Time is running out!

Originally, our idea was that we would take 2 weeks to gut the kitchen. Then, once we moved in and got started, figured we could at least have it done before school started. Now we're hoping (and praying) it will be done before Thanksgiving (and maybe Christmas!).

Obviously, we weren't very experienced with estimating how much time things would take, but we also didn't take into account that most of the time, there's SOMETHING that doesn't work out the way you expected it to. Then throw school and coaching into the mix and you have -- nearly zero time to do anything on the house!

Right around this point in the renovating process (mid-August), we realized we weren't going to be able to do as much as we wanted to ourselves. So after we had our electric problems fixed, there wasn't time for us to take care of the floor ourselves before school started.

One of our friends mentioned an online service they used for projects around the house - service magic - and so we tried it out. You put your "service needed" out for grabs and then get calls back from local vendors who are willing to take the project on and give you an estimate. We found a contractor who was able to do everything we wanted and more, and was able to start almost immediately.

In about 16 hours (spread over 3 days), he was able to tear up our old floor, lay the subfloor, tile & grout! Yahoo! Part 2 of our renovations complete! See some pictures of the masterpiece below!

After the grout had cured for a day, we got my whole family together and had a "painting" party - not with paint, but painting sealer on the grout! At last, it was starting to come together, piece by piece (or tile by tile!).