Although there are workers in the house all day long doing repairs, we can't help but stop by at times to check on the progress. Stuart told me that our contractor had called him with an update that the kitchen tile was complete and needed to set up overnight so we couldn't walk on it if we came to the house. Well, I couldn't wait another minute and we headed over there as soon as we thought the workers would be done for the day.
When we moved into the house, the kitchen was pink. I mean all pink. Pink wall paper, pink countertops, and even the vinyl flooring has some pink tones in it. Ugh! We quickly painted the walls and Stuart replaced the countertops himself but we never did get around to tackling the kitchen floor. This year we had actually made the plan for Stuart to take a whole week off of work and the two of us would work together on replacing that vinyl flooring with tile ourselves. But that task was a little daunting since we have never worked with tile and there are so many nooks and crannies that would have to be covered including the bathroom, 2 closets, and the laundry room. So when I walked into the house and saw that we had a new beautiful porcelain tile everywhere that used to have pink vinyl flooring, I was truly overwhelmed.
Our contractor is such a blessing to us. Insurance paid to replace the vinyl flooring with new vinyl flooring but Richard was able to find us a great deal on this tile and he helped us decided on some other items that we would repair on our own in order to put that money into the tile upgrade.
I just can't help but do the Happy Dance as I look back at these pictures! I'm so excited!
Some of the laminate flooring is in as well. Here is our school room. They will replace the base boards next.
The playroom that the kids are standing in used to have old builder grade carpet in it but now it has the same new hard surface as the rest of the downstairs. It will be so much easier to clean. I pray that getting rid of the dust-collecting carpet will help Nicholas and me with our allergies and asthma.
As we see our new kitchen coming together it is really hard to look at that builder grade stove that is 23 years old and doesn't work well. Insurance has paid us to replace some of our personal items that were damaged in the flood but we've decided to not replace those and put that money into getting a new stove.
We have been doing really well about eating breakfast and lunch in the hotel room to try to save money. We have a little fridge in the room so we keep milk and sandwich meat and a few frozen items there and it has gotten us through great. But we decided to go out for lunch today and I let the kids pick where they wanted to go. I was craving a big salad so that was the only requirement that I gave for the restaurant. I think that gave Nicholas the idea for picking Souper Salad. They have a full salad bar as well as pizza, pasta, baked potatoes, soups, tacos, etc. And it is all-you-can-eat so the kids loving going back to the bar as often as they want.
After our lunch, we went to many places to shop for stoves and even to look at kitchen cabinets because that may be another blessing our contractor is working on. Insurance has paid to replace the insides of the lower kitchen cabinets because they absorbed water from the flood but our contractor said that the cost to do that will probably not be much different than just replacing the whole cabinet. He is working with the numbers to see if he can find a way for us to replace the upper cabinets as well and still stay within our budget. The kids did a great job and behaving well after hours of shopping. So I didn't feel too bad when we left our last store, Home Depot, and we all got a little treat.
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