Upper Cabinets Ready to Hang

Primed and Painted - Ready to hang cabinets.

First cabinet positioned into place with jacks.

First cabinet is secured and level.

Next cabinet and all subsequent wall cabinets were hung with ledger board. Much easier than using jacks.


Jacob testing the integrity of the install.

Dad, we're rated for 27 lbs of dishes!

Laser level (red line) to show where the stud is at.


Microwave is hung. Messing around before starting on the peninsula.

Corner peninsula cabinet is hung. A very high tech shoring technique is used here.


The jack is back. No way to use ledger boards here. Who said empty paint cans are useless?

All cabinets were fastened together from the sides.

4" wood screws to fasten peninsula to the ceiling.

We're all square.

Looking good!

The final peninsula cabinet is hung.

Back of peninsula. A finished skin will be install for a clean look.

View of installed cabinets.

Molding will be installed at ceiling for a clean look.

Light rails will also be installed on the bottom of the cabinets for a finished look.

Once bottom cabinets are ripped out, a side panel will be installed on both sides of the refer for a built-in look.

Original Upper Kitchen Cabinets

New glass mosaic tile has been grouted. Still need to install new shower door and repair drywall.

Wet "Mud Base" after packed down and sloped toward the drain. Wonderboard installed on the walls.

New PVC Showerpan liner installed.

Removed Drywall to check for any water damage to the studs or drywall. None found! Demo complete on shower.

Demo in progress.

Shower Before Demo

Backyard Grass

Original backyard when we purchased home in July 2008.

Nice tall weeds and overgrown trees.

I removed about 10 plants around the perimeter and 2 trees. Seed was planted in October 2008.

Professionals at work. Laying seed is a highly specialized skill.

This is the seed after 2 weeks.

It is thin in some areas. Mostly on the south side of yard where there is not that much sun.

The thick grass area in the bottom right was a test area that was planted in Sept 2008 to see if seed would grow in the soil before I seeded the whole backyard.

Seed after the 2nd mowing. Seed is about 6 weeks old in the following photos.

The perimeter around the house and the north fence is bare dirt. Eventually some type of path/walkway will be complete here.

New mower to cut grass.

There were some sprinklers in the backyard, but they were above ground and had manual valves. I installed automatic sprinkler valves with a control panel in the garage. All sprinklers are now in the ground and on a timer.