There Be CounterTops

Progress, progress. The crown molding is in and so are the counter tops. Looking really good! The one picture makes the counter top look like it's 10 feet long, doesn't it?

The microwave has been moved up; the new doors for the cabinet above it are on order.

Tomorrow, the back splash tile goes in.

Unfortunately, the stove is back in the middle of the kitchen, alongside the old corner cabinet. But that will go back tomorrow, too.

By Friday, we may have running water in the kitchen again!!!!!

*whine* We want our house back

Well, it's the start of week 6 without a kitchen. The end is in sight, but it's seeming like we'll never get there. (Halfway to the wall...)

I did not post on Friday, because Dan wasn't here that day - so nothing changed. We took the opportunity (of his being gone) to rip out the innards of the front closet, paint, and install Elfa shelving & closet pole. Looks so much better, and the option of adding more shelves (easily) is always there with Elfa. BTW, the 'WE' in that statement is, of course, 99% Bob. I provided company & opinions on placement of the shelves when asked.

We took some pix of our Dishwashing area in the basement. Since we have the dishwasher back, we only have to wash stuff down there every 2-3 days. Most items can go into the DW, but some - pots & pans, sharp knives, wine glasses - must be done by hand.

I did start re-loading the pantry. I'm glad I took "before" pix, because I certainly do NOT remember where stuff goes. Dan says we can start reloading the cabinets, but I don't want to do that yet. First, if I need to get at something while he's working in the kitchen, it could be difficult. Second, until the counter tops are installed (TOMORROW!!!!!), I just don't want my dishes in the cabinets.

Found a problem over the weekend. We took advantage of the cooler weather to open up the house. Well, opening the kitchen windows proved to be quite difficult. Investigation revealed that when the new casing was installed, the nails? brads? staples? went through the wood, and are sticking out into the window track. Brute force got the window open, and then closed again that night. We don't want to do that again until Dan checks things out. That won't happen until tomorrow (hopefully), because Dan is out sick today. I hope he feels better real soon, for various reasons.

Some of which are quite selfish. :-)

Homestretch

We're in the homestretch now. The trim work is going up. Lots of detail, and the kind of thing you probably don't notice. But it all adds to the beauty of the room.

The trim in the entry way is done, except for staining the wood strip at the edge of the tile leading to the family room. The coat closet doors are back up, and compared to the new pantry doors - they look AWFUL.

Pantry doors are up, minus handles. We have the handles but after discussion with Dan, we decided we want knobs on those doors, instead of handles. Knobs are easier to work with on bi-fold doors. Luckily, we know a place we can buy them that is fairly close to our house.

Counter tops are going in next Tuesday (7/28). Once the back splash is up, the sink can be hooked up, too. Hopefully all of that will be done by Friday (7/31).

Pix 1 = YAY. We have a handle!
Pix 2 = Molding above the cabinets on the fridge wall
Pix 3 = Divider cabinet now has all of the trim work (on the bottom)
Pix 4 = New pantry doors

Window casing, bench, other trim

Lots of work yesterday (Monday 7/20), most of which was spent on the bay window in the kitchen. The old bench, with an original stain that was almost black, has been replaced. The new stain, when completed, will match the cabinets. The new window casing is also in, and first coat of stain applied. Bob and I are thrilled with the way Dan has put up the new casing. It looks great! (See pix 1)

Kiki is most confused and unhappy over what Dan has done to her favorite spot in the house: the bay window. Since wet stain and cats are not a good combo, he put up a 'wall' of stuff to keep her out. (Pix 2) She kept going into the kitchen last night, sitting and staring at the 'wall' - and complaining loudly. Probably was thinkg, "Stupid humans. Move this stuff out of my way!"

The plastic wall between the kitchen and dining room has come down as well. (pix 3) That will save me miles of walking, I'm sure, as I prepare dinner. Now that I have a working stove, I cook there. But since I have no countertops, prep is still done in the dining room. Now it's a quick few steps from stove to prep area. With the plastic wall up, I had to go around through the living room.

Today, more staining. Maybe switch out the cabinet above the microwave? It's a little awkward cooking there with the microwave so low. Dan had thought he'd have time to move it yesterday, but EOD came before he got it done.

Happiness is...

A WORKING STOVE, MICROWAVE AND DISHWASHER. :-)

Don't they look lovely in their new home? No counter tops yet, but all three appliances were hooked up and are now working. YAY.

Lots of work done on Friday, most of which dealt with electrical so things don't look much different.

Next week the trim work goes in, so the pix will be more interesting.

Gonna move the microwave

(Hi Dan - did you find us this time?)

Dan moved the stove against the wall for me this morning. I got out a big pot, and pretended to cook, stir, etc. on the back burner. The microwave is definitely too low. I kept banging the lid on the underside of the microwave. So either Thursday or Friday of this week, Dan will take out the 15" cabinet and install the 12" cabinet that's in the garage now. Susan will order new doors.

The pictures really show that the two appliances are different colors, don't they? The microwave is much older than the stove. We were not able to get the same color when we got the stove, but came pretty close - we thought. The difference is not so glaring in real life - at least not to us.

Templater is here right now. He measured for the counter tops using some pretty sophisticated equipment involving lasers. He's out in his truck at the moment, creating the plastic templates. He'll fit them to the cabinets before leaving, to be certain the template is correctly sized. Then we wait - hopefully not very long - for the counter tops to arrive. Could be a week, more likely two weeks. [update: they fit perfectly. Susan signed off on them - literally, she took a pen and signed each piece. Everyone left, and the house is quiet.]

We're at day 25 since construction began, and we're ready for it to be finished. Getting the family room back in order helped a lot. Getting the appliances hooked up will help, too. And that is scheduled to happen this week.

Appliances are all in the kitchen

Appliances are all in the kitchen as of EOD on Monday. See pix 1. I didn't say they were 'installed' - just that they were in the kitchen. Even if they're not all in their proper home & hooked up yet, at least the fridge is working, and out of the family room, so we have our space back. Makes it a bit more of a walk to get to the 'refreshments', tho. :-)

The cabinet where the iron railing used to be - which I'm going to call the 'divider cabinet' from now on because TCWTIRUTB is just too long to type - is installed. There's still blue tape around the bottom, so I'm not sure what that means. There's only one shelf, and there should be two. But it looks great from both the kitchen & the family room. Hopefully, the rest of the electric and wiring can be finished SOON so we can move the phone/answering machine to its new home.

Love the look of the new cabinets. The new light fixture is wonderful. You can see it in pix 1.

Might have a problem - I called Susan to let her know, and we'll discuss more tomorrow when she's here. (The templaters are coming to measure for the countertops, and Susan wants to be here for that.) . The microwave is much, much lower than it was before. There will only be 3 inches of clearance between the bottom of the microwave and the top of the stove 'control panel back'. There won't be as much clearance between the burners and the microwave as before. Question is, will there be enough that I can have a tall pot on the stove, and be able to lift the lid, stir, etc. Bob & I don't care for the way it looks either, but as mentioned before - we're reserving final judgement until the pieces are all together. I'm hoping Dan can move the stove into the opening tomorrow so I can see how it looks/works. He doesn't have to hook it up - just put it there.

If it turns out we can't use the current configuration, we already have a cabinet in the garage that is 3" shorter. I think that would leave an acceptable amount of clearance. The cabinet in there was delivered in error - wrong size. It may turn out to be the 'right' size. Of course, I don't know how much trouble it will be to switch out the two cabinets. Won't Dan be thrilled. He's pretty easy going - at least here. He might go home and complain to his sweetie but he's always calm and pleasant here.