Anniversary celebration...

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary by the demolition of our wall between the kitchen and the family room. Let me tell you, this is a great way to really get your aggression out.

The first photo is of the back of the kitchen where we tore out our final soffit.


The second photo is of the the family room side of the wall where the pocket door is now exposed from the removal of the panelling.


The third photo is with all the panelling off the family room side of the wall.


Here is the wall with the panelling and the drywall off.


And the final two photos are with the framing around the pocket door completely gone. Such a difference.



It's quite amazing not having that wall there any more. It looks so different and really opens up the rooms into one big family area -- just in time for our family!

The electrician has installd three of the four can lights and the two lights over the peninsula. It's pretty cool to have more light in the kitchen. I can't wait to see the difference tomorrow after he finalizes everything.

I've now become the man on the "call a man" list.

Gobbledeegook

Yesterday, Jennifer and I went and received our first round of immunizations. We got Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Tetanus shots. WHOOPEE!

Needless to say, our arms hurt.

In 30 days we go for our next round of Hepatitis B and then five months from that date, we finish our Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B rounds.

Hopefully by then the wait may have sped up and we may know if we have to go for Typhoid and/or Malaria treatments.

We're still waiting to hear if I have to go for MMR -- mumps, measles and rubella. We've heard that children born in the early '70s didn't get the two shot treatment. I s'pose it's necessary to get the second shot now that we'll be going to China. So, I placed a phone call to my mother to find out who I should call as I knew she wouldn't remember. After a week, I should hear back from my pediatrician's office.

That's the latest adoption update.

The latest on the kitchen: Jenn and I finished tearing down our last soffit Thursday and Friday night -- with NO injuries to report. The electrician showed up yesterday and is finishing today. It's very nice to have more light already and he'll be adding four can lights today. CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT! It will certainly be a bright room once that's done. Next week the contractor comes to give the official start date.

Jenn and I will begin the wall-removal this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, tomorrow is our 12th wedding anniversary... my how time flies.

That's it for now...
Kev & Jenn

Never laugh at your husband getting hit...

Another weekend of demo on Brigadoon. We are working on this kitchen in segments as we move towards our start date. Our contractor is going to stop by this week to take a look at the conduit we discovered in the soffits and to hopefully reveal our start date. The living with a kitchen that is spread out over 2.5 tables is getting old and I know I have a minimum of eight more weeks of this.

This weekend we finished removing the last of the upper cabinets and the soffit along the back wall and stove wall. As Kevin was pulling on some of the soffit over the stove, a large piece of it fell down from the ceiling and smacked him across the forehead. I asked if he was ok and he was, but I looked at him and told him that it was going to leave a mark. This made me think to Monday when everyone at work would be inquiring "What happened?" which made me laugh. He of course took it as though I was laughing "AT" him and I wasn't.

Anywho.


As we continued working to clean up as much as possible, we started using wire cutters to cut at the plaster grids along the wall and ceiling. Kevin decided to mow the lawn and left me to continue working with the plaster grids.
I was standing on a step stool in front of the sink and began to pull at some of the grid I had just cut when I lost my balance.


I fell and hit the countertop with the side of my face and chin, I landed on the floor supported by my right knee (the one I had surgery on eight weeks ago). Upon feeling that surge of pain, I ended up somehow having the right side of my head hit the handle on one of the cabinets which led to an immediate cone-shaped knot protruding from my head.

Surprisingly, you can only see a bruise on my knee just above the incision marks and one on my right arm. There are no bruises on my face, yet I have the sensation that someone struck the side of my face with a board and it is very sore. Kevin keeps testing me with questions such as "What year is it?", "Who is the President?", etc.

So, our plans for next weekend...remove this set of cabinets...which means more stuff to put on the table.




And if we can get to it..start the demo on the wall between the kitchen table and family room.



I often think back to almost 12 years ago when Kevin and I got married. He basically had little to no skills in the home improvement department and he will readily admit it. I tell the story every so often...when we lived in our duplex in Highland, IN when we first got married, he literally used a Hot Glue gun to hang up our current rods. Now look at him. He is equipped with a Sawzall, crow bar and a hammer among many other tools. He doesn't have a tool belt, but I think through this kitchen project, he certainly has earned one.

So the title of this post is correct...Never laugh at your spouse getting hit as it will come back to bite you in the a$$.