The end is near, finally

When we last left our hero, he'd just hung the cabinets and the wiring was hanging lewdly from the walls. We were basking in the glow of our brilliant plan and filling our imaginations with dreams of gas ranges and perfectly laid tile.

Then he vanished. No contact or speck of dust for a month. Eeek!

And then we were scrambling, trying to piece together the skills between hubby and I so we could set out game plan for finishing the long overdue project. We were getting REAL sick of eating out, nearly in tears trying to decide, once again, where in HELL we should go for dinner when all we really wanted was a salad and maybe a nice slice of homemade lasagna in front of the tube.

We wouldn't hire another contractor, oh no, we were twice shy! But install appliances? Texture walls? Plumbing? Painting? Electricity? How does one put up crown molding? What does this black wire do? And for that matter, what are all these other wires for? It was all too much.

But sit idly on the couch and contemplate our navels? Despite what my mom-in-law might think, we would not -- in fact COULD NOT -- do this. No, we would have to pull together. So we donned our dusty long-lost DIY capes and did just that.

Queue the triumphant music -- Ta Da! -- And so appeared the dynamic husband and wife remodeling duo!

I won't rehash all the nitty gritty details of the DIY fantastic-ness (you can read the recent posts if you like, it's all in there), but if we do say so ourselves, we did a fine job picking up where Our Hero left off. Of course we had some help from talented cameo appearances (my dad for the texture FAQ and a trusty plumber for the sink), but all in all, we were feeling a bit heroic ourselves until we realized that the only projects left were those we didn't know how to do.

In all our DIY time, we've learned to draw the line at a few things -- originally just tile and plumbing, we now added crown molding to our list. It seemed like a lot of measuring and math and precisely cut angles -- things we don't necessarily excel in. However, just as we were about to stride naively yet determindely into the lumberyard in search of crown molding, I got a miraculous call.

Our Hero lives! Hooray!
He is in one piece! Hooray!
He will start laying tile tomorrow? Yes! Hooray!

There was much Hooray-ing going on both verbally and mentally. This meant we didn't have to find a new tile guy. This meant we didn't have to fuck up a hundred yards of crown molding trying to get the angles right. This meant we didn't have to file for divorce halfway through trying to build the custom cabinet that had only lived in the mind of Our Hero. Oh blessed be.

And after all this, I'm finally able to post this:

Tile backsplash (sans grout--coming soon)

Fancy Schmancy crown molding with up-lighting


Also coming this week: Cookbook cabinet, switch covers and (if I can get my act together) painted drawers and cabinet doors!

All my praying, hoping, finger crossing, voodoo doll stabbing, star wishing, penny tossing and four leaf clover collecting finally paid off and our finished kitchen (gah! I hate this word) is nearly a reality.

I can practically smell the lasagna baking...