It has been a challenging couple of weeks and me being gone Monday-Thursday in the midst of the renovation has definitely put a strain on us both. Luckily, when I got home Thursday night we were beyond excited that we were finally ready for kitchen installation!
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| The cats were sad to lose their playground |
Our cabinets, along with my mom, arrived bright and early Friday morning and the day's events all blended together. We primarily watched, helping where we could, as our two installers, Mike and John, measured, made final cuts, and installed our custom cabinets one by one.
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| Our kitchen survived the trip down the Schuykill! |
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| One cabinet in, many more to go.... |
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| The cabinets chilled in the living room until they were ready for installation. #mess |
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| The side wall bottom cabinets complete |
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| Bottom cabinets complete! |
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| Prepping the upper cabinets |
Aside from a break for Pat's Cheese steaks, the guys worked non-stop from 9am to 6:30pm. We were so thankful we didn't go with our original idea of buying Ikea cabinets and installing them ourselves - HGTV makes it look easy, it isn't!
After all the cabinets were installed, it was time to install the island. We decided to go with a paneled 6 foot island with a butcher block counter top, which John made himself.
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| There she is. |
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| Unwrapping my butcher block counter...better than Christmas. |
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| Timmy has no fear.. and loves tape measures |
It was a long, crazy day but so completely worth it. We love the floors (despite the heartache they caused) and, although the kitchen still needs a lot of work before being complete, it has already made such a big difference to the feel of the house. We ended the long day with champagne toasts with the whole family - thank you again to you all for everything you did to help make this kitchen a reality!
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| A much anticipated kitchen celebration |
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| If you ever need a kitchen, Mike is your guy! |
We were up early Saturday morning for my birthday present from Andrew, a private plane ride from Philly to NYC from a licensed pilot friend of ours. We have wanted to do this trip for a long time so my birthday was a great reason to do it!
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| Not the type of planes I usually ride in... |
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| So excited! He is bigger than the plane! |
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| Feeling so so fancy. |
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| Final picture before take off - just in case (kidding, mom!) |
We flew at about 1,100 feet the entire time so it was really amazing to see the world at that altitude. We were all wearing headsets so we could talk to each other, but we were also able to listen as Brad communicated with air traffic control.
Approaching NYC we flew through the Verrazano bridge ("like goal posts") and along the coast of the Hudson River. We were lower than most of the buildings, which was seriously one of the coolest things we've ever experienced.
When we got to the Upper West Side, we asked LaGuardia air traffic control for permission to cross over Central Park and head down the East River on our way home. They said yes, a first for the pilot as well. It was amazing.
Before heading back to Philadelphia, we did a few laps of the Statue of Liberty at about 700 feet. She's a pretty lady...
It was a really wonderful birthday present and a great way to break up all the house work. We headed home excited to go back to our new kitchen - the first activity being the installation of our kitchen light.
My mom found this light (the
Eldridge Rectangular Chandelier) for me months ago from Ballard Designs and I have had a
PoachIt alert on it since. It never went on sale but at check out I signed up for their emails and received 20% off my first purchase! The final price was $379 (including free shipping), which is very reasonable for a light like this. The bad boy was over 30 pounds so we recruited Dan to help with the installation.
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| House work in spandex...obvi. |
We bought
vintage style light bulbs from Home Depot as a final touch but it gives off a yellowish light, so we may end up switching them out. Overall I am very happy with the light!
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| Baby kitchen |
Our final project of the weekend was the installation of our Broan Hood over the oven. The old oven hood didn't work because dead mice were laying on the flap, so this shiny new hood feels very luxurious.
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| Before |
We had to rig it in place using lots and lots of duct tape but we figured it out. Again, we are really happy with the final product!
It was a busy weekend but it is so worth it! Next step - counter installation!
