The fax I received when we were testing to see if my fax service was working.

The only thing really left to do is touching up paint and sealing the tiles on the wall.  So here are the long awaited pictures.  I am happier than I thought I would be with the outcome.  I mean, I knew it would be an improvement, but it turned out better than I could have hoped.

We have since found out that I miscarried the baby. Which is why it was not very big.

We have been - oh so lovingly - referring to the “it” growing in my belly as the “Dragon Baby” only because when I was supposedly 6 weeks, we got a picture in my weekly email notification that showed something that looked like a hunchback retarded dragon.

Well, I went in for my first appointment today and we thought I was 7.5 weeks along.  We did an ultrasound just to be sure since I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and boy were we wrong.  I am only at 5 weeks and 6 days according to the ultrasound.  Which means that I must have found out very early!

I am going back again on the 14th to confirm how far along I am.  But I am glad we did it today.  I got to see the heartbeat which was 90 bpm.  They said that when the heart first starts to form the heart rate is a lot slower.

I know its been a while since I have updated, and with good reason, I promise.  We went out of town for the 4th of July, to my grandparents house.  They live on a lake and the fireworks are pretty nice to watch, and they have one of the best views.  Sadly, it was thunderstorming and they postponed the fireworks until the next week.  So I didn’t get to see any live fireworks this year.  So disappointing!  And I really wanted to capture some pictures of my brother’s future daughter, Taylor, ’s face.

Ah well.

So we came home on Sunday to start tearing apart our kitchen in preparation of the cabinets coming on Monday.

Joe started ripping up the floor Sunday night, he only spent 15 minutes on it before quitting.  Just a test run for the next day.  But still got pretty far within that short amount of time.

In these pictures the cabinets are missing their drawers, but the drawers didn’t have bottoms anyway, so this is pretty representative of what we have been dealing with for a kitchen for the past 3 years.

On Monday we really went to town tearing everything out.  It was a very productive day.

I think Joe was having a lot of fun with the crow bar.

We messed up the wall a little where one of the wall cabinets was hung.  But we need to build walls around those pipes, anyway.

The next day was spent building walls, priming, and painting trim.  Also, I had a little bit of a freak out when I found out that two wall cabinets we were going to be using for base cabinets had an arched design on the top (As seen in the picture below).  The wonderful man at Lowes who helped us place the order for the cabinets called the company, and they are going to mail us replacement doors.  We can keep the other doors to do whatever we want with.

Seen in this picture: The new walls built around the pipes, the new wall color, our new cabinets, and our beautiful new dishwasher.

Below is the wall where the oven and over-the-range microwave will go.  You can see the spice drawers to the left of the oven space.  There will also be a tile backsplash on the wall behind the oven.

Right now the countertops are being installed.  We still have so much more to do.  Even before we have a working kitchen again.  Before we can have the plumber come back to install the dishwasher, the sink, and the toilet in the attached bathroom, we need to lay the tile.  Which is going to be one of the longest tasks in the entire project.

Also, the subflooring for the tile makes me rather itchy.  I break out in a rash every time I touch it.  So that should be interesting.

But everything is so exciting.  There isn’t a ton more to do - just odds and ends, and the tiles, of course.

Yes, I feel as though it is this epic thing.  Our kitchen has quickly been falling apart over the past 2 years.  Every time I open a drawer that once contained something I might need, I see nothing.  No bottom.  Just nothing.  A couple of years ago the cheap toilet that my parents’ horrible contractor put in upstairs began running in the middle of the night for no reason and we woke up to a waterfall in our kitchen, which ruined all of the flooring and ceiling.  We have since replaced the ceiling tiles, and replaced what we could of the flooring, but its been nowhere near perfect.

Aside from the things that are physically wrong with it, there are aesthetic problems as well.  Everything is very grey.  When you make a kitchen, you want to make it warm and friendly.  You want it to be a color that makes you hungry, not that makes you feel sick.  My kitchen makes me feel sick.

The walls have wallpaper on them that will need to be removed, and the current cabinets are painted grey.  It’s just very depressing.

So last night we took the biggest step towards getting started:  We ordered the cabinets.  We already had bought one on clearance about two years ago, and last year we talked to a designer at Lowes, planning out the placement and exactly which pieces we needed.  So all we really had to do was walk in and order them.

I feel really weird about it.  Joe is very excited about finally ordering them and the thought of having a new kitchen.  I just feel very worried that we bought the wrong color, or that the pieces won’t fit, or that we will mess something up (we’re going to be installing them ourselves).

We also will be getting a dishwasher, an over-the-range microwave, a new sink, and we will be tiling the floor (we already have the ceramic tiles).

I’m planning on painting the walls a red-ish color.  The cabinets are natural maple.  It should look really nice.  Hopefully the new kitchen will help us out with the amount the house is worth.  Although, we aren’t planning on selling it for a few years.

Of course, the most difficult part of all of this is swallowing the amount it will cost.  Even though we won’t be spending a ton - we are doing this very efficiently - it still will be difficult for us in our current financial status.  My parents are going to help with some of the cost, and the rest I will be working very hard to pay off.  But all of it will pay off in the end, with a happier home, and a higher net worth.