Deadlines

Usually it is been baby's expected July arrival that has been my deadline for completing tasks, but today, I have a new one.  At 9:00AM tomorrow morning,  the best contractor around, Mike M, is arriving at our house to take a sledge hammer to this:

Goodbye fluorescent light that looks like a spaceship ready to beam us up.  Goodbye icky cabinets where I found signs of some little mouse activity lately (double ick).  Goodbye brass door handles.

Everything is going.  In the picture above, in the far right corner, you can see the remnants of a old wet bar. That whole area and cabinets  will be ripped out and the corner walled in to create my walk-in pantry.  No big structural changes though.
Am I ready for a full gut and remodel that will last a month?  Nooooooo...  As of 7:00pm tonight, this is how much packing and clearing out I have yet to tackle:

Ridiculous me thought I could clear everything out (because I wasn't packing much, just moving it to other locations around the house) in 5, 6 hours.  I am already 10 hours in, and have another 3 or 4 to go. 

Thank goodness I never got around to unpacking all of our books into the "library", because the empty shelves are now the makeshift pantry for the newt few weeks.  I will be picking up a microwave and toaster oven from a friend in the next few days to add to our new temp mess hall off the living room. 

One project that did get completed (sort of) was replacing the old stair runner with a new one, and adding matching runners to the upstairs and downstairs hallways and entryway.

 This was the entry before:

and after!

My photography skills are still lacking because the rugs look burgundy in these photos when they are actually much closer to a real red.  Tom picked the color and while I was hesitant, I have to admit he did an awesome job.  It looks great with the walls and floors.  Unfortunately, the installers failed to center our runner, and it cannot be pulled off then re-installed, so they have to order us a whole new one.  Oh well. 

P.S.  Did I mention I am having P's 4th birthday party here in just two weeks while we are kitchenless?  One word: PIZZA.