Down to the Essentials

A few have asked how Raven and Shadow are getting along.  And my answer would be. “Quite well considering the amount of changes that they are being put through.”  We’re about to hit week four since Raven came to live with us.  She learning all sorts of things and so are we.  I couldn’t pass up this one of them “holding hands”.  They really do have some sweet moments – and then there are others, but overall they both seem happy with the deal.

So what have we been putting them through?  A kitchen renovation – might I say a complete kitchen renovation.  I mean complete in the terms of take it all out and start all over.  I’m afraid I don’t have a photo from the very beginning – but you can at least see how we’ve started today.  You can see a hole on the end.  There was a set of top cabinets there above the range and freezer.I can tell you I’m so ready to get rid of that burnt orange.  I was cleaning out the attic and found pictures from my high school home with this same color.  I figured I must have lived over 20 years with a kitchen this color – it must something from the 70s or 80s. One layer of linoleum has been taken up with plywood on the back.  We found there are another 3 layers before one gets to the pine wood flooring.  Above is layer number 2 from the top.Back to today’s work – first we took out the bottom cabinets.  These had been built in place, so the only recourse was to take them out piece by piece – see the pile of wood waiting for me to remove the nails????Then we took out the top cabinets on the wall and around the sink.  I just loved the parallelograms James was making as he worked them off the wall.  Then sheetrock was removed and the blown insulation bagged up to be placed in the attic.  We’ll replace these with pretty pink rolls – you can see how the blown insulation sinks leaving gaps.  Oh and there used to be a window in that wall!Here’s how we ended the day – leaving one grouping of bottom cabinets so we can have a sink and dishwasher as long as possible. Shadow is inspecting the work, but Raven is satisfied and let’s us know with an enthusiastic tail wagging.

Shadow comes to give his report that it has been a productive day – but where’s dinner???  (I love the perspective in this one – his feet look so tiny compared to real life!)

Tomorrow James builds the cabinets and takes them over to a refinisher who will paint them for us in his spray booth.  Hopefully we’ll be ready for them when he delivers them.  We’ve got to get the floor and the remaining walls down to studs, then rebuild back up to start putting in cabinets.  If not, every room may be graced with a cabinet awaiting their turn to be installed!

There you have it – I feel like I’m living in that campervan in New Zealand again – trying to figure out how to live on very little!