post of many photos

finally, some kitchen updates and some great weather to work on the yard. lets see, i spent last thursday and friday building the base cabinets for the kitchen and ripping out the old base cabinets, sink and counter. that was reallllly gross.



i ran to lowes to pick up the laminate we had ordered for the counters, and oddly enough the sink ordered from ikea mysteriously showed up on my front porch later that nite. i'm just glad i didn't have to drive out there again to pick it up. saturday morning we got a very early start with breakfast at steak and shake [no kitchen water yet...] and picking up a few supplies at lowes. ian spent most of the day getting 2 base cabinets installed and reworking all the plumbing underneath. we had a few issues with the faucet i ordered last year... its much heavier than we realized, and we had to do some extra work to get the sink to support it. so long story short... ian built the countertops, installed the sink, how water dispenser and garbage disposal, and the dishwasher is in place, ready to be hooked up.




i've started putting in the drawers and doors. hopefully we'll finish the plumbing tonight and will have running water in the kitchen again. ian is going to put the edging strip on the front of the counter and finish up a few more small things. we still need to install the 2 cabinets on the other side of the stove, which shouldn't take as long since there is no plumbing. phew! just running the water line over to the fridge. once thats done, we can start on the upper cabinets, finishing the drywall, install the backsplash and paint! i think we've decided on natural slate for the floor... it works well with the oak cabinets and countertop we decided on. more photos will come as progress is made.

we've also managed to install the dining room chandelier and the light that will be above the kitchen island.




while ian was busy with the kitchen stuff this weekend, i took advantage of the beautiful weather and started on the front landscaping. i managed to get a nice start on my tan and got a great workout lifting all the landscaping blocks. before that i had to dig out a small tree in front of the house and level out the ground for the blocks. i also had to touch up quite a few spots where the mortar had worn off the foundation.... wasn't as hard as i thought. just murder on the hands. so much for my manicure :) this is how its looking so far:



hopefully today i can get a coat of tar on the foundation and put some plastic down. we need to pick up a shit load of gravel and soil later this week, after i get the next 2-3 rows of blocks on. once all thats done, somewhere down the road we'll be painting the house. so if i have any volunteers to help..... :)