added a wall that would need a tile or something similar behind the range. I looked online for tile that would match what we had, but it was not available anywhere, not even from the manufacturer. So sad.

So, we returned the tile and I began a search for something new. Lowes.com had a lot to choose from, all kinds of mosaics, mostly for at least $10 per square. BUT, one design was listed for $.87 per square. It came in a variety of colors, and each color was $.87 per square, or $7.92 per box of 10, for glass tiles.

I checked the price about 500 times, because it was really just too good to be true.  Assured that the price was right, we decided to order 12 boxes, or 144 squares. We liked the look of assorted colors together.

 

 

 I ordered, and the price at the end, with a 5% discount, was $96, which I put on my Lowe’s card. Still, probably too good to be true.

About 10 days later, the tile was in and I went to pick it up…12 tiles not boxes. I explained that I had ordered boxes, and everyone was really confused.  A very nice young man named Paul checked on Lowes.com, and found that the price was indeed $.87 per square. They called a manager who quickly said, “That price is not right.” I explained that it was the price listed when I ordered, and Paul confirmed that the price was still .87 online. The manager said that I could get a refund and later reorder, which I declined to do, and said that I wanted to order the tiles from the store. The manager sat down to order, and they were unavailable. Every color was unavailable. Paul said that he could get them for me through “genesis”. The manager agreed, and asked Paul to do that for me.

Paul sat down and ordered the tile directly from the vendor. When he punched in the tile number, the price came up as $7.92. Paul changed to price to .87. He then ordered everything that I had on my original order, and changed the price on every single tile. Since I did not have a Lowe’s card with me, I did not get the extra discount. Paul completed the order, added the tax, and turned to me and said, “That will be $113, is that OK?” I agreed to that price gladly, and he processed the order.

In a couple of weeks, after getting the call that the tiles were in, I held my breath when I went to pick then up, and, YES, 12 boxes of tiles! For $113. I had them loaded and took off. 

I almost felt guilty, but a friend said it was a kiss from God, to just enjoy them. 

So, the back splash tiles were a gift from Lowe’s…ordered by God.

And, here is a preview of the back splash, just a little preview...

 

Counter Top Blues

The whole kitchen project has been held up by the counter tops!  We ordered the custom cabinets right after we closed on the new house, in the middle of April, and ordered the counter tops at the same time, which had to be ordered from a company in Grand Prairie.

The week that the cabinets were installed, our cabinet builder, Bob, called to ask about the tops. Well, the company had not ordered the materials yet! WHAT? Ok, they said they would order the material, it would be delivered, and they would be ready to be picked up May 1. We planned to pick them up that day, but, the company called Bob and said they had cut the tops too short. They would have to order new material, so everything would be delayed one week. The next week, Bob called to ask about the status, and the materials had not come in.

The materials come from Dallas.  To Grand Prairie.

So, everything was delayed another week.

We couldn't install the back splash until the counter tops were in.

Rod, our electrician couldn't finish the electrical work until the back splash was in due to the plugs on the back splash.

Larry, the plumber, couldn't do his work until he electrical was done because we wanted to put in a new water heater in a new location, which had to be wired.

So, while we did a lot of other work around the house, the kitchen has been on hold for a month, waiting in the counter tops, which we got last week!!! Now, everything is rolling along.

It is hard to tell by the pictures. The tops are Formica, but with the roll edge, and a finish that looks like stone.

Living in the Living Room

Last Saturday, I just needed ONE room that was not a mess. The best option for that was the living room. It is not finished. There is a lot of work that will eventually be done on the walls and floor, but, overall, it looks pretty good, so it could be a refuge room if we brought in some furniture.

We had a problem. We ALMOST could not get the sofa out of the house on Long. It took three men and a lot of effort and thinking to finally get it out. The day after the move, I was in the living room of the new old house, and noticed that both doors into the room looked smaller than the door in the old house. We measured and "sure 'nuf" the doors were smaller. No way could we get that sofa into the living room. It sat in the sun room.

Last Saturday, we came up with a plan. Les took the frame off the door going into the living room from the kitchen. When he was in the backyard, he noticed that the neighbor behind us, who is also a friend, Craig, was working in his back yard, along with another friend. Les went outside and asked if they could help us with the sofa. Yay, they came in and brought the sofa from the sun room, through the den, but... could not get it into the kitchen because the new cabinets were in the way.

 

After some thought, we all decided that they could lift the sofa up and slide it through the bar window between the den and kitchen. That worked pretty easily, and they got it into the living room.

We brought in other pieces and set it up. We even put the china in the new china cabinet. So, the living/dining room is at least not a total mess and I can sit there to read or study and feel that there is some order in my life.

 

 

 

But, actually, this is where we really go when we have time to sit down! Chaos, but comfy.

 

Critters in the Attic

I am a light sleeper. I basically have to have a room that is completely dark and quite to be able to fall asleep, I usually sleep 6 hours a night or less, and I wake up at the slightest sound. But, every 2 or 3 weeks, I have a "crash night" when I fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly the whole night.

Exactly one week from our move, I had a "crash night".  Last Thursday morning, I woke up when the alarm went off at 6:30 (I usually beat the alarm), and got up. Les, who usually sleeps till around 8, said, "I have been awake since 4am. There is something in the attic, I think a raccoon, and it sounded like it was doing construction all night. It was horrible. I thought it was going to come through the ceiling any minute." Wow, I slept through THAT??? 

That day, Les called our exterminator, who does not deal with animals in the attic, only bugs, but he offered 2 live traps. We bought cat food, and put the traps at the entrance to the crawl space under the house, thinking the pesky raccoons (Les had decided there were multiples) would come out for food. They sat there untouched for 2 days.

The animals were not actually in the attic. Our attic is converted, so the animals were in the space between the ceiling and the roof above. Most of the activity seemed to be over our bedroom area, so we slept in the kitchen the next night. Our feelings about raccoons come from the movie Elf, which shows that they are dangerous attack animals, so we took this seriously!

Les decided to go check out the situation. As he headed up the stairs with a rake, he said, "If I am not down in a few minutes, come check on me." And, I replied, "I'll call 911." And, then, "Les, why don't you get your gun?" To which he replied, "Jeannette, its a BB gun." I thought that a BB gun would be better than a rake, but I kept that opinion to myself.

He came down safely, said they were behind the sheetrock, behind the storage areas that are all around the attic room, but not actually in the room. That was good news. I googled, "raccoons in the attic" for a solution and read how terrible it is to have raccoons in your attic, how hard it is to get rid of them, and how imperative it is that you do get them out. One site suggested ammonia on rags or moth balls.  Another site said ammonia and moth balls do not work, you must physically remove the raccoons. Well, that was NOT going to happen.

We soaked some rags with ammonia and Les put them in the storage areas of the attic. We also turned on a radio in the attic, possibly to scare them out. The activity was still loud in the kitchen, so we moved our bed into the den. 

By Wednesday, Les decided maybe we had squirrels instead of raccoons. That did not seem as serious, and we felt better having decided they were squirrels. That day, our plumber was at the house, and he said that we should put a lot of moth balls in the attic, find out where they came in and seal it with special fine wire that squirrels could not chew through. We slept back in our bedroom.

Thursday night, we put 6 boxes of moth balls in the attic storage closets, hoping to run them out. This morning, Friday, Les actually saw a squirrel run up the front of the house and disappear into a corner of the roof! YAY. A squirrel sighting. Not as scary as a raccoon. He got the wire screen from the hardware store and put it in the far corners of the closet corners where the roof comes in, and we feel strongly that the critter situation is resolved.  We plan to sleep safely in our bedroom tonight.

A Little Side Purchase

Today was a big day. Our oldest grandson is graduating from High School, and today was a special ceremony for the graduates at his school. And, it turned out that the countertops for our new cabinets would be ready to be picked up in Grand Prairie. Since we would be in the city, we checked Craig list for a china hutch. If you know us, you might know that we have quite a collection of china, but we have not had a place to display it. Now, we have a large formal dining area, so we wanted to get a hutch. There were a bunch on Craig list, and one that looked like a great buy in Grand Prairie.
So, we set out for a very productive day. First, Carter's ceremony.
Carter attends a Christian school, where his dad is the head administrator. We have been impressed with the very personal quality of education, the special attention that each student has, and the close relationships the students have with each other and the teachers.
Today, each of the 36 graduating seniors was introduced, then, each was presented with a blessing, a special, personal affirmation of the student that the teachers had written. Carter was recognized for his consistent display of faith.

(I as SURE I took pictures of Carter with his blessing document, but I can't find it. So, here he is, the one in the blue.)

What a joy it is to have our oldest grand child follow the steps of his godly and faithful parents.

While we were basking in the joy of Carter's big day, we had a call from the cabinet builder telling us that he had received a call that the counters were cut one inch too short, would have be recur, but materials would have to be reordered, and they would not be ready. That was a disappointment, especially since the counters were already a week late because the company did not order the materials when they should have.
We decided to head on to Grand Prairie to check out the hutch. We stopped in Ft Worth to treat ourselves to lunch at Lily's on Magnolia... we highly recommend it. I had the Veggie Sliders, three sliders with breaded and fried eggplant and zucchini, portabella mushroom and red bell peppers on jalapeno sourdough buns. I mean, how delicious can a sandwich get. So, anyway... the hutch. We drove to Grand Prairie to check out this china cabinet that was listed for $80. We took one look, had a nice visit with the seller, forked over $80 with no discussion, no bargaining. I mean, how could I ask her to come down in her price when it was bargain basement price already.  The seller even helped us load it, and provided a towel to wrap the class shelves in. 
I was looking for an old cabinet that I could paint, but this one is in perfect condition. Our china will look magnificent in it.