Meg's Memo

. . .writings from Wilmington.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Kitchen Renovation in ILM

 So this happened on Saturday...


We are renovating our kitchen and main living space in Wilmington. 
Back in the late winter we had the small water hose, that attaches to our ice maker, leak. Unfortunately once the floor dried, it buckled right by our island. The only way to fix this was to redo the kitchen flooring. 
As Jake & I discussed the options, we decided that we should go ahead and renovate the entire kitchen. We use this space so much. We eat 90% of our meals at home. Also the galley kitchen is not ideal for a family of 6. When we did the initial update back in 2012, we did our best with what we had and the budget we had. We are now opening up this entire space to make it work well for our family and also work better for hosting friends.

Removing 2 layers of paneling.

Cabinets out, soffitting out, wall in process.

Done for the day

Future Floor Plan

Do we still have a working kitchen? YES! We kept the sink and dishwasher installed in the original base cabinet.  That last cabinet will get demo-ed at the final hour. It would be very challenging to not have a sink or dishwasher for 6 weeks! 
This past week I did a lot of sorting, organizing, purging, donating & rearranging. I packed up half of our dishes along with other kitchen gear that we would not need in the coming weeks. We changed the direction of our dining table. Jake cutoff our previous island's overhang and we put that in corner of the dining room. This works as a prep space. The island has our silverware, pots, pans and storage containers in it. We also moved the fridge in to our dining room.


I kept out minimal dishes and they are in the blue buffet.  We are using the teal rolling cart for homework, art, and computers. After the clean up, we moved the stove back in to the kitchen area. It is against the long wall and plugged in, so we do have a working oven/stove. 

Stay tuned for more kitchen renovation progress!

Monday, August 5, 2024

First Day of School 2024-2025

 

Lily 9th (high school)

Ella 7th (middle school)

Benny 4th (lower school)

Wren 3rd (lower school)

We have kids in all 3 school levels but at ONE campus - thankful!

Notice the minimal height difference in the two older & the two younger.

Friday, August 2, 2024

Summer in Surf City

We have enjoyed many summer days in Surf City. So many family memories we are making. We have been there every weekend except for 2 (while in MN; and the weekend after the girls got back from camp). We especially loved our 11 consecutive days there over the 4th of July week, it was so wonderful. Here are a few summer highlights in photos.

Sunsets

Cast Fishing

Night Fishing with the neighbor kids.

Ella holding a Mullet

A Saturday visit with one of Jake's cousin & his wife.


One of the neighbors got a puppy. The girls have been walking Ridley in the evenings.

The Annual Cupcake Contest


Not pictured: A-L-L the surfing and A-L-L the boogie boarding, many walks on the beach, hundreds of sharks teeth we found, lots of family meals, plus the conversations and time spent with neighbors & friends. What a gift. We are thankful.