House Update

With the electrical done, things seem to be moving along quickly.  As soon as we passed our electrical inspection, I went to work emptying the rest of our cabinets. 

We had planned to add in new hardwood in the new areas, sand everything down, stain it a darker color to match the new with the old, and seal it all.  We were going to have to be completely out of our house for a whole week while it was done.  At the last minute, we decided to tear out all our old hardwood and replace everything with new tile that looks like hardwood.  It would allow us to stay here in our house through it all, and would actually be pretty even cost wise.  So our builder had his guys tear out the hardwood in the kitchen.

I tore out the hardwood everywhere else (hallways).  It was hard work using a hammer and crowbar to tear it out plank by plank.

And I tore out the carpet in the living room.

Insulation was blown in, and drywall went up.

I spent an entire day finding places to store all the furniture that was in our kitchen and living room.  I had to get creative with a few things.

Finally, the kitchen and living room were completely bare (except for one lone cupboard that has the last of our dishes we need to use).

I forgot to mention that once the hardwood was out, the new kitchen island was able to go in. 

No furniture meant picnicking on the bare floor.

And the morning of Christmas Eve, our awesome builder and crew showed up to start laying the new floor, so we could have a floor to do Christmas morning on.  Everyone pitched in (Sara sorted spacers, and our builder's son and Josh helped carry things back and forth).

We couldn't walk on the freshly laid tile, so they built a bridge for us to get to across. The kids had a great time walking back and forth and back and forth.

I love the new floor.  It's exactly the look I wanted.  And the best part is that it's tile, so I don't ever have to worry about the kids scratching it!