Our last Curbly House update was a while ago, so I wanted to check in and let you know how it’s all going. If there were one sentence to summarize phase two of our home renovation, it would be: Damn you, winter.
Weather has not been on our side this time around. In fact, weather has been our nemesis. We had (too optimistically?) hoped to dig the foundation for our addition in January. But it was freezing, so we thought February would be the golden month. But that was even colder than January. So March was our month. Even once we started, things went in fits and spurts, because every other day this happened:
Or this:
That’s April in Minnesota for you.
Or this:
Pretty … annoying!
And it went on like this until mid-May. No joke. Or, rather, BIG joke on us.
Bruno spent several hours a week just shoveling off the un-enclosed addition:
That’s our bedroom, in case you can’t tell.
Exactly a week after our last snowfall of the season, we had our new roof installed. It was 90 degrees and every time I walked out of the house one of the roofers was lying on our lawn in a semi-conscious state. Those poor guys. I feared the project might kill them, but they pressed on and completed the 2-day project in 3 days. And, it looks great. The exterior of the house will eventually be painted. In the meantime, I’m smitten:
Our new roof (also check out the new sunroom windows … more on those later)
At the moment, the future kitchen and master bedroom look like this (progression):
(That’s from the outside; kitchen on the lower level, bedroom upstairs. Exterior framing, sheeting and roofing is complete.)
Next week, the entire kitchen will be gutted and framed, and we’ll be moving in with my parents for a short time to avoid me having a nervous breakdown. It’s an incredibly exciting time around here, but the noise and mess and chaos are a tich overwhelming. Fortunately, our kids are taking the craziness in stride, and the end is in sight. Who knew having a construction project going on in the back yard would be better than a babysitter?
Kids love watching heavy machinery … it’s a fact.
This weekend we packed up our kitchen …
… and moved it into the dining room:
(That plastic is up to keep the mess from the kitchen demolition out of the rest of the house.)
The thing we’ve missed the most since we moved in is a functional kitchen. Our crockpot, toaster oven, hot plate rotation has been exhausted, and we are looking forward to countertops and appliances. Once a week we have a daydream session about the first meal we’ll cook in the new kitchen.
We have a beautiful kitchen planned, and we’ve been working with a wonderful cabinet sponsor (Aristokraft) to make the space our own. Our kitchen designer, Jeannine, is a gem and she’s helped us create a space that will be the heart of this house.
Here were are with Jeannine designing our kitchen on a giant flatscreen TV. Awesome.
Our preliminary floor plan:
And an elevation view of the west wall of the kitchen:
We’re still vaccilating about cabinet colors and countertops, and we have several images that are inspiring us:
Papyrus Home Design
Aristokraft
Better Homes and Gardens
Aristokraft
Aristokraft
We’ll also be working with Sherwin-Williams and Kohler as we cook this kitchen to perfection. We’re excited to add color to this space, and completely open to color recommendations (tell us your idea in the comments).
In the meantime, I have been watching this video about the most amazing sink in the world for two-days straight. I mean, this sink … seriously.
We plan to be back with some progress updates in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, and thanks for sticking with us!