KITCHEN REMODEL....WALL REMOVAL UPDATE...

If you live in Missouri I am certain you enjoyed the weather Saturday.  It was gorgeous and I was hoping to get a good amount of work done on the kitchen remodel; but, we had to make a run to Home Depot Friday evening to pick up our flooring order and then I had play practice Saturday and church on Sunday which pretty much took up the entire weekend.  Needless to say I didn't get as much done on the kitchen as I had hoped.

I wanted to have the wall completely out, have the new drywall up and have everything trimmed out but no such luck.  We did however manage to get the wall completely removed and header in place.

Now that was a feat in itself!!!

The header weighed about a bazillion lbs. and it was just me and hubs lifting it into place.  I have to say I am SO RELIEVED that part is done though we still have some leveling to do.  I can tell you the rest of this remodel will be a piece of cake in comparison to getting that wall out!  I was on pins and needles and sick to my stomach the whole time until that header was installed.  The fear of the house collapsing on top of us was unnerving!!!!!  Anyway, that part is done and I am so thankful to have it out of the way.

Next on the list is finishing out the opening, tearing out the cabinets, removing the old appliances and installing the new flooring.

I will be back as soon as I can with updates.  Hope to see you soon.

Ciao,

KITCHEN REMODEL....PART 1....NO TURNING BACK NOW!!!

Hey all.  Had a long weekend...icy weekend...with some power outages.  Thankfully the outages were mostly at night when we were snuggled under the blankets and didn't have to worry about heat too much. UGH!.  Have I ever told you that winter is NOT my favorite time of year...but I guess I shouldn't complain because I did get an extra day off work.  YAY!!

Now any normal person would relax and snuggle up in front of the fireplace with a good book and take it easy over a long wintry weekend, right?  Well not us...we were busy....really busy doing this...

Yes, we started tearing down that wall between the kitchen and dining room.

Now you would think this would be an easy job...and it would have been...if we had a normal house that was put together with a little drywall; but, we DO NOT have a normal house!!!  There is nothing normal about it!!  Our walls are plaster...can anyone say MESSY!  Yes, this was the messiest job we have tackled to date...and the biggest one.

THERE IS DUST EV.ERY.WHERE!!!!!!!...THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE HOUSE...EVEN THOUGH WE HAD THE ROOM SEALED OFF!!

There is electrical wires to move and come to find out a heater duct too; plus, this is a loading bearing wall that will require a header beam.  YAY ME!!!

We should have that all done by the end of the week and then we will tackle all the trim work and I will show you an updated picture of the wall removed in the next post.

You know, I THINK I MUST BE CRAZY!!!...removing a wall...gutting the entire kitchen...BUT THERE IS NO TURNING BACK NOW!!

On the bright side, I will have a new kitchen when all is said and done.

I am going for this look....

Does anyone recognize this from Fixer Upper?

Anyway, here are a few of my material choices....all from Home Depot.

Traffic Master Allure Ultra Resilient flooring in Espresso Oak and quartz counter tops in White arabesque.

Hampton Bay white shaker cabinets

Liberty drawer pulls in polished nickel

I am still trying to talk the hubs into a backsplash like these...

He wants something smooth but I love this.  I guess we'll see who wins. Hehehe.

That's it for now.  Be back soon with more updates on this...I must have been crazy...adventure.

Ciao,

CHRISTMAS AND EVERYTHING ELSE...

I know I haven't posted for a LONG, LONG while.  I finally and hesitantly entered the world of Facebook and it has just been a whole lot easier to post little nuggets there than do a whole big blog post here.  However, I had taken a long hiatus from FB for the holidays and have decided that I like the virtual peace and quiet so much that I may get off the FB train for good....or at least for a while.

I have found that I really don't like knowing everyone's day to day business or their opinions about every.single.thing.in.the.whole.wide.world.  Is that bad?  I especially don't like those posts that asks everyone to like, share or comment on every.single.thing they like or dislike.  I am one who generally keeps my opinions to myself and I like it that way.  So, other than the keeping in contact with close family members to see what's up in their world, I will probably not be seen on FB much at all.  Whew!!  Now that I have gotten that off my chest, lets get on with more important stuff....like what's going on at Beyond the Portico.

We decorated...we had Christmas...we undecorated....YAY!!!!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  Hahaha...

No really, I do have a few Christmas pics to share with you today.  As usual I loved Christmas...BUT so very GLAD IT'S OVER and that all the decorations are put away!!!  The house is pretty much back to normal and it feels good.  Glad to have made it through another year...WHOOOO HOOO!!!.

I will also share here some of our future plans on the house since it didn't sell this past year.  Yes I was terribly disappointed it didn't sell and that I didn't get my house in the country, but I am completely okay with staying put....so long as we make a few updates.

So now without further ado here's a little look at Christmas 2016 for us...

A peak at the dining room first...

I decided to put Bambi on the table and I used some left over greens from the real Douglas Fir tree we put up in the living room to make a nice large centerpiece.

This years tree...7 ft. Douglas fir

So glad we went with the Douglas Fir instead of the Scotch pine this year.  The needles were SOOO much softer to the touch and it was totally gorgeous.

I am totally ashamed that I never got around to putting a tree skirt around her.  UGH!  The mantel turned out lovely though...

You may notice a "special" stocking there.  It was for the kitties...I figured they "needed" a few toys for Christmas since they had to be banished to the basement for most of the holidays to prevent them from climbing...and knocking over...the tree.  LOL.

Notice the new sliding barn door in that pic?  Yes? The hubs and I built a pair of sliding barn doors to hang on the wall over the sofa a few months back.  I hesitate to tell you why, but what the hay...

The hubs decided (demanded) to bring the TV we use for games up out of the basement. I have been FIGHTING him tooth and nail on this; because, for one TV's are completely UGLY and for two, there was really no suitable place to put a TV in our tiny living room.

For 6 years he has thought of EVERY possible place for the thing, including putting it inside the fire box...which he tried at one time....it did make a good YouTube crackling fire for those cold winter nights....Hehehe...remember this? (Christmas 2014)...

Oh yes, the fire looked good but otherwise this was SOOOO RIDICULOUS!!!

When the firebox wasn't working out he wanted me to get rid of my horse painting (which is normally there)...and the sconces...so he could put it on top the mantel...by which I REFUSED!!!!  I mean really, the sconces are hard wired and leaving two big holes in the wall was not an option...PERIOD...and especially not for a big ol' TV!!

Anyway, he was getting super angry and frustrated after 6 long years of not being able to comfortably relax in our living room...and then when the house didn't sell...and the opportunity for a more accommodating living room fell through...I had to compromise with him...after all this is his house too...and retiring every evening to the dank, dark, unfinished basement to play games is a big bummer for everyone.  So...I gave in and said he could hang it on the wall behind the sofa where the big mirror was.

It was the only possible place it would work out...my only demand was that we had to do something to make it look "good", disguise it or hide it...or all of the above...so the gorgeous barn doors...which go so well with my horse picture...were built and installed.

They're not perfect but then again does a barn door have to be perfect? No! We did an awesome job on these though and in my opinion they look GREAT. I will share full pics of them soon!!!

Now for future house plans (that will hopefully be accomplished this year)...we are going to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room (which is load bearing by the way....can anyone say SCARY)!!

Then we are going to gut the entire kitchen and remodel.  I have figured out a plan that will give us more counter space and a proper work triangle...something this house DESPERATELY needs.  I see quartz counter tops, cute tile backsplash and stainless steel appliances in 2017.  Wish us luck! WE ARE GOING TO NEED IT as we are DIYing ALL of it.  However we will probably not begin this project until warm weather because we will be eating a lot of meals outside off the grill. Hehe.

We are also going to try doing as much of this project as we can without taking out a big loan...not sure how that's going to work but we are going to take every penny that ain't nailed down for other things to accomplish this.

Anyway, I will be back later this month with views of the barn doors and the new kitchen layout for you to oogle over.

Ciao for now!