New kitchen cabinets and other messes

The house is an absolute mess right now.  As you might expect, sawdust and dirt are everywhere.  Almost every room has tools, equipment, or wires.  But that's the sign of good progress.  In fact, the new bank of cabinets is shaping up. 

To the left of the new cabinets is the original ironing board cubby, which we're keeping.

The door has been sanded down.

The original cabinets are being sanded too.  The kitchen windows now open, and a new pane replaced a broken one on the right window.

 All of the windows open so well now, most of them with just one finger.

To save money, we did not restore the top panes to functionality, so we have a few weights leftover.

 In the pool room, the built-in bench has been wired for plugs.

And the piano is in the process of its reincarnation.

I've never seen the guts of a piano before.  It's pretty cool, actually. If anyone has any ideas for what we could do with this, please share.

 The ceiling in the hallway has been trimmed out and the door frames are being sanded.

The subfloor for the bathroom is complete and some of the rotten spots on the walls have been replaced with plywood.

  After I took a few pictures, Larry "supervised" while I pulled up some weeds.

The porch isn't back on yet.  But at least all the old, broken-up concrete that surrounded the porch is gone.  With the concrete up, I was able to dig up some aggressive weeds that kept making their way through the cracks.

We are still dealing with water under the porch, but with all this rain, it's not as bad as I expected.

And we were lucky enough to score a major Craigslist find today.  We spent last night in Austin and decided to check the site for the Austin area while we were in town.  Someone posted 4 authentic Louis Ghost Chairs just 5 hours before we checked and (since we were up before six--ugh) we were the first to respond.  Since they're clear acrylic, they take up no visual space and stack up for easy storage.  But if someone wanted to use Stephen as a dining table instead of a work table, you could easily pull up the chairs.  They're the perfect height for Stephen (who is a little dusty right now--apologies).

That's all from Wisteria Bend for now.

~Christy

Things are looking up part 2

The ceiling treatment is done!  Over the last week or so the guys finished the kitchen.  And it looks like the electrician finished the rough-in for the ceiling lights in the kitchen too.

The sleeping porch ceiling is complete as well.

On the outside of the house, the broken concrete that was directing water under the house was removed and the driveway was leveled off.

Here's a brief clip of the patio being removed, courtesy of our contractor Terry:

The wood for the front porch was primed.  

The boards are now ready for installation.  

And the electrician started digging to run the wire from the pole to the house underground.

I know the windows and trim are mostly finished too, but I don't have any pictures right now.  We are probably heading out there on Sunday and will have more photos.  Dad says that the windows work so well, you can lift them with one finger. In addition to all of this activity, Mom and Dad were finally able to mow.  With so much rain, it's been difficult to find a day dry enough to get out there.

That's all from Wisteria Bend for now.

~Christy