Happy Anniversary BABY!

In early April my sister, her family, and my dad came to visit us. We had just finished restoring the kitchen back to its functioning self. I think I even had the sliding glass door curtain up.

We were so excited as this was a very long trip for her and her husband's brood of 3-year old twins and a 5 year old kindergartner. We were busy planning sleeping arrangements, yummy meals, and fun things to do. My daughter insisted that her girl cousin had to sleep in her room, my oldest would not sleep upstairs with his brother. He insisted on sleeping in his room even if it meant that the two boys cousins would sleep there, too.

A trip to the zoo, the discovery museum, visits to the schools where we work and attend, and a trip to Chicago were in the works. We were trying to decide what we should see in Chicago in a one day trip. American Girl was a must. So Navy Pier was a good idea. What about the Sears Tower or the John Hancock building? Both are costly so we needed to select one. I was also trying to arrange a day or two off of school to visit with my family and still trying to make sure I could take a day off in May to spend time with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who were coming to visit in May. I have to say I was thrilled to have so many new visitors to our home. It was the bright spot in this turbulent spring.

Doug and I were trying to pick a day to go to Chicago so that we could buy tickets for the train. Doug wanted to go on Tuesday. I wanted to go on Wednesday. My sister and crew were leaving Thursday. I wanted to go on Wednesday because my student teacher would be attending a seminar and would be gone in the morning. This would mean that my teaching assistant would only have to deal with him for a few hours without me instead of the full day. Doug wasn't happy with this, since he wanted to go on Tuesday.

We argued. Doug finally says that he wanted to take me out to a new restaurant in town, for dinner, to celebrate our 20th anniversary. He figured that our kids could hang out with my sister while we had a nice night out. (We almost never have nights out, just the two of us.) Of course I felt terrible and after pouting a bit I went upstairs to tell him we could go Tuesday. He said something like it was too late and he now wanted to go on Wednesday. So Wednesday it was.

Now on Tuesday, I took a half-day from school and went to the Children's Museum with my sister's crew. It was a lot of fun. The kids were able to roam wherever they wanted since there were four adults their to watch them. Even with four of us we lost track of a kid or two every now and then.

Now while I was off with my family, drama was playing out at school. When I got back to school to finish my work day, I was greeting by the substitute and my teaching assistant relaying the events that had transpired with my student teacher while I was gone. So being gone the next day while the student teacher was also gone was sounding like a good decision. My guilt from the argument was quickly disappearing.

Off we go to Chicago on Wednesday, Doug and my 20th anniversary, my family, my sister's family, and my dad (11 of us). The train ride was the slowest it had ever been. We had all kinds of delays and stops. Luckily all the kids were great. We arrived in Chicago and immediately sought out a place to eat lunch. I thought that was kind of slow, too. Our day was rapidly disappearing. Would my family have fun on there first trip to Chicago? Although just being in the city is neat with its tall building.

After lunch the guys and girls separated. The boys stayed at the Sports restaurant and played a few games then ventured to the Harley Davidson Store. The girls and one nephew headed down to the American Girl Store. We had plans to meet up in an hour by the American Girl Store. We finished a bit early at the American Girl Store so we went across the street to the Walgreens for souvenirs. After a bit of confusions and a call or two later we all met and began to walk to the John Hancock building for a panoramic view of the city.

We get ready to ride the elevator up to the top. My dad passed on this adventure as he doesn't like heights. My daughter got really scared and didn't want to go either. The ladies that were selling tickets helped calm her down and convince her to go up with us. Thanks!!! She loved it once we got to the top. Our ears did pop as we were going up and it feels a bit strange at first.

We took lots of pictures of the Chicago area. Marveled over Navy Pier and Lake Michigan. They have funny cheesy photo opportunities like laying on a steel rafter/garter with a scene under it that makes it look like you are laying high above the city. They also had a window washing scene set-up. We had a good laugh getting pictures of everyone.

About 30 minutes into to this time at the John Hancock building Doug calls me over by him. I'm thinking we are going to discuss what to do next. At one point in time we felt like it was too late to go to Navy Pier since we had to catch the train back home. Of course a couple of the kids follow us and Doug shoos them off then says they might as well hang around. I'm still positive we are going to discuss plans for the last bit of the day in Chicago. I think I am babbling about my thoughts on this when Doug takes his backpack off, kneels on the ground, while fishing in his backpack. He says you know what tall building mean. I said, "Umm no." He give me a look. You know the look. The come on you watch sappy movies and read romance novels. I said,"Like in An Affair to Remember", Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower?" He says yes and pulls out a small glossy dark green gift bag from a jeweler in our town. I can't believe he got that bag in his backpack before we left and had it there all day without my knowledge. He says he has had it for weeks/months. I open the bag and there is a small box. The kids are gathered around and I open the box and it has a wedding ring set in there. The ring has a huge diamond solitaire set in white gold and a white gold band with nine tiny diamonds. It is spectacular. I cried. Tears of joy and not all night long, just a bit. How wonderfully caring. I never expected anything much less something so extravagant. After 20 years Doug thought I needed an upgrade. I think the upgrade was about 15 times the purchase of my first wedding ring set and this one he picked out all by himself. It was the gift he planned to give me at the restaurant where he had made reservations for our anniversary. Aww!

I think I was floating on clouds the rest of the evening. I still look at the ring and am just amazed by its spectacular beauty and my wonderful husband. I guess I'm the one lacking the romantic ideas.

Nice New Kitchen

That's how I think of my kitchen, nice & new. I cleaned it this week and boy does it smell good. We have this fancy kitchen shop and as an end of the year gift my students gave me dishtowels and aromatherapeutic cleaners, among other non-cleaning cool things. I don't know what oil of patchouli is but mixed with green tea, it gives off a heavenly scent. How did they know I had a new floor and old cabinets? Well that's a story for later.




Some of these shots should be familiar from days 1-7.




This is my new sliding glass door. My curtains are finally up and gliding across the rod with ease.

Day 6- Grout

On day 5 we had no trouble picking out grout for the tiles. Doug and I immediately narrowed it down to two colors/shades of tan. We then pretty quickly picked the color. Day 6 the men came back and grouted the floor. We were all home from school, since it was Good Friday. I left after their arrival to go to school and complete some work, thus staying out of the way. I took the dog and youngest child with me, guaranteeing a better work environment for the men.

Later in the day, the oldest child calls me wanting to move back downstairs now that the tile work is finished. I tell him no. We were told that we had to stay off the floor after they grouted it. The oldest proceeds to tell me that our contractor has stopped by the house and is walking on the floor and he said we could now walk on the floor. Yea!! We were free to use the whole house again.


The garbage can was the first item returned to the kitchen.

We would be without cabinets and the stove until Monday, when our contractor's crew would return those items to their spot. We still didn't have full kitchen uses, but we could access the whole house, use the microwave, get to the upper cabinets, and set-up the kitchen table and chairs.

In addition to getting our kitchen back in order Monday (Day 8), we were getting a new dishwasher. Our old one had been giving us trouble for over a year. Finally the problem was more frequent than not, so we gave up using the dishwasher in November '07. We had gone without replacing the dishwasher because we had other more pressing needs and desires.

I should have taken pictures once everything was back in place but I wanted it all to be perfect. The last think left was to rehang the curtain over the sliding the glass door. We had now come full circle. We replaced the broken door, which then lead to the whole floor replacement plan. We had not had the curtain up since early January.

The problem with putting up the curtain now was that the middle support bracket was missing. I know that when the workers replaced the door they took down the bracket and I am positive that it was sitting on the china cabinet. Where did it go when we removed everything from the kitchen??? Good question! I finally gave up looking for it and after three shopping trips I found a type of bracket that was long enough and strong enough to hold up the curtain.

I think I got the curtain up right before my sister's family came to visit, the first week of April. Now I'm ready to take pictures but my kitchen is always a mess. It is the hub of our family. From homework area, to the storage of extra school books & supplies, and craft area it certainly is a cluttered space. Hopefully, now that I am in blogging mode again, I will straighten up the kitchen by the end of the weekend and take pictures for the site.

Day 5- Tile

O.K. let's wrap this up. On day five, my birthday, the tile men came in and began the process of tiling the floor. They were amused with the dog print in the cement. They tiled right over it. Now it's our own little time capsule. One day when someone else redoes the floor they will have a little memento.

In my opinion tiling was a very smooth process. They did a great job laying out the chocolate glass tiles. I believe we had twelve of them. They guys laid out the pattern, got Doug's feedback, and cemented it in. When I came home from school they were almost to the dining room entrance.

I have to say that it looks beautiful. I agonized over tile textures, colors, shades of color, and pattern it terms of how aesthetically pleasing it would be and how it would one day impact the sale of our house.

We still had to stay off the floor.






Some of the accommodations we made included turning the sofa table into a medicine cabinet. Most of our daily medicines are kept one of the kitchen cabinets so that we can dispense them at breakfast time before we all head out for the day.

Without a kitchen our eating habits changed. We used as much disposable ware as possible since we didn't have access to the kitchen sink. A few things were washed out in the bathroom sink.


We tried to eat breakfast at home, eating cereal and pop tarts. We kept the toaster handy on an apple shaped folding table (like a TV tray only made of wood with the top cut in the shape of an apple). Luckily the refrigerator was in the dining/computer room so we had access to milk.

Lunches were eaten at school/work. Dinners were eaten out. We had our fill of eating out for dinner. It gets hard to find places we all like to eat at. All of the kids have very distinct eating preferences. The end of this project is very near.

Day-4 Heat Flooring

On day four the tile crew added more leveling compound and put down the heat coils for a floor heating system. It was critical that we stay off the floor at this point for 24 hours.

When the oldest got up for school, we had him move the stuff he would need for the next two days upstairs. This included his shampoo, body wash, and contact paraphernalia, since our second full bath is in the basement. We were also busy washing and drying clothes the night before so that no one would run out. Yes, the washer and dryer are in the basement too. The cat's litter box and food are in the laundry room so those items had to come upstairs to the hall bathroom. We figured that we'd have to be off the floor for a couple of days.

Doug had made a blockade across the doorway with the garbage can and the rubbermaid foot stool. This was to keep the dog from entering the kitchen. The cat had to be locked up in a bedroom and/or the hall bathroom for the day. After school we took Sala out as long as we could keep an eye on him.


In this picture you can almost see the wires for the heating system embedded into the leveling compound. Can you see what looks like little lines drawn across the wet cement? Those are the heating coils.


Well into the evening these were still areas that were very wet. On the right side of the picture you can see wires sticking out from the wall. This is where the thermostat for the floor will be installed.


Doug and I left to go to the store. We left three kids up stairs with the dog and cat. We told them to keep and eye on the beasts and not let them get into the kitchen. As you can see the babysitting/supervision was lacking.

Day 3- New Floor

On this day they laid the concrete backer board. I think that is what it's called. I love HGTV. I know just enough to the dangerous. I'm sure the home improvement store personnel can spot us a mile away.

Anyway, the sub-flooring was laid and we were still able to move about the kitchen. We could even microwave things. We actually had more floor access than the day before.


This should begin to look familiar.


Yea, we can access the backyard from the house.

Day 2- New Floor

The workers came bright and early. They removed the lower cabinets, stove, broken dishwasher, sink, baseboards, and began working on the floor. They were going to remove all but the last layer of flooring from the kitchen. We had three layers.

The top layer was a whitish vinyl with a small tile-like pattern. This was what we were use to. The middle layer looked like a red brick vinyl floor. The last layer was an off white speckled with gold flecks vinyl floor. Most of this floor stayed. There is an area near the middle of the room where under the house the ground meets the basement. This area was not level so the off-white speckled floor was removed form that section.

A leveling compound was poured on the floor as the prep work for the tiles.


This picture was taken from the top of the basement stairs. All the appliances and lower cabinets are gone.


This picture was taken from the dining room into the kitchen. Luckily at this stage we were still able to get into the kitchen to go into the basement and even go into the garage. We were cut off from the sliding glass door and the backyard.