Day 14 and 15 were by-days. No work, No play, No food.

Matt and I spent the weekend pointing out places where the trim guy installed the quarter-round wrong. the angles were off, there were gaps between pieces and the wall, the nail holes were not filled, some of them aren't flush and one end piece cut about an inch too long.

It just takes one sloppy worker to ruin the whole effect.

Matt installed the island light over the weekend. It's a beautiful light. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the globes were made of resin instead of glass. So we are checking with the manufacturer to see if we can use them over the cooktop. Of course, it's just another excuse for me not to cook.




Day 16

The renovation is really beginning to pick up speed. Steve and his partner from Kitchen Solutions showed up today to start on the countertops and cabinets. We decided to reface our cabinets instead of replace them. We have good solid custom wood boxes and aren't changing the layout. This makes us a perfect candidate for refacing. We will save almost 50% on cabinets and will retain the high quality of cabinets that we already have.

The first step is to remove all the doors, countertops, and appliances from the existing space.

It's a dramatic change. There is nothing like seeing the heart of your home stripped bare to the bone.







Unfortunately the quartz countertops can't be salvaged. However, we intend on donating the old appliances to HabiJax to give to families in need. All except one.

The Demon Dishwasher

This abomination has been the source of a multitude of fights, nightmares, tears, swears and sweatstains. The bottom rack regularly falls off its track when you try to push back a heavy load of filthy dishes. It takes a full 90 minutes of shaking, smoking, and screetching for it to get one load half way clean. And for some reason, it refuses to clean butter knives at all. Wont even consider it. I don't know what it has against butter knives, but they all seem to come out worse than they went in. I think it's knifist.