Progress, but no pictures :-(

Chuck called me last night to tell me how great the "buffet" area looks. I guess they got the butcher block on it. I'm not sure what that means for the finish - I had talked to Dave before I left about putting on Waterlox. I told him I would do it after he installed if I have to, but that it was stinky. Since he didn't have time to do two coats, I'm assuming I'll have to apply it when I get home. That also probably means that he hasn't installed the cabinet and book case on top. I'll have to ask Chuck about that.

I asked Chuck to take some pictures (via phone) and send them to me, but he says he doesn't know how. I may have to prevail on Derek to help me - I know he can send pictures via his phone.

Since I don't have pictures of the kitchen, and I cannot personally talk about progress, I'll talk about our vacation and post pictures of that instead.

Here is the weather forecast for this week: Monday: rain and drizzle; Tuesday mostly cloudy with a shower or thunderstorm; Wednesday mostly cloudy with a shower or thunderstorm; Thursday mostly cloudy and COOL with a shower or thunderstorm; Friday partly SUNNY (finally) and 78.

So today is Tuesday. Sunday we went to Reny's for shopping and Jake's for lunch. Yesterday we took a walk to the Cove and bought candy. Today we may head for the outlets - Russell ruined his sneakers on Saturday, so he's been riding his bike with flip flops.

I've been reading, eating, and sleeping a lot. I'd much rather be reading, eating, and sleeping on the beach, but it's still nice to relax. The kids have been great - they are very content to watch TV, play video games, and play inside. Tess and Gwen get pretty loud and rambunctious - I think the people who live under us must be deaf.

Lisa and I went for a walk this morning - our first since it's been raining the other mornings.

Vacation?

We are in Maine! It's foggy and wet out - and only about 61 degrees. BUT, we do have a kitchen - dish washer and all, and that is a break from the chaos that is my home.

Friday I came home to MEGA progress. Unbelievable - Dave had worked all by himself that day, and he had installed 7 cabinets - all of the range/peninsula wall. He had also installed the wood flooring all to where he needed it for the time being. WOW, you can really get a feeling for how it is going to look, and it's going to look great. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, I uploaded them all to my home PC, and didn't keep copies on my camera, so there they be.

With the progress, we also had issue #4 (if you are keeping count, 1 was the heating pipe, 2 was the ceiling, and 3 is the faucet being backordered for 3-4 months). The over the microwave cabinet came in with a big style in the middle - it's supposed to be open (like a shelf). It's no big deal - they will replace it with the correct cabinet, but when I saw it installed, I panicked. I didn't know what to do - I knew I wouldn't be able to get a hold of Denise (nor could she do anything at ~7 PM on a Friday), so I called Dave - poor Dave after working so hard all day. As soon as I started talking to him, I realized that it would be ok, no problem, but I think the fact that he had installed it had me panicked because I thought we wouldn't be able to return it or something.

Denise already has the new cabinet ordered - it will take 2 weeks, but given that we have months to go before all the details are completed, I can live with that!

Yesterday I took the two doors from the glass-ready cabinet to the glass place for installation. They will call me when it is ready, but I am also expecting that to take two weeks.

I also spent the larger part of the day finishing packing for vacation, shopping, and unpacking. I think we got here later than we ever have - it was after 5 PM. Happy Hour :-) I was getting nervous yesterday, thinking that I won't be around for seeing the progress in the kitchen. I thought about getting a web cam for home so that Chuck could beam me pictures, but I didn't get around to it. Dave and I went over a bunch of questions, so I think we are good - and I'm going back on Thursday, so it's really only 3 days, but given the progress that they make and the "choices" that have been made and had to be corrected, I hope we don't run into issue #5 and 6, etc.

Ok, time to take a shower and do something on this wet, cold day.

Hmmm

Ok, so I came home tonight (late after a very nice dinner with my sister and cousin - so nice to not have to eat in the dust holding a paper plate in my lap), and I expected to see dramatic change - cabinets, at least 5 or 6 of them, installed. That was not to be. It's dark, so I can't really see that much, but it looks like maybe they were all taken from their boxes, but none of them are installed. Three have been put in place, but that's it! Wah.

Oh, well, I cannot really complain - the progress has been so great until now. But, I do know that Mr. F is off tomorrow, so I wonder if anything will progress tomorrow either. I figure that it doesn't really matter too much since we will have to wait for the counter tops, but there is so much else to do - floors, electrical, hardware, etc.

Speaking of countertops, I believe I have chosen my soapstone slabs. Check it out:

This is the same slab in both pictures, the 2nd picture the slab has been oiled a 2nd time, so the veining is much less pronounced.

So, one more decision made and detail taken care of! Now, if I could figure out what I'm going to do for a faucet until the one I ordered (backordered for 3-4 months) comes in!

Here are a couple cabinet pictures:

In a swirl about swirls

Wow, it's already Wednesday! So much has been going on. Monday the plasterers (mudders? Sheetrockers? Well, they didn't hang the sheetrock, Dave and his dad did that - so maybe drywallers . . .) came. When I got home, they had finished more than 50% of the drywall, including the ceiling from kitchen to dining room. In swirls. You know the texture that looks like an LP. Oh, you don't remember what an LP looks like? That's because this type of texture goes back before the phonograph was invented :-)

Here is a picture of the swirled ceiling texture:





Here's a close up of my ceiling:

Yikes! I didn't like it. I didn't know what to do. Chuck liked it. Russell liked it. Maybe I was over-reacting. I mean, who looks at the ceiling anyway? I didn't like the acoustic (popcorn) ceiling, but it didn't really bother me either (only when I had to paint it). Ugh! Painting - this would be just as difficult, right? Maybe even more difficult. For a minute I thought - maybe I could have them do the living room ceiling smooth and live with the kitchen and dining room, but then I remembered that the ceilings are basically open to one another for the most part. If they finished the living room, it would have to be swirls to match. That's a 12x20' space (25' if you count the hall) of swirls!



So, I screwed up my courage and called Dave. He explained that they wouldn't recommend a smooth finish due to the ceiling not being perfectly straight (so you'd see waves). I don't know - I think I could live with waves over the swirl :-) I asked what my options were. For a mere $250 premium, they would re-do the kitchen ceilings and they would do the LR ceilings in a "skip trowel" finish. It looks something like this:

I am much happier now! I know - I could have squabbled with Dave over the extra cost. They should have called me and confirmed the texture before they started, but honestly Dave's been great, and I think he may be eating any buffer he already had in the budget, so I didn't want to get into hard feelings over $250. There are pros and cons for how Dave works - he doesn't have the prices down to the last screw, which is a pro for not having to meet an allowance or doing a change control for every difference. OTOH, in situations like this, there's not a clear cut way to handle it.

The bottom line is - I am happy. I hope Dave is happy. And we'll all be happy!

Oh, did I mention that the cabinets arrived today? . . .

Weekend Two

We were supposed to go to StoryLand this weekend, but when the weather was predicted to be raining and in the 60s, I cancelled our reservations. Wouldn't you know, the weather actually turned out to be pretty nice - Friday did rain, but it was warm, and we wouldn't have arrived until the afternoon anyway. Saturday was a gift - dry and partly sunny all day! We compensated by taking the kids to Kimball's for bumper boat rides and ice cream.

In the end, it worked out well because I worked from home on Friday and got my reviews written, and Chuck was able to do a lot around the house, move furniture out of the living room, etc.

Today I cleaned out the spare refrigerator so that Chuck can take it to work and we can put the old refrigerator in its place. I also did some refrigerator clean out of our current refrigerator.

This morning it took me about an hour to make coffee and toast. First I had to find the coffee maker on the office floor, then I realized that the cord wasn't going to reach, so I moved the temp table down from the FR to the kitchen. Then I finally was able to get the coffee started. Next I decided to have peanut butter toast. No bread. I had some in the freezer, so down to the basement to get it. Back up to the office to put it in the toaster. Next to the FR to find the peanut butter. Back down to the kitchen, but then back up to the office for paper plates and a knife. What a production! Everything is like that. I keep thinking I should have done more planning and put together a staged area for the kitchen. The problem is that the only place that make sense is on the next floor, and it didn't really seem logical to be running up and down stairs for everything, but maybe I should have bit the bullet.

I sold my ladder back chairs! Yeah, more $ for the bar stool fund . . .

Mr. F is still hot . . .

Ok, so I've known my contractor since he was a boy. I actually babysat him fairly regularly. The young "tweens" in the 'hood talked about how cute the dad was - definitely one of the finer dads - a carpenter/contractor, so fit and tan and decked out in painters pants (which were *so* cool back then) and work boots.

Well, Dave grew up and started working for his Dad's business, and last year Dave took over, but Mr. F is really not retired, just giving up all the long hours and paperwork, so we have the honor of having him work on our job. I will admit it, I was checking him out - he was in shorts, and man, his legs look like a 30 year olds. He's really kept in shape and even though he's lost some hair on top, he still has the tan and the great smile and the handsome brown eyes. I hope Mrs. F still keeps an eye out . . . :-)

Ok, so now that I'm done with that little, er, trip down memory lane, I'll focus on the progress. Today you can really see how the whole thing is going to shape up. They built the pony wall that will have the peninsula on it this morning. It's a little scary. I can't say that I love it. I'm sure I will when it's all done, but right now I'm hoping that the space will work better than it did before. One thing that I noticed before, and I mentioned to KD, is that when the DW is open, it will block the entry way to the DR. We had a similar situation when we had the DW open, it was blocking due to the peninsula. KD said that we had almost 2' between open DW and end of new peninsula, so I was assured, but when I see now how close it will be - and I measured - the "almost 2'" is actually 22". It sounds a lot smaller now, doesn't it? I mean hold your hands out for what you think is 2' - it's easy to do. I guess one person could get by, which is better than it was, but it still seems tight. My plan had DW staying where it was and next to fridge (which KD didn't like). Well, too late now, and it will probably be just fine, but I wish there weren't so many compromises.

I took down the wall paper in the front hall tonight, and we moved more stuff out into the garage. The downstairs is almost completely empty, but my office, bedroom, and family room are a disaster.

Dave says that the plasterers will be here on Monday, and cabinets will be delivered to the house Wednesday afternoon between 1-5, so I'll need to WFH that afternoon so that I can inspect them immediately. Dave says that once they are delivered, he will probably start putting them up right away. I cannot believe how quickly this is all going, it's amazing!

Here are some of the latest pics:

And the walls came back up . . .

Yesterday I couldn't see that much had been done - I wasn't even sure if the guys had been by, but then I looked up. The blue board was completely across the kitchen ceiling and into the dining room.

Today they came back and put up blue board on all the remaining walls. They have a little to finish tomorrow. We were supposed to go away today, but due to the crappy weather, we cancelled our trip. Chuck still took the day off, which was good because he was able to help clear out the living room. We have a little more to do tonight, but mostly it is empty and ready for the plasterers on Monday.

I sold my kitchen stools! I had them on Craigslist for $75, and I got $60. So, I think I am up to almost $500 for Craigslist revenue towards the remodel. Mostly it makes me happy that I'm not putting this stuff in the landfill.

I'm getting a little nervous about the fact that we leave on vacation 1 week from tomorrow. Dave says that the plasterers will be here on Monday, then the floor, the cabinets come in on Wednesday - he is moving right along! I don't see why they wouldn't be starting cabinet installation on Friday if not before. WOW. That means that I have to schedule in soapstone templating for early the next week - maybe as early as Tuesday? That's crazy. Sort of a bummer because I'll need to be here for it, so that means leaving the kids - I hope I don't miss a good beach day. Oh, well, it will be worth it when I come home from vacation and it's basically all done - the only thing is that I won't have my refrigerator yet.

I have to admit, I'm not too happy about the disruption. I thought that we would be able to cook out a lot, but first the weather has been so crappy, then they boarded up the door to the deck, so the grill isn't too accessible. There's dust everywhere, and there really isn't anywhere to sit down and eat. But, it could be worse. It could be a lot longer!

Eat out count is up - we had lunch out today, but we probably could have eaten in. Dawna was soooo great and made us a lasagne that we had last night for dinner. I think I had 3 helpings because I ate Tess's and Gwen's :-) So nice to have a "home cooked" meal.

The Walls Came Down . . .

Well they blew the horns And the walls came down They'd all been warned And the walls came down They just stood there laughing They're not laughing anymore The walls came down

I think you can guess what's been happening in my house. Yesterday they got the LVL up and they took the support walls down. They also worked on the colonnade, so I now only have half walls in the foyer. My whole first floor is one gutted, wide-open space.

I must have had 4 trucks and 6 men in my house by 7:30 AM yesterday morning. Dave had the electrician over, and they started yesterday. Today was less dramatic because they were working on electrical - you can see it, but it's not the big effect of losing a wall (or half of one).

Kitchen now totally open to dining room and living room.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will be - I know that Dave mentioned that they would be starting to put up the blue board.

I'm not sure what to put as the eating out count - I had plans for dinner anyway, and Chuck took the kids to McDonalds - does that count as two or one?

I read some stuff on the Kitchen Forum today - this poster was looking for confirmation on her timeline. It was to be finished in about 1 month, and everyone was commenting that it was WAY too aggressive, and that they didn't know of a kitchen remodel that could be done in less than 10 weeks. Sooo, that got me to thinking that I might need to update my count down - in my head, I was thinking 5-6 weeks, and that includes this major structural change. Well, based on what Dave's gotten accomplished so far, I don't see why we wouldn't make that timeline, but maybe something else would bog us down. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to adjust my expectations.

Dusty

Wow, I know that everyone talks about the dust in a renovation, but I didn't think I'd have any major dust until they did the walls and ceilings. Not so. There is dust covering everything. Even with the plastic up on the wall (or what's left of it) - dust.

Can you see the dust on my laptop? I etched an X on the mouse.

Well, today was another day of a lot of progress. They did not get the LVL, so that did not go in and the temp walls did not come down, but they did a lot of other stuff. They did some plumbing - took out the sink so that they could remove the sink cabinet, then put the sink back on for our use until they have to shut it down for good. Hopefully that won't be for a week or more. They framed out the window and door, but then boarded them up - so no back door for right now. That will be a PITA - especially if it ever stops raining around here so we could cook out some more.

Speaking of cooking out, we had steak the other night. I thought it would be fine on paper plates (my litmus test for meals right now - has to be able to be eaten on paper plates), but I forgot about cutting with plastic knives. Not so great. I know these two weeks are going to fly by, but I was already done with the "camp out" mode of my kitchen by Sunday night. Now we don't have a stove or dishwasher anymore, so we are really down to the bare bones, and I see a lot of sandwiches in our future. But that's ok - it's an adventure.

Today I worked from home - it was ok, but the hammering and sawing made it difficult to be on conference calls, even when squirreled away in the family room with the door shut.

Well, off to do laundry - probably surf a little bit more before that.

What's on the sides of your range?

This is what mine looked like when they took it out of its "cabinet cocoon":

Eeewww! And that's just one side (but the worst side). Before you spew, just think about the last time you pulled your range out to clean the sides of it. Maybe you are someone who does that once a week, but if you are like most of us - you haven't done it in six months or more - if ever! Spills happen. The stuff has to go somewhere. It made me wonder if cooktops are a better design if just for the reason above. But where does the stuff go when the pot boils over on your cooktop?

So yesterday I cleaned the sides of the range until they looked like new (toothpick treatment). Here's another task I'll have to add to my list - pull out the range and clean sides - I think 2x a year will have to do.

We also made it to Ikea and bought the butcherblock for the buffet area. Wow, I had never been to Ikea before. I told Chuck we would be in and out. Well, as you know, that is just not possible. I guess if I had some clue as to how they snake you through the whole store just to get to the department you want and then to the checkouts - what a brilliant marketing strategy. I saw some things I would have loved to look at in more detail, but with Chuck waiting in the car, and Gwen and Tess in tow, it wasn't practical. I'll have to visit after the kitchen is done and I know exact measurements.

I also got rid of some of my cabinets - the others will not go for another 2 weeks, which is unfortunate because I need that space!

Dave stopped by today to ask me about the window - more decisions - do I want white or pine inside, they only have certain options for the inserts, etc. Everything is a 3 week lead time for ordering this stuff because no one is stocking this stuff.

Today I hope to get some more stuff put away into the garage, but I need to do some rearranging out there. Better get cracking.

Progress!

No post yesterday - it was a crazy day. Meal out count is up to 2 because we went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. Not totally motivated by the renovation, but it certainly was a factor. Dawna was kind enough to have us over for dinner last night (drank too much wine!), so we did not have to deal with dinner.

This morning we had our first meal in our make-shift kitchen. It was not too bad. We still have a stove, a sink, the dishwasher, and, of course, the refrigerator. We broke out the new toaster - I have had the same under-the-counter toaster for ~14 years, so this was more exciting than it sounds.

I am pretty impressed with the progress made so far. All the walls are down. Of course, they have to build temporary walls so that the second floor doesn't come down, so it looks kind of funky, and we are currently blocked from walking from DR to LR, which is only inconvenient because all our stuff is in the LR.

Today I have a guy who is coming to buy the cabinets. Once they are out of my garage, I can continue the packing and moving of the other objects into my garage. I also want to go to Ikea and buy my butcher block counter top. Once that is done, I will just have the refrigerator and hardware to buy, and all the shopping will be done for what I need to have available for the renovation.

Dave says that the plumber is coming on Monday. Then he is trying to schedule the electrician for early next week too. I'm working from home on Monday, so that should be interesting.

We encountered our first real glitch - there was a heating pipe that was coming up through the load-bearing wall. The pipe is about 10" out from the exterior wall that was supposed to become one seamless, uninterrupted wall. Now this pipe will have to be moved, and my seamless wall will have a bump in it. It's unfortunate, but it's the way it has to be. I just hope they can make it as minimal as possible. I'm sure that it won't be the last glitch we encounter.

Exhausted

My alarm never went off because we turned the circuit on and off about 12 times last night and it reset my clock. All I know is I went to bed around 12:30 AM, and I felt like I hadn't slept.

After getting home from work last night, I made dinner, we ate, I cleaned up dinner, then started packing, packing, and more packing. Chuck actually got to take down a couple cabinets, the microwave, turned off some of the electrical as well as took some lights down.

I just cannot believe how much stuff was in that kitchen - I think of it as pretty tiny - and it was, but boy you could really pack in a lot of stuff! The thing is, those blind corners held stuff that I didn't even remember was there. And, the top shelves - yeah, a couple of them had stuff I used regularly, but a lot of the rest was also lost. I suppose that will also happen in the new kitchen, but I think what cabinet space I will have will be a lot more accessible. OTOH, I know that there will be A LOT of stuff that will not be coming back into my new kitchen.

<---the contents of my kitchen

So, today it begins. No turning back now. I met with Dave in the morning, gave a check, talked about the plan for the next few days, and that was it.

Tonight we ate out - Chinese. It was really more about belatedly celebrating my birthday, but it was also convenient since we wouldn't have much of a kitchen. I'm going to keep count of the number of meals out/take out that we eat (not including vacation) during this process. It really should be added to the budget.

When we got home, I got to see the first progress - I am already impressed. The wall between the kitchen and DR is gone, and they started on the wall between the DR and LR. Unfortunately, I now see a pipe (heating?) that is going up the wall to the 2nd floor. That means a relocation if I want my open wall. Which, of course, I do. That pipe is right where my china cabinet will go.

So, I'm really pleased with the progress so far, but what's that smell? It is like rotten garbage smell - maybe they found some dead animal in the walls?

D-day

In this case, the D stands for "demo" - short for demolish. It's scheduled for this coming Thursday, June 11, 2009. I am packing, packing, packing, and it's not fun.

I started out trying to be organized and clean, but now I'm basically throwing stuff in boxes so that I can just get it done.

You cannot believe how much stuff you have until you have to take it all out and put it into boxes. And how dirty my cabinets are! Of course, I'm no clean freak, so I don't even think of things like emptying my upper shelves and cleaning the dust and dirt and bugs out of them. Yes, bugs. Dead ones, of course, but there have definitely been mealy moths and spiders around. Not to mention ants, but I actually haven't seen any ant carcases.

Ok, so this makes me realize and resolve to try to keep my new cabinets clean. On my kitchen's six month anniversary, I will start to clean one cabinet a month completely - taking everything out and wiping it down. Sure I will. :-)

On the fun side, my sink came in yesterday, my faucet is on the way, and my lights should start to arrive too. I stopped today to order my refrigerator, but found I would be charged sales tax for it. Certainly I should pay sales tax, but I am paying so much more for this refrigerator than I thought I would be paying (like everything else!), that it's making me rethink the whole thing AGAIN. Jeez, I am torturing myself over 3 cubic feet, is it worth it? Is it worth an additional $500? What about the cup pulls and pulls - I've made a federal issue out of whether to have cup over cup or cup over pull. I am not usually like this.

Cold Feet

It's the chairs.

See, we've have these two wing chairs with a table in between them.


For 14 years now, we've sat in these chairs while all sorts of stuff went on in the kitchen. I read the Sunday paper in those chairs. I nursed my babies in those chairs. They've been spilled on, spit up on, and abused in every way.

Well, yesterday one of Chuck's friends came over and took one of the chairs away. He may take the other one for his lake house. The act of this chair being removed from the kitchen has made the changes a reality for our family.

Everyone is sad to see the chairs go. They say that they will miss them. Russell asked me where he would sit in the morning, like he does now, and stare out the window - slowly waking up to the world. That's what did it. The answer to that question was that he would sit at the new bar or in the living room, or he could sit at the dining room table. But, they all seemed like a poor substitution for the current nook.

The panic set in immediately. Am I doing the right thing? Will I forever regret changing the kitchen to this new layout? Of course there will be adjustments. Heck, we still sometimes go for the coffee mugs in the cabinet that we had them in for 1 year before moving them (btw, they are going back across to where they were in this renovation!), but will we long for the view out the sliders?

I tried to picture Russell making his bagel in the morning and how he will now have to go across the kitchen and on to the other side in order to sit at the bar. It felt more inconvenient than I ever thought before.

I've had very few moments of panic during this process. I'm sure I will have more, I just hope that, when this is over, the moments of panic become a simple shake of the head and chuckle.

The design

Haven't had time to blog - I've been spending lots of time on-line trying to research sinks, faucets, lights, and refrigerators. It's exhausting!

Well, since we are 41 days away from completion (may have to adjust that date!), we obviously have a design.

I had gone around and around with what to do with our floor plan. I had thought about knocking down the wall into the dining room, then using that space and current kitchen space for a long, narrow kitchen. But we use our dining room A LOT, so I didn't want to lose it. We don't use our living room that much, so I thought about moving the dining room to the living room, but I didn't want to completely lose all the living room space. The living room space is too big for just the dining room (12x20), plus I was concerned about re-sale (way, way down the line, but still this would be a very permanent decision). But I couldn't fit both the dining room and living room without it looking weird (I have a huge picture window in the living room that made the space awkward to split in half).

What I finally decided on is what I call the 3-way compromise. I'm opening up the kitchen to the DR and the DR and half of the kitchen wall to the LR. I'm building a "buffet" area for more storage along the half wall.

We will use the living room a lot more with this design, and I think that's a good thing. I'm giving up my little "nook" in the kitchen where people used to hang, but I am hoping that the LR will now be the nook, and people will be much more comfortable, and more people can be in the space. In addition, with it open to the DR now, we have that space as an extension of the kitchen. Everyone tells me that it is going to feel much bigger.





The reason I call this a "three way compromise" is because 1) I'm not really gaining any cabinet space - and I thought I was actually losing counter top square footage, but it turns out I am gaining it - but I'm not sure if it will be as usable as my big peninsula is today. We'll see. 2) I am losing 3" in the dining room and giving up having a "room" that is separate from the kitchen - it won't be formal and you can't block it from the kitchen mess, and 3) I am losing precious wall space in the living room where I already lose space to the big window, and the fireplace. I am still trying to figure out where the Christmas tree will go this year . . .

But, now that the design was finally decided, I started to get really excited . . .