The New Kitchen, Part One

We did it! After dreaming, planning, and preparing, we are actually underway with the construction of our new and improved kitchen. So much has been going on in our lives that I haven't kept everyone up to date in the past few weeks, and perhaps after viewing this entry you'll understand why our little piece of the world has been temporarily turned upside down.

In the collage below you'll see the very first day of construction. Such an exciting day! I honestly have never been so thrilled to see large machinery ripping up the lawn in my back yard, not that I have much experience with things like this.
All the activity turned into this.Which the following day turned into another large piece equipment, a cement truck this time, showing up to give us our footings for the foundation to what will be a new kitchen.The footings then turned into the foundation walls.Which were covered, smoothed, and prepared to have frame work.Our old kitchen was gutted.And when the floor boards came up we ran into a stumbling block. What we thought was a slab foundation for the old kitchen, turned out to be nothing more than boulders and dirt. LOTS of boulders!So we had a small set back, and had to dig where we didn't think we were going to need to. It pushed us back about a week, but the guys knew what to do and went right to work digging a foundation ditch, by hand, to support the kitchen.

No, the circus did not pop up it's big-top tent in my back yard. Isn't that the largest tarp you've ever seen? And after talking with our general contractor, I've been informed that this is not the biggest one. It's still crazy big!!The giant tarp hid what was going on underneath it. So you're getting a sneak peak at what our very curious neighbors never got to see in these next few photos. The contractor took the walls and roof down, finished digging the foundation ditch, lifted all the boulders out and poured concrete for the new foundation, all by hand. A one foot space is all that is left of the original kitchen.The next day the framers showed up, and like a pop-up book, by the end of the day we had the bones of our new kitchen.Here is a photo of just a few of the boulders the workers had to dig out.... need I say it again? BY HAND! (My foot is a reference to show size.)They covered up the frame work and this is where we stand today. I love knowing that Gracie will grow up in this kitchen. Her meals will be prepared here, homework will be done here, and family dinners will be enjoyed here. Not to mention sneaking down stairs for late night snacks. Pretty nice space, don't you think so? This week we get shingles on the roof, plumbing, electric, and once those pass inspection, insulation, then dry wall! It's all coming together. I can't wait till I can post "the new kitchen, part two!" Coming soon to a blog near you!