A rash decision?

It started out innocent enough. Wednesday afternoon the boys went outside to play in the backyard and I decided I'd finish taking off the wallpaper in the kitchen since I started to months ago. I then thought if I got it done I could just hurry up and paint the kitchen before the baby came. So Thursday I was leaving to go get some paint and asked Aaron to come with me. We decided to stop by the tile store to see if they had any good deals since we'd been wanting to replace the floor forever. We walked out with over 220 sq. ft. of clearance tile. Pretty soon we were home and Aaron started thinking of other things he disliked about the kitchen. That's when we really got in over our heads. He started grinding the black grout out of the back splash so we could make it not look quite as bad (it was a very poor tile job and white tile with black grout does not hide imperfections well). That leads me to my first picture: me cleaning down the cabinets and walls since EVERYTHING was covered in a layer of black grout dust.

Since the weather was so nice this week we were able to banish the boys to the backyard and bribe them with lots of Popsicles.

 They also enjoyed "helping." They insisted on helping Grandpa screw the backer board down for the tile.

 And they have enjoyed climbing up the ladder a time or two.

 As of Saturday night this is how far we got. After Deb and I scrubbed down every surface in the kitchen we painted the walls. Its a creamy yellow on the top and a dark gray on the bottom. Aaron and I finished the grouting project and replaced the black grout with white - it looks 100% better. Aaron, Pat, and Mike also got all the backer board down on the floors.

And as of this evening, the tiling job has begun. Aaron and Mike laid some of the tiles. We decided to go with a diagonal brick pattern - it's a little different but should look really good when its all said and done.

Now I'm just hoping that the rest of the tile gets done this week so I can come home to a somewhat put together house. Right now my oven is on the patio covered by plastic and my washer, dryer, and fridge are all in the living room. My parents brought me home from the hospital after I was born while they were adding a second floor to their house so I guess I'll be able to survive bringing a newborn home to a little construction.