Day 19: Cabinet Removal

As my goal to have a kitchen that I can cook in by the end of the week, we had to start removing the cabinets at some point. However, I had to work afternoons on Sunday which meant early morning for me and late night for Big-D.

If you remember back to this post where I had my friend Mikey remove the old stove top and the front of the cabinet.

Well the stove is now "in"; it's in its spot but I have to have the electrician come out and wire up the proper box so that way I can plug it in. Then it will probably need a good cleaning and I will be all set to cook!!! The first mean I am going to cook is...hmmm...not sure yet stay tuned in to find out. (Might even be open to some good suggestions.)

Looks so pretty. I am still cleaning up sawdust from cutting out the counter. Big-D said he swept up several times after getting done, but it wasn't up to my standards when I got home so I had to sweep the floors again. I hate dust!

You can tell where the tools sat.

I am so excited that I will once again be able to cook in my own kitchen!!!!

For some odd reason I am very into the !!!!s tonight.

Back to work, have a few more things that I would like to get done before we can go to bed.

Over and out,
A Engineer Missing Her Kitchen

Day 18: Refrigerator

Today we went and got the refrigerator that I got for Christmas from my parents. Aren't they just great parents get their kids a full size normal refrigerator so that we no longer have to use the nice dorm size fridge. My favorite thing is that we now have a freezer where I can cook something for example chili and store the large amounts of left overs for those nights that I don't want cook.

Moving it from the garage to the house. They were about ready to remove the door that leads from the kitchen to the garage because without the door it would fit...Enter Lyndsey...I mentioned that the front door might be big enough, and guess what it was. I know I am amazing!

Going into the kitchen.

So pretty! ( I did however want a stainless steel one but all the rest of the appliances that I got for really really cheap were white so I got the white one.)

Oh I love the freezer, so pretty. Oh did I fail to mention we have no food to put in this fridge.

Hopefully the kitchen will be ready by Monday or Tuesday so I can call the electrician in the "family" and will be able to get the proper plug for the stove/oven put in. Be really nice to have a kitchen by the end of the week.

Big-D is off trying to remove the old stove and extra cabinet so that the fridge will actually fit where it is suppose to go. That should be done by the time I get home from work, that is right I had to work on Saturday. That means if I am off working I figure he should be too.

Having that kitchen done by the end of next week means only good things for him. One being that he won't have to buy as much fast food for us to eat. Second he'll have lunches other than eww ham hot pockets. Third his woman will be very very happy (maybe that should be number one).

Off to pretend like I am actually working very hard.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Emails...

Am I the only one that lets their email accounts get a ton (and when I say a ton I mean 700+ emails) emails before they go through and delete read them all.

Today at work I decided that I was going to go through my email account and clean it up since I really had nothing else do for most of the time I was there.

Here are the top 10 unread emails in my account:

• P90X newsletter
• Emails from business partners (I promise guys I will get better at checking these!)
• Amway newsletters
• Amazon
• Cabelas
• Target
• Orbitz
• Dunham Rewards
• URA
• Customer Service

I had emails that dated back to October 2010 (must of been the last time that I went through and deleted read all of those emails.)

One of my new years resolutions is to read my emails, I mean actually go through every day and delete the ads and read the ones that need to be read.

Here are the rest of my goals/resolutions for 2012:

• Read more
• Keep email account to 25 emails
• Cook more and eat out less
• Workout more...doesn't everyone do this one
• Pack our lunches at least 4 times a week (great way to save money)
• Go to the Great Wolf Lodge
• Do at least three things on my bucket list
• Get B's or better in my classes
• Have a successful year in business

Anyone else let their email accounts get ridiculously large amounts of unread emails? What are your goals for 2012?

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen 

Chicken Lasagna

It has been a while since I have posted about cooking, actually its been a while since I have cooked something other than macaroni and cheese, raman noodles, and all the other prepackaged meals. Either I cook something really simple or we bum something off his parents because my mom doesn't cook that much anymore. She actually hasn't cooked that much since my senior year in high school. The whole all her kids grew up and moved out so she has no one to eat what she cooks.

Anyways as one of my new years resolutions I wanted to cook more often and eat out less, we tend to eat out a lot more when I get in my lazy don't want to cook mood.  I also wanted to pack our lunches at least four times a week to help save money.

To kick off the new year I started with Chicken Lasagna, I am not a huge lasagna person but this turned out pretty yummy.

Big-D even said it was cook it again good, which is always a good sign.

Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 chicken breast
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 (10.7 oz) cans of cream of chicken soup
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 12 lasagna noodles
• 2 packages of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. First I cooked the lasagna noodles according to the package instructions.
2. Next I diced and cooked the chicken.
3. In a large mixing bowl, I combined the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, garlic powder, Parmesan cheese, onion, and cooked chicken.
4. In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, layer four noodles then using half of the chicken mixture and a third of the cheese. Make a second layer the same way and top with a third layer of noodles and cheese.
5. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes at 350° F.

Opps forgot to take a picture of the goodness before we started eating it. I had a hungry man on my hands and he isn't always patient enough to let me take a picture of the yummy dinner.

Hopefully I will have a "new" kitchen very soon so I will be able to cook more easily without having to use someone else kitchen.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Day 13 & 14: Still Removing Wallpaper

I feel like I have been removing wallpaper for years now...I mean its only two rooms why does it feel like I have been doing this forever. I think I might be going slowly insane.

Before the wallpaper removal...

After wallpaper, trim and chair rail removal...

We managed to remove all the chair rail around the room and all of the trim except that little piece in the corner (but we will just pretend that it's not there, okay). I removed most of the wallpaper with some help of Big-D.

In order to put in our new stove we have to remove the old one plus the cabinet. No that is no Big-D, that is Mikey (he would kill me if he knew I called him that in public), Mikey is one of my good friends from high school and his dad is also a contractor. I know I have good connections right.

The cabinet almost out just need a to cut the counter out and the cabinet out. Then get a hold of the electrician to hook up a new outlet for new stove and I will be able to once again cook in my own kitchen. The small cabinet that we removed so that we can fit the refrigerator in, is going to go above the stove.

Then I had him replace the light switch in the guest bedroom because it was buzzing when you turned it on and I don't think it was suppose to do that. 

The finished product, they even worked! How do you feel about the wall art around the switches? 

Oh would you like to know what Big-D was doing while we were inside working our butts off today. I will show you what he was doing...

He put new shocks on this truck and got to play with his new impact wrench that I got him for Christmas.

Truck shock on my dining room table, didn't you know that's were truck parts are put when you have to fix them slightly.

Here is where he said that he loved his impact so much and that I was the most amazing person in the whole wide world (okay minus that last part).

Okay so I should be finish removing wallpaper sometime tomorrow since there is only a little bit left in the kitchen. Then to move on to bigger and better things, which I don't know what those are yet since there is so much to do and I don't know where to go next.

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Day 12: Exhausting Day

Today was an exhausting day. Lots of hard labor which included removing a cabinet so we can fit the fridge in place, removing trim and chair rail in three rooms, hooking up the washer and dryer, unpacking the kitchen, filling in holes in the wall and removing more nails from the walls, and we started on removing the wallpaper from the dining room and kitchen. Big-D was such a trooper with cutting the cabinet lining stuff or in his words the fabric. I feel like we did so much today but the list of what we did just doesn't seem that long.

And if I had the energy to go get my camera I would put some pictures up of the progress but I don't feel like walking all the way to the truck to get it so I guess there will be a short post tonight.

Goodnight,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Day Ten: Hot Water

WE HAVE HOT WATER!!!!

My parent's handyman came out and hooked up the water heater. However, he didn't do it the way that I wanted it done (which only slightly annoys me). I also don't think he did it correctly but for now I have hot water and I will have to fix it in the near future.

Big-D also put a door handle in the garage door.

Now we have a door that opens and closes.

Over and out,
A Engineer with Hot Water