I am not sure if I can even explain how big of a step forward this is. This renovation project has been a work in progress for years. The last year I have had the brand new cabinets sitting in my dinig room just waiting. The finishing of the renovation has been the most difficult.

Susie at Bangor Four Square writes:

I think living with the chaos of the kitchen has started to spill over into the rest of the house, as in: "Why dust? It will just get dusty again from the construction" or "Why clean the floors? We'll just track more junk on it from the kitchen." Well, enough's enough already so I picked up at least a little.

We have been in renovation overdrive here at my house and I know her sentiment all too well. Why vacuum, why do laundry, why clean the bathroom... it is a slippery slope. A dirty, messy slippery slope. My inlaws decided to come over for a visit today and their impending arrival caused me to look around and say, "Enough is enough."

Liz from A Constructed Life has turned her drywall saga into soap opera form. The Days of Our Drywall.

Christie fromPurple Oasis discovers that the third time is the charm when she goes to Heaven. Or as some people call it, IKEA.

Steffi from West End Bungalow shows photos of their ongoing paint removal project. Whoa, that is not a project for the faint of heart. Or those who have ADHD like me. It looks fabulous.

Jessica at Balancing Everythinghas just begun a huge home improvement project that involves gutting the master bathroom and renovating the entire basement of their home. Being pregnant with her fourth child was apparently not enough work!

Actually I think it is more like extreme nesting. I went through that with my last pregnancy and tore out a bathroom while my husband was at work one day. And I was 9 months pregnant.

When she isn't writing about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working to rescue her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found at DIY This N'That, where she blogs about home improvement and design ideas.

1) Cabinets on one wall did not fit in the space. How that could possibly have happened, I have no idea. In the end we were able to take one cabinet out of the run and have them fit. But I am not thrilled with the layout now. Not much I can really do about it though since I can not magically make my wall longer. But this lead to another problem...

2) Sink cabinet is off centered to the window. Not completely off where someone might think it was done that way on purpose, no off just enough that it is obviously a mistake. That lead to:

3) Moving the window over six inches. Which meant:

4) The light outside the window that was centered in between the window and the backdoor had to be moved over. And then:

5) The outside siding had to be redone. And of course:

6) The interior wall had to be resheetrocked. And also:

7) The light over the sink had to be moved and centered. And the kicker to the entire thing:

8) When we went to put the sink into the cabinet, it was too big. Even though we ordered the cabinets and sink from the same place. We had to return it and scramble around for a new sink to fit the space. We found one that cost over twice as much as the original and as an added bonus was a royal pain in the butt to install. Those were only the issues we faced on that one wall of the kitchen.

I took the photo above of my husband cutting out the new hole for the sink and he gave me "the look" right after. The look that says "take my photo again and I might strangle you with the camera strap." I reminded him that one day we would look back on it and it would be funny. That day isn't today. I'll let you know when it happens.

The Devil Queen has a comic he drew that made me laugh outloud. I know people on the internet say all the time that they are laughing out loud, even rolling on the ground while doing so, but honestly how often is that really true. This made me laugh because I work from home and my husband is always asking me why I can't just paint up a room since I am home.

Adventures on Willow shows photos of their almost finished kitchen. More finished than my kitchen, so I am a little bit jealous. Cooking on a camp stove has gotten really old. I don't even like camping.

The Healy House is working on their front porch. Jacking it up and dealing with wood rot. Guess what project is up next at our house?

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is busy trying to rescue her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. The house might be winning. She can also be found blogging about DIY issues and design at DIY This N'That.

My son loved examining the different types of locks. He really likes that the skeleton key can now lock and unlock his door. Sometimes it is the small diy projects that are the most fulfilling.

And not just because the small ones are more likely to be finished. Nancy at Dainty Digs has discovered that an original doorway in her house has been covered up with siding on the outside, and closets on the inside. She writes:

I am sorely tempted to take a knife to the sheetrock in those closets, cut a little exploratory hole, and see what's underneath. Sorely tempted.

Oh, that is a slippery slope. Step away from the knife. Step away! Jeanne, at House in Progress shows off the beautiful built-in bench they are putting in their newly remodeled living room. I have been following their home improvement blog from almost the beginning and the transformation of their house has been amazing.

The Devil Queen has been refinishing floors. The project began and was slated to finish for Thanksgiving. Of 2007. Sounds like my kitchen which was supposed to be finished by September 2007.

September 2008 is my month, baby.

When she isn't writing about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working to rescue her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found at DIY This N'That, where she blogs about home improvement and design ideas.

For the past two weeks we have had a contractor doing work for us. Jacking up the floor, installing a new support beam, repairing plaster, hanging sheetrock - all of these things the messiest things that you can imagine going on in house that you are still trying to live in.

Yesterday I was sitting in my family room and I looked across the room and realized that there was so much sheetrock dust settling in the house that I could see footprints in a layer of gray white dust that coated the room.

 Home Restoration wrote:

Last year at this time I remember sitting in our makeshift kitchen with a blanket over me trying to keep warm because the thought of another $600 a month heating bill was giving Mark a near coronary. “Let’s make a list of why we’re glad we bought this house”, I said. And so we did.

I love this idea and I am shamelessly stealing it.

As I sit here in a house coated with sheetrock dust and a non functional kitchen, I am thinking about the reasons I am glad we bought our fixer-upper.

1) It is a unique piece of history. There is not another house like it anywhere. It may have been added onto all hodge podge and crazy-like, but it is our crazy hodge podge house. You won't find one like it in a subdivision. This house has a soul.

2) It is huge and there is enough room for everything. Of course this is also a negative when it comes to heating it.

3) We rescued it from what might have been a sad and slow death.

4) It has a Butler's pantry, which the original cabinets still in place. As well as stained glass windows and ornate wood trim.

5) We can walk or ride bikes to the library and town center.

6) We have a private yard. Mostly due to the fact that our neighbors own lots of acres. This has the added benefit of not having to mow acre upon acre of grass, since it doesn't belong to us.

7) A huge wrap around porch. In theory, on a hot day I sit out there on my porch swing and sip my iced tea while reading a good book. In reality, my kids rollerskate across it and throw their sports equipment all over like it is their personal closet. That is when my husband isn't using it as his personal workshop, setting up his power tools right there next to the front door. Really nothing says, "Welcome to my home" quite like a table saw greeting you. In fact I like to think it welcomes people and asks, "Drop by if you have any wood you need cut!"

8) That it is almost done and I will never, ever do it again.

The Bungalow Chronicles writes:

I am so ready for this to be over! Despite most of the furniture being covered in plastic, there is a fine layer of dust over absolutely everything — kind of like when you come home from the beach and you’re thinking, “Whoa, how did sand get there?”

I have found dust inside of closed sealed drawers. It is insidious. Ballardia writes:

On my last Lowe's run, I took advantage of their glass sales & cutting desk and had them cut a piece of glass to match my broken pane in preparation for actually replacing the cardboard 'Listerine' sign which just shouts out "Come back next week, ya'll might find a toilet on the front porch!"

She writes that as if there is something wrong with having a toilet on your front porch.

When she isn't writing about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working to rescue her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found at DIY This N'That, where she blogs about home improvement and design ideas.

That's it! I have removed a sub sandwich, a washcloth, and an action figure from our toilet using this approach, as well as the more natural clogs. (Yes, really!) I heartily suggest it, as it has saved me at least $775 in plumber costs.

Over the years my husband and I, which really means my husband works while I watch, have become more daring in what we attempt to do with plumbing. My husband recently took a bathroom from roughed in to the finished plumbing. Home Improvement Ninja writes:

Knowing what you are doing is powerful mojo because plumbers, like predatory animals, can sense fear and will rip your wallet out of your ass if you show any weakness. Anyway, here are some tips I picked up along the way (from people who are good at it, or from trial and error).

While I wouldn't go quite that far in describing any of the people we have hired to work in our house (I save those feelings for the people who work on our cars) It does always make sense to educate yourself about what is involved in the jobs that you want to hire out. Often it does take longer than you think it would, which translates into more per hour. And if the person who are working in your house have a crew, they may have the overhead of paying them and their health insurance. Fifties House writes about their adventure in plumbing, trying to unclog a sink drain. They took the entire sink apart.:

By the time we discovered this, it’s 7:30pm. No Home Depot or Lowes stores within 30 minutes drive time close later than 8pm. There are no other open hardware stores in the area that I know of. All I need is an 1.25″x8″ threaded sink tailpiece pipe. This is annoying. By the way, her Shop Vac idea for getting out the monster pipe clog worked.

The next post. Whoops:

Apparently the P-trap that I bought, the nuts and compression fittings that came with it, and the old “waste pipe” and nut on it were all crap. When I assembled everything, there were leaks where the nuts and compression fittings held things together. We gave up and called someone who does this for a living.

We have had the same thing happen to us over the years. The silver lining is that after calling the professionals for a job that was over our heads, we learned how to do whatever the job was. Lestercat agrees:

Enough knowledge was transferred in the process that we now know enough to really take care of our plumbing (or just enough to be dangerous...). When it comes time to rough-in when we get to the upstairs bathroom, we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.

Home is a Process is also part of this exclusive club of people who bite off more than they can chew.

We’re still not very good at knowing our own limits, because we bought this place, and in spite of the fact that we really needed a place to live, we proceeded to tear the place down to the studs. Then, when the house was nothing but bare studs, we jacked the center wall up, installed a few beams, and ripped out more studs.

As someonewho is still living without a real kitchen, I understand.  Completely.

When she isn't writing about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is trying to save her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found blogging about home improvement and design issues atDIY This 'N That

And Heather, Oh My Stinkin' Heck, feels exactly the same way about grout as I do. I love her.

Who knew that house renovations could take so much out of a person – I’m not only tired … and sore…but I broke three nails in the process and will forever have a deep seated hatred for vinyl-coated wall coverings of any sort.

She goes on to say that watching all those home improvement shows had her convinced that any project could be tackled in a 30 minute time frame. The Bungalow Chronicles had the previous owner of their home come for a visit. Slaves to Our Queen had the previous owner break in and steal from them after the closing. Makes me glad that the previous owner here just made bad color choices. When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

I miss my old house. I miss it because it was made by us and had many of the details that we needed and loved. I miss my mudroom. I love having a back mudroom that functions as catch all and organizes the outside world before it comes inside.

The House We Call Home has renovated a gorgeous mudroom, complete with a black slate floor and cocoa colored grout. The lower 2/3 of the walls have crisp white wainscotting and the upper third is painted a bright orange. The jolt of color is striking. She writes:

We ended up painting the walls twice. The first time it was a lovely green colour which looked really pretty. But, the look was more pottery barn and I felt it was to safe and predictable. What I really want for this house is my own look...I have always had to consider resale and keeping it buyer friendly....so now I want my own somewhat eclectic taste to show through, I can show off all my bits and pieces that I have collected over the years! Most of all....I want people to smile when we open the door.

I can't imagine anyone walking into that room and not smiling. I think it would be the perfect pick me up color for a long dark gloomy winter. Bangor Bungalow describes her ideal mudroom:

The goal of the mudroom is to hang coats and snowpants, put snowy boots and various shoes, store dog-walking stuff, and generally get into the house with your stuff. We're keeping it pretty simple, since it will be small.

The is my idea of a mudroom too. A place to contain stuff that I don't want to track into my house. Kitrainia at One Sixty describes a hilarious mudroom addition that was put on by the previous owners.

Normal people might think to hire a contractor. Do it yourselfers might attempt to build it themselves. But this depression era couple decided to save themselves a lot of time, money, and effort by simply attaching a pre-built shed to the house. Yes, they just took a shed, plopped it onto the concrete, chopped 1/4 of the roof off so it would line up with the rest of the rooflines, and called it done. We know because of this weird roof line - plus they didn't bother to take the old roof (ie roofing shingles and all that jazz) off of the 1/4 left roof side that is now part of our upstairs attic.

Theresa at Bullfrogs and Butterflies did not have a separate room to devote as a mudroom, but she managed to secure a corner of the laundry room to have built in storage put in. The result is perfect for kids and all their assorted junk. When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

It also saw me cooking every single meal on the grill. Which I will be doing for the foreseeable future.

Reno2100 writes:

For the first time since September 4, 2006.... we have a working sink in our kitchen.

I understand her elation. I really do.

Cacatua-Our Home posts instructions to how to install tile and has a DVD giveaway.

Domicile has hired people to paint their house. having just hired someone to do work on our house, I understand her elation too. It is so nice to have someone else working. And cleaning up their messes!

Bangor Bungalow does over their mudroom.

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

Though tonight when a huge storm rolled through right before I was set to cook I was at a loss of what to serve for dinner. Finally I pulled out the cold cereal. And my children cheered.

This long weekend we have lots of plans, all of them involving working on the house, and none of them involving parties.

Let's see what other people have been up to lately.

Patti from Patti's Ponderings shows off her new bathroom. I love the tile work, it is beautiful.

Lestercat received a letter from their city telling them to clean up their property or face fines. This happened to us when we bought our house. Our insurance company dropped us saying that our house looked like it should be condemned. Ouch.

Jennifer at Tiny Old House completes two small projects that didn't require much effort or money and yet made a large impact on how they feel about their house.

Inspired DIY asks what you think of painted white wood floors. I like them, in theory. The idea of living with them and my dirty children makes me start twitching.

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

See that ladder there? My husband bought it this past weekend to replace the rickety old ladder we have had for almost 14 years. A ladder that came with our previous house. It was wooden and you had to stand on it very carefully because it would sway from side to side.

Last weekend we tore the sheetrock off of the chimney. And lo and behold, just when we thought we had already unearthed the most tacky thing in our house, we are surprised. Even thought I have long ago given up asking why the previous owner did something, I can help but wonder... What would ever posses a person to paint the brick to look like fake brick?

Of course there is no answer. Just like there was no answer for why they installed wall to wall carpet in the dining room and then instead of cutting the door to fit, they closed it as far as they could and then DUCT TAPED the huge crack. Because duct tape is known for it's insulating qualities. Or the pepto bismol pink walls with baby blue painted trim.

This kitchen remodel is progressing in baby steps. Teeny tiny baby steps.

Adventures in Construction

Fixer Upper House and Garden

Adventures in Homeowning

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

But Mom, how are you going to cook for us now?

Oh my children, that is a good question.

Tearing out the kitchen, while exciting, has been a daunting task. Every time we thought we were ready to tear it out something would come up and cause us to put it on hold. Things like birthdays, holidays, sunshine, and the desire to eat.

How To Prepare:

1) Set up a temporary workspace

We have set up a temporary kitchen. Luckily we have a cooktop that we were able to set up on saw horses so that we can continue to cook on it for the time being while we address the plumbing, electrical, and flooring issues. Since we do virtually all of the work ourselves, this is not going to be a speedy process. I have also been making use of my outdoor grill and encouraging the kids to eat things like toast! bagels! and sandwiches! If you can't keep your stovetop or move it into an alternate room, consider buying a hot plate to boil things on. Think about pasta, tea, heating up soups-- that sort of thing.

2) Storage

We bought tall metal shelving, the kind you would typically put in your garage or basement, and set them up in the dining room. We were also able to drag two of the old base cabinets into the dining room from the kitchen and shove them into the corner.

3) Easy access to the things you need

The coffee maker and toaster have found a home on our laundry room counter. I had previously had visions of setting up a temporary kitchen in the laundry room, but turns out I need all the counter space for piling all the clean laundry on.

4) Convenience Items

We still have our sink and dishwasher hooked up, so we aren't really roughing it yet. But once those are gone I will be making use of paper plates, finger foods, take out restaurants. Because washing dishes in a tiny laundry room sink would kill me.

DIY Diva is fixing the mortar in brick and stone next to her entrance way, and shaking her head in confusion at the work done by the previous owners. Something I do almost every single day.

Girl Meets House imparts this piece of wisdom:

I’ve learned a lot of things this past year, but perhaps one of the most important lessons is that sometimes it’s okay to live with something that isn’t perfect. In fact, sometimes living with it can be better than living without it.

I lived the past year without doors on my kitchen cabinets because they were ugly and I tore them off one day. But after a couple of weeks I realized that the view of the contents of my cabinets was even uglier.

Renovation of a Brooklyn Row House writes this:

This is why I'm a DIYer. Doing a job myself is less aggravating than dealing with contractors and their excuse generators. In real life, I'm a contractor myself and if I've learned anything it's that contractors live and die on referrals. I get mine by delivering more than the client expects and, if possible, ahead of deadline. Sadly, most construction contractors haven't learned that one. The ones that have don't have to spend a penny on advertising.

This pretty much sums up my experience too. Though we are going out on a limb and hiring a new contractor to do some work for us. He came highly recommended from a friend.

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

1) Cleaning Erasers are your friend. I use them all the time to clean my walls, doors, and trim work. I honestly never realized how filthy children are until I had my own. Spending half an hour cleaning off doors where dirty little hands grab them, the walls next to the staircase where they insist on running their hands while they walk up and down the stairs, and the ballisters on your staircase, will make a huge difference in how your house looks.

2) Touch up paint. Sometimes the cleaning erasers are not enough. Don't be afraid to pull out your paint and touch up the areas that look less than beautiful. Don't forget about your front door. I generally touch up the paint on ours every spring. Of course maybe you don't have children who throw rocks and sticks at the door and then kick it every so often just for good measure.

3) Cabinet knobs falling off when you pull on them? Most likely the threads inside have been stripped. Fill the hole in the knob with some broken toothpicks and wood glue. Screw the knob back on.

4) Update bathroom and kitchen faucets. This might seem like a daunting project, but it is really quite simple. Just remember to turn your water supply off before you begin.

5) Adding new hardware to your kitchen cabinets can change the look of your outdated cabinetry. Change brass hardware to brushed nickel for a more modern look.

6) New light fixtures can change the entire look of a room. Most can be purchased relatively inexpensively at the big box stores.

Mir, at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, has just replastered of her dining room walls. Texturizing the walls to add interest.

Stucco House paints the railings leading up to the front door. After a decade of living with them unpainted. Time passes quickly.

Thirteen Eleven paints the beadboard ceiling of her front porch a beautiful subtle blue color. I have heard that porch ceilings were originally painted blue to be reminiscent of the sky. I repainted ours white to brighten up the porch.

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches, Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.

Home Restoration writes about the challenges of sheetrocking an older house where nothing is level, plumb, or square.

Front Porch Indiana built the most adorable chicken coop I have ever seen. My daughter would love to live in it.

Casa Decrepit has come up with the 2008 MVT (Most Valuable Tool) list.

Reviving Our Colonial Revival takes rebuilding their front porch into their own hands once they suffer the sticker shock of how much it would cost if a contractor was to do it for them.

When she isn't blogging about her life at Notes from the Trenches Chris is working at rescuing her house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She can also be found writing about home improvement and design at DIY This N' That.