Troy and Jey have been gracious enough to head over to our house after a long day of work, here in Salem, and start the mudding and taping process. We are so grateful for all their hard work and being a part of the process of making our home look like a home again. Notice also the extremely bright light that was installed by my dad...there are two more to go, my mom will be in a perpetual state of happiness while she is cooking in her kitchen. :)
...last minute decisions made, good-bye orange paneling. ;)
...finishing up the details before drywall and cabinets
Power tools & Side kicks
Crazy Electrician
Beautiful smiles
Work actually being done 
Computer Geeks and Sharp Tools
Boys being boys
The crazy crew:
Uncle Randy is BACK and this time we have proof! Here he is drilling the holes for the electrical wires to be pulled through.
Thank you Sampson for doing the labor intensive job and relieving my Dad's back from having to suffer through the grunt work. We ALL appreciate it!
Sampson at it again, only this time with a little more power in his hands
Uncle Randy, Kevin and Steven figuring out the best way to cut the wood for framing the window.
Tearing down the old shingles. Kevin was a hard worker and helped out in every area! We can't thank you guys enough, so..."Thank You, Kevin!"
The Randy's working together to fix the frame work
What was accomplished on this lovely Saturday afternoon? They drilled holes for the electrical wires, pulled half of the wires in the 'new kitchen,' got rid of the cement steps, tore down the old shingles, framed the window and put up the tar paper in preparation for the new shingles to go up. Way to go everyone and thank you again for your willingness to come down on a Saturday and help out.
Dad and Son getting ready to tear down the walls. 
The first two pictures turned out a little blurry but, it was too cute not to post it. Brent had a BLAST hammering the walls with Grandma and Dad. My Mom said that every time Daniel whacked the wall with the hammer Brent would exclaim "Wow, Dad, way to go!" "You are doing a great job!" "Good work Dad!" Gotta love him! Brent also did a really good job tearing the walls down, he turned out to be a BIG help.
Here I am standing at the entry way from the living room...notice no more orange counter tops. From what I hear (I wasn't there for this demolition) my Mom had way to much fun taking a hammer to the counters. In fact, the night before I heard 5 loud bangs in the kitchen as I was getting ready for bed, she was just a little excited. :)
Looking at the soon to be 'old kitchen' while standing in the 'old dinning room' 
In this picture I am standing at the door that leads downstairs and looking at what is left of the sink and counters.
Dad, getting ready to take the window out. Notice, no more dutch door. :(
Raising the window
Men and power tools, watch out!
Brent's view of power toolsDEMOLITION PREPARATIONS
We did our best to contain the dust as we hammered away however, with no avail one thing was over looked...with the fan on and pointing out the door and the wind blowing just right it carried a lot of the dust outside and through our open bathroom window, oops!!
We are looking forward to the day we get to take a hammer to our lovely orange counter tops!
My sidekick, Beau, wouldn't leave my side even in this mess. Talk about loyalty!
There is no turning back now!
I promised these pictures many months ago and I am FINALLY being true to my word. :) The following pictures will give you a peek into the transformation of Steven's room. Unfortunately, I can't find any before pictures, so, you will just have to trust me that it was indeed a transformation. Hehe! The project, like every perfectly planned project goes in your head, was going to be an easy one and the plan was to spend approximately 2 weeks to complete it however, we forgot to take in to consideration the fact that life happens. Our complications included; two indecisive people trying to make decisions, those same two people also happened to be cursed with interior-decorating-challenge-itis and then the most serious of all was when my Dad ended up in the hospital because of chest pain. Prior to my Dad's chest pains my Mom and I were able to sand all the trim, decide on the colors for the room, 
and begin the process of painting the walls and trim. During the 2nd coat on the walls and the 3rd coat on the trim (I sanded the trim a little too well which made it so the wood soaked up the paint, I believe we had to paint a total of 4 coats on all the trim!) we came to a screeching halt. My Dad ended up in the hospital with a serious heart attack and was immediately taken into surgery to have a stint put in. Praise the Lord the surgery was a success and my Dad felt a big difference hours afterwards, if it was up to him he would have gone back to work the next day but, thankfully, upon doctors orders, he was recommended to take at least 2 weeks off, needless to say we were all very happy he complied. With our focus on making Dad comfortable (maybe almost to an annoyance for him ;) ) the room sat patiently waiting for completion* ( *A big word in our home and yet, this time it was 
different and we were determined to finish.) After 4 or so days of rest my Dad started to get antsy and so, with the help of my Mom, Steven and myself to do all the heavy lifting we started to build the wall. In order to comfort my Mom's heart and not stress my Dad's heart we took our time with the wall so, between putting up the studs (thanks to Steven and Daniel for their help) and the dry wall it took about a week. After the wall went up my Mom and I went to work once again with our skills in interior design and took another 2 or 3 days to pick out the crown moulding, once the decision was made my parents went and picked it up and the next few days were spent painting, again! Then it was time for my Dad to be put to work again (not much of a rest, eh?) cutting each piece so it fit snugly in each corner. Overall 
from clearing the room out to throwing the last pillow on the bed, the night before The Kevin Morris Family arrived, it took us over 3 weeks to finish. I will spare you the details about our shopping experience to pick out the bedspread/pillows/curtains and curtain rods for the room, oh my! :)
The project is 99.9% complete (minus the floor board along the new wall) and we are all very satisfied. There are pictures below for you to admire our work...and please do, we'll take any happy comments you can come up with to motivate us to tackle the next room hanging over our head....the Bathroom!!!!
In the process of completion
The Crown moulding: My Dad had to custom cut each one to fit the corners and he did an amazing job (for my room too!!)
The finished product (yes, FINISHED!!!)
You can kind of see the two-toned look here. I believe everyone one was very pleased with the outcome! One room down and many more to go. Praise the Lord for all of His provisions along the way.
The picture, which was given to us from my Papa and Grandmama, went nicely with the colors we choose. 
