Day 20

And the work continues on cabinets and electrical........

We have new under and over cabinet lighting. The under cabinet is touch activated. Everything is LED now. Fancy schmancy.

We didn't realize that when we got the new island, that the drawers and cabinets would be configured differently from the old one. As a result, we don't have the appropriate knobs and pulls for the island.

Steve just so happened to have his trusty sample kit in the truck for us to choose all new hardware.

To save a little money we plan on replacing the hardware on the island instead of all the cabinets.

Lesson Learned: Budget for unexpected miscalculations. They will happen. Also, budget for weekend trips out of town to get away from the chaos. You will need it. And that is exactly what I am doing this weekend. I'm outta here.

Day 19

Let's talk about paint.
Back in the old days, before the whole open-concept trend massacred dividing walls, color was a lot easier to pick. Room colors didn't have to match. Each room could be a different color, a different temperature, a different theme.
However, now when we are dealing with rooms that flow together with very little division, your color scheme should match, or at least be in the same family. Trouble is, like with most families, not all of them get along very well.

So when it came time to picking out colors for our kitchen-dining room, I began to freak out a little.

I knew I wanted different colors to  separate the space. The kitchen needed to be a pale color to lighten it up. But, I could go a bit darker in the dining room.

My original thought was a pale grey kitchen and a darker grey dining room. Naturally, 50 Shades of Grey came to mind. I decided it was a bit too sexy for our 100 year old colonial. Then monotone combinations of gold, yellow, or amber crossed my mind.

A traditional red dining and yellow kitchen was almost the winner. Until I watched a re-run of American Horror Story Freak Show. And I couldn't get Creepy Clown Face out of my mind. Picking a bad combination of red and yellow could drive a person homicidal.



 


Finally, I surrendered and called in an expert.

I hired a color consultant from a large corporate not-allowed-to-be named paint manufacturer with the initials of SW. She came out to the house and took pity on me. She gave me alternative options and helped me narrow down colors that match each other and will compliment our current finishings. She really helped me focus on what I like, what works together, and what will work in the space. Worth every penny!!!



Together we narrowed it down to 3 options. This weekend we are picking up samples and putting them on the wall before the painter arrives.

Meanwhile the construction continues in the kitchen.

But, we are making progress. Most of the cabinet doors are on.









The crown moulding is being repaired.

This guy arrives early every morning with a smile on his face.

And the microwave was installed. Finally, I can have popcorn!!

Day 18 or 19 or 101...It's all getting so fuzzy.

A plumber walks up to carpenter working on a minibar. He says to the carpenter, "Man, I didn't know it had to be so perfect."
That's it. No joke. Really happened in my dining room. I could only hang my head and sigh. Now I'm afraid to sit on my toilet.

Lesson Learned: you know it's time for an update when your carpenter tells you mirrored mini bars "are sooooo eighties".

And the work continues. The electrician arrived today. He's very personable and I am hoping very competent. He did figure out how to use the old cabinet fronts for scaffolding so he could move the ceiling light over the cooktop.

 

I am sufficiently impressed.


Other electrical work will include moving the disposal switch to an air button on the sink, moving two switches from the  4 switch plate in the dining room two inches to the right so they are in the kitchen, hanging pendants over the sink, adding an outlet to the island, and overall goodnatured chattiness.

The best part of all is that he puts up with my renovation insanity.
While chatting it up about pendant location options, I tossed our favorite rubber snake at him as he was looking away. He jumped and squealed like a little girl. But, he did not run screaming for his life from the job site. He Passes!







And I have to say, Steve and his assistant are doing an outstanding job on the cabinets. The veneer is a poly-fill-mumbo-jumbo-synth-stuff Cherry. It is very low maintenance. It's not supposed to scratch, fade, or chip. Evidently, it's immortal.

Day 17

Give a man an inch and he will take 12 square feet.

We don't just have an new island, we have an entire continent. I thought we had decided to go with Design A of getting a new island but keeping the same footprint. It turns out that Matt had decided we should go with Design B of getting a new island with 1 extra square foot per side per cabinet. Plus the countertop overhang is now going to be larger.

The contractor sent Matt specs. But really, specs are just numbers on a piece of paper. This extra space has caused a little snafu in the total design. The space is pretty tight between the dishwasher and the new cabinet, only 36 inches of clearance. We will probably have to load from the side of the dishwasher instead of the front, hopefully we can open the dishwasher door without banging the cabinet or countertop. We will have to get rid of our 3 year old mobile butcher block island. And everything will be a little tighter than we anticipated. It's a good thing our new wall oven has french doors instead of pull down.
Because it's such a tight fit, the island really can't be moved in any direction. This puts the new light that Matt just installed off center. So, the contractor is having to move the light over 6 inches to get it as centered as possible over the cooktop. And that means calling out the electrician and the calling back the ceiling guys to repair and retexture the old hole. With the new island in place. That's going to be interesting to see.

Lesson Learned: Make sure the contractor provides a paper template of the new footprint! This whole debacle could have been avoided if the boys had been aware of how big the new island was really going to be when in place and what other changes would need to be made in advance.

The good news is that they have started putting on the new facade and I love it!!














Our toilet is back in place. Which I am sure makes the neighbors very happy. And he was kind enough to repair the broken flange that wasn't broken before the toilet was removed from the bathroom. Don't ask me, I just live here.

And he installed new shut off valves for the kitchen sink.

This will hopefully help him out in the unlikely event we ever have to call him back out to repair the sink. That way he wont have to shut off water to the entire house, just to the sink. At an extra cost of only $12.50 per valve. What a deal he is giving us. (insert sarcastic laugh here). I knew I was in trouble when he started calling me "Sweetheart".



Unfortunately, the plumber couldn't figure out how to bolt the bathroom sink back to the wall. Something about needing new anchors. So we are still waiting on that. He had an emergency Ale House call and had to leave before the job was completed. I'm sure the Ale House was a dire emergency and had nothing to do with Happy Hour.

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.