Barncats in Ellensburg

We got our funding for our kitchen remodel... now...does anyone know how to put a beam in a "stick-built" roof? Because we sure don't. I guess there was no such thing as roof trusses when my house was built because it seems every wall in the house is a load-bearing wall. They just threw up 2X4's everywhere to hold up the roof. CRAZY! So now we're in God's little acre between that rock and the hard place nearby. There's probably not enough money to pay an engineer and architect to figure out what type of beam we need and where to put it AND the guys to come install it, so do we just leave the wall there, or do we try to borrow more money to build the "dream" kitchen? And will having my dream kitchen make me a better cook? Unlikely. Will it make me want to cook? I was thinking it might, but I realized the other day I had a pretty decent kitchen in my Woods Cross house and I still hated cooking. Now I'm thinking, "Let's throw in some new cabinets, countertops, floors and maybe some lighting and call it good. We'll stay on budget and I still won't like cooking.

OH! By the way- I found out today custom built cabinets made of solid wood with dovetail drawers are actually CHEAPER than Home Depot's press-board, nailed-together cabinets. Yes, it's true. And the custom cabinets are built to within 1/16th of an inch of my measurements so I won't have a bunch of fillers and wasted space. True, I'll wait 3-4 weeks longer for them but I'm fine with that. Plus I can choose any wood I want. AWESOME.

Good news... the tile in the basement is all laid (except in the closets but that will happen soon). It just has to cure a few days before the grout goes on then gets sealed and the door transitions can get placed. Now don't go thinking that means the basement is CLEAN or anything... ha. I think we need to save some of the kitchen money to enclose the laundry room so the entire basement doesn't always look messy. Does anyone else have mountains of laundry all the time?