Progress

The guys have made really good progress today! They have 4 cabinets done and are working on #5. They are waiting for Kay to bring down a special tool they need before they can finish but it looks like everything might be finished on the top half of the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. Hallelujah!

Ready to Install

Last night we began to prime and paint the kitchen. Look at the difference!

No Paint; Primer; Paint

No Paint; Paint

No Paint ; Primer; Paint


Primed; Painted

The best part of the painting was getting rid of that yucko cream/yellow/nicotine stained walls/ceilings! I loved the crisp, white look of the primer. I was ready to say just leave it with that...no not really...but I did love the clean white look! The green paint went on a little darker than I had thought, but I think it will be great once we get the light hickory cabinets in today! We do need another coat of green paint. We were falling asleep waiting for it to dry last night at 11:30. We'll do another coat soon.

This morning Travis' dad, Ben, came down to help in the kitchen. The guys went to Lowe's and picked up the cabinets to bring them home. Just as they were unloading the last cabinet from the van to the house the storm front came blowing in and it began to rain. I think that's the 2nd lucky thing that has happened today! 1st, they still had all the cabinets. 2nd, they got them in without rain. Now if they can put some up with out getting hurt we'll really be lucky! :)

Cabinets in the hallway, and dining room of our house.

We are finally READY TO INSTALL!

The best part for all people involved is I have to work from 10-5 today so I won't be underfoot bothering them with random questions and "concerns"

:)

Special Olympic Polar Plunge

Today was the special Olympic Polar Plunge. My mom is quite involved with Special Olympics and is always trying to get us to help out. Normally we are more than willing to help out and enjoy doing so. However, this event we have learned to stay away from. A few years ago Travis raised money and did the plunge.
The year Travis did the plunge was much different from this year. His year it was balmy, almost warm. I wore a long sleeve tee shirt with no coat and had a nice time. Today it was 20 degrees and windy. Who in their right mind would do this you ask? No one! Only foolish, crazy people. Enter my brother Justin.
Justin and one of his friends signed up to help. Then the fools didn't even wear a shirt in the water. They acted like it was the middle of June. They seemed to have a good time (after they warmed up) and even said they might do it again next year. Just so you know, Travis also said he "might" do it again after he got out of the water. He has yet to do it again, and I don't blame him in the least!

Here the divers, in full scuba gear, are chipping away ice in order to make a spot for the plungers.

Here is Justin going into the water. You can see his head in the right hand corner.

Here he is coming out of the water. A much different expression on his face. If you notice the picture above, he was a few steps behind the guy in the white tee shirt...in this picture he's many steps in front of the guy. I guess the water wasn't that balmy after all.

Special Olympics had 200 crazy people from the Galesburg area signed up to "plunge" today and raised a LOT of money to help out their athletes. I think the cold water was worth it. (as long as I don't have to participate! )

This is from the year Traivs did the plunge. He was just getting out of the water.

Round 2

Buddy 2: Us 0

Yesterday I stepped it up a notch, instead of just the 2 chairs, I put a brand new gallon of paint on each chair to weight it down. I'll be dog gonned if he wasn't waiting by the front door AGAIN!

Today, I got smarter still! (with the help of Travis and Kay) I put the gate on the inside of the kitchen door, used a chair and a gallon of paint! Let's see him get out of THAT!

Houdini

Buddy is our resident Houdini. I have often wrote about how he climbs tables, or gets into cupboards or gets things off the counter but today was an all time high.

Buddy has been going to the bathroom in the house while we've been at school. Travis has finally had enough and said Buddy needed to be put in the kitchen with a baby gate up while we are at school.

This morning before school I gave Buddy fresh food and water and moved his pillow bed into the kitchen. I then put the baby gate up. He has been known to push the gate over so I secured the area with two chairs on each side so he wouldn't "escape". I made sure all the remaining cabinets in the kitchen were closed tightly so he wouldn't get any food and quickly left the house to a crying "puppy".

When we returned from school today I had Travis go inside first. I didn't want to see the mess or the sad puppy dog eyes that would greet us. When Travis opened the door there was Buddy, not in the kitchen, but laying in front of the door to greet us just like he always does at 3:30ish.

Here's the crime scene.

The view from inside the kitchen looking out. Apparently the view in which our dog did not appreciate.

This is where the baby gate still stands. This is all of 6 inches in which our little Houdini escaped from. Buddy has been putting on the pounds so it's crazy that he actually fit through here. However, where there's a will......there's Buddy.

This is Buddy lapping up the water in which he was deprived all day by his little escape plan. Perhaps he didn't think his plan all the way through now did he?

We, the detectives are left with the following questions?

• How long did it take for him to escape?
• How many times did he have to push at the gate to get through?
• Did he get caught up on anything?
• How will he try to escape tomorrow?

No Smoking Please!

So I've told most people I know that the couple who owned this house before us were GROSS! They must have been a 2 pack a day each, never opened a window to air it out, smoking couple. When we moved into the house it reeked of cigarette smoke. We tore up the carpet, painted all the ceilings, walls, and redid all the woodwork in an attempt to rid ourselves of that horrible smokey smell.


Over time in the bathroom and above the stove where steam is often touching the walls/ceiling the nicotine will seep through. In the bathroom we have painted twice, used Kilz once and it still seeps through. YUCK! However, in the kitchen knowing we would someday re-do it we never painted or primed.

Tonight, Travis and I were working in the kitchen trying to wipe all the ceiling/walls down in order to prime them tomorrow. I had just started wiping the ceiling. In a housekeeping confession, I don't usually wash the ceilings of our house. I'm hoping that's not to uncommon and most of you don't wash your ceilings either, but anyway, I digress. So I'm wiping the ceilings, I've made literally 5 up and back passes, so 10 strokes over a small area and this is what my rag looked like.

Keep in mind that we've lived in this house for 4 years and neither one of us smoke, nor do we allow people to smoke in our home.

Do you need more of a reason not to smoke?

YUCK!

Satisfied Stecher's

Friday was a satisfying day for all 3 Stecher's. Not only was it the start of a needed weekend from school but some major accomplishments happened around the house.

BUDDY:
Buddy has been making gains in his "recovery" (see previous post). However, now it has been determined that the can food is too expensive to continue on with. Travis' parents gave a helpful culinary tip to try to get Buddy to eat his dry food. Wet it, microwave it, hid it with a piece of cheese on top. So I tried...

It stunk up our microwave, our kitchen, and eventually our house....bon appetit!
First he ate all the cheese off the top, go figure...
Then he started on the rest of the food!

Good to the last bite!

MISTY

I have been using our vacuum to help clean up kitchen debris. As a result it has ruined our filter, however, I can not justify purchasing a new one until the kitchen is finally finished...So I asked Kay to bring the Dyson down. For those of you who do not know the Dyson is the be all end all of vacuum's....

This is the pet hair version. It is FABULOUS!

This thing worked like a dream. It was utterly disgusting how GROSS our living room carpet was. I'll spare you the photo....It is now on a future wish list. It must be good if I'm putting a VACUUM on a wish list! :)

TRAVIS

Ahhhh...the kitchen. Will it ever end? Travis has been hard at work making all last minute dry wall, Spackle, mud, etc. necessities in order for us to paint.

We are now ready to wipe all the walls/ceilings, prime and finally PAINT! I'm shooting for tomorrow!
We also went to LOWES today and picked out, and purchased the cabinets. They will be ready for pick up next weekend. Cross your fingers that the little piece of filler wood that has to come from somewhere other than Lowes comes in sooner than the 2 weeks they told us today :(
Travis is ready for some cabinets! (Misty too! :)

Buddy Update

Buddy is doing much better! He is now getting up and down off of all furniture and stairs by himself. He is now eating a combination of wet and dry food where as just a week ago it had to be all wet food. He is also not tilting his head as much as he was. I think he just needed some spring like weather! :)

The kitchen remodel moves forward! Travis and his dad finished all the behind the scenes work last weekend and cleared the way for us to finish hanging a few pieces of dry wall, Spackle and begin painting. We have chosen a green color for the kitchen walls. The cabinets are hickory so they will be very light. We are hoping the green will make the room look very warm and homey! I'll post pictures as soon as we begin to paint!

The wonderful spring like weather last week has landed me with another round of winter illness. I now have a full blown head cold. It started in the middle of the night Friday. Yesterday I was miserable, today I'm better than yesterday but still not feeling good. I'm hoping this will be a short cold and I'll be better by school on Tuesday.

Travis has begun his weight loss challenge with the team of football coaches from Dist. #205. The guys are hoping for a three peat. They have won the 2 years previously, however, this year they have some real competition. There are several other "football" teams vying for the title. He is doing a great job and is working hard with his team. They have been out walk/jogging, watching what they eat, and Travis has even bypassed DQ several times I've suggested it.

There's the update on all 3 Stecher's for this week! Hope everyone is doing well and not getting this cold or the nasty flu that's out and about!

Sick and Stuff...

Yuck! What a bummer of a weekend! I have been fighting what I self diagnosed as strep throat since Thursday. I was to cheap to go to Prompt Care on the Weekend because they would send my labs to about 5 different places saying with the weekend they had no other choice. I was going to just wait it out.
The worst day was Saturday. I felt like my throat was literally going to close shut. Being the drama queen that I am, I was just sure that Travis would have to frantically dial 911 because my throat was going to swell shut. Needless to say it didn't, but I was not much company all day while laying on the couch.
We had dinner and after dinner plans Saturday night, but only barely made it to half of our plans. We went to the Barnstormer for dinner to celebrate Travis and my brother Justin's birthday's both in January, however, my throat was so sore and I was so out of it I could barely enjoy the dinner. I think I had 3 bites of my salad and perhaps an equal amount of baked potato. Thank heavens for to go bags!
After dinner we were going to go to Mark and Carol Parrish's for a get together with several people from church, however, after barely surviving dinner, I just wanted to go home. I was asleep by 8AM and didn't rise until 10 the next morning.
Sunday wasn't much better, and unfortunately it seemed as though something was wrong with Buddy. His back legs were not supporting him and he was falling down a lot. We decided he would have to go to the vet on Monday. We spent a lot of time cuddling him and loving him up on Sunday.
Monday morning, I went to work, my throat was feeling a bit better, however, after fighting the sore throat all weekend I was exhausted which is ironic seeing how all I did this weekend was sleep.

Anyway, I am now on the mend but the Budster is another story. :(
Buddy just turned 14. We noticed Monday morning that he seemed to be tilted to the side. When we took him to the vet yesterday the vet confirmed that Buddy has had some neurological damage done. Most likely a stroke has occurred to impair his right side. He no longer has feeling in his right hind leg, which is the cause of the falling over, and his right eye is struggling to close, when he pants his tongue hangs out to the right side. He really is a sight! However, even with all these issues, the vet did say he was quite "spiry" for an old man. That was a positive!
Unfortunately, we were also told we needed to prepare ourselves for what is to come down the road. He will most likely have another stroke, or begin to have more frequent seizures, both of which could cause his "good side" to go. When that happens it will be time to put Buddy down.
While this is a horribly sad turn of events, I am so thankful that we didn't have to do it yesterday, I thought we might! We have Buddy now and there is a small chance he could heal himself. If that's going to happen it will be in 5-7 days. For now, we're continuing to love and cuddle him and spoil him ROTTEN! :)

Destruction Zone

Wow! I had no clue what kitchen remodeling entailed! You're probably going to hear me say that about a million more times before this is all done! :)

Sunday AM, Travis' mom and dad (Ben and Kay) came down to help.

I thought the goal for Sunday was to take down the remaining cabinets and oven hood....

That project was finished so quickly the boys decided to continue on...and remove the soffit's up above.

The first cut through plaster walls that were built when the house was build around 1940.

Full Demo mode

Buddy wanted to help too!

Buddy: If you'd let me in I could be a real big help!

Buddy: I'll hold the drill for you.

The soffit and cabinets were built right into the walls in the 40's, so Ben and Travis will have to do some patching before we add cabinets to the top. The goal is to have little cabinets all around the top for extra space, and then larger cabinets down below.

That plaster stuff was EVERYWHERE! We didn't think to block off the kitchen while demo was being done so it was really everywhere!

This is our dining room. This is pretty much what the whole house looked like! The pictures that are blurry are not becuase of a bad camera, but because of all the dust that was swirling around the house!

After Ben and Kay left, Travis decided to take off all the tiles and sand down where they used to be. I started washing all the floors, and dusting the house down. We got smart though...

This is the tarp we put up the 2nd time around to keep all the dust in the kitchen! :)

Sunday was quite a messy and exhausting day, more so for Travis than I. However, I can assure you that we both woke up this morning sore and exhausted still.

Travis and Ben assure me that most of the messy work is finished.

We did pick a "short list" of paint and counter tops last night! It's going to be a long road for sure!