Wednesday, May 27, 2009

It's a room again!

They put up drywall yesterday and today. But first, here's a pic of the hole in the kitchen floor they made, in order to run wires, etc. under the house and not have to start at the opposite side of the house every time.





And here's pics of the new drywall. Doorway to the laundry room:



Windows with sink below:



New window with new half wall leading to the dining room:

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Remodel update

Wednesday last week they knocked down the wall in between the kitchen and dining room, leaving this:



This is the cable and phone cord my dad and Mike ran over the weekend. I'll now have a phone and cable tv in the kitchen *yay*



The rough in for the sink:



And this is the new window (raised) re-positioned to fit normal counter-height cabinets. To the left is the window in the dining room that was the same size as the old kitchen window, so you can compare.




Inspector comes today to ok the electrical, and then I believe they have some plumbing to do (for the dishwasher) before drywall will begin being installed. Then I would assume the new tile floor and next Friday (June 5) the cabinets and countertops are being installed.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Where did the kitchen go?

Here's what I found when I got home today (before pictuers in previous post):

The doorway to the dining room (the wall to the right is going to be knocked down at some point)



The window facing the neighbor. Where the fridge was, and where the breakfast table should have been!



Where the sink used to be (under the windows)



Kitchen remodel... underway!

Today began the task of remodeling our kitchen. Here's the before pics:



(this next shot shows where the fridge was SUPPOSED to go, but ours didn't fit)



(and this is where we "temporarily" put the fridge until we could remodel.... almost 4 years ago! There was a breakfast nook/table there when we moved in.)






This is how it looked after emptying everything out over the weekend and last night:

Mike took out the cabinet that is on the other side of the stove in the previous picture (just inside from the dining room), and found this behind it. That's a Joker card stuck to the wall, and the equivalent of $0.25 in change near the bottom. You can also see the various colors used in the kitchen over the years. What an ugly orange!!! Below you can see the old floor that was in the kitchen before our current linoleum.
And here is the "new" temporary home for the fridge - the dining room. It was crowded before, but it's downright stuffed now!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

New York, New York!

Mike & I headed to New York for a quick vacation last week. A 4 day vacation away from the kid. Amanda stayed with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Ilene and had a blast!

Anyway, here's my account of our trip together:
We left Saturday April 24 from Burbank, directly to JFK on JetBlue (yay individual tv's!)
We took a cab from the airport, through a tunnel:



and saw the tall skyscrapers of Manhattan:





Sunday we headed to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty.
Here's a shot of me on the mainland before we took the ferry over.



A shot of each of us in front of Lady Liberty. Did you know she's made completely out of copper, as thin as 2 pennies thick?








This is the original flame from the Lady. It was removed during the renovation of the 80's because the glass had been leaking over the previous 100 years and made the copper shell begin to erode.




A pic through the cherry blossoms



Currently you can only climb to the top of the pedestal that supports the Statue of Liberty. This is a shot of the shadow from the top of the pedestal.



The 160 stairs that lead to the very top of the Statue. They've been closed since 2001 to visitors.



Me from the pedestal and the NY Skyline in the background.




After the statue, we stopped at the world trade center site which is under construction. Memorial across the street, and a shot of the construction site.






Monday we did the Empire State Building. I'll spare you all the shots of the island. Here's a shot up at the steeple and of me at the top.







We then headed up 5th Avenue. Look at all the people!


And saw the NY Public Library. Recognize it from Ghostbusters?


A shot from the inside:


Just a few blocks up, we stopped at Times Square.


In Times Square we got free tickets to see David Letterman. Here I am waiting to get our tickets.


Me in front of FAO Schwartz of "Big" fame.


Tuesday we did a quick tour of Central Park


And stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral. This is where Kennedy got married.




After a quick lunch at the Carnegie Deli...



We headed home on Tuesday and resumed our boring lives in LA!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Update (no pictures yet)

So good news on the pregnancy front - I took my gestational diabetes test last Friday and got the results yesterday - I passed! Woohoo! No gestational diabetes with this pregnancy. Let the gorging begin!

Mike and I just got back from a glorious 4 day trip to New York. Neither of us had ever been, and we were supposed to go for my 30th birthday last year, but never made it. So only a year late, right? Amanda stayed at my mom's house, and my sister Ilene also stayed over to help watch her. It was the first time I've been away from her that long. She was not happy when we got back, but I think she's recovered nicely now (3 days later).
I have a ton of pictures, but of course no time to post right now.

We are also starting on the kitchen remodel process. After a harrying couple of weeks, we finally settled on getting custom cabinets, which will be ready in about 4 weeks. Demo should start on the kitchen in about 2 weeks, and soon after we'll have a brand new kitchen, with a place where the fridge fits!! I'll post before, during and after pics when the time comes.