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?