It's always something

*sigh*

CHALLENGE - the installer has to figure out how to install a straight-edge tile on a curve, without tearing up the carpet. The carpet in the living room, where it meets the tile entry way is curved. See the picture. UPDATE: In order to remove the old underlayment, he had to take up the carpet. New underlayment & tile will be installed under the carpet, and the carpet then tacked back down.

PROBLEM - KITCHEN PAINT - Painter was here yesterday, and was supposed to finish. Late afternoon, I peeked in and saw that the wall where the fridge goes had not been painted. When I questioned the painter, he said he was not supposed to paint there. I got on the phone to Susan, and she agreed with me that, yes, it needed to be painted since we were not enclosing the fridge in cabinetry. She talked to him, but he did not paint the wall. So now he has to come back and sand and paint it, on top of our new floor - which is going in today. He's a messy guy so I'm concerned. After he left yesterday, I decided to clean up the drywall footprints he left all over the red tile by the powder room. Luckily, I also decided to shake the rugs we keep on that floor. Found a big blob of Butte Rock paint on our gray brick porch! Since it was still wet, I was able to scrub it off.

PROBLEM - STAPLES - The floor installer was here bright and early. He was most unhappy to discover that he had hours of work ahead of him pounding down staples left from the old flooring. He said that should have been done before he got here.

PROBLEM - DRY WALL BLOBS - He was also unhappy over the amount of drywall blobs all over the floor. The underlayment cannot be installed over these blobs. They were supposed to be cleaned off, too, before he got here. So, in addition to pounding staples, he's scraping off drywall blobs.

PROBLEM - OLD STAIR NOSE - The metal 'trim' on the floor between the kitchen and family room should have been removed, and was not. Another unexpected job to do before installation can begin.

PROBLEM - NEW WOODEN STAIR NOSE - The new trim that will go down is wood, and needs to be stained. He says he's not supposed to do it, that 'customer' agreed to do it. No, 'customer' did not agree to do it. Susan agrees that the Floor people are supposed to do it. UPDATE: still don't know who is doing it, but the stair nose was installed yesterday. That means it will be stained with the new tile sitting there up against it. I don't know how that will turn out, but I am NOT happy that it was done that way. The piece is so small it could have been stained in a few minutes. Whoever does it had better not get any on the new tile. :-(

It's always something...

Busy weekend

We tried to review/approve the quartz slab for our counter tops yesterday - drove 20 miles (each way) to Schiller Park (southeast of O'Hare) only to find that the slab won't be delivered for yet another week. It was not a pleasant drive - 294 is under construction. 'nuf said.

Bob painted the inside of the pantry with primer yesterday. Today (Sunday) he is painting it in semi-glass Butte Rock to match the kitchen walls. He's doing this under protest. His color preference was glossy white, like before. "It'll be too dark in there" says Bob. "But", says I, "we're having a light installed in the pantry. I want some color in there!". We went back and forth, but my sweetie is (even as I type) painting the pantry Butte Rock. UNDER. PROTEST. Check his face in the picture...

I did promise him that, if it was too dark and I hated it - that I would be the one to repaint it white. (Somewhat of an empty promise. For various reasons, I don't think I would be able to do it. So let's hope we're ok with the color.)

Signage

Our front yard...

Butte Rock

Drywall is patched, walls have been skim-coated & primed, and this morning (Friday) the painters are here to paint. We've chosen 'Butte Rock' for the walls. (My son Patrick would say that's Martha Stewart for 'brown'). It's darker than anything we've had on our walls before, but we're trying to be brave and go with a little more color. It looks so nice against the floor tile, cabinets, etc. I'm holding up the color sample against the living room wall so you can see just how much darker it is.

Electric passed inspection

Arlington Heights was here yesterday afternoon, and the electrical work has been approved. Good news.

The soffit area has been covered over with drywall, and the faux paint has been covered over with a special primer. Instead of sanding down the textured paint, the approach will be to primer the walls, then cover them with the same 'mud' used to tape the drywall. Less damage to the actual wall that way. Still a lot of sanding (and mess), to smooth out the 'mud' once it's dry.

Susan called yesterday. Due to a glitch in the design software, two of the cabinets were sized 4" too wide. They've been re-ordered, and the order will be expedited. Susan does not expect any impact to our schedule. I sure hope she is right.

Flooring is to be delivered today, and installed next Monday or Tuesday. That will be nice. Right now we're walking around on sub-flooring that has lots of sharp pointy bits sticking out, left over from the floor they ripped out. So we have to wear shoes. :-( We don't like wearing shoes, especially in the house.

Waiting for Electrical Inspection

It's Wednesday morning, 6/24/09. Electrical is ready for Arlington Heights inspection. Since they only inspect in our area in the afternoon, the house is quiet this morning. Dan will be here before noon, so he's here when the Inspector arrives.

I did take pictures of the electrical stuff. Very important, yes - but pretty boring. Although the picture I've posted is not boring to us. A new cabinet is being installed between the family room and the kitchen, where the iron railing used to be. A low cabinet, with a height slightly less than the back of the (family room) couch. Once installed, the answering machine and phone that are now on the bar (at the far end of the family room) will be relocated to the new cabinet. No more running from the kitchen to the bar area to see who is calling, or to check for messages. The new outlet is actually not visible in this picture - it's kind of behind the blue tape. The holes you see were made in order to find/run the electric.

BTW, doing dishes in the basement was just as unpleasant last night. Per Dan, the biggest hassle for most of his customers has been the lack of a dishwasher. I believe it.

Good-bye old kitchen

TOP PIX: junk pile - what used to be kitchen sink & cabinets
MIDDLE PIX: Stove and sink used to be here. Note soffits are also gone.
BOTTOM PIX: Family room, looking to kitchen. Plastic sheeting sealing off the doorway.

Day 1 of the Kitchen Project is behind us. It was a long day, but WOW, did they get a lot done. You can't see in these pictures, but the tile floor is gone in both the kitchen & the entryway. All the debris has been hauled away, and they even swept the kitchen-entryay floor - several times! I was/am impressed.

I prepared my first meal without a kitchen, and I'll tell you that next week's menu will be a lot simpler. For example, no more homemade salad dressing (that dirtied up the mini-processor, a whisk, measuring spoons, measuring cups, and a bowl). I'm wearing a groove in the floor running back and forth between the fridge (in the family room) and the dining room table, where meal prep takes place. We bought a brand new litter box to use as a 'dirty dish' holder. That's how we get the dirty dishes to the basement sink, and then carry the clean ones back up. (YES, of course I wash it). We chose a litter box since it was a nice size - dishpans are too small. I'm also now using a GB. Rachael Ray fans know that means 'garbage bowl'. Works pretty well, too. We don't want an open garbage can sitting around where Kiki might want to investigate. So I fill up the GB, then dump it into the can in the garage.

Today, electrical and plumbing work. I'll post more tomorrow.

Anticipated Remodel Timeline

Bob and I met with Dan (contractor) and Susan (designer) yesterday to go over the project time line with them. Estimated duration = 5 weeks. It could be longer, depending on how long it takes to make the countertops.

Week 1, which starts on Monday, 6/22/09, will see a lot of work done. Old kitchen - gone. Iron railing between kitchen and family room - gone. Faux (textured) paint - gone. Drywall patched where needed, and electric roughed in. Yes, we'll take pictures.

Week 2, old flooring gone, and new flooring installed, cabinets installed, new pantry doors installed, and new casing around the bay window(s) installed. The walls will have one coat of primer, and one coat of the new color (which we'll pick next week).

We still have some packing to do. There' s a fair amount of last minute stuff to move to its new home: coffee pot, glasses by the sink, coffee cups by the coffee pot, all that stuff under the sink, etc. The goal is to have everything out of the kitchen by Saturday evening. My 'camping out' cooking will start with Sunday's meals.

It will be interesting, when this is all over, to see what the biggest hassle was. Today, I'm thinking it will be the lack of a dishwasher. Our powder room, just off the family room, of course has a sink. But it's so tiny we can't use it to wash dishes. So we'll be schlepping our dirty dishes to the basement. We plan on using a lot of disposables (dishes, glasses, KFS, etc.). But there's still going to be dirty "dishes". I don't think they make disposable pots and skillets, or spatulas, tongs, etc.

More pictures

The first picture shows the now mostly empty cabinets. The second one shows our new 'kitchen'. Under the table is full of boxes. Things that we won't be using while the kitchen is being rebuilt - like the other 3 sets of dishes I like to use. Bread and butter plates Heck, we're going to use paper plates once the dishwasher is disconnected, so we certainly don't need bread n butter plates!

Note the shelves to the right in the picture. That's where a big part of the pantry items went. There's box to the right of the hutch (behind the shelves) with more pantry items. The two boxes on the right end of the hutch contain all of my spices. I have a lot, and use most of them on a regular basis. Not sure how much I'll be using them without a real kitchen, but didn't want to pack them away.

Yes, I have a complete list of whats in every box, and whats where in the hutch. Not that I'm using the lists much. Frequently, Bob and I have to make two attempts at getting anything. First attempt takes us to where the item used to be (25 years of training is hard to break), and then we remember - No, it's not there anymore.

Bob dug the camp stove out of the basement, and tried it. Yup, still works. I think Hamburger (or Tuna or Chicken) Helper will be our new taste treat on those days when we can't use the grill. Not very healthful eating, but I suppose we'll survive.

Halfway to the wall

Everyday I pack a little more. Actually, I think we're more than 'half way to the wall', but there are days when I think I'll never get to that wall...

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. :-) These are a couple of the 'before' pictures. The one with the glasses is to the right of the sink. The spices are to the left of the range. Next post will show 'after'.

Kiki likes some of the new arrangement

The dining room chairs have been moved upstairs into the guest room. Kiki really likes this arrangement. She spends a fair amount of time in one of the chairs (at the foot of the bed) that faces the door, sleeping or just watching to see who's coming up the stairs.

The pantry is now empty, and a lot of the contents are on the shelves we moved from the basement. Some items are in boxes, and the rest are piled on the dining room table until I get the energy to find them a better home.

Bob and I are anxious for the Kickoff meeting on Wednesday (6/17).

Boy, do we have lots of stuff in our kitchen

Packing continues... We went to U-Haul and bought lots of boxes ($50 worth). I filled up box #16 yesterday. The hutch in the dining room now has the everyday things in it or on it. For example, the cereal bowls, saucers and plates are in it. The pots, pans, skillet that I use a lot are in there, too. Two shallow boxes are sitting on top of the hutch, full of spices and herbs, salt and pepper, etc.

I've started packing up the pantry, but have made little progress there. I'm planning on bringing up a set of shelves from the basement to hold the pantry items we'll be using. We also need to move the kitchen table into the living room. Going to have to remove the leaf in order to do that. The table is 31 years old, and that leaf has never been removed. This should prove interesting.

Sorry, no pix - Bob has to show me how to get them off of the camera. I know how to upload them once they're on the PC.

No packing today. I have to give me back/neck a rest. We planted tomatoes last Friday (?) and that started the back and neck spasms. Packing all of those boxes didn't help any. So today is a day off for me.

Scheduled start date - June 22

Just got an email from Dan, our contractor - work on the kitchen will begin Monday, June 22 at 8am. WooHoo!

Sometime between now and then, he will conduct a planning session, and provide us with a time line (Project plan?) showing what is scheduled to happen when.

Good thing I've started packing the kitchen up. My goal is to have it all packed and to be living with the new arrangement by June 17 or so. That way if I've packed something I really need, or the furniture arrangement doesn't work, or the camp stove is broken, etc. etc. - we still have time to react before actual construction begins.

This is a week later than estimated. I had hoped to have the kitchen done before 7/28 (our anniversary). Dan's original estimate was 5-6 weeks of work. 5 weeks we'll make it - 6 we won't. I guess we may end up going out to eat on our anniversary, which we have not done in years.

Packing begins

I've started clearing out cabinets and packing up the 'deep storage' stuff. Things that we either never use, seldom use, or really don't need to use. For example - coffee cups/mugs collected over the years. They were stashed in the back of the corner cabinet - a space reachable only by standing on a ladder. Wondering about their fate when the new corner cabinet is installed - one that offers easy access to all the space.

Bread & Butter plates - yes, nice to use, but for the duration, I think we can use a paper towel.

Drinking glasses - since we'll be washing dishes by hand, in the basement, do we really need a clean glass every time we get a glass of ice water? All the glasses, except for a paltry 4 were packed.

I think you get the picture. It is slow going because I pack a box, rest, pack a box, rest, etc. It's not the packing that tires me out - it is the hauling stuff out of the cabinets. Packing will continue today as soon as Bob gets the spare boxes out of the garage attic, where we've been stashing them for awhile. I expect to make good progress today because Bob is home to help gather stuff out of the cabinets.

We know we have to buy some boxes because so far, no plates have fit into the boxes we have. And, we have a LOT of wine glasses that need to be packed into special boxes to prevent breakage. Perhaps today a trip to U-Haul...