Moving Right Along

 The most difficult part of this kitchen renovation by far has been the somewhat level placement of drywall on these few walls. 

And I honestly don't know how we did it but they finally came together.

 

And now that they have, we have been moving ahead with full steam.

 

 Please don't ask me to explain all of the strange pieces of wood poking through the drywall. I honestly don't understand it all myself but what I am sure of is really the only thing that matters: when it is all finished, it will both look good and function properly.

 The bay widow walls were certainly a challenge but Michael did a great job of building some mini walls to support the drywall.

 Then came my part of the job: mudding. It really is incredible how similar mud and Italian Buttercream Icing are. And since I've been without an oven for the past 3 months, joint compound mud is filling a serious void in my life. 

I'll admit it, I love to mud drywall!

 The hole-less ceiling looks so pretty with the new canister lights.

 And the skim-coat over the old, textured plaster went much better than I expected. 

Finally, my lovely pastry degree is getting some use!

 Once the mudding was almost complete (I have one more coat before we start to sand), the floors were next to go. And the ugly laminate flooring in the entryway happened first since it was actually stapled on top of the laminate flooring in the kitchen. 

 Staples, staples everywhere! This find necessitated a 9:30pm run to Home Depot since we couldn't exactly have a minefield of staples in our path to bed.

 Look at that: Gorgeous! I will never understand why homeowners feel the need to "protect" their hardwood floors. 

 Of course, now we need to locate some 1/4 round molding that will bend around our bottom stair to fill the newfound void. Suggestions? Anyone?

 And the threshold didn't make it out in one piece. The new one is currently being stained and poly'd.

 Our new entryway.

 And, the rubble, dumped in a laminate-less kitchen.

 And a laminate-less side entry.

And here's where we are now, stripping section after section of laminate adhesive that was made to last a lifetime. Thankfully, we are nearly done with this step with only the section I am standing in to take the photo left to strip. 

Then we move on to the final coat of mud, and sanding of both the walls and the floors.