remodeling adventures

here are some updates on our kitchen remodeling project
we actually spread into working on 4 rooms
amazingly enough, all this has been done in less than 2 months
whoa!

the kitchen is fully functioning now
a bit more finishing touches are needed before we can call it done
that might be a while
but that's okay

notice the mudroom in the background
oh this room is so nice now with paint and fun letters over the children's coat hooks and new flooring and matching painted trim
we just need a door that opens to the outside to finish it off
that's a big project a long ways away

we love having an island!
i think this is going to be a favorite spot

we had a jammy breakfast this morning
mark was embarrassed about his hair - thus the napkin on the head
but this gives an idea of the new dining room colors
ahh, no more boingey greens, just restful
i actually felt like the room was foggy before we put a bit of furniture back in the room


and then there's the front room
we call it the sitting room
my men did some amazing work in here!!!
they hung new drywall to fix the past plaster problems on the stairway wall
then while waiting for the mud to dry in the stairway, hogan and owen decided to rip off all the old wallpaper and grandpa strub skim coated all the walls of the whole big room so we could paint on smooth walls
but then these guys had to sand all that mud
three generations of cute dusty men, huh?


yes, they even let the pregnant momma play with paint
the only condition was that i could not climb a ladder
i even mixed this color myself with free paint from some of my dad's past jobs
1 part mcdonald's bathroom ceiling green - 1 part golden mist - 1 part stone house = honey hazelnut (grandma strub's name for the new color)

able really wanted to help and be a part of all the progress
every time i turned around i found that he had snuck into the work zone
he's a quick one
i just had to let him play a bit so i could snap this shot before rescuing him from the dusty mess

nikao loved helping grandpa work, but he didn't like the noisy shop vac
the earmuffs were grandpa's remedy
nikao has really loved helping anyone work and he's a great happy helper
almost every morning for the past 2 months he's been getting dressed making sure that we understand that he's ready to work


all this has been such an exciting adventure
the best part is enjoying the children as they discover their own adventures
we love living in our house again
though we're far from back in order, it's all livable
i feel like we are in a place that we can relax on the remodeling process and get back to some priorities of family time, learning time, and get ready for baby time
we've got less than 6 weeks left before our baby's due date
there's a whole bunch i'd like to accomplish before baby milligan arrives, but that's where that nesting thing comes in handy

hmmm, every time i post something new i think of all the things that got left out
so we'll have to continue updating more fun stuff later

The latest in kitchen work.

Able gets painting lessons from Grandpa Strub.

First the priming coat.

Then the new green!

Grandpa Strub sure trusts Hogan since he's letting him roll close to the cabinets!

Lots of industry!

All tuckered out.

Okay Val, here's some pictures of our progress...

here's mark loading our dumpster in the driveway full of destructo materials - cabinets, old flooring, plaster, and carpet. i'm not really sure if they'll charge us for all the snow in there too?

old floor, new floor
laying down the lauan on the old wood floor to prepare for the new vinyl kitchen floor. nikao has loved helping papa on our kitchen project. each morning he lets us know that he is dressing for work.
leannora getting a turn at a new kind of kitchen work


even able got to "help" a bit. it's fun to watch him imitate the work that's going on. we've had to corral him in the pack -n- play some to keep him out of too much trouble.

part of kim's under construction cooking methods - stirring food on a step stool for the microwave on the fridge in the dining room

our "sink" is a couple of totes in the bathtub. this is Christmas day. grandma sara offered to do the dishes, but kim wanted proof of her 7 month pregnant belly and the daily adventures of remodeling.

we'll have to give a view of our other kitchen/dining areas spread over 4 rooms in the future.

unfortunately we missed some really great photo opportunities of trying to lay out, cut, and glue our new vinyl flooring. mark amazingly wrestled a 30x12 roll of vinyl out across the 18x10 kitchen, through the doorway, and into the 10x5 mudroom without creating any holes!
bill and sara helped us glue the stuff down and roll it out with our rolling pin on Christmas eve. but the pictures below show our progress and the new floors all installed!

grandpa strub came to help us and got to take part in the major transformation. today we accomplished installing can lights, paneling, and a few of the new cabinets as well as patching the mud room walls and kitchen ceiling.

wow!

(check this post out again as we might add a few photos here instead of creating a new post.)

Christmas time

Here's the children decorating this year's Christmas tree. In case you're trying to figure it out, we tore off the plaster to start a project, then hung plastic and lights and ornaments. Yup, it's an odd year.

Christmas celebrating with Grandpa Bill, Grandma Sara, and Daisy - December 24 -26

Grandpa Bill reads the children one of their presents.

Able enjoys his new ball.

Lots of giving.


Nikao's a tired boy after only half a day of celebrating.


A Christmas visit at Great Grandpa and Grandma Hartzell's house
December 27
Grandpa and Grandma had prepared some grab bag gifts to share along with yummie snacks and goodies for our quick little Christmastime visit.

Hogan is holding Great Grandpa Hartzell's childhood teddy bear.
It was repaired as a gift for Grandpa this year. Pretty neat!


Strub, Bentz, and Milligan family Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma Strub's
December 29 - 31

December 29, 2008
Happy 4th Birthday Daniel Lee Bentz!

8 Strub grandchildren!

2 cute grand daughters!

thank you for the Christmas presents!

Hogan's helping with the gift wrap galore cleanup.



Coming Soon:

Christmas Celebration 2009

We will be traveling to Hudson, WI January 8 & 9 to visit Uncle Matt, Aunt Monica, cousin Ava and to meet our new nephew Luke Elijah Milligan!

So here's handsome Luke at one month.

Bedtime stories with Uncle Matt.
Even Ava tries to call her daddy Uncle Matt in all the excitement of cousin fun.



We made time to play with Matt too. Matt and Monica introduced us to a new game - Settlers of Catan. Mark was having fun playing with our new camera. He took the picture of the game, so maybe it's worth adding to the blog?


Mark played with different camera settings for quite a while. This was my favorite shot.

Ava is sure a cutie!
This is her surprize look.


Well, we ended up getting to stay an extra day. That made time for more playing, yummy snacking, and Settlers fun late into the night. We had a rematch round. Mark won. I suppose we're all a little tired of Matt wining all the time. We also got to see the house that Matt and Monica currently have an offer in on in Hudson. That was fun too.

Our Kitchen

This WAS our kitchen.

The big boys took out some cabinets all by themselves.





















Here's Kim trying to fit in one last load of dishes before I remove the machine.

cloud room part two

here are a variety of perspectives of the pretty cloud room
the momma wanted the room to have the look of a night sky,
so of course we added glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling!

one day we hope that this will be our girl's bedroom
for now, Leannora shares the room with Able

Leannora loves to look out the window from her bed

she really loves to see the moon!

we had fun taking pictures of the cloud room
Leannora, Nikao, and Able were my helpers

July 29, 2008 cloud room done
August 6 - Leannora gets to sleep in her new room!

so the silly story goes . . . the momma spent 6 months trying to complete what started as a simple idea. imagine that!?! she didn't actually work for those 6 months. (you may want to review the cloud room - part one post in august 2008.) we began this adventure at the end of february. the first attempt of painting was not the picture hoped for, so the papa gave the momma permission to pick out the night sky blue color she had dreamed up. the momma chalked out the cloud positions and excitedly painted the sky and then had no idea how to continue. we invited some artistic friends over for a meal and to ask for their advice and help. they kindly taught the momma how to blend the clouds just right. the technique turned out to be beautiful, but not so simple and very time consuming - lots of twisting and blending the white and blue. the momma got pretty tired of twisting.
then we were expecting company - a big family. the momma thought it would be good to clean up the painting room so our friends could use the open space. well, we got a vacation from the project. for a few months or so the room just waited for us to prep it for more painting. (the momma procrastinated for a while.) we finally returned to the twisting. even the papa pitched in in. and then, with dilligence, it only took a few weeks to finish off! yahoo!

the best part of all was giving the gift of a fun bedroom to our little lady
sweet dreams!

and the story continues . . .

cousin Daniel celebrated his 4th birthday with a big boy bed
Leannora gladly shared her bed
she was so excited to see what his new bed looked like
upon seeing her old bed in his room she said,
"it doesn't look like a girl bed anymore"

so once again Leannora is waiting to return to her room
we will be moving a set of bunk beds to the cloud room
in the waiting time Leannora gets to sleep on the top bunk
in the boy's room
Able is alone in the cloud room
and this has worked out well because he has been a grumpy teether

then once the new baby arrives
things might get switched around again
wow! we could have cloud room parts 3, 4, 5 . . .