House O' Sullivans

Ha!!!  We have MOST of a kitchen.  The biggest share of the counter top is in.  (There is a small piece between the stove and the fridge that remains to be seen.)  We have a sink and faucet.  (AND they work!)  ALL of the cabinets are up (although we still need to put the crown molding on top).  The backsplash on the walls above the base cabintes still needs doing.  The kick board on the cabinets needs installed.  The base molding needs to be purchased, painted and installed around the room.  The floor is ALMOST done.  We need to put in a few more tiles then put on the reducer stuff that goes between the new floor and the surrounding existing floors.  But LOOK . . . it actually LOOKS like a kitchen!  The kids are especially loving the new floor.  We have been walking around on plywood for MONTHS and now we have a smooth (read "luxurious") new floor.  The kids have created several games that incorporate ...

We really LIVE in our living room right now.  With the turn in the weather, the outdoor dining is less appealing and the people have moved inside to consume their victuals.  The girls seem to think that the couch is where they should wipe their greasy hands and Zeke is sure that's the place to clean his face.  Arrggghhhhh! So Casey and his friend Jeff (a French stone-carver and sculptor) have been working on the granite countertop.  They started a few weeks ago and have put in maybe three days total labor on it.  They put the corner piece in last Saturday (the one that you can see in the photo).  The rest of it is in the garage getting polished and primed for a supposed install this weekend.  Last weekend, Casey and Jeff were flipping it over (the big piece) and it snapped in half on the narrow sink surround.  That was a mighty set-back since they had to reinforce it with metal rods, patch, and polish all of the newly create...

This is where we're at.  Casey is totally laying down on the job.  Take note of the plywood floor, the barren walls, the sinkless (stoneless) plywood counter.  Still washing dishes in the bathroom sink and/or tub (or the backyard, which is Casey's preference).  Still eating in the backyard on various tertiary tables (real and improvised).  Oh yes, apparently it will get cold and rainy next week.  Maybe we'll move our picnics down to Wayne's Bar.  (It's about time I dusted that old thing off.)

Since the kitchen is still ripped apart (it's been more than a month in the non-functional state) we spend a whole lotta time in the backyard.  The weather has been PERFECT, so it's been a blessing to enjoy it so fully. Soph and Hal carefully, painstakingly, taped these two apple boxes together.  The newly constructed device is a boat, a train, a car, pretty much WHATEVER the situation calls for.

A few weeks ago when we ripped out the kitchen cabinets and flooring, I started herding the kids outside to the covered patio for meals.  Thanks to our neighbor Annie's donation--an old redwood picnic table--we still had a place to eat.  Thankfully, the weather during the last few weeks has been AWESOME.  This week Casey started cutting the counter top from a slab I picked out at the stone yard and he took over our secondary table. So NOW we are eating at the tertiary table in the middle of the backyard.  It's constructed from a large piece of wood, supported by Casey's giant boulder and an old sawhorse (that doubles as the girl's practice soccer goal) and stabilized by a few additional rocks.  Hallee just about dumped the whole thing over at dinner tonight. I'm REALLY hoping that we can get the kitchen done before it gets cold.  Or before we get moved to a quaternary table.  This is getting really CRAZY.