We Love Freecycling (and our new kitchen counters!)

Last week we had picked up a dresser and nightstand from a Freecycler (it’s kind of like craigslist but everything is free). A little bit of sanding, priming and painting (banana cream color to match the bed frame) and we have the perfect addition to one of our guest rooms. The drawer bottoms were pretty ugly so I added some pretty contact paper (Chris thinks it’s a little girlie).



Our friends Kirk and Cat were replacing their carpet for hardwood so they offered the carpet to us. We picked it up on Wednesday night and eventually it will have a home on our upstairs floor. Their house was also overflowing with plants so they gave us several of them. We just think it’s great that we can make use of things other people don’t want anymore.


Next week we are having our final inspection to close out the mortgage. In order to pass we have to finish a few things – the kitchen, electrical, plumbing, and porch railing.

During the week we got a ton accomplished in the kitchen. We installed the desk, dishwasher, and stove. The company we hired to make the countertops had them installed on Friday – a mere week after making the template! We think that they look wonderful!

We are having some issues finishing the plumbing under the sink. The drain line is about 2 inches too high and the faucet we bought leaks like a sieve. We are headed back to Lowes to buy a new faucet and plumbing fittings tonight. Hopefully (and with a lot of luck) our sink will be functional soon. We are really looking forward to being able to use our kitchen!

Even after the plumbing is hooked up we will still have a lot to finish in the kitchen: installing trim and toe kicks, move electrical outlets and switches to new locations, tile the backsplash, install additional lighting, paint and install radiator covers. We’ll put up the “reveal” photos once the kitchen is all finished (later this year).



Over the weekend we also started to install the porch railing off of the kitchen. We only got a couple posts installed before it started to rain. Drilling into the concrete was very difficult and time consuming!

On Sunday, I started moving the switches in the den. We have always been a little baffled by the light switches in the den that are down low to the ground (about knee level). When we were ordering our windows we decided to make the windows slightly smaller so that we would have a space to move these switches. We also want to put an outlet in the sunroom (has to be GFCI because it is exterior). I was able to install both switches but ran into fishing issues with the outlet cable. Once I get that outlet installed we can close the giant hole in the house!