Sunday, March 23, 2014

The Kitchen Reno

Back in October of 2013 we renovated our kitchen, dinning room, and laundry room. They were the last of the rooms that needed to be redone in our house. We had decided that while we wait for the market to come back up to sell our house we would make the one big change that it needed to help sell it. Cris did a lot of the work himself. In one day we tore out all the old cabinets, counters, and flooring. It was quite messy but it was so nice to get rid of the old smelly cabinets. This is what our kitchen looked like before hand. It wasn't too bad but it needed a major update from the original cabinets. We had added a few things over the years to make it seem more up to date. We tiled the counters and added some trim to the cabinets. I'm so happy to be rid of the sliding doors in the bottom cabinets that would stick often so you couldn't open them. Pain in the butt!!!

 These are a few of the pictures I have of the construction process. We tore out a wall and rebuilt it about 4 feet back to make the dinning room area bigger. They also had to put a beam up since the wall we tore out was load bearing. We also made the doorway into the dinning area from the living room bigger. I love how it opens up the house more. 
Our friend Tim helped us a lot with this project. He cut concrete for about 2 hours so we could move our washing machine into a nook that was used for storage junk. It was so dusty!!! Then Cris had the daunting task of breaking the concrete out so we could make a new drain for the washing machine.
We also had to remove 30 year old linoleum. It was a pain!! Cris tiled the floors and we went with a diagonal pattern which we really like.  And we also closed off the access to the old family/dinning room. We turned it into a 4th bedroom, all that's left for it is to build a closet.


 Here's the after pics. 
The laundry room, that I'm wanting Cris to build some mudroom "lockers" to hang coats, and kids backpacks that will go were the laundry basket is.
The dinning room
 Standing at the end of the table looking towards the kitchen.
 The kitchen. We went with a rustic alder for the cabinets and a solid surface counter top with a seamless sink. All the cabinets have soft close hinges along with all the drawers. The bottom cabinets all have pull out drawers, and both corners have lazy Susan's in them. I love the soft close feature!!! The kids can't slam the doors, and they automatically close after you shut it so far.
 Another view of the dinning room.
 We love it, and think that it seems so much bigger!! We can't believe we waited 9 years to redo it. The only thing left to do is the trim work. Cris hates doing it so it may be a while. :)

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Moss Happenings of 2013

 Well another year has gone by way to fast, and life just passes us by. Here's what happened to us in 2013. 
We got our family pictures taken in February while in Idaho. And of course it was a beautiful sunny warm(maybe 40 degrees) day the day before we got them taken. The day we took them we were lucky if it was 20 degrees. That's just Idaho weather for ya.
We were also able to go to Grand Targhee in February with Grandma, Grandpa and Andrew. The three older kids were brave enough to go to the top so we could take some pictures with the Tetons behind us.
The kids learned what it was like to go sledding in Idaho.
 We went to the Grand Canyon with cousins we hadn't seen in years!!!
 We taught our cousins how to go cliff jumping at the creek. Grandma and Grandpa even got in on the fun, although I didn't upload that picture.
Go Sydnee!!
 We also may have taught the same cousins how to do some illegal activities. :)
 We learned how to take a nice pretty picture......
 And a not so pretty one......
 We went camping and Cole caught the only fish, while Kennedy had fun catching crawdads.
 We went to the happiest place on Earth, where Jocelyn danced away and still wasn't tall enough for California Screaming, Benson met his Idol, Buzz Lightyear and was a pro at standing in line for rides he was too small for, Cole loved the Radiator Springs ride, and cried on the ferris wheel again, and of course Kennedy and Kaden enjoyed the park with their friends and being free from mom and dad.
We  met cousins the kids didn't know they had and it was so much fun to catch up with family we hadn't seen in such a long time.
 Cris and Mark had a muscle man contest.
 We became the proud parents of a dance champ.
 Halloween came and went with fall way to fast. We have some pretty good looking nerds in the family.
 The kids along with Andrew and Grandpa built a giant snowman.
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 We met Santa who came on the BNSF train all the way from the North Pole.
 The kids all grew like weeds this past year!
 Here's to hoping I can remember to keep this blog updated more often in 2014!