Almost there...

Its been a challenging two months, but at last we’re in the final stretches of our kitchen remodel. Construction tasks that remain include the application of the toe kick around the bottom of the base cabinets, the attachment of a particularly tricky pantry door, the reattachment of floor molding, and the eventual installation of our oven hood once it bothers to arrive on our porch.

Thanks to a much enjoyed surprise visit from my mom we were able to complete the painting of the kitchen walls as well as make great progress toward completing some much needed cleaning, painting, and repair work in the guest bathroom. Without her generosity and hard work in the kitchen, and the guest bathroom we surely would not have been prepared for our Christmas visitors and evening at Northview dinner party guests.

In addition, thanks to some much appreciated generosity, and cooperative hard work by the Hupps and Hares, Jonathan, his dad and his uncle managed to install our new kitchen floor in about a day and a half. Due to the cement floors reluctance to clean up as well as we were hoping we decided to go with an IKEA flooring option. Not only does it look great, but its kinder on the legs and feet than cement, and provides a perfect finishing touch for our kitchen.

With a few touch ups I’m hoping to have a fully completed kitchen remodel by the end of the first day of the new year (sans oven hood). Farewell painters tape on windows and door frames, hasta la vista plastic sheets lining countertops and floors, hello completed Caetano-Hupp kitchen!

Billboard Brilliance

A play on a classy slogan + an excellent use of ninja-esque germs flying towards an innocent victim, genius. For the love of pandemic’s, heed the sign people!

7 Weeks Later

Following a full day of scrubbing and waxing our kitchen’s cement floor, and enjoying a tasty Chinese food dinner, at 9:45 PM we started assembling our kitchen cabinets. For the sake of marital bliss we each started constructing one cabinet a piece. The first box took the longest because although we are both fluent in the sparse language that is IKEA, it usually takes about one build to get warmed up.

Sans breaks it took us 7 hours to construct three 36” base cabinets, two 15” base cabinets, one 30” base cabinet and six 24” horizontal wall cabinets. If you did your math right that means we were up until 4:45. This might not have been too rough if we could sleep in; however, with our amazing contractor (AKA superhero) arriving at 7AM to help us with our cabinet installation, this so called "sleeping in" was not a viable option.

After about two hours of sleep and feeling like reheated leftovers, we managed to peel ourselves out of bed and start our day with Tim. I’d like to take a second here and give a shout out to Tim. Tim, who owns his own contracting company called TJK Remodeling, is the very man, with the assistance of his sons, who built our sweet pocket door. Not only was Tim upbeat, positive and willing to teach us every step of the process but he provided his expertise, supplies and hard work free of charge. We are thankful beyond words for his time and effort this past Saturday. Honestly, if you are in AZ and ever need remodeling work, Tim is the guy to call!

While Jonathan and Tim installed the cabinets I worked on constructing the drawers for the various units as well as the gigantotron pantry unit. By 3ish they had the entire kitchen mounted and looking fabulous! We are still working on getting the handles on doors and drawers as well as mounting the doors on both floor and wall units. Once we have all of these items in place I'll finally get to unpack all of my precious kitchen items, some of which have not seen the light of day since before our wedding, back in May 2008.

As of Monday our days of living out of a cooler and purchasing bags of ice are over. Our refrigerator has arrived and is as cute as a button! On Wednesday our stove and dishwasher will arrive, and then, to top it all off (no pun intended) Saturday we’ll have our countertop and sink installed. After nearly 7 weeks of eating out for nearly every meal and having a kitchen that consisted of 4 walls and a floor, a completed kitchen is a dream come true.

Sneeze rule 101

Open mouth sneezing is only acceptable in an outdoor space with no one around, like your backyard, or a wide open meadow miles away from civilization. Last time I checked office cubicles do not fit this standard and therefore should not be used as an area appropriate for an open mouth, germ spreading, snot and spit propelling, sneeze. For the love of wellness, have some courtesy and cover your stinkin mouth!

Inappropriate

I woke up this morning to NPR informing me it was 38 degrees in Phoenix. I'm pretty sure I didn't move to Arizona to experience 38 degrees unless I was driving to Flagstaff to go skiing. Very inappropriate indeed.

Max and Maggie

Last weekend we had the pleasure of house/dog sitting. Not only did we enjoy the comfort of a heated home, cable television and a kitchen to cook in, but we got to hang out with some great canines. Max and Maggie are terrific. I don't think I've ever been as entertained when walking dogs as when I walked these two. On the leash they're like a pair of considerate sled dogs. They walk side by side, at an even pace with just the slightest bit of tension on the leash and respond to the gentlest guide for right or left.



Mr. Max tends to walk like he is on a mission, with his ears back and his nose to the wind. He's having fun but fun with attitude. On the other hand, or should I say leash, Maggie while keeping up with Max's pace is a little more laid back. Her leash always tends to have a little more slack and her ears flop about and blow in the occasional wind.

Even after carrying out their doggie business these two dogs maintain the utmost civility. There is no kicking of grass or dirt, or at times a little more than just earth, or yanking of the leash as they take off in satisfaction. Instead, both Max and Maggie are content to wait out your considerate clean up and disposal.


Don't get me wrong, I love our cats, but I can't say their on the leash behavior is half as enjoyable as that of Mr. Max and Ms. Maggie.

The Stink of Success

I wont lie and say the smell of drying plaster is heavenly, but its results are darn near close.

Our dry wall guy has been hard at work since December 1st and his dedication and skill is really starting to show. As of yesterday the beast that was our blue paint was laid to rest. Finally we have smooth, white walls!! The house is brighter, and as strange as it sounds, is looking a lot more like ours, instead of just something we have to deal with. Below are a few before and after pictures.

Here are some pictures of the Living Room: Before and After (but still not done)

(strangely enough the "After" picture above makes the room look Alice-in-Wonderland small...)

Our plan is to finish the floors in the living room and kitchen on Thurs/Fri , then install the kitchen cabinets on Sunday. On Monday we'll receive 1/2 of our kitchen appliances, the remainder of which will be delivered on Wed. The thought of having a useable kitchen by Thursday almost brings tears to my eyes.

Below are a few kitchen series pictures: Before and After (but still not done)

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This project has been a wicked cocktail of hard work, short tempers, creative genius, patience and exploration. As far as the kitchen and living room are concerned, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. (for now at least)

Eventual Laundry Room

Check out the sweet pocket door. One of these days there will actually be a washer/dryer set up hidden behind this sneaky little door.

Hooray for visitors!

Yes, it’s a little delayed, but such is life.

A few weeks back we had our first official out-of-state visitor stay at our house. Tyler was in Tucson for a work event and found time to come up to Phoenix to hang out with us. Not only did Tyler experience our sneaky cats, who have to be everywhere they’re not allowed, but he assisted in our renovation by trimming some tree branches in the back yard, and redistributing some dirt and rocks to cover the freshly dug plumbing trench in the front yard. Tyler took it upon himself to up the authenticity of his home repair experience by acquiring a slight injury thanks to the slightly unwieldy hand saw. A band aid worthy injury at that.

To enhance Tyler's short lived desert experience, we drove over to Piestewa Peak for a short hike before he departed for the Golden State. We enjoyed having company other than our felines and encourage others to visit. Hopefully, by next year we’ll actually have a working guest bathroom as well as a real bed to sleep on.

And remember, with every visit comes a free appearance on Huppdates! Just look how happy they are!!