And progress continues!

Above, K hard at work making new cabinet doors!

So, we got home from work tonite puttered around and waited for each other to make dinner. :-) I guess both of us had a glum day and waited for the other. Once we filled our bellies we were off to our projects...I applied one coat of polyurethane to all the cabinets. Tomorrow night I will be able to sand the cabinets and apply the second coat of poly. My plan is to apply a third coat of poly on Wednesday evening. Then Thursday I can clean the entire kitchen! There is a fine coat of sanding residue on EVERYTHING in the kitchen. Ick. Once all nooks and crannies are clean, I can start putting things back in the cabinets (after all of those items get cleaned!)! My weekend will be spent applying edge banding on all of the doors and drawer fronts that K is busy making. After edge banding is on, they all get to be sanded, wiped off, then stained and 3 coats of poly applied...

On a great note I finally found 2 fabulous finishes that I can apply over the old, stained, chipped, yukky, 20 year old laminate countertops! Both of them are cost effective and have over 30 color choices! I will wait to tell you the details and which one we pick. I just want to get the cabinets done, then move on to part II. Some of you have asked about the order of events for this project. Here is the rundown with some explanation:

1) Prime and paint kitchen walls (DONE!)
2) Install new stair railings and modify stair coverings (DONE!)
3) Refinish cabinet boxes
4) Build a new pantry cabinet bigger to utilize all the available space & install (DONE!)
5) Build, edge band, stain & poly cabinet doors and drawer fronts & install
6) Resurface laminate countertops & install new sink (stainless) & faucet
7) Install new lighting (Ikea! Woohoo! Again stainless finish)
8) Select pulls (Ikea! Woohoo! You guessed it, stainless finish)
9) Install new laminate floor (Sam's Club -light maple color)

Naturally, floor coverings are always last so you don't drip stain, paint or tools on it. Likewise, paint walls, then stain cabinets so you don't get either of those messes on new countertops. Obviously I didn't list all the cleaning either. Where exactly is that "end that may be in sight" that I referred to the other day? I must be truly insane! (If anyone is bored this weekend and wants to stain or sand or do fussy touch up painting on the walls or help clean the coating of dust that is covering *everything* on the main level of the house just drop me a line!)

On a Baby note, the wee one is moving around LOTS now and I am feeling it all the time. It is wonderful and amazing and beyond any words that I know of. I am still waiting for K to be able to feel it. Soon, I hope, soon! According to what I am reading, Baby weighs about 1 pound now is 12" long from head to toe and all organs and stuff are "there." From here on out Baby will get bigger, finally start to put on some fat, and the organs will continue to fine tune. The pancreas is functioning and the tongue has all of it's taste buds and they're functioning already. There are some studies that suggest that the amniotic fluid is flavored by the mother's diet and that at this stage (23 weeks) baby can actually taste the amniotic fluid. Baby is swallowing amniotic fluid and practicing all sorts of digestive wonderment.