I now have a high school student in the house.  Today was her first day in 9th grade and after her new haircut and new clothes from the past weekend, she seemed ready for it.  We did orientation last week and she ran into an old friend from the horse farm and another from her old soccer team.. so I was happy to see her rekindling old friendships right from the start.  It should be an interesting 4 years.. I am sure you will hear all about it here. :-)

I got a little busy and missed the week 3 installment of the kitchen.. so adding those photos at the bottom.  We just finished weekend 4 of kitchen work.  The cabinets are in, the moldings up, the painting done (minus some touch up work).   Looks like about two more weekends to finish the job.   Then comes the cleaning.. ugh!  I have given up for the most part until we finish getting the floor in next weekend.

Last time I posted, we were about to play golf.  That was a beautiful, low humidity day (unusual for August in Maryland) and I had the good fortune of making one great shot and won a hole contest for $165.  The first (and possibly the last) time I ever make money from playing golf!  We all had our good shots interspersed with the numerous bad ones, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

Weekend 2 of the kitchen project. This time we worked both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was running all the new electric circuits. My house has aluminum wiring in many places, so we had to pull all new copper runs from the fusebox.. and of course figure out what was wired to what.. seems like the electrician who did my house in the 70's may have been on some medications? Today we took out the other wall and installed the beam for carrying the load on that wall, removed the back door and framed that in, insulated, installed the boards for the new cabinets to be mounted and installed the lighting in the ceiling. Next week we drywall. It is coming along nicely!



Last week my daughter was at GS camp in Pennsylvania. She had a buddy with her and they had a good time... sounds like they want to do it again next year. It was her first time away from home and electronics for that long.. I was proud that she adapted so well! :-)



Saturday night I took her and another friend to the last night of the Howard County Fair. It was an interesting mix of people there... I was taking turns watching the girls riding the rides and watching the people wandering around.. they sure get rid of a lot of goldfish.. seemed like everyone had a plastic bag with a fish in it.


Tomorrow AM, Anne, Dant and I are off to play in another charity golf tournament. Should be a nice day and good company... will see if any of us play that well. At least the beer is free! :-)

Day 1 complete... all the cabinets, appliances, two levels of flooring, drywall and one of the two walls removed. Will see if I can move tomorrow. :-) Tomorrow, the daughter is off to a residential GS camp for the week with one of her riding buddies.. so have been busy packing and finishing paperwork tonight. The kitchen project will resume next weekend.. although I have homework for the week, moving the door bell and thermostat to the wall that will remain after this is all done.

Later today, the kitchen project enters the demolition phase.  Here are the before photos:

From the living room looking towards the kitchen, parts of both of these walls are coming out...

My vintage 1970 linoleum floor.... nice! ;-)

View from the dining room entrance...

From the counter looking towards the living room... these are the walls that are partially coming out...

Lost the sink already.. that happened this evening when the plumber was here to disconnect things...

The view towards the dining room.. this outside door is going away also...

Should be a dusty day... but probably cathartic during the demolition!  :-)