excitement

We had quite the excitement yesterday afternoon when we found water leaking into our basement storage room. Matt noticed the leak when Lola walked up to the pipe for the faucet to drink the water. The shutoff valve for the cold water was not working correctly and had a slow, un-noticeable stream of water leaking from it. The water leaked down the pipe and through the floor into the the storage room below. When we got to the room there was about an inch of water on the floor, the smell of mildew was overwhelming, and mold was on several things. Instead of spending the day installing cabinets and putting on cabinet doors as we had planned, we immediately called a plumber and started moving boxes that we could out of the storage room.

After the inital shock of the situation, we cleared the storage room and tried to stay in good spirits. We assessed the first wave of damage...there was damage to frames, collectibles, boxes, and most importantly...Matt's commissioning certificate and diploma. We threw many things away and were able to salvage a few items from the boxes that were directly effected. Most importantly, we saved the commissioning certificate and diploma.

We began today by cleaning. The Ehn's let us barrow their shop vac to get all the water out then Mandy and I bleached the room. Following the cleaning, we went through the remaining boxes. Almost all the remaining things were able to be salvaged. Mandy and I did have fun going through some of Matt's things from college...

At least it was only water and there wasn't more damage. There is always an adventure around here....

.katherine.

more kitchen renovation

Hello readers! It has been a week since the last post, longer than we meant to take so it shouldn't surprise you to know it is Matt writing this time.

We left off last post with Katherine starting to paint. Since then we have made considerable but less impressive progress than the first week. For starters, I have been pulling back to back alerts leaving Katherine home alone to conquer the kitchen by herself.

As you can see she completed the new paint job, and what an interesting color we have picked. We are hoping it ties the dark appliances and the lighter cabinets together.

After feeling more a hindrance than a help last week, Oscar and Lola vowed to provide more assistance this time around. Here they can be seen reminding us of how quickly time passes when you are remodelling a kitchen.

Next, it was time for the manly stuff. So we invited Chris Perr, our manly friend over, and he demonstrated the proper way to align the spine when installing cabinets. In about an hour and a half we installed all of the wall cabinets.

Not pictured here are the following scenes:

1) Katherine noticing that our freshly hung cabinets are slightly crooked

2) Me being a good husband and not saying anything TOO inappropriate

3) Katherine and I taking down most of our day's hard work

4) Katherine and I putting the same cabinets back up 3 different times with varying incorrect results

5) Katherine demoing the ceiling

6) Chris Perr coming back over to help us correctly hang the cabinets

Next on the docket was floor removal. Again, I was kind enough to leave this all to Katherine. She did a wonderful enough job to leave her a spare moment to take an artsy transition picture.

When I got home, Oscar was helping quality check the cabinets and the ladder.

Lola tried to help, but quickly discovered her own paralyzing fear of heights.

Soon thereafter, Katherine and I cut the new floor to size. She used her techniques and I used my own.

Similarly, the dogs each helped in their own way.

Then, of course, they got quite tired.

Katherine glued the floor in anticipation of the appliances being delivered and installed the next day.

The dogs were none too happy about the whole "not allowed to romp in the new kitchen as we let the glue dry" rule. There may have also been some abandonment issues to resolve.

However, at the end of the day, all was well and the new room met the approval of the little guys.

 

So, all in all, we did accomplish a fair amount of work. There is plenty more to post next time to include the arrival and installation of our appliances (spoiler alert, we now have fresh ice cubes and cold drinking water somewhere in our kitchen), the replacing of the cabinet doors, the dreaded base cabinets and plumbing and the exciting and much anticipated conclusion to the on-going mystery:

What will our first meal from the new kitchen be? 

-Matt

kitchen renovation

Today is the end of day six on our kitchen renovation!  It has been a crazy project but we are really excited about it.  The goal is to be mostly done by Monday...that is when we get the new appliances.  Here is what it looked like before:

We spent the Friday night planning the cabinet layout, changing it, making drawings of it, and then sleeping on the ideas. 

Day One, Saturday, we woke up excited to get started!  After getting ready we went down to the kitchen to finalize the layout...which was pretty simple, both Matt and I really liked the same one.  After FOUR hours in Menards we finally headed home with our cabinets.  Thanks to Nate and Nicole we only had to make one trip!  We got them all unloaded and began unpacking them.  Our living room quickly turned into a work room.

Chris and Jackie came over to help and my schedule was quickly thrown out the window!  After the first coat of stain was almost done, I quickly took all the food and dishes out of the existing cabinets.  The dining room transformed from a place to eat to a storage room and the boys had very little trouble getting to the demo...they were VERY excited about it! 

While they took out all the old cabinets, Jackie and I put the first coat of polyurethane on the cabinets, hammered down nails on pieces that were heading to the trash, and took care of trash removal.

At the end of day one we discovered seven wall colors and were a few days ahead of the schedule!

 

Sunday, day two, we asked Stephan to come look at the walls.  We planned to patch them, however, after looking at them and watching how quickly they crumbled we decided to replace the drywall.  Stephan planned to stay for the day to help us out.  He and Matt quickly got to work by taking out the window that will be over the sink!    

While they ran to Menards, I tore down all the old plasterboard. 

Jackie and Chris came back over in the afternoon and, again, my schedule was thrown out (I haven't tried to make another one after this)!  The first window was installed.

Chris took out the other window.

The drywall was put up, the second window installed, the existing outlets were moved up on the wall, and two more outlets were installed for the dishwasher and disposal.

Jackie and I finished the polyurethane on the cabinets.

The last thing of the evening was to move the stove out from the wall and the fridge and dishwasher into the dining room.  At the end of the day there were five people working, nine Starbucks drinks consumed, and a TON of work completed! 

 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, days three, four, and five, were much less exciting.  They were all slower days spent mudding and sanding. 

Stephan also hooked up all the outlets on Wednesday.  

It was good fun us to have some slower days...we needed to rest and Matt was gone for one of them!

Today, day six, I finally primed and painted!  

We also spent a while cleaning up all of the tools and trash so we can just get to work tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will head to Menards to finalize the counter top and start installing the cabinets.  It has been a fun project...I will be very happy to have my kitchen back though! 
.katherine.

memory lane

To catch up to today on Matt's and my story here is a little trip down memory lane...

Matt and I met during my Junior year, his Senior year at Woodbridge High School.  We were great friends throughout the year and started dating the night of prom, even though we didn't go together. 

In the summer of 2003 Matt graduated high school and went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. 

In the summer of 2004 I graduated from high school and went to James Madison University in Virginia.

We dated long distance through the next four years, snagging whatever time we could together.  We went on several little trips, I traveled out to Colorado, and we spend hundreds of hours on the phone! 

Matt graduated from the Academy on May 31, 2007. 

During Matt's sixty days of leave we took a backpacking trip through France and Germany, went to a wedding, met a lot of family, went to the beach with his family, and took a road trip to California. 

 

 

At the end of his leave, Matt reported to his first assignment, Vandenberg, California.

 

That Christmas when he came home he FINALLY asked me to marry him...of course I said yes (after a few other choice words and tears)!

 

During my last semester in college I finished my senior thesis, was a hall director, and planned our wedding.

In May of 2008 I graduated from JMU.

 

A few weeks later Matt graduated from missile IQT and moved to his second assignment, Minot, North Dakota.

 

On September 20, 2008 we got married in Woodbridge, Virginia...right where it all started.

 

We took our honeymoon to Orlando, Florida.

 

A few days later we moved all my things to North Dakota, into our first house!

 

We got our first puppy, Oscar, in October of 2008. 

 

We experenced our first North Dakota winter, the worst one they have had in years! (It started snowing in October and we had the last snow fall in May!)

At Christmas, it was just the two of us...the first time away from the families for the holiday. 

We got our second puppy, Lola, in January of 2009. 

In July 2009 we purchased our first home and moved off base with help from my brother, Sean. 

We spend the next month unpacking, painting, and adding our touches to the house.

 

We had the house unpacked and set-up for a visit from Mom and Aunt Fawn in August 2009. 

For our first anniversary we took a trip to Denver, Colorado to see the Patriots play the Broncos.

On Christmas day 2009, we got to experence a North Dakota blizzard and were snowed in for three days!

In January 2010, we took a long weekend to renovate the bathroom. 

We spend the past year teaching the second grade sunday school class and they made their first communion in April.

We started renovation on our basement in April and it is an ongoing project.

Most recently, we went home to see our families!

As if that weren't enough, there were many more great times inbetween.  That gives you the summary of our lives over the past few years and what we have been up to.  As of now...the house is still a work in progress, we have now been married for a year and a half, and we are enjoying the many adventures of married life and North Dakota! 

.katherine.