Hi everyone...

I have not been around here much in the last 3 weeks, because, frankly, I have been too sick and exhausted even to look at the computer (hard to imagine!!!). Midway through our mostly-DIY renovation (kitchen, LR, DR, mudroom, pantry) I got the most extreme case of systemic poison ivy (in the bloodstream) my doctor had seen. I was on unusually mega-high doses of prednisone for over 2 weeks, unbearable itching, no sleep, all the while living in construction zone and cooking on a hotplate in the dusty hall:(......and dealing with a massive mold bloom necessitating sealing off our 2nd bathroom and $10k of unforseen excavation/drainage/basement rebuild at the same time. Argh.

However!!! WE are making progress, there are finally flowers and leaves, and life is looking much better!!

Here's a link to the start of the photo documentation of this project, from last month... http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0411303021686.html?21

So- on Easter, DH skipped church and the annual family party, and laid the oak to patch into the existing hardwood floor in the area we ripped out tile:

For about 3-4 weeks I was cooking in a makeshift kitchen with some of the old cabinets, old stove, old sink:

Meanwhile DH worked on installing all the new electrical wiring. It took a LOT longer than he expected! He works in a boatyard, and since it is launching season, he got very busy at work and had little time/energy after work for all this:( We also realized that he couldn't use power tools after 9:00 pm becuase it was keeping our DH awake and causing big problems for her. But we kept plugging away... framing, plumbing rough-in, electrical.

Meanwhile we researched and ordered our sink, faucets, and lighting. Those were very exciting packages to receive. Here's the second temp-kitchen set-up I was cooking on all this time (3 weeks? It is getting very old. And washing dishes in the tiny vanity sink and bathtub. Blech.)

On the day before the drywallers came, at the height of my itchiness from the poison ivy, I had to don a Tyvek suit and install fiberglass batt insulation and then foam panel insulation in all the new exterior walls. I am not sure I have ever been more miserable! But it sure was satisfying when, one day later, the drywall was hung and the new spaces finally defined!

Last week I drove to Boston to look at granite warehouses. We thought we had it narrowed down to 2 choices.... now I am not so sure! It will probably mean another drive down there later this week.

It has been about 11 days since drywall was hung, and the drywall will be all finished today. This weekend we had a cabinet-maker friend over and we installed most of the kitchen cabinets. That was extremely exciting. Here are some photos of the install (I am going to start another thread with specifics) and a final pic, all wrapped in plastic to protect from today's drywall dust. Only the island is not properly installed.

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So that's where we are right now. Tomorrow we do a huge clean-up post drywall, and DH will scramble trying to get the plumbing electrical done for the next round of inspections, so we can at least have a sink and lights. We need to run LPG lines before we can install the range, then there are all the holes he needs to cut in the roof for the new plumbing vents, range exhaust, and Solatube!!! And due to his job he doesn't have a 3-day weekend like most people, in fact he has only ONE day to work on the house this weekend! It's gonna be a while yet.......

I have been spending all my time on the yard (major landscaping to do this year) and garden. Although it's exhausting, it is super-rewarding. I'm SOOOOO happy with the placement of my new sink: I look out over the backyard and in the evening the sun slants through, backlighting the old flowering crabapples, the new leaves on the fruit trees we just planted, and I can watch the peas growing in the vegetable garden. Hooray!!