It is over

It has been a long time since I posted. Work has been progressing, but I found it far too depressing to chronicle the slow pace of that progress. I honestly thought we'd never be finished.

But, I was wrong. What I was assured would be a six week job has taken almost a year, for many reasons - some of which were out of our control. But none of that matters now, because it is finished!

Let me remind you what our kitchen used to look like.

This is the back wall where we now have french doors out to the deck that we'll be building this summer:





This is the where we now have our shelf thing and new fridge. The stove is in approximately the same place:





This is what it looked like gutted:





This is what it looked like with our back wall knocked out for the new doors:





And, drumroll please.... this is what it looks like now.













Let's have one closer look at the "shelf thing". This was Rob's vision, and I think it turned out great!



And, last but not least, this is what Patrick looks like now. Well, it is what Rob looks like now, too, but he doesn't look much different than he did this time last year. Patrick, on the other hand, was just a baby when this whole thing began! These two are way more fun to look at than the kitchen, at least for me :-)

Mission Accomplished

Goal: Under 2:15
Challenge goal: Under 2:10
Ultimate goal: Under 2:05

Actual time: 2:03:59

WE KILLED IT!

Apologies for the embarrassingly tiny images. I guess the marathon-photo people make the online pictures really small so more people will buy the big ones.

Rob was an awesome coach, he talked me through my negativity during the last 5K and let it roll of his back when I sniped at him that I couldn't do it, that we had started off too fast, that this whole thing was a stupid idea. Rob rules the school, in case you did not already know this.

The course was awful - the final 3K were uphill, and you couldn't see the finish line until you were practically on top of it. I hated that - I like to focus on the finish line and dig deep for a good long sprint at the end.

But, none of that matters. We crossed the finish line together, we soundly beat our goal time, life is good.

And of course, special thanks to Auntie Shannon and Uncle Shawn who wrangled Peej while we were off helping me achieve a life goal. They even showed up along the route to cheer us on just as I was hitting the wall. Best pick-me-up ever.

Trucking along...

Things are slowly but surely being crossed off our never-ending to-do list.

Rob built some temporary stairs to and from the back yard, that will tide us over until we build a new deck next spring.



The trim around the french doors has been completed. It will be primed and painted once the rest of the trim is in place.





The thing with the shelves is complete and primed, but not yet painted. That is our old TV that you see there, that I bought seven years ago at the Great Glebe Garage Sale for $10. We will eventually be replacing it with something slightly more spiffy and with up-to-date technology such as a remote control. Hee.



And, we have figured out our island solution. We didn't want anything that would overwhelm the room too much, so we decided to go with a butcher-block top table. We still are a bit undecided on this, so we might decide to tile the top to match the counter, but we're going to leave it as is for now to see how we like it.





We had a great summer of fun and relaxation. Despite my concerns of schedule-creep at the start of this project, I was glad we took some time off to enjoy life.

Patrick had an eventful summer.

He met his idol...



He did lots of playing in the water...



He got his first ever haircut...



And basically just enjoyed life. Life is good.

I am so it.

Evidently, in my absence, I was tagged. Therefore I am it.

* We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
* Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
* People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
* At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and they should read your blog.

So, hmm. Eight random things about me.

1) I hate bananas.
2) I love my PVR more than is right or proper.
3) I am training to run a half marathon in October. This it the fourth time I have begun training to run a half marathon, however I have not yet actually run a half marathon. The first time I chickened out and ran the 10K instead, the second time I got pregnant and had to stop training, and the third time we started renovating our kitchen and training fell by the wayside. Here's hoping that the fourth time is the charm.
4) If I wake up in the middle of the night, it takes me hours to get back to sleep
5) By far the most useful class I took in high school was typing.
6) I find it really hard to come up with eight random facts about myself. Am I that boring, really?
7) I realized I was pregnant in an airport.
8) My idea of heaven used to involve snow, mountains, and skis on my feet, however this has changed. Snow, mountains and skis on my feet are all still very awesome, but heaven, actual heaven, is an empty house, a pizza, some bits n bites, and a stack of cheesy movies on DVD. Maybe even throw in an US or a People magazine for good measure.

Ok so now on to tagging people. How about :

Suzie
Pattyfaye
Jenn
Smarties
Chelle
Tamara
Monster
JL

And last, but obviously not least, here is a picture of Patrick doing what he does best. The answer would be 'Being cute', not 'Sticking his tongue out with crazyhair':



Thanks to Julie for the photo.

Alive!

Believe it or not, we are still alive!

We took some time off from kitchening to enjoy what remained of summer. But, with summer over, we have revived our kitchen work, and, hence, this blog rises from the dead. With fall barely begun we have already made some progress on the kitchen in the way of trim, and temporary stairs to the back yard before Project Back Deck begins in Spring 2008. Pictures to follow.

In other news, after abandoning our training for the Ottawa Half Marathon in May in favour of working on the kitchen, we have resumed training and will be running the Toronto Half Marathon in October.

Training is coming very well. We are running four days a week, with a mid-week hill training run, and a long run on Sundays. Our long run this week will be 18k. The following week will be 20k. The week after that will be 21k, with a rest week before race day.

I am already exceedingly nervous about the race. To help me overcome my race day jitters, Rob kicked my ass in a 10k race last weekend.





Up next for the kitchen is remaining hardware, trim, plastering, and painting.

We think we have found an island solution, it remains to be implemented.

And, finally, the tiling of the backsplash has been put on hold for the time being. It will be plastered and painted, with tiling to follow at a later date.

That's it for now, I'll get some pictures up this weekend.

Great Googly Moogly!

Believe it or not, some real progress was made on the kitchen this weekend in between runs along the river, trips to the playground wading pool, and picnics on Bates Island.

We decided to put two drawers in the space under the microwave:


Almost all remaining handles are now in place, and the kick-plates to bring the cabinets to the floor have been installed!







Up next: Trim and under-cabinet lighting. Home stretch? Not yet. But close.

You thought you were home-free, I know. But what kind of Mother would I be if I didn't include a couple of pictures of my kid? Give me some credit, please.

Title Title Bo-Bitle

Despite not having posted in quite some time, we are still trucking, and the kitchen is still not finished.

There have been some minor steps forward.

The trim kit for the microwave has been installed, leaving plenty of room for another drawer underneath.



Other than that, we have been on vacation!

First we visited PJ's Grandparents and Great-Grandma on Manitoulin Island. Grandma got into Patrick's good books by giving him bites of pie.



Granddad went the route of allowing Patrick to operate heavy and dangerous machinery, much to Mama's dismay.



Great-Grandma was impressed with her one and only Great-Grandson.



Patrick learned to throw rocks into the water. Throwing rocks is fun!



We went to the beach. There was a big slide, and swings!









Then we headed to R&Js cottage near Otter Lake Quebec for some family relaxifying. We played in the water, went fishing, and had a fantastic time. Thanks R&J!









The Fleminskis arrived on the weekend and we had a great time watching the kiddoes play, and doing some playing of our own after the kids went to bed - bean game, anyone?





Thanks for sharing all your toys with Patrick, Sadie!



Now it is back to reality, and back to the kitchen. Let's get this thing done, shall we?