Ace Freely, Kitchen Remodeling and Disaster Areas

Some people have grandkids...I have a grandkitten. When DD returned to the nest a month ago she brought along her little baby, Ace Freely. She's about 7 months old I think. Ace and Dori are having an awesome time together running all through the house, galloping up and down the stairs and under beds and over sofas and around chairs. They love to wrestle and stalk each other. Dori is really happy to finally have a playmate! Those other 2 cats can be such grumpy old women with a kitten. Ace is also completely happy to have a great big house to prowl and run through since she spent most of her time up until now in a small apartment.

Their most favorite place to play right now is in the kitchen where there are no counters, cabinet doors or drawers to get in their way. They blast thru the penninsula and race through the dining room and living room up the stairs around the bedrooms, down the stairs, through the living room and dining room, back through the penninsula and into the family room where they fly up and over the sofa, across to the chair and hide behind the TV only to jump out at the chaser and then back into the kitchen cupboards.

They will have to invent a new game once the new cabinet doors and drawers and the new granite countertop is installed. I'm hoping that this is only about a week and a half away. HOPE HOPE HOPE!

Last week was the absolute worst part of the kitchen remodeling I think (again, I HOPE!). They scraped and resprayed the ceiling and finished the drywall stuff. Next week the cabinets, which were a very dark oak as you can see in the picture, will be painted a very soothing Almond Cream. The room is on the north side of the house and I'm hoping to brighten it up by going almost white on the cabinets. The counter will be dark and the appliances (currently Bisque) will be stainless. Also, added a ton of new lighting in the ceiling and under the cabinets.

In the meantime, my house is a disaster area. A friend who also recently remodeled her kitchen warned me that it would be tense...and that it would be a miracle to get through it without killing everyone. She was right. I'm really at the end of my rope with the mess and not having counters and having EVERYTHING in boxes. But last week was the worst when we had plastic up over all the doors and it was a major deal just to get through the house to the garage or the basement, since the kitchen is really the hub here like in most houses. So, I am really hoping this will be finished soon.

The cats were not very happy about being stuck in the basement all last week either. The first day or 2 it was fine but by Thursday they had had enough. So now they are back at it, running around and around and up and down....