House Update...and shout out to the world's hardest worker...

Chris and been working like a dog!  He joked today that he has probably put in at least 10,000 dollars worth of work just in manual labor.  He is probably pretty close to being accurate! HA! 

Before look into the kitchen: Make note of the floor and the soffit (the box hanging down from the ceiling that the cabinets were attached to) 

After: floors- check, soffit removed-check!  

 Chris started staining at 11 o'clock at night last Sat. (he is crazy)!  He finally finished up at about 3 in the morning!  He stain is called Jacobean and is more chocolate than red but the flash always makes it look red!

 It's much darker than this...

 Then he applied 3 coats of poly (with a sanding in between each coat)!  We let each coat set 24 hours being sanding!  Needless to say we had some vacation time at the grandparents houses!

 Stain+Poly!  Think again more chocolate than red.  I'll work on getting a better shot of the color!

 Than we protected the floor with butcher paper while Chris finished demo on the soffit!  You can see how dark we went here!

 Next up: Patch the drywall where the soffit was!  Chris had to make a lot of cuts but he "nailed" it!  No pun intended!

 Then you tape the seams...

 Then he put a thin layer of plaster over the new drywall!

 Finally Chris has his shirt on!  Every time I take a picture of him working and he has his shirt off he ALWAYS says..."don't put that on the blog"!  HA...has that ever stopped me before!  I'm such a rebel!

Someone asked me where Chris learned how to do everything..because he/alone has literally done every step!  Chris has always liked to have "projects" to take up his time.  I'm SERIOUSLY married to the Energizer Bunny...he can not sit still...it is impossible!  Last Sat. after he had sanded the entire floor (3 times) before he stained, we had about 20 minutes before we were heading out to meet friends for dinner and he actually fired up the mower and mowed half the lawn....he has crazy energy!
He has been on several "construction" mission trips and the summer after he graduated college he worked with a local contractor "flipping houses".  Basically the guy gave him lists of stuff to do on the houses with a brief explanation and set him free!  When he hits a "problem" (such as the washer leak or most recently how to cut an inside corner of crown) he honest to goodness most of the time just "you-tubes" (can that be a verb?) the answer.  It helps that he is a "problem-solver" by nature (I see that so much in Sam too and I love it! :))  He also is not afraid to ask questions...Lowes rocks!  (We are not being paid to say so...ha!)  I always tell Chris that if I were on a reality show where I needed a partner who was a hard worker, and I could pick anyone on the face of the planet, that EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I would pick him...and I'm not lying...he is the hardest worker (on anything) that I know!  He always responds with, "AWWW that's so nice honey"!  Notice how he doesn't respond with, "oh I'd pick you too"...because I did not marry a fool...no I did not!  :)  So I know it's not father's day yet but here is my official "bragging" on my bestest buddy in the whole wide world!  We love you and are so thankful for your hard work on the house!  (ps...momma don't mind one bit that you still prefer to work with your shirt off...I'm just saying...:))