Cabinets Shmabnets

It's always something, right? 

With this remodel it was the cabinets...

 It's hard for people to understand why we would move back home when we didn't have cabinets.  But I think most people would have done the same in our situation.  In our defense, when we moved back we thought the cabinets would be in in 2 weeks...not 2 months!  Having Christmas in the rental when we would be home 2 weeks later just didn't seem right.  Unfortunately, the cabinets didn't show up in 2 weeks.. or the week after that.. or that.. or that..

 

But we made do!  And we were HAPPY! 

(I'll be happy if I never consume another Hot Pocket again, either)

The stress of moving and getting everything put back together really took a toll on everyone, way more on the kids than I realized until we got back home.  It was so refreshing to spend time with HAPPY kids again!

Well, they weren't always happy... Avery found a new spot to have her fits...

And relax with Ben early in the morning...

Project time:

Snow monsters!

Bird houses!

Cheerio art!

Getting ready for bed... 

And speaking of bed, we did a little rearranging this time around and switched the playroom and the master bedroom.  And now we get it.  At first, we didn't understand why the master would have all those tall windows.  Who would want to hang a wall of curtains?!  But then we slept there without curtains.. which turns out we don't need, anyway... and we LOVE it!  The view at night and in the morning is amazing.  Falling asleep under the stars with a view of the Christmas tree lit in the living room, or waking up to see a blanket of snow.. it's beautiful.  And I like being so close to the kids' rooms, too.  And the playroom... major, MAJOR improvement!

But back to the cabinets...We originally bought cabinets from Home Depot - after spending hours upon hours there (and driving back and forth to Jacksonville several times) with a cabinet design specialist picking out and designing our kitchen. We went back and forth on what we wanted... well we know what we wanted, it was just different and not traditional, so we couldn't decide whether or not to go with our gut. We decided on the different, only to find out the buttom cabinets didn't come in the finish we wanted. How odd is that?! So we went with Choice #2.  They were to be delivered right around Thanksgiving.. and then it kept getting pushed back. On December 18, I called (for the 10th time probably) and FINALLY someone was honest with me.. the cabinets hadn't even been started. It was so upsetting.  On the phone call before, someone told me they could ship on Dec 20, but call back to make sure they get scheduled for that day (hence the call on Dec 18). I was furious. Needless to say we cancelled the order entirely. We decided to have someone in the Springfield area custom make them. We talked with him that day and he said he could get cabinets done in a 2-week timeframe, generally. Once we got to the point of picking out cabinets, yet again, we kept going back for sample after sample until we found what we had been looking for since Day 1... and he could make them! But with all our back and forth, then the holidays, then us picking out the more difficult/have to order the material style... so it was a long wait, but well worth it!  The gut is usually the right call :)

They are here!

The boxes came earlier than the doors... but it was progress nonetheless!

And speaking of boxes...so not my favorite day (or week!)

Look closely... the kids were such big help!

to be continued...