Part of the cause of our lack of updates throughout most of May-June has been due to redirecting our time to a few home improvement efforts.

Our most involved project was the kitchen. You can see why! Everything was in workable condition and well kept, but the style was just awful. By the way, those 80s cabinetry and almond laminate countertops are also in all the bathrooms (except the Master bath). Maybe someday we will work on those too, but clearly, the kitchen needed some upgrading.

This was a multi-stage process, that involved the following:

1) Replace cabinets. We decided to just reface the existing cabinets & get new doors + fixtures. This alone made a big difference.

2) Get new appliances (we wanted a gas stove & over the range microwave to save countertop space). I had these sitting un-usable in the house for 2 days until we got #3 & 4 done.

3) Get gas line piped in from basement (we have gas heating, so this wasn't too bad).

4) Get vent built to vent out of house (previously it was just recirculating back into the kitchen!)

5) Install microwave (thid should have been done the same day as #4, but of course the microwave had a dent, so there was a 2 week delay while we waited for a new one to arrive).

6) Get soffit built to make things look nicer.

7) Install new pendant lights.

8)Detach plumbing, remove sink and old laminate countertops. Marc & I did this ourselves without too much trouble. Some tools we borrowed from our neighbors came in pretty handy.

9) Get new quartz countertops, blacksplash + undermount sink installed.

10) Reattach plumbing. Marc & I thought we would be able to tackle this ourselves and after 2 evenings of frustration (a few leaks here and there we weren't able to fix), we were about to just call a plumber, when a friend offered to help, came over and together with Marc got it all done in 3 hours. Thanks Ron!! There are still 2 washers/gaskets we should replace soon to completely have the plumbing 100% done, but for now things work sufficiently. What an adventure -- we learned a lot.

So, here's what our new kitchen looks like!

The other improvement we made was to the study, which is a loft area upstairs of the master bedroom. It's an interesting space with a beautiful wood floor, but the walls were all white and so boring looking before.

So, one of the things Shuwen did while Marc was in Sudan was to paint this room. We also found a great guy to do some carpentry for us for this space.

Dennis was wonderful (he's a triathlete, so we knew he was up to the challenge of going up and down those nautical stairs with equipment and supplies). We had a fun time discussing designs for this space. Dennis ended up building beautiful hanging shelves and bookcases for us, and Marc & I picked up a few more pieces from Ikea (we stained the pine pieces to match the floor and shelves). We also installed a ceiling fan+ light fixture, which was a little tricky, but helps with the airflow in that room considerably. Things turned out pretty well in the end, we think! Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about the popcorn ceiling. It's a good thing neither Marc nor I are very tall, otherwise this room with its slanted ceilings would not work well.

The latest improvement is the delivery of our sofa + chairs for the living room & den yesterday.

We are ready to slow down with work around the house for a while, and just enjoy it all for now.
As usual, our invitation for visitors remain open.