Let there be light! or Remodel: End of Day 12

Yesterday a lot of finishing work was done on the cabinets, including placing the sink. It isn't really set in place permanently, but it's ready for the granite installation and that's when it will get done.

The guys also reconnected my stove so I could actually start cooking again! (Although I can't wash any dishes I dirty...but it's still progress.)

Today they working on evening out the floor so I can tile someday, and a little more cabinet finishing including the knobs. I love the knobs.

The electrician also came, and this thrills me beyond words: my undercabinet and in-cabinet lighting! It's beautiful!!

Here's another view (no flash):

It's going to look amazing when I finally tile the backsplash! And speaking of that, I've narrowed it down to rectangular-shaped tiles. I think. I'm looking at Calacatta Gold marble OR porcelain subway tiles like in the bathroom.

I love the marble, but I'm not sure it really fits with the house. And in pictures it just seems to look dirty unless it's a solid slab. Case in point here.

My goal is to have the tile in my inexperienced hands by next Thursday to start tiling. I've given myself a decision deadline of tomorrow evening!

Remodel: End of Day 5, aka "Heaven"

Maybe it's because the kitchen is mostly white right now, or maybe it's because the cabinets are all installed...okay, it's because the cabinets are all installed.

Pat brought in his cabinetmaker today - I guess when you make them by hand you know a thing or two about installing someone else's! Very knowledgeable guy, I'm sure his custom-made cabinets rock.

I can't even find the words to express how happy I am! There's still along way to go, and the only other work that will likely happen this week will be measuring for the granite, but this is HUGE for me. Now I have proof that this is going to end and I'll someday have a kitchen again. And a nice one at that!

Insert sigh of relief here.

Remodel: End of Day 4?

At least I think it's ended? I had to take a call for work so I went into my bedroom, and when I came out all the guys were gone and the kitchen lights were out. All their tools are here so I guess they're coming back, although I wouldn't blame them if they didn't: today was a lot of time without a lot of (obvious) progress.

They alternated between trying to figure out how all the different items in the Home Depot boxes fit together and where they go, and trying to get the base cabinets level. I suspect both were equally frustrating for them - I'd have quit a long time ago. (Every day of this project I wonder what on earth ever possessed me to think Jason and I could do this on our own.)

Oh and I'm forgetting the sink! They spent a little time there too: A) it's heavy, B) they'll have to cut a hole (but not too big) in the cabinet that it rests on/in, and C) they'll have to built a support to hold it up (refer back to A). I've heard it called an Apron front or a Farmer's sink, but apparently it's just a big ceramic bowl and not at all what they're worked with before. Learning opportunities for everyone! I found a link to installing one on the DIY network and gave it to them on my iPad for reference. ;-) If all goes well (and I'm sure it will) it will look something like this:

They never sounded frustrated - Pat (the owner) seems to be very patient and his crew are too. I just can't imagine they thought they'd spend so much time with so little to show for it:

I shouldn't make it sound like they accomplished nothing: I think leveling those base cabinets was a HUGE accomplishment. Yay for old houses....

I personally accomplished big stuff before they got here: last night I primed the areas that had been textured after re-floating/taping, and this morning I painted the kitchen ceiling! I can't brag too much: it's a tiny ceiling. Tonight I need to paint the walls. I'm thinking about something other than yellow but I don't know what, so for now I'll just go back to yellow and then I can re-evaluate later. I love painting my walls: any monkey can do it, including this one, and it has such a huge impact!

Hopefully tomorrow things will move faster for them. As for me I kind of got my wish: they unpacked enough cabinets that I don't have to squeeeeeze past them to get into the dining room. I only have to turn sideways a bit. :-)

Remodel: Start of Day 4

I skipped Friday's post - there was a little floating and taping and that was all, so nothing to blog home about. I realized at the end of the day that we (I?) had forgotten cement board on an entire wall - the one next to the stove. [My plan has been to tile up to the doorway on both the stove side and the sink side because there's always something splattering on the paint and it's gross. ]

I emailed Pat a photo and told him, and he was great, he said that they'd take care of it today! I apologized profusely because I honestly don't remember if I told him or Eric about it. All these guys have been great, I'm really glad I went with them.

Saturday was a Quest for Backsplash Tile. I've been looking online and I love either a Honey Onyx or something marble, like a Crema Marfil. I ordered some samples online of each, but in the meantime I cruised Austin's "Tile Mile". (That's a bunch of tile stores on Rutland Drive.) I saw some amazing tiles. My goal is to match this:

It's called Pavone (Macchiato is this stained version) from the Intaglio Collection, and it's from a store called Alkusari Stone here in town. I was at their store looking at granite slabs, and this tile was down in their foyer. It was love at first sight!

I love how it looks like a carpet (but isn't). Since there's no room for an island the middle of the kitchen floor has always looked sort of bare to me. This will fill it in beautifully, I think!

This is the link to their product guide - they're all amazing. So now the challenge is to find tile for the backsplash that isn't going to compete OR look blah by comparison.

Sunday was 8 hours of back (and arm) breaking work: I broke down the old cabinets and pulled out all the nails so they could be hauled off in the neighborhood bulk pickup. The cabinets been sitting just inside my fence since Jason took them down in January. It looked really ghetto/white trash so I was glad to see them go, but wow...my hands hurt, my butt hurts (from sitting on the concrete carport floor) and I almost got stung by wasps who'd built a nest on the backside of a cabinet. I finally finished up around 9pm last night. I was going to take a picture today because it was an impressive stack of stuff, but they took it away first thing at 7am! It's like they were never here...except for the big patch of dead grass underneath them. Maybe I should take a picture of THAT as proof!

The guys are here now preparing to hang the cabinets! I can't wait to see my dining room floor again - I'm so tired of squeezing past boxes. If all goes well the official granite countertop measurements can be taken tomorrow! More later!

Remodel: End of Day 2

The guys put up the cement board today. The best part: they framed my my niche!

Remodel: End of Day 1

Sections of the existing drywall were cut out, either because it was damaged or to be replaced with cement board so I can tile the backsplash.

The plumbing vent was rerouted to allow a niche to be put in above where the new sink will go.
My contractor pointed out that the exterior wall had no insulation, which explains a lot about my heating and cooling bills. It might not be much but every little bit helps!

A tremendous amount of time was spent making the walls plumb so the cabinets could be securely affixed.

Then the electrician came and put in the new wiring! I'm ridiculously excited at the prospect of undercabinet lighting!

Kitchen demo

I ordered new cabinets from Home Depot in early November, and they arrived in mid-January. Jason took on demo'ing the old cabinets.

We took all of them down except for the base cabinets against the inside wall, which it turns out is all I ever needed because it had a sink, a stove and a dishwasher. I learned over the course of the last 5 months how little one really requires from a kitchen!

But it got old living that way, with boxes of dishware in the spare bedroom and boxes of cabinets stacked up in the dining room and kitchen.