First day

The day after we closed on the house and had the open house was actually Sam's birthday party. After his party at the pool, a few of his friends came over to the house. They played dart guns for the first little while, while Matt and I worked.




The first job is the kitchen cabinets. That lovely wallpaper on the soffit was the first thing to go.




I was surprised how much changed by just taking that little bit of wallpaper off. The busy pattern gave way to a much more open feel of one color--even if it is an ugly color.

The next task was taking down the upper cabinet that divided the kitchen and dining room. These cabinets were originally intended to delineate the two spaces. To me, however, it just made the kitchen and dining room seem dark and small. Opening them up will increase the light and space.

These dark spaces will soon be light and open

I started to break through the soffit and the boys heard the hammering. They, of course, wanted to try. What 11 year old boy wouldn't want to put a hammer through a wall?!?




This handsome guy started by taking the cabinet doors off the area beneath the oven.




After the other boys left, Sam settled down with a book while Matt and I worked for a while. What do you think about the filtered mask? You'll see a lot of pictures of these masks in the posts to come.



Toward the end of the night's work, this is what the soffit looked like. Lots more to do, but that cabinet will come down whether it wants to or not!