We are all done with the major aspects of the kitchen. We still need to paint the main door and find seating for the kitchen table. Other than that we’re done! Although I wanted the kitchen remodel it is more of a gift for Steven as he is the chef and I am just a line cook, if that. We are finally able to take pleasure in cooking and reminiscing in the kitchen. Now off to eat dinner at the kitchen table. ENJOY!
If your answer is Awesome then you win! It is awesome but not for the reason you think this is awesome. If you think this is awesome you might be an alcoholic. At Brewers Connection some very helpful employees assisted us in fooling you and most people who come to our house. Yes, this is a beer tap. No, beer does not flow through it. Our new sink does not have an outlet for our filtered water. Being resourceful we decided to use this beer tap to be our filtered water faucet. Maybe someday we will add a tap for intended use. Until then I will enjoy some freshly filtered water.
Tomorrow the counter-tops will be installed. Then we are left to the little things: caulking, installing water tap, hooking up the sink, oh…and putting everything back in the kitchen. We will have more decorating to do but that will come slowly. 
tiling project we are hiring out. My back, knees and sanity are things I prefer to keep.
The kitchen is finally coming together. We tiled last weekend and installed the table this week. The table idea came out of a predicament. When tearing down drywall we discovered that the wall between the kitchen and dining room was load bearing. Never something you want to learn after demolishing the rooms. So we had a two choices. First choice was to hire a structural engineer to design and hang a beam from wall to wall. Big bucks and a lot more time. Second option was to install a post. Against the pleading of family we decided to put a post. I think they did not like to post because they thought we'd walk right into it not noticing a huge post in our way. We knew we had find a creative way to incorporate the post into the kitchen. So we installed a second post thinking to install a table making it a permanent fixture in the kitchen.
Finding a table top was 
the fun part. I like the decorating and shopping, not particularly the hard labor. Steven had the great idea about a year ago to make a table out of a door. The problem with that is most doors have holes for the door knob already cut out or they have the door knob installed. Luckily on an afternoon drive we came across Passport Imports. They had dining room and coffee tables already constructed out of doors. So we purchased one, sawed off the legs and with the help of my parents (the table weighs as much as a baby elephant) hung the table between two beams.
The hanging table is colorful and unexpected. Just the touch we are always looking for!
With all the construction workers out now we're in control of finishing up this project. You can see from the update a few days ago that the pink tile is out, the wall is gone and two posts were put in its place. It room has drastically changed. Steven and I sit on the floor of the kitchen and try to imagine what it use to look like. It is almost a figment of our imagination. Luckily we remembered to take before pictures to remind us (this is the step we usually forget).
We had a few hiccups with the remodel but now were back on track. One of the major hiccups was finding out the wall between the kitchen and dining room was a load bearing. We replaced it with one post to hold the beam but decided to add a second post to even out the room. Between the posts we plan on hanging a table as a built in. We purchased a table top that is actually an framed antique door. The goal, as always, is to put something where it is least expected. I've started looking at chandeliers for above the table but I know there are a lot of things to get done before we even get to the table, let alone decorative lighting. The next step though, now that we're done painting, is to put the cabinets in and then tile this weekend. By the way we discovered some exceptional paint called FastHide. It dries in an hour which allowed us to paint the whole room twice in one evening. It saved us some of our lost time for our contractor woes.
Back to the kitchen. The remodel was supposed to be a 3.5 possibly 4 week project but it has turned into a 6 week project. At least that is the projection right now. It took 5 days to demo the entire kitchen and we’re on week three of waiting for our handyman to finish up. So six weeks if our handyman decides to finish in the next few days. Hiring him was a huge mistake and we're paying in time for his speed and blunders. Home improvement lesson 17 is do your homework on hiring out and lesson 18 is be more specific in a contract. Hopefully we'll be able to paint and tile this week but we're not holding our breath anymore. I've been living and working in a construction zone and it's driving me nuts.
Before:
After demo:
