Kitchen Survival

And they lived happily ever after...

2006-08-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

The End.
Angelo was here at 7:55 AM to install the last piece of bullnose tile. By 8:05 AM, he was gone. Matt came over about noon and we looked at the entire project. He showed me how the windows work. I did not know that the little clip on the window was a safety catch. He showed me how to adjust the cabinet doors if they shrink or swell. There's a small screw that moves the cabinet door a little. I paid the final bill and he told me that Maggie in Fitch's office would send me a complete statement and warrenties for the windows and other stuff.
So I leave you with a picture of the light over the sink. That came from Maynard's. It was a sale item and we took it from a floor display. I don't know if I'd do that again. They put a box together for it and we had to go back for the ring which holds the shade to the fixture pole. There was no paperwork, no warranty, no instructions.
Thank-you for listening, everyone. I'm not planning to make any more entries. If you want to see what color we choose to paint the living room, you are invited to call or email me and you can come over.

Lights at last

2006-08-29T07:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a new electrician came and looked at the undercabinet situtation and even in the attic. Turned out that wires were run from where the undercabinet lights are; but those wire were never fed to the circuit breaker box to get electricity. The problem in the attic? The breaker that controls some of the outlets in Ruth's room was broken. Sometimes it functioned, sometimes it didn't. I guess that explains the miraculous "return" of Ruth's power the first time. Lon the electrician's moral: invite an electrician over ASAP to find (and solve) the real problem. Don't waste time guessing what it is.
Those undercabinet lights are great work lights. I was all over the kitchen last evening before the Liturgy Committee came over for the potluck. Which area is best to work in? Answer: all of them. I also took a shot of the glass door cabinet. It's light now works. And the Tiffany pendent over the sink works. That add just the splash of color and fun I had envisioned.
Now we're waiting for half a piece of bullnose tile to go between the cupboard and the window over the sink and it's window.

Dining Room and spices

2006-08-25T13:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry this has taken so long. Blogger wasn't behaving on Friday. I couldn't post.
Here are pictures of the dining room as requested. I found a wine "tower" rack at Stacks and Stacks.com. I also found drawer dividers there. The dining room feels very different. I really like having all the walls. Sometimes I felt like the dining room was a stage or a display area. Now it's a room to sit with people, talk and eat. We kept the window on the east wall. I plan to put a valence or something on it to make it pretty. The doors to the porch are still there, too. Now they open on to the porch instead of into the dining room. That actually makes the dining room seem larger.
The debate about rugs goes on. Earl doesn't really want either rug back. I think I'd like to see a rug in the dining room because it's kind of echoey. But it's so much easier to just dry mop the wood floor. The red rug is the one we had in the dining room, but I don't think it will look nice. The green rug was the one in the living room, but I think it would look nice in the dining room.
Marcy Westerlund showed me her pull out spice rack when we visited in June. She keeps about 4 jars of spices in hers. You can see that mine is almost full. I sealed most of my spices in tupperware boxes to store through the summer. I could only throw away the one I didn't recognize.
I made hummus today! It's cool and rainy here. A great day to cook. It was so nice to have space to chop onions, beat on garlic and saute things nearby without feeling crowded. I'm going to have to figure out a way to arrange (for lack of a better word) the spices. I did spend a few minutes trying to find things. My first thought was most used on top to least used on bottom. Maybe label the sides to see where spices are. I do have a Ptouch labeler.

fridge and backsplash

2006-08-24T18:10:00.000-05:00

Here's the backsplash. 4 inch biscuit colored tiles set on the diagonal. Views (at least to me) are left of the stove, pantry cabinet (south) wall and directly behind the stove. (Boy, it looks sharp there.) We chose this tile for the rainforest green granite. The granite was so busy that I wanted something very simple behind it. I really like the diagonal look. It's not often seen. It looks nice against the HanStone, but after living with it a couple of days, I think I would have added colored tile as an accent. Either in the splash or a rectangle running along the bottom. Note that the tile on the pantry cabinet wall starts at the bottom edge of the cabinet, not at the edge of the wall. Those two switches (still) do not work. No electrician today either. Matt had lined up Steve from Heritage (Paul's boss) to come out. Matt and I waited from 4:00 to 4:30 PM. When Matt called him, Steve didn't answer his phone. So Matt called the office. Turned out Steve had a heart attack and was in the hospital! (If it had been Strong, I could have visited him.)
The fridge is the same one we had. It's almond colored and still in good shape. It's a fridge on top, freezer on the bottom. Along with the fridge we kept our dishwasher and microwave. The pantry cabinet view has four of the five bullnose tiles in it and stops just before the KitchenAid mixer (also white).
So the short story is that Matt has made arrangements with another electrician to come "first thing" on Monday. That's okay with me. Maplewood Y starts it's annual shutdown. After tomorrow (Friday) I don't work again until September 6. I feel a lot better. As long as that was happening, Matt said he would call Angelo and have him put the last bullnose in on Monday.

Is it done yet?

2006-08-23T13:17:00.000-05:00

It's funny. It was much easier waiting for the countertop to be done than to wait for a blinking electrician to show up. Yesterday Paul came and hooked up the outlets. However, the undercabinet lights and the over sink light, still do not work. I'm going to be bald from pulling out my hair. Paul took my name and number and promised that someone would be here this morning. I called the construction company and the electricity contractor. That was at 8:00 AM. As of now, still no contractor.
On the other hand, isn't it beautiful? I made dinner last night using the covection oven. I have to read more about that. The kitchen feels much easier to use than the old one. I still don't know where things are, but that will come. The beauty of the dining room exceeded my dreams. Work started on June 21. All in all, it hasn't been that bad. It's frustrating now because it's at once so close and yet, just out of reach. Maybe one more post will do it and I'll wind up this blog.

New Wall

2006-08-22T05:59:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the living room wall taken from the front door area. This wall is directly opposite the bay window. Basically, the primed (white) part of the wall is a little larger than the old opening used to be. At the left of the photo, you can just see the edge of the new opening.
Yesterday, I went to work and came home to a message from Matt the project supervisor and the electrician that electricity was to be done that morning. Sigh. Too bad I didn't know ahead of time. I really needed to go to work yesterday. So the electrician is supposed to be here at 8:00 AM. That will wrap it up! Do you believe it? The last check gets written on Friday and the kitchen is ours! Any requests for something you didn't see and would like to?

the range

2006-08-18T13:46:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the Jenn Air Dual Fuel range that has been in the garage since June. It was the first thing that I ordered for the kitchen. Yes, you see 5 gas burners of varying sizes. Yes, you see two oven. The top is a regular electric oven that the instruction book claims I can bake anything in. (Good, I have to start making birthday cakes soon.) The lower oven is the convection oven. That's a new toy I will have to get to know. The broiler is in the top oven.

the new sink

2006-08-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

Today the transfer of pictures worked. So here are pictures of the new sink. It's in the same position as the old sink. It's much bigger than the old sink and it's small bowl is on the opposite side. For such a massive faucet, the handle seems quite delicate. The handle in the center under the sink is not a fake. That panel is louvered and you can tilt-out the panel to show a storage bin for a sponge and a plastic scrubbie.
Angelo has been here since about 8:45 AM. He's tiling the backsplash.

Sink and other stuff

2006-08-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

Sorry for no pictures today. I can't transfer them from the camera to My Pictures on the computer. I'm working on it. :-/
Carl the Plumber and Matt the Project Supervisor came today. They moved the fridge off the porch and into it's place in the kitchen. They brought the stove in from the garage. Most importantly, Carl hooked up the sink and faucet. They came about 8:40 and left about 11:00 AM. Carl also hooked up the gas line to the stove. He left the electrical hook-up for the electrician.
Tomorrow Angelo, the tile backsplash guy is supposed to come. Hopefully after him, the electrician will come. Some of Ruth's room in the attic has no electricity. I was trying to remove the old kitchen exhaust fan today when I began to wonder what else that electric fed. Maybe the outlets in Ruth's room that are not live right now? There is a large wire running to the fan motor. According to my tester, it's not live. I'm still to nervous to touch the wires, though.
Well, I'm kind of thirsty. I think I'll go get a drink of water. :-)

Counters are in!

2006-08-16T14:23:00.000-05:00

Today two guys from Empire Fabricators showed up about 1:30 and were gone by 3:00 PM. The left picture shows the northwest walls. The right picture shows the south wall. The installation of the Juniper Green HanStone seemed to go very smoothly. All the pieces were brought in and the fit was checked. Then they used really vile smelling glue to set the sink and make the seam. There is one seam just to the left of the sink. I had thought that the sink would have a negative reveal (that the counter would come over the edge of the sink); but the counter sets back about a quarter of an inch all the way around. Tomorrow the sink and faucet will be hooked up (red letter day in my book). Also a tile person will come and put in the tile backsplash. The stove ill be in the space to the left of the small window.
Earlier this morning, I filled an old glass-top canning jar with a letter of introduction and some other stuff for someone in the future to find. The cabinets in the back corner don't go all the way to the back. There is a triangular space there. A nice little suprize when someone takes apart this kitchen and says "Engineered quartz! That is so 2006."

back door hall

2006-08-14T14:03:00.000-05:00

Here are after and before shots of the back hall. I painted the wall Jonquil Yellow and the broom closet door is Pastel Sage. The inside of the cupboard is leftover whites from other projects. The trim is Antique White. Right now, stuff is just stuck in there. I want to get some hangers for the broom and mop. I'd also like a set of narrow shelves to keep the some stuff on. Stuff like drain cleaner and cutting board oil.
I called Empire Fabricators and was told that my counters are tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. Someone will let me know for sure. They think it will take about half a day. (Actually, I deduced that when Doug said that they didn't know if it would be a morning or afternoon job.) I'm hoping that the "tentative" part. After that comes backsplash and electricity.

Inside and out

2006-08-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

What do you think? Yes, I did indeed set up the dining room diagonally. I saw it at Janis and Doug Reed's house on Monday evening. Doug told me that it really worked for them. I couldn't wait to get home and try it. With the table diagonal, it's under the light instead of beside it. So I moved the sideboard to the same angle. Ruth says it will take a while to get used to it. Now that I've done this, I'll have to measure the space to see if the rug can be diagonal, too. The rugs come back on Friday morning. Here's hoping they will have to pay attention to what the counter people are doing.
The picture on the right shows off my work yesterday. It was cool enough to work outside. So I painted the new house clapboards and the north and west windows. I am so pleased with the job the guys did putting the siding on the house. The fact that there was once a window there is not obvious at all. Even standing on the top of the ladder, I wasn't tall enough to paint the last two clapboards. I'll wait until Earl can spot me with the big ladder. I painted the undersides of the clapboards with a brush and then used a pad to paint the faces of the boards. The color is pretty close because it was leftovers from the last paint job. It's so nice to see the house coming back together.

The dining room is coming back

2006-08-05T15:31:00.000-05:00

We're begining to put stuff back in the dining room. The table and sideboard are in. We tried the table where it was before, but it felt a little crowded. We turned it 90 degrees and decided to leave it there for the time being. That may change when the rugs come back from the cleaners. I also began thinking about where to put artwork. I'd like to keep Fred's cherry-in-ice photo in the dining room. Another of his photos is behind the table. "Sundaes" is a photo of a trumpet with ice cream in the bell of the horn. Fred made that for a radio station. The picture on the right shows the wall near the kitche. Right now the lilac festival poster is there. Sundaes is larger, though and might go better on that wall. I've just about decided to put glass shelves in the little nook in the wall. They would be supported by 1bys that I'll mount on the walls. I can run some "rope lighting" into the area to illuminate things.
I bought two glass shelves for the glass door cabinet this week. I'm also looking at the base cabinet next to the dishwasher. I want to keep my cookie sheets there. It does have a shelf so I'm thinking about making a divider for that cabinet. I would use part of the shelf in one side of the cabinet. The divider would serve a support for the shelf on one side.
Sometime this week I should get counters. :-)

Counters again

2006-08-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I got home about 4:00 PM to a message that Matt had called to see whether or not we had chosen a counter. I told him we had. So he told me he'd go ahead and schedule the backsplash and electric after talking to Empire Fab. 10 minutes later, Doug called to say that the Syracuse warehouse didn't have the Magellan Green in stock and it would take at least two weeks to order. Makes you wonder how much Matt knew when I returned his call.

Doug then told me about another company that was making engineered quartz and he could come out today and show me a sample of their take on magellan green. I was amazed when he walked in with two samples (one of which was the zodiaq) and I could barely tell the difference. The product is made by a Canadian company that is trying to duplicate the Zodiaq color palette. Go to www.hanstone.com/ and look at the "juniper green." I went for it. It goes nicely in the kitchen and will only take a week.

The thermometer in this room just changed from 87 to 88 degrees. I think I'll do something fun like get on an air conditioned bus and go to the dentist.

Counter

2006-07-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we did go see the people at Empire Fabricator and selected a new counter. We chose Dupont Zodiaq (www.zodiaq.com/). It's a mixture of quartz and acrylic. The color is "Magellan Green." We probably have a week before this can be put in, so I'm trying to work in other jobs like sealing the grout, painting the back hall, touching up other paint and putting some shelves in the broom closet cupboard. Earl and I thanked the company for getting to us and explaining about the granite before they cut it. (and charged us for it)

This morning I took out some of the backsplash pieces and began looking at how the backsplash will go together. One of the things I discovered is that I have to run the yellow paint closer to the cabinets. The Zodiaq is 1.25" thick, the tiles will be set diagonally. I'm not sure how this all fits together at the edge. We bought 5 tiles with one bull nose edge each. Lucky thing I'm not doing it.

the tile is done!

2006-07-28T13:42:00.000-05:00

Here are two pictures of nearly the same area. You can get a feel for the before and after of this space. The new tile brightens the doorway a lot. We are thinking about paint colors for the living room. I always thought that Earl had a good idea here, but I guess I didn't realize just how marvelous it would look. I feel like we have an entry now. Joe came over Thursday morning and set the tiles near the back door. Barry and Michael took a window out of the porch and got in and out through there. They sided the house, put handles on cupboards, measured and cut the shoe moulding and other project finishing type tasks. To my surpize Joe called about 5:30 PM and told me he'd used a "speed set" cement for the back door tiles and wanted to come grout it. He came over about 7:00 PM and finished off the grout in about half an hour. Today after work. I sponged the whole area with clean water to get the grout off the tile. Then Ruth helped me put the living room back together.

Saturday we are going back to Empire Fabricators. We decided to use an engineered stone for the countertops instead of granite. On line I looked at Silestone's "stellar meadow" and Zodiaq's "magellan green." I'd like to see them in real life before we make a decision. That could put off finishing the kitchen for another 2 weeks. At least they've already got templates. I'm toying with the idea of keeping a small piece of the Rainforest Green granite on the small counter to the left of the stove.

the crown and towel

2006-07-26T16:44:00.000-05:00

Barry and Michael were back today. There is crown molding around the dining room and you can see the glare of the glass in the coner cupboard. Tomorrow will be the handles on the doors and drawers.
The towel bar has a story attached to it. As we looked at the design for the kitchen, Earl asked me where we will hang towels. I told him that I wasn't sure. So one of the things that Paul put into the cabinet order was a pull out towel rack. I like it. The towels are available and out of sight.
The crown moulding is an extruded or pressed product and is pre-primed. How cool. Priming is the worst of painting jobs. It's a little wider than the crown in the living room. It goes nicely in the dining room. I really like the way Barry ended the moulding. He did something similar on the telephone wall.
I was nervous about going to work today with the front door off the hinges. So I put it back on. That was a mistake. My back hurts. Barry cut the side door so it will go over the tile. Thank-you, Barry. Sorry about no picture. I didn't even think of that at 6:45 AM when I was doing it.
Joe, the tile guy didn't come today. Wonder what's up with that?

tile update

2006-07-25T20:59:00.000-05:00

Joe, the tile guy, and his son, Nick, were here until about 7:30 PM. The finished tiling the front entrance and the two stairs at the back entrance. Of course, they didn't come until about 3:00 PM. Joe had told me that the front door needed to be removed and cut down to go over the tile. Today, he got serious. He asked me to get help for him to take the door off the hinges. Our next door neighbor, Jeff, helped Joe and Nick take it out and lean it against the house. After Joe and Nick left, I pulled the door down, with Ruth's help, pulled off the weather stripping on the bottom edge and planed about a quarter inch off the door. It should go over the tile just fine. Thank you, Ruth, for everything. She turned on a breaker last night that gave us the dishwasher back. I'll get a picture of the front door tomorrow morning. It's upside down, leaning against the outside screen door. It's upside down because I put a coat of spar varnish on the bottom edge. The tile looks gorgeous. I can't believe how it adds to the house. Good night!

Granite problems

2006-07-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

I just got off the phone with Chad from Epmire Fab. They put my slabs on a saw and they are not flat. Chad described them as warped. He called the supplier who assured him that's how the Rainforest Green granite is. It can differ from one side to the other by half an inch. Chad told me they compensate for that with shims. He also told me that the RG granite has a tendency to break while being sawed. All those beautiful veins are where the granite breaks. So they glue it back together. He called to make sure that I understood and accepted that. There (probably) will be more seams and mends in it than other granite. He also told me that this stone is used for fireplace surronds, hearths and (sometimes) for small counters in bathrooms. Makes me wonder if I should rethink this granite choice. The picture shows 2 templates, one on top of the other. The long one is the template for the sink counter. The short one (standing up on the right of the slab) is the piece of counter that starts at the sink piece and lies along the west wall ending at the stove. There are two more templates: the one that ends in the half round over the shelves and the piece on the left side of the stove. I wonder what color glue they us? If there are a lot of glue joints, will it be engineered stone? ;-)

Tile picture

2006-07-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

In this picture, I'm standing in the kitchen looking toward the bay window and front door. The tile color is called "midnight blue." It's a porcelain tile with a matte glazed surface. The stairs going to the back door will have a nice oak "nose" at the edge of the stair. Those are in the garage drying right now. Joes asked me to varnish them over the week-end. I'm going to need another can of spar varnish, I think. The tile will introduce some blue into the living room. That's nice because I'm thinking about painting the living room blue. There is prefinished oak shoe moulding for the walls. I plan to reuse some of the pieces I took up.

You can see there are 3 different tile sizes: 13x13", 26x13" and 6.5x6.5." Joe is arranging it with very small grout lines which kind of surprized me. He doesn't like the color grout that was chosen either, so he'll be choosing something else. Grouting should happen on Tuesday. It looks like I'll need a Q-tip to seal the grout. I think we have a box of those somewhere.

I've started to think about finishing details. I'm thinking about putting a valance on the big kitchen window and on the dining room window. The west kitchen window is so small, I think I'll leave that alone.

Tile

2006-07-22T14:11:00.000-05:00

Joe the tile guy and his helper Norman showed up at 10:30 AM yesterday. They did have the rest of our tiles. The size that was delivered was the medium size. They brought the small and large sizes. Joe let Norman mix mortar while he played with different designs. I was going to show him a picture of the style I was thinking about when he looked at at me from the floor and asked if I trusted him. I looked at this layout at the top of the cellar stairs and said I did. He nodded solemnly and thanked me. From the kitchen to the midway past the staircase in the living room is tiled in a gorgeous random pattern. Why no picture? I left the camera on the porch and we can't walk on the tile until Sunday. Which means that for the first time during the renovation, we have been completely without a kitchen. Which is actually nicer than being without a kitchen sink. Although, it's certainly more expensive. The breakfast sandwich at Tim Horton's is so good! Earl bought lunch from Wilson Farms when he picked up Ruth from work. Dinner is TBD. Work on tile will continue on Monday and Tuesday.

Rainforest Green

2006-07-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a small picture of our granite. It's called Rainforest Green. The veining and colors are remarkable. We looked at the two huge slabs at Empire Fab this morning. We had them lay the patterns so that the back edge (against the walls) are the lightest. Back in April, we chose a buff colored tile to be the backsplash. I remember that the saleslady at Tile Warehouse steered us toward a plain tile and matching grout to really allow the granite to take center stage. The correct sink and faucet are at Empire, too. We're looking at either next Wednesday or Friday for installation. We told them that two days doesn't make much of a difference now. Do it nicely.

Yes, if you look at the time stamp on this, I should be at work. However the Imperial Flooring guys were going to be here at 8 or 9 o'clock. Do you think they got lost?

The devil in the details

2006-07-20T17:20:00.000-05:00

Many of you recognize the pegged oak floor that was formerly in the dining room and still lives in most of the living room. Today Imperial Flooring arrived about 10:00 AM to rip this up in preparation for ceramic tile. The cracks and warping are not evident in this picture. The picture on the righ shows one of the tiles and give you an idea of where it will be. They showed me one of the 13" tiles. That's cool. I said, how about the other two sizes? Nope, they knew nothing about that. Called the store. They had my order. I was told not to worry. The other two sizes will arrive tomorrow with the installer. So I asked Joe when he'd be here in the morning. "Oh, 8 or 9 o'clock." Sigh. Tomorrow morning Earl and I have to go view the granite. I'm going to figure that these guys will be here closer to 9 than 8.
I called Matt to ask why there had been no workers today or yesterday. He assigned them to another job because ours is "almost done." Hmmm. After we hung up, I made a list of all the things that need to be done. Among them are the installations of the stove, fridge, microwave (plus the outlet for it), the clapboards on the house, a knob for the closet door, glass for the one cabinet, all cabinets handles and pulls, the ceiling in the computer room, the rest of the stack and the fan from the old kitchen fan (plus fixing the roof). There is also a towel rack that came with the cabinets. The electrician doesn't want to come back until the backsplash is in so I'll be without the dishwasher for at least another week. None of the openings above the counter have electricity yet for the safety of whoever installs the tile. I left the shoe molding off this list which was most of Matt's list. Tomorrow, I think the phone call after the one to the Y will be to Matt to ask about this list of stuff he thinks is so short. Empire Fab has the granite and Matt says that the 26th is still the date he's working with. They'd told me the 28th. We'll see who gets this one. I hope it's Matt.

nothing happened today

2006-07-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

So yesterday the regular guys were at a skylight job. I spent the morning on the telephone trying to get answers out of Empire Fabricators. Finally, Doug told me that our granite is not in the warehouse. It should be here Thursday, (the 20th). Probably. It will be a special delivery. So I thought I'd call Tile Warehouse and make sure that the backsplash is ready to go. The guy in the warehouse didn't have that tile or my order. Today, the salesrep called me to say that she had talked to the building company's rep and he told her to tell me to go ahead and order the tile. That's way different from what I remember him telling me when he sold me the job. He told me I was supposed to go choose things, the company orders and then hands us the bill. Even Addy, at Tile Warehouse told me that was different than they usually handle it. She called while I was at work and I called her back today and ordered the tile and grout. It should be in sometime next week. That's okay, because the granit will be late, too.
Last night, when Earl loaded the dishwasher, it didn't start. I figured it must be the electricians had left the breaker off. I went down cellar to find that the breaker was on and still, the dishwasher doesn't have power. We have to sort that one out.

view from dining room

2006-07-18T15:02:00.000-05:00

I am standing beside the dining room window looking west into the kitchen and the back door. The green wall on the right is the back of the fridge box. You can see the outlet and phone box there on the wall. Working to the left is the west window and the opening for the stove. Both the gas and electric are installed and ready for Barry and Mike tomorrow. I had to turn on the new kitchen light to get a good picture. Today Paulie and Junior put it on switches. There is still cardboard covering the lower cabinets. I have started to move some stuff in, but without handles, it's kind of hard to open the cabinets. The undercabinet lights are in, but won't be functional until after the tile goes in. Speaking of tile, I called Tile Warehouse to confirm that the order was ready. Barry had suggested that we pick it up. However, TW can't find it and are checking to see if it was actually ordered. Doug at Empire Fab says the granite should be here Thursday. "Here" means at their plant. I need to talk to Doug again because Matt delivered the sink and the faucet. I want to make sure they have the correct sink. I decided to go with the undermount after all, but (my copy of) the Fitch contract still says drop-in. But it looks like we have plenty of time to make a change. :-}

We have a dishwasher

2006-07-18T07:44:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to one of my favorite appliances! The dishwasher is installed and working like a charm in it's old place between two brand new cabinets. The cabinet to it's left is wider than the old cabinet. We also have some lights and a new light and fan in the shower stall. However, I can't find my second camera battery.
The electrician is coming back today. I gues our wiring is still messy. There is a wire that powers part of the first floor and most of the second floor that is giving problems. Barry and Michael are putting in a skylight on another job today. They will be back Wednesday to install the stove.
I talked to Doug at Empire Fabricators and the counters are supposed to be installed on the 26th.

It's coming along

2006-07-17T06:34:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday and Friday Barry was working on moulding. He put in the baseboard around the dining room and window moulding in the kitchen and dining room. I decided not to take a picture until it was painted. What a job! Trim is a bigger pain to paint than a nice flat wall. I really like the trim. It matches the original in the house. Do you notice there's moulding on the bottom of the cabinets? That's to hide the under cabinet lights. On Friday I started putting a few things in cupboards. Now I have to figure out where things go! A friend at the Y told me that after a year in her new kitchen, she's still re-arranging stuff. Hmmm. I suppose I ought to get the stool out of where the stove goes before guys get here. What do your think - should I put the wine glasses in the cupboard above the microwave? That's close to the fridge.

electricty and water

2006-07-13T06:58:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a day off. Wednesday the electricity guys arrived. When I got home from work there was power to the fridge and to Barry's saw. I asked about the freezer and that was included immediately. Barry was trimming the kitchen windows and attaching the bottom mouldings to the kitchen cabinets. These mouldings make the light fixture underneath less obvious.
However the real story of yesterday centered on the new breaker box going in. We decided to upgrade our electrical service from 100 to 200 amps. RG&E is here to put in the new box and move the electric meter to the outside wall of the house. This was all happening as 3.3" of rain fell. Thunder and lightning happened, too. The job isn't quite fininshed yet. The breakers you see are actually the old service. All those wires to the right of the box will be add today. The new breaker box is about 3' tall. You can see on the plywood how big the old one was. It's going to be interesting this winter for the meter reader to walk all the way around the house to read the meter.

Moulding and flooring

2006-07-11T06:53:00.000-05:00

You can see that the crown moulding really add a nice touch to the kitchen. The moulding was part of the Yorktowne order for the cabinets. Barry was here all alone on Monday installing it. Michael is on vacation this week.
The floor is pre-finished oak. The strong grain of the oak contrasts nicely with the more subtle grained cabinets. The original floors in the house were the 1" oak strips. This pre-finisned floor closely matches the flooring upstairs in the house. In the picture of the floor you can see the dark box under the sink where a heater is. That's the heat for the kitchen. There will be a grate over it and a control down there, too. In the dining room is a 5' baseboard unit that is controled by the downstairs thermostat.
Barry has to help with some windows on another project. Ruth is also off today so we are planning to go to the mall. I want to look at paper towel holders and dish racks. I'm wondering about putting my under cabinet knife holder under the microwave cabinet. The other cabinets will have lighting under them. Or should I consider a knife block? My meat cleaver always hung next to the north window; but I really don't want to put holes in the cabinets right away. Another decision to make.

the painted room

2006-07-09T18:29:00.000-05:00

My apologies to Debbie Travis. Here is a picture that seems to present all three colors that we worked so hard on this weekend. The dining room in pastel sage. The kitchen is jonquil yellow and the ceiling is antique white. All paints by Glidden. The soft satin glow of the walls makes the room feel bright, springy and comfortable. Many thanks to Earl who helped with priming, painting and listening to "the fox." Barry and Michael listen to that radio station, so I turned it on while painting this weekend. The floor for this room is visible in the center of the picture. Yes, it's still in boxes. I can't wait to get home from work tomorrow and see some of it on the floor.

An opportunity?

2006-07-08T17:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today, I have been doing more priming and some actual color painting. So here's a view of the north and west wall with some yellow paint and some white primer. Friday, the small window on the west side was added. Michael and Barry had to move the gutter downspout to accomdate the window. It's just outside the of the big slider window that was there. Between the two windows is the only deep corner of the kitchen. However the cabinet design has the corner cut off in the back. So there's a small triangular space behind the cabinet. Any suggestions for what to put in a time capsule back there? A picture of the four of us? A before picture? The cigar butt from the living room wall? (Acutally, I think I threw that out.) The yellow is Glidden "Jonquil Yellow." On the ceiling is "Antique White." The dining room will be "Pastel Sage." John (one of the decorators at R.C. Shaheen Paint) suggested that the yellow was a little intense for both rooms.
Friday, the guy from Empire Fabricators came to make a template for the granite counter. He made it out of sticks. I had to be there to answer questions about what was going on re the backsplash, stove and window trim. So I missed working that day. :-( It was more than made up for when Barry mentioned to me that it would be a lot easier to paint before the crown molding was put in. So I was off to the paint store to order paint and buy another can of primer. So today I painted the ceiling (one coat) and the kitchen (two coats). Tomorrow I will give the ceiling one more coat and hopefully start the dining room. Monday, they will start laying the floor.

Cabinets!

2006-07-06T05:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about how excited I was that the cabinets were going in. Then, the blog wouldn't publish! How maddening.

On the right is a look at the new north wall. You can see where the microwave cabinet is on the right. The outlet for the microwave is in the cabinet above it. So the cord will be hidden. Nice. The sink base (uninstalled here) is probably next to go in. To the left are the corner cabinets, upper and lower. I think the wire hanging down is for the under cabinet light.

On the left is a picture of the wall next to the basement stairs. The little triangular cabinet has a beadboard back and will have a "hockey puck" style light in it. Last night I opened these cupboard and put a few plates in them to see how things could fit. I'm figuring dishes will got in this cabinet because it's within easy reach of the dining room.

The last picture is of the fridge box and points out my utter brainlessness. I insisted that the box for the fridge be made deep enough to accomdate the fridge without it sticking out into the kitchen horribly. Paul, the salesman, told me that Yorktowne didn't make a cabinet that deep to go over the fridge. Not once did I think to ask them if it would be possible to build out the part of the wall the cabinet would sit against so that it would be even with the wall. I probably should have just eliminated the cabinet over the fridge.

Some cabinets go in

2006-07-05T15:58:00.000-05:00

On the left is the fridge box with it's cupboard in it! I'm so excited! The cupboard sits back a few inches because I requested that the fridge box be deep enough to enclose all but the door. The picture on the right is the new west wall. You can see the place where the stove and hood will be and where the new window will be (under the right side cabinet). To the lower right is the corner cabinet (not yet screwed in) with the sink base to it's right.
The place is begining to look like a kitchen! This is so cool. I'll take a picture of the sink wall tomorrow morning. North pictures in the afternoon seem to come out rather dark. There are just a few cabinets left in the garage. Today Barry and Michael were looking at the stove directions so the gas and electric hook-ups can be made. They also put in the vent for the downstairs shower.

Priming

2006-07-04T14:48:00.000-05:00

So Matt the Magnificent did come this morning and sand. After lunch, Earl and I moved in with rollers, brushes and only 1 gallon of primer. The important stuff is done. We primed from the floor to the outlet boxes. That should give them enough room to start setting bottom cabinets tomorrow. We also primed the kitchen ceiling and as much of the walls as possible before the paint ran out. While Earl cleaned up, I used the primer in the cracks of the pan and can to get as much cutting in done as possible. Earl had the hard part: he used the extention roller and painted the ceiling. It's hard to see where is done and not done. It doesn't help that we are practically painting white on white, only the north window gives light and there are no light fixtures in the room, it was hard! I should probably not paint over the lines that indicate the position of the west window. There was a couple of times when I imagined that the primer smelled like mint. Maybe I been priming to long!

Contracts and stuff

2006-07-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

I wanted to say a word about contracting for this kind of work. Our contract (signed on April 26) includes a payment schedule of 6 percentage style payments based on critical times in the project. They are as follows: The Deposit (30%), Start of Bay Window (15%), Start of Demolition (15%), Start Drywall Taping (15%), Cabinet Delivery (15%) and Completion (10%). In our case, the deposit was paid the day we signed the contract. The bay window and demo started the same day (6/22). The drywall and cabinets started the same day (6/30). So the company has 90% of our money and we won't have a kitchen until the end of July or so. C'est la vie.

I'm going to go to Glidden.com and look at their "Color Consultant."

More drywall

2006-07-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

Earl and I painted the bay window today. It may need a second coat of red paint. Matt the drywall taper was over today to put on the second coat of mud. Can you tell? ;-)

I really like the opening near the stairs as opposed to in the living room. It feels right. I know that people didn't worry about their tv in 1929. But we do. Wonder what I'm blocking for some future owner?

Many thanks to Betty, Bill, Sandra and Claire who invited us to dinner last night. We sat on the back porch overlooking Lake Ontario and I felt like I did have the strength to believe that this is all for the good and it will end one day. Matt is coming back on Monday to put on the final coat and Tuesday to sand. Bottom cabinets will start being installed on Wednesday. Today Earl and I bought primer to get started on the walls behind the cabinets as soon as the dust settles. On Friday (7/7), a person from Empire Fabricators will be here to make a template of the cabinets to cut the granite. Cutting the granite will take 3 weeks.

Look at this cool little nook! This is the back of the refridgerator box. I wanted the fridge set deeply enough that only the door would stick out. So the west dining room wall has this little nook that I can put a door on and keep a broom in! Or put shelves in and display crystal! The possibilities are endless!

Stuffed garage

2006-06-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

Here's the garage, Phillip's Satellite and you can see the cabinets smooshed in. The company's name is Yorktowne and the style name is Stockton. The wood is maple and it has a clear finish on it. The general look I'm going for is the clean, simple lines of the Arts and Crafts movement. These cabinets with the recessed panel do the trick. The handles are look sort of like pewter with an ivy design across them. There are no knobs, just handles.

The close up shows an upper corner cabinet and a set of drawers. I was looking to make all the bottom cabinets drawers, but it just didn't work out. However, many of the bottom cabinets have pull-out shelves behind the doors. I've had a couple of funny looks from people, but I really think that drawers are the cabinet of the future. Easy to use, no doors to get in the way and reaching to the back of the cabinet will be a thing of the past.

I think I'd better figure out what wrong with the Zone Alarm. It keeps trying to interrupt.

cabinets, drywall and downspout

2006-06-30T13:16:00.000-05:00

This is the west side of the house showing where the large sliding window was. The new, small window goes right in back of the downspout. The downspout will be re-routed under the light and next to the edge of the foundation. The house cantilevers over the foundation about 2 feet.

The cabinets arrived today. From afar - they look beautiful. The trailer is parked next to the Satellite making it hard to go look at them right now. The drywall tapers arrived with the cabinets. It's hard to tell how much primer we'll be able to get on this week-end. And it's a long one.

Electrical Mystery

2006-06-29T06:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry no entry yesterday. We came home from the Raleigh Ringers on Tuesday night to find that only certain lights worked upstairs. The hall light was working, but none of the overhead lights in the bedrooms worded. Ruth reported that half the attic was out, too. Earl offered to go down to the cellar and see if there were breakers off. I wish I'd agreed with that. He would have discovered that all the breakers were on. Before leaving for work on Wednesday, I left a note to that effect.

This picture is of the wall to the left of the side entry. I took this pic while standing part way down the cellar stairs. Steve LaFrance, the architect who drew the plans we didn't follow, suggested that instead of a kitchen cabinet with a dark back corner, that we put a small cupboard near the back door. Earl and I really liked that idea. The hole to the right is the former laundry chute. There was plumbing and electric in the cupboard space that was moved to the laundry chute. You can see the copper pipe.

The picture of the South Ave Garage (former) ramp is purely for Phill. Remember that corkscrew ramp? The three bottom layers fell down earlier this year. They have been working ever since to take the rest of it down. The cylinder of the ramp stands totally separate from the garage building now. Irony? Workers were repairing the garage when the ramp collapsed.

An East view

2006-06-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hmmm. I'm still working on how to add pictures. I was hoping for one to be under the other. On the right is a before shot of the east wall. The material on the window wall is cedar paneling. It was roughsawn and splinted if you looked at it wrong. The brick material is not ZBrick. It came off in sheets and kind of reminded me of really heavy plasticy, embossed wall paper. The insulation is gone now. New stuff is being put in the walls.

Today a lot of framing is going on. Both windows are being framed and they will frame the box for the fridge. New electrical boxes are nailed to studs. Matt told me yesterday he called the granite people to come make a template on July 7. How cool! Things seem to be moving along nicely.

west side story

2006-06-26T17:42:00.000-05:00

So here are two pictures of the same wall. A sort of "before and after" type thing. The picture on the left is above the picture I put in the last entry. The picture on the right was taken this evening.

The tiffany fixture went to Holy Cross' garage sale this past weekend. So did the oven that was in the corner in the picture on the right. The shovel is covering plywood which is covering the holes made in the floor for gas and electric for the new Jenn Air range. They also found 3 live wires down there that went nowhere. There's one of those in the wall that was behind the fridge, too. Very against modern code. A fire hazard, too.

Catch up

2006-06-26T12:02:00.000-05:00

So here's a look at the old north wall of the kitchen. It was paneled in pine. The cupboards are pine. See the "silvery place" on the counter in front of the toaster? That a tool made by Nutone (the door bell company). It contained a motor and had a mixer attachment and a blender. The bowl for the mixer had a hole in the middle and spun around on a base inserted into the counter. Bowl capacity was about a quart. One time, I stuck the blender on with ice in it and 2 of the fingers that held the blender in place broke off. See how the sink has a large and small bowl? I really liked that and my new stainless steel sink will have that, too. During the summer, if the kids forgot their keys, they would climb on a trash can, take the screen off the window and enter the house that way. (Actually, I think Phillip did that only once.) See that there are no cupboard doors to the left and below the sink? When Phillip was a toddler, he would hold the top of the dooor and swing back and forth on it.

The picture on the right is to the left of the sink, on the west wall. You can see the bottom corner of the microwave stand (with a microwave) and to the left of that we keep stuff that wouldn't fit in the cupboards. Full and empty deposit bottles, my Pampered Chef Stoneware Bar Pan and behind it is the case containing the BBQ tools. The floor is avocado sheet vinyl. When we moved in so was the oven, fridge and cooktop. We replace the oven and fridge. Now the cooktop is gone, too.

Day of Rest?

2006-06-25T13:34:00.000-05:00

Now that the windows are in, I have to paint the wood trim around them. What a job! Because I have problems with depth perception, I decided to put painter's tape around the windows. That seemed to set apart the space that needed to be painted. The new windows are set into the frame and some raw wood is exposed. So the primer went on today and maybe later this week I'll get some red paint on it. I'm a little uncomfortable with this ladder and asked Earl to stay with me while I painted. I can't get over how well the windows work. The living room is much more comfortable that it used to be.

This week sounds exciting. Among the project that Barry and Mike have planned are to put the heat in the dining room and living room, run required electric and needed plumbing and make the new opening. They told me the cabinets are supposed to be in the office later this week and Friday they want to start putting in the base cabinets. (The cabinets will be loaded into the dump trailer to be brought here.) Base cabinets are going in before wall cabinets so the counter people can come in a make a template to cut the grantite. It takes two to three weeks to prepare the granite.

In today's society it's so important to have the sink looking out a window. Is that interesting? In 1929 the sink was put on an inside wall. To keep the pipes from freezing, perhaps? The old cast iron plumbing is still sticking up out of the floor where the wall oven used to be. Next to it is some copper plumbing from an earlier renovation.

I think about the laundry chute, too. It never really worked well for us. We would drop clothes down it and just above the kitchen chute door, they would catch. I got tired of sticking an unbent coat hanger up to loosen things. When the plywood and paneling came off that wall, I could see that the chute has been patched. There are also a couple of nail-type holes in it.

The doorbell cord is also exposed. Maybe this is the time to fix the doorbell so that it will ring at the back door as well as the front.

The hardest thing to survive without seems to be the kitchen sink. I'm sure we're all a bit dehydrated.

While this week has been going on, I cut 6" off the hem of my green, broomstick skirt and am now in the process of putting in a double-fold 1/4" hem. That hem feels like it's miles and miles long. Basically, I sew until the washer or dryer summons me.

Thank-you, Earl, for letting everyone know the correct address for this blog.

A Day Without Pounding

2006-06-24T08:29:00.000-05:00

A day off from noise and shaking. What a relief. We had Stoffer's "Bistro" sandwiches and fruit salad for dinner last night. The sandwhiches are okay. Not much flavor. Today we are planning to go out to breakfast, drop Ruth at work, then pick her up after six and go out to dinner.

Sponges and dishwashing brushes don't dry well in the cellar. We'll have to change them regularly or put them through the washer and dryer every day.

Barry finished the windows yesterday. There was filler and caulk on the out side. His scraping job was pretty good. I need to sand, prime and paint the trim. Because it's a south facing window, I will try to get that done on Tuesday morning.

The floor in the kitchen and dining room is now the orginal subfloor. Barry and Mike pounded all the nails down to get it ready for the new plywood. Matthews and Fields delivered lumber and insulation yesterday. Barry sent back the insulation. Wrong R value.

The baseboard heating is gone from the living room wall. We are supposed to decide if we want heating there or eliminate it. Other decisions include: where to put the current kitchen, dining room, and outside lighting and where to put the thermostat. The heating guy suggested that the thermostat go over near the staircase. In the picture, that would be the white wall. The pink wall will be torn down Monday to be the new opening from the living room to the kitchen and side door.

Day 4

2006-06-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

The floor is gone. The copper hood is gone. Everything is gone. We have a huge space where the kitchen and dining room used to be. If I weren't so excited, I'd be depressed at how it looks. On Monday Michael and Barry with create the new opening. But it's not new at all. It looks like a previous renovation closed the original opening between the kitchen and living room. We are closing an original opening between the living room and the dining room.

Day 3

2006-06-22T07:31:00.000-05:00

The sounds coming up are dreadful. They are removing a wall panel and the whole house is shaking.

Last night I grilled chicken for dinner. Everything was okay until I opened the package. Then I realized I needed a place to spread out raw chicken. Cooking isn't hard. Just the prep work. I'm thinking that our menus will be lots of sandwiches and microwave dinners. I did make and freeze some chili for use. Taco salad, maybe? I might succumb to a package of pre-grated cheese.

Look what they found in the wall! A bad poker hand, a cigar butt and and empty screw package. What were they thinking. Interesting point: this wall was orginally open to the living room. That drywall from a previous renovation.

Barry and Micheal are having problems getting the old linoleum floor up. They are thing about pulling up the plywood sub-floor and putting down new plywood.

Our church's New to You Sale is coming at just the right time. The oven and 2 light fixtures are being picked up today for the sale starting Friday.

I got a first coat of varnish (yes, real varnish) on the trim inserts for the bay window. They are stacked in the living room so the person putting in the windows can find them. It was a lot of work to take the paint off the bay window; but definetly worth it.

The dump trailer has re-appeared in the driveway. Things are really moving.

I think I'll leave for my volunteer work at the hospital early today. ;-)

It begins

2006-06-21T15:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the construction company came to tear out our kitchen. At dinner last night I told my husband that I'd entered a note in my calendar to keep track of time. The company told me it would take 4 to 6 weeks to complete the kitchen. We'll see. My husband and daughter told me to start a blog about it. After sleeping on it, I got kind of interested in the idea.

So here I am. I'm a 50 year old mother of two and been married for 25 years. I am an avid cook and the kitchen is badly arranged and very avocado. I have been planning and dreaming about a new kitchen since around 1990.

Whoa. The project manager just called to say that the new windows for the bay window in the living room will arrive in about half an hour. I'd better get this up and open the garage.