Oops?

Well, I called Dave tonight and told him I was backing out of the cabinet installation contract. Eesh. I had a knot in my stomach, but after two missed meetings (I flaked, then he did), I was having a bad feeling about spending so much money on something I (that's a big fat we) could do "myself" (ourselves). I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I intend to figure it out in the next few days. Dave wished me luck ("good luck with that"), but I'm not sure if it's my guilt or if it was truly sarcasm that left me feeling so bad. Anyway, onward. Live to shop another day.

Wish me luck!

1 Coat Painted

Here it is, as I left it yesterday when I headed to Portland. I've got one solid coat on the walls, without concerning myself with areas that the low cabinets will cover. I'd have left bare the areas that the wall cabinets will cover too, but I would have needed lines, and well it just seemed like that would be more work not less.

What do you think, kind of sage-y right?

Funny, now that I've painted this color on the walls, I'm seeing it everywhere.

Slower Going than I Think

I thought I would have some green on the walls by today. I got home too late last night to do the taping on the ceiling. So I started after dinner this evening. Then the next time I looked at my watch it was 9:30!! I hear my Harry Potter book calling. The green can start tomorrow.

Selecting Countertops and Painting

I had Friday off so I went to visit the showroom of FineLine Pacific countertops and check out their options. Their Costco's local service provider for custom countertops.

I was considering Uba Tuba, Tunas Green, and Verde Florence, but I wanted to see them in person. As much as I love to browse this stuff on line, a computer screen is just can't accurately depict colors well enough to make a selection and purchase of countertops I hope to live with.

So I checked out the stone samples and headed out. I consulted the Hamptons Saturday morning. I needed confirmation that my color choice was okay. We looked at the samples in their kitchen, I brought a chunk of my flooring, and their cabinets match my cabinets--and theirs are not wrapped in cardboard. We had two for the Verde Florence and one for the Uba Tuba, so we decided to take 'em outside for a look in the full "sunlight" or natural light anyway, we didn't see much of the sun last weekend. At that we all agreed that the Verde Florence was good, less yellow than the others, more neutral.

Then I went up to Lowe's, and called Lara on my way. Lara and Kimmo were home, so I decided to go over for a visit and a quick consult with them too. I presented it a little differently there, as my decision had more or less been made. Kimmo had work to do in the afternoon and Lara offered to join me to shop for paint. YIPPIE! We went to Home Depot first, for which I have a gift certificate. We went through all the motions looking at color chips and I reread some stock literature on color theory. When I finally had a set of 6 to 9 colors to try, we took them to the paint guy to get samples. The smallest sample they had was a quart. He said I could get smaller samples from the manufacturer if I wanted to special order it. Gr. Lara got a quizzical look on her face. She said she swore that they'd done it for her last time. Then she realized that that might have been Lowe's not Home Depot. So, off we went. Though I wasn't able to use my gift certificate, I did save upwards of fifty bucks and several quarts of paint. I dropped Lara at home, or rather she dropped me back at her house--she with the SUV was doing the driving in the SNOW. It wasn't so bad though, it was fine for me to drive home.

We went to Leslie and Arece's for dinner and a movie. I was going to leave the color tests until Sunday, but Lara offered to come over and paint with me before going to The Hamptons'. I tried to get some pictures, but like I said, it's hard to do justice to colors on a computer screen. But I'm using that grayish slate green kinda color--called "Grandma's Linen" or something like that, but there's the exact same color in the Martha Stewart line of the same brand called "Potting Shed" or something like that--on the left for the walls. I may use the other on the right as an accent, we'll see.

Oh yeah! And I called Dave today. I plan to finish painting this week (I've been a little generous with myself on time, but holiday season is coming up and the festivities have already begun!), I'm done with the ceiling as of this evening, tomorrow I can start the walls, um, after volleyball? Anyway, Dave starts Monday on installing the cabinets.

Color Safe

I got a phone call, maybe prompted by my last entry before this one, that sage green is "totally fine" it's lime green that's "out". Aah.

Color Questions and Diversions

This weekend, after my cabinets arrived, I realized that for weeks now I've thought I didn't need to do anything because I was waiting for my cabinets to arrive. Friends and relatives clued me in that it's a good idea to paint before installing cabinets, it's all just much cleaner that way. So, I thought to buy paint and maybe do that this weekend. But in considering colors, I had been envisioning sort of a sage green, something like that. One of my people--everyone I know has become my own personal consutlant, whether they wanna be or not--said "anything but green, green is out, passe"... agh. Then I spoke with consultant number 2, not that she's of a lower order than the first, I'm just talking about the general order, chronological like. Er, that's just number 2 for the day. I can't be bothered to try to recall whose judgements or opinions weighed in at every point since the beginning... so anyway, my next consultant thought a sage green would be great! But really I should select countertops first and let that guide me somewhat in my color choices for the rest of it.

Ya, that makes sense. Uff.


In the moving in process of the loads of cabinets on Friday afternoon, the delivery guys had to open one of the boxes and take out a toe-kick in order to squash the box small enough in 2 dimensions to get it through the front door. So I took that piece into the kitchen and placed it roughly where it will go in when it's installed. Now, I don't know how well this will come through in the picture, but it's a little like colors too close to contrast and too different to match. I'm hoping that the fact that there is so much of both that it will be okay in the end. But that's my worry right now. So I'm now a little stumped on the countertops question, hopefully there's a magical color that'll make this work, or at least between the countertop selection and the wall paint color.

I sort of lost my patience with my options. I decided to go to my cousin Laurie's house and pick her brain about it, and I wound up committing to babysitting the next day. That beat the heck out of figuring this out. Anyway, the place I wanted to go to look at countertops wasn't open on Sundays even if I did want to go. It was nice, between watching Thomas and picking Ava up from her playdate I got to see each of those kids have a tender moment with Henri the aging beagle.

For Thomas, Henri took his place on the couch when T paused his video game (I know, I'm a great babysitter) to go to the bathroom. When he came back Thomas said "Hey, I'm sitting there!" And I said, I know, if you just get back up there, he'll move out of your way. As Thomas climbed up Henri sort of forced the issue, but not too badly, as only H can do. Thomas did have to actually lay hands on the dog to get him to move, and in so doing he said "Aw, I love you Henri." I must say, my heart squeaked a little at that. What could be cuter.

Then after Laurie came home, I offered to pick Ava up from her playdate, since I had an errand to run up in that direction anyway. Ava got into the back seat after saying no less than 3 times to her friend Fiona, "See ya at school tomorrow!" on her way out. Long goodbyes, not my strong point. Once again, Henri is in just the spot that Ava's shopping for. I think it's Henri's MO come to think of it. Anyway, Ava sidled up next to H and buckled up. This time, I had my camera with me.

Pardon my phraseology, but I'm a sentimental sap and I live for that cra.., er, stuff!

Cabinets Arrived

My cabinets arrived today. I spent the day waiting. I called Dunn Lumber at 9 this morning to ask for an estimate of when the delivery truck would come. They said they'd call Canyon Creek Cabinetry and call me back to let me know where I was in the delivery order... At 2pm (I'd been home all day at this point) they called me back to say that the truck would be here around 3:15.

I took a nap. But I slept lightly. When I heard a truck pull up I woke up to wave to them. I don't have any house numbers up right now, but they seemed to have figured it out okay.



A month ago I was told that I'd have to pay a per-box fee for them to bring them into the house since there are stairs (2 of them). I was supposed to let my contractor know when they were going to arrive so I could arrange to have someone else do the carrying if I wanted to avoid that charge. I did tell my contractor, but today no one showed. I guess I never called him with an exact time to show up (for obvious reasons, eh?), and he just didn't follow up proactively, so in the void I took delivery of the cabinets myself and the guys were nice enough to bring them all into the dining room.

This "before" picture was an afterthought, so I got a shot after they brought in the first box. I just didn't think to get the camera out until the action started. I had been asleep after all.

"After" I was not able to stand in the same place. The boxes take up about half of the volume, or at least the floor space of my dining room--for the record, the biggest room in the house. I backed the camera up to the front window in order to get the "after" shots. Also from the "kitchen" and living room angles.

IKEA Trip Last Weekend

I hit IKEA with Julia this weekend. I only spent 13 bucks, but I made big plans for a spending spree next time. I've selected a couple of sinks for the kitchen, a single bowl sink for food prep, and a double bowl sink for washing up.

I've also more or less selected a cooktop, though I haven't yet ordered it. I've spent multiples of my limit on my airline mileage credit card this month, it's beginning to get confusing. From one day to the next the balance owing and the available credit just plain don't jive.

The cooktop I want is the 30" Electrolux Induction Cooktop.

Things Are Progressing

I got the cabinets ordered, all of them. I could go over to Leslie and Arece's and take a picture I suppose, they're going to be basically the same. That's progress.

But the progress that's on my mind is slow renal failure for my dog. He had a couple of visits to the vet last week to check how he's doing since he's been on medication over a year now for his kidneys. It's progressing slowly, but it's progressing. I tell you it can never be good news when the vet asks you how old your animal is... So we put H on a new prescription diet with lower protein and that should be less taxing on his kidneys. "But you should start preparing yourself..." he said. I dismissed that. On the one hand I've been preparing myself for years. Beyond that there's nothing can do to prepare myself for my dog's demise. Except maybe go to the park more.

Cabinets Ordered and Change Ordered

I've been sick for the past several days. I probably shouldn't have played soccer last Friday, by that time I knew it was coming. In fact I was coughing off and on all day on Friday. I spent half the day in bed. But I'd been away from the game for 3 weeks and we were at low attendance among our women teammates. I guess I just couldn't help myself. I doubt it helped me, but I don't think it really caused any more illness than I would have had anyway.

Anyway, I got up this morning with the driest of coughs and achy all over. I called in sick at 7 a.m. and by 10 a.m. I could feel my fever break, my head cleared up, and I had energy that only comes from not being sick after having been sick.

I tried to order cabinets last Friday. I really tried. But Dennis, the guy at Dunn Lumber whom I've been working with to get my kitchen cabinet/floor plan layout figured out, he was out last Friday. Then I remembered that back in August when I tried to do this on one of my Fridays off, the same thing happened, maybe twice. The gal I spoke with on the telephone says to me Dennis is off every other Friday. Well a-freakin-ha! Dennis and I have the same days off so I kept missing him.

But, this week is different. I have no more summer vacations to plan nor financing to wait for (that finally happened the day I took off for England), this time I've got me where I want me! I took advantage of my day off and made an appointment to see Dennis at noon. At around 12:30, after figuring out where a microwave should go and what kind of box it should sit in, I signed the papers for half of my cabinets. That's all that would fit on my credit card that earns me air miles. So done... -ish. Hallelujah, I finally did it!

I'm back home going to transfer funds between my accounts so that I can pay my VISA off even before it gets the charge. I go to my trusty 3-ring binder for the house projects and I'm flipping through the pages from this morning's order. I figure I'll get the amount of the full cost of the cabinets in there, annotated, so it'll be easy to keep track of. Well, as I'm flipping past the elevation drawings I notice that I don't like the look of two of the cabinets. There are two narrow base cabinets one right next to the other. One's 15 inches wide, the other 9 inches, and the next, a sink base cabinet is 21 inches wide. All 3 of these cabinets hinge on the right. I dunno, something about it just looked wrong.

So, at 3:55 I took off for Dunn Lumber to see if I could change it. This was the first half of the full set of cabinets, this is the portion that Dennis was going to send in today, this is the portion I just signed off on and paid for. Why exactly that put me into a panic I don't know. I should know by now that if it's not built yet, it's not too late to change it. Even if it is built already, it's always just a matter of money and time. Time and money.

I knew Dennis had a 3 o'clock appointment, so I figured he'd probably still be there at 4. Sure enough, his 3 o'clock was just wrapping up when I got there. I occupied myself looking at mouldings and granite--ooh Uba Tuba looks better than I thought!--while I waited for them to finish. When they did finish, I poked my head back in Dennis' office door. "I'm back!" I said. His computer was dark and his files were put away. "No problem," he said, though, he can put in the change order when he gets the confirmation of the order in the first place. Whew!

So, half the cabinets are ordered and paid for; the rest, later this week. Then I just need a cooktop, an oven, 2 sinks, countertops... and that might be it!... for the kitchen. Man, that would be awesome.

...Not!

That didn't work at all. I spent very little time on the internet while I was abroad. And I didn't bring (take?) my laptop along. Blogging was simply not in the cars, er, cards. I did do a little catching up after vacation, however. I did that on Barb and Bruce's blog.

Highjacking the Blog to the UK

Well, there'll be nothing happening on the house for the next few weeks as I'm in the UK. I'm visiting Barb and Bruce & Co in Cambridge today and tomorrow we, Sarah and I, head north. We're not sure yet whether we'll go all the way to Edinburgh, or stop part way for the night. We're going to the Hearts vs Rangers match in Edinburgh.

Bruce is in London tonight for a conference today and tomorrow, so we're a houseful of women and girls tonight. Ice cream and wine for everyone!

We had a great talk about how school is different and spelling especially different. Miranda's missed a lot of -our and -re words on her quizzes. I played cards with Olivia and Sophia. Miranda's reading the 3rd Harry Potter book, completely rapt in her own wizard world. Actually, now they're all having ice cream... well, all but Olivia who refused it because it isn't chocolate.

Tomorrow we'll walk them to school in the morning and then get a car, and hopefully do something with Barb before we hit the road.

The Bathtub Is In

Two weekends ago Dave came to build in my bathtub. He came over with John and we talked about how it would go, a 5 foot tub in a space roughly 6 1/2 feet long. I couldn't help myself, I wanted to know what it would take to swap (back) the locations of the shower and the toilet. After reviewing the work it would take, I gave it up. Dave wondered if we should go ahead with the plan as it was, or if I wanted some more time to think about it. 'No, let's go ahead,' I said.

But I was pretty bummed about it.

Not 10 minutes later I called him back and told him to tell John NOT to build it. I wasn't sure of my decision. It was (and is) hard for me to believe that it would be that onerous to replumb the toilet to the stack just 18 inches away. But Dave had said something about not wanting to cut into a joist--to put in a toilet drain--and compromise the structure of the floor supports, especially so near to the bathtub. I'm not sure that would be necessary... but I digress.

After a week of stewing over it, I've given up all over again. The shower stays. The toilet stays. Forward ho with the bathtub! So Dave came back this past weekend and put it in place. I think he's been back again on Monday and Tuesday to finish up the plumbing and clean up. It looks pretty good now, better than the picture since it is cleaned up.

Now I've got some errands to run again. I need to buy shower hardware to get the valve which needs to be put in place before the tiling can be done. And I need to get my tub faucet. I don't think either of these will be prohibitive--even for me--but, well, I seem to have a knack for making things more difficult than most.

She's Baaack!

I've moved back into my house. It was rough going the first couple of days, the hot water was shut off and there was a circuit or two out of commission. Dave came and sorted that all out, including capping the gas line that went to the old stove (whew! glad I didn't try my luck at starting the gas water heater!... Actually, that would have been okay, the gas was shut off at the meter which I never would have figured out or dared mess with unadvised).

But, now that that's all settled, it's good to be back. I managed to get back into the house just 2 nights before the annual "Take Back The Night" night of block parties everywhere. It was dumb luck that I managed to pick a route back to the house that I could actually take all the way back to the house. That was the same day Dave came to fix the gas and the electric. When he arrived at the house he said "how come you're not out there with all your neighbors?"... Uh, no good reason. So I went to the nearest block party--or second nearest, there were two within half a block of my house, which seems a little ridickle to me.

Anyway, I went to the one a half block to the south (rather than half a block to the north), and met at least 6 of my neighbors. For me, (when I'm suffering the shame of having forgotten about the whole thing and so being unprepared with no macaroni salad of my own to contribute...) that was pretty good. I met Dennis from the corner, and Todd from the other corner, both of whom I'd met before. Then I met Jeanne and Kevin, and Jeff and Dave and Ellie, and Rita and Bill.. Hey! I remember more than I thought!! Anyway, they were all really nice, an it was pretty fun to say "I live in the house right down there, the one with the new porch." And listen to people ooh and aah over it. Todd, whose house was right there where the party was, had TONS of work done on his house before he and his family moved into it. I told him he was "the pride of the neighborhood." "Not like Dave," he protested. Dave used to live in the house right next door to Todd, until about 4 days prior to the party. Dave and his family moved into a house 4 blocks down the street, "the one that was raised up." O my god, I know that house. It's true, Todd's house is nothing compared to Dave's. And Todd--I happen to know--bought his house for 500K and said it wouldn't be liveable until he put 200K more into it--and he did!

Anyway, I still felt (feel) pretty darn good about my porch. Dave (my contractor) said it would be the nicest porch on the block, and I think he's right. Luckily Dave (my neighbor) no longer lives on my block!

The kitchen floor is grouted and sealed, and it's BEAUTIFUL. I need to talk with Dave and see if he'll just build a tub surround for the tub that I have. It's less than optimal, but it's a good brand, it's a nice tub and best of all it's bought and paid for and ready to go. I'll get a toilet this weekend from my folks, then I'll just need a vanity and that upstairs bath will be good to go! Then if I can order my freakin' cabinets it'll be almost done!

Copy Cat Cabinets

Here are some more recent images of my kitchen floor. There's now a transition strip of oak between the kitchen floor and the dining room, but other than that not much has changed. I need to call the tile guy and try to nail him down on when he'll do the grout and seal on the floor. I'm dreading that.

Well, after stewing on it for months, I think I've finally arrived at a cabinet choice. (If you knew how many times I'd thought that before now, you'd either laugh or you'd cry.) I ordered sample cabinet doors in quarter-sawn oak with "nutmeg" and "chestnut" stains. They both are beautiful, and they were even kind of spendy. But after looking at a couple of kitchen design magazines, I can't help but think I don't want more oak, and I want something lighter... I've arrived at wanting Shaker style doors in Maple wood with a "natural" stain--which may be the same as no stain at all but simply a few coats of urethane. Just like Leslie and Arece's.

I think I'm trying to brace myself for the buyers' remorse that I'll have after I actually write the check. For all the checks I've written in the past 3 months, I still get kind of sick each time I write one for an amount over about 2 thousand dollars. While the check I write for the cabinets--more likely it'll be a credit card transaction--is not the biggest one of the project, it'll be pretty up there, definitely in the top 3.

Big Day, Not Much Visible Progress

I'm getting to the point where I really need to drop some money on a couple of things. On deck for the day was getting 1 a bathtub, 2 cabinets, and 3 epoxy paint for the porch. Long story short: The Project - 3, Debbie - 0. Dang. I do feel like I've made some progress.

I went and looked at tubs again. I've narrowed it to 3. (I got this close once before, then I saw the price and went back to the drawing board. This time I shopped where I could see the prices of my options while I looked, it makes a world of difference).

I went to order my cabinets and changed my mind again. I've decided to go with a local supplier/builder, now I have a 2 week wait until the color/style samples I ordered come back. Hmph.

I went to several paint stores and couldn't find what I needed. I ordered a catalog and color samples online for a paint company in Florida. We (Laurie and Steve helped me HUGELY) looked at colors online, but I'm not sure I trust them. We looked at color schemes for other kinds of paint and picked something, now I just have to wait for that catalog in the mail and hope that there's a good match to what we're looking at. There'll be something I can use, but still, cross your fingers for me.

Travertine!!

That's right, I'm going to have a kitchen floor after all. Whew! That was close! Egads! That's a level on the floor. Does that thing work? I couldn't look. I mean, I couldn't walk on that floor yet, so I really couldn't look.

Exterior Repairs and Finish Work

Will and John are putting up trim and siding on the west wall, outside the kitchen. Hey, what's that I see on the kitchen floor?....

The Upstairs Floor Predicament

The upstairs floors are nearly done. The sanding wasn't exactly quick, but the shine sure was. We had a bit of a conundrum with the stain color. We had to decide whether to maximize hiding of the flaws and match the old reddish brown trim, or to keep it light and try to coordinate better with the new oak. Well, I decided on the latter--about an hour after I'd decided the former. Luckily I caught Dave while he was at the store with the varnish colors in front of him actually. This is some kind of "honey" or "wheat" color treatment and I think it looks pretty nice. I like that rustic/rugged look. Yay!

Kitchen West Wall Trim

Here's most of the west wall. The trim beneath the windowsill isn't done yet because we had to figure out how it would go with the backsplash underneath it. Some of the heating mat is visible through the thinset on the floor/subfloor.

Progress in Wood

A couple of days progress in the kitchen and upstairs. There's a new rail in the foreground and new trim around the windows, door, and beam. Nice detail at the ends of the beam. The clamps are still holding on the cap for the new newell post.

Oh yeah, and the wiring is hooked up too, see I think those lights are on! :)

Nothing To See Here...

Hi,

I just thought I'd post a quick update, no new pictures though. The house has been "no change" for about a week and a half, until yesterday. Actually, they were working on the upstairs "loft" floor, sanding and staining. Stain color was the big decision of the morning. We're not re-flooring, so nothing's going to look new, but it will look different and considerably better (I think).

The tile guy, Sim, apparently had some staffing issues a week or two ago, that was the reason for the hold up. But he got started, or rather picked back up, in the kitchen yesterday with the heating mats that will go in the floor. It's a considerable expense, but I'm ECSTATIC that it's going in. Warm floors. So nice.

Dave said he made a list of tasks that need to be done before painting. Cool.

I still need to order cabinets. I had another appointment at Lowe's on Monday. It's all settled except the south wall, which I'll figure out today... sometime. Agh!

Wohoo! It's A New Porch!

There it is, my new porch. I like it. I was worried, because it was/is a little different from what I expected, but I have to say it looks better than I expected it to. Whew! Thank heaven for Dave who argued for this design when I was considering bearing the expense of changing it.

It sure helps illustrate what else I need to work on on the exterior. Luckily, Dave's helping me with that too.

Porch Progress and To Be Tiled

So the travertine has been delivered. 2 pallets of it sit in my front yard, less 2 tiles I'm now carrying with me to help me shop for countertops.

The porch forms came off yesterday and Dave was working on a skim coat of fine cement to cover the high fiber aggregate that comprises the bulk of the porch. The thin outer layer should turn white over the next few days and then gray after that. I like the shape of the recessed panels, they look nice. I'm trying to withhold judgement on how I feel about the rest of it until it's finished. I'm already pretty sure I'll mostly just be happy to have it done. See a few recent--from today--pictures on flickr of the front porch progress, the saws for the tile work, and the kitchen and bathroom cleared out for the tile work.

Tomorrow Sim will lay thinset in the kitchen, then a layer of electric heating mats, and then a second layer of thinset on top of that. There will be a similar treatment in the bathroom, I'm not sure, that may have to wait for the tub surround to be built in. Which means I need to select and buy a tub pronto. I have my 3 top candidates, but there's one clear favorite. I'm not sure it's feasible though since it would require moving plumbing again. Actually, I'm sure it's feasible, I'm just not sure it's worth the time and trouble, plus it's the most expensive of the three models I'm looking at. I'll have to have a real heart to heart with Dave in the morning and see where we end up. I mean I like the tub, but not if it means I'd have to take a second job...

Cross your fingers for me. Stove and oven shopping continue. Now countertops too. After that, I'll be past the immediate "big" decisions. The living room/dining room wall, the floors and the fireplace may just have to wait.

Porch Drama and Tile Delivery and Short Cut

I got a call from the tile guy today. My travertine is supposed to arrive this afternoon at the house. It looks like I'll be using electric mats for radiant floor heat rather than hydronic. It's simpler that way, and it's one more item checked off my list. That's progress I can use right now.

The concrete for the main wall of the porch is poured now. I freaked out about it on Monday night/Tuesday morning because the stairs and central posts looked WAY different from what I expected. I went back and looked at the drawings though and it looks okay there, so I'm going to go with it. I'm learning a lot of lessons about myself here, particularly in the realms of procrastination and attention to detail, critical thinking and communication. Whew!

I'm settled on the cooktop being in the island, though I still haven't made a selection or purchase of any particular unit. I'm thinking about hybrid induction/electric radiant models. I have this pattern of looking at gas cooktops until for a moment there's one that I like, and then suddenly I've thought too long and I hate them all. I predict that I will come back around to gas, something with an integrated downdraft that I might never use.

I'm likely to have a significant amount of light-colored travertine tile leftover. I got a deal on it, somehow it felt like an offer I couldn't refuse. You'd think I'd have learnt a lesson from the brick, but I didn't. It's not always worth it to have more than you need of a material for the same price you could get for exactly the amount you need. Know what I mean? The remainder of my brick will be buried under the porch. Another "time capsule" of sorts.
Tile guy says he'll travel, by the way. I happened to mention that I had a sister working on a house in Long Beach and parents in Longview doing a remodel as well. According to Dave, he does great work. I look forward to seeing it.

new concrete, windows, electric, subfloor, walls...

I went by the house today. There is still a significant number of bricks in the yard, but the piles have gotten a little lower. It's a little unfortunate as I promised my neighbors they'd be gone by last weekend. Oops. According to Dave though, passers by have been indicating interest, so there's still hope that more will disappear before this weekend of their own accord.

The new concrete footings for the porch are in place. I think we have two more pours before we're done, the main portions of the walls and then the porch deck slab. There are forms for the outer face and abutting the stairs, but not for the interior face yet.

In the kitchen they just finished mudding and sanding the walls. The outlets are in and most of the lights, I think... My attention to detail is beginning to flag I think.

There are new walls and plumbing in the bathroom, and a reinforced subfloor, but I have yet to buy new fixtures. My immediate need is for a bathtub. Then Dave can build the surround around it and then the tile contractor can come do tile. I've ordered a boatload of travertine for the kitchen and bathroom and will have some leftover. I also need to order cabinets, a cooktop, and an oven. Oy. It's going to be a long weekend.

One week later...

So many pictures (334 to be exact) from last weekend at flickr

Some shots are from the house, and some are from the rest of the activities surrounding the day. "We" got the porch off in like 2 hours or so! I put "we" in quotes because I didn't have much to do with it besides capturing a couple of photos. But while 4 or 5 people were working on dismantling everything, another 3 or 4 people were stacking bricks and wood separately so that the bricks could be reused and the rest of the rubbish could be tossed.

I learned I could actually make money on bricks as opposed to hauling them to a facility to have them recycled. It's only 20 bucks, but still...


Now that the porch is gone, the bathroom is demolished and the kitchen is sheetrocked, I really need to figure out my cabinets and floors. It's another big check when that gets done.

Bathroom redesign and plumbing happened this week. We need some steel reinforcements for the joists since we put holes in that for the toilet drain. I picked those up yesterday from Marty who had some "scrap" pieces at his workplace. DANG those are HEAVY! I don't know if there's work happening today or not.

Counting Down.. 3

Had a meeting with Dave this morning, we went over kind of a lot of stuff. Or maybe it just seemed like some good landmark decisions for me. At any rate, itwas satisfying for me, so yippie for that!

We went over what kind of lights will go where, how the wall--which there willbe less of--between the dining room and the kitchen will be, and placement ofother electricity, namely outlets and appliances. I still need to select andbuy a cooktop and oven, or a range.

The roof was cut and the skylight box was going in when I got there. That'llbe a long day. Then wiring and if that gets done, then plumbing. It's lookinglike we WILL be ready for drywall on the weekend, so bring your exacto knife,straight edge, tape measure, your cordless or corded drill and/or your roto-ziptool if you have 'em. On that note, if you DO bring any tools, please makesure they've got your name on 'em.I guess that's it for now. It's feeling mighty close!!

Light

I went by the house twice yesterday. In the morning I thought I was supposed to meet Dave, but it turned out that wasn't the case. But I spoke with him on the phone and asked what was on the docket for the day. He personally was going to another job site but Will and John were working at my house. Their task for the day was to build all the rough openings for the windows--the skylight opening is already there.

So I went to the house anyway to try to make a decision: wall oven or low oven or range. Whether or not to do a high wall oven was the critical decision of the morning because there's basically only one place I could do that, and they were about to rough in a window there, so whether or not to move that window 2.5 feet east... I decided against it. It would move the sink 30 inches east and the dishwasher, then I would lose a stack of drawers where my flatware is going to go. And finally, it would be a visual barrier for the back door looking in from the dining room, and I didn't want that. So a wall oven is a no go.

Then I shopped for cooktops and ovens and ranges to try to make that decision. Now that I've decided to move the cooktop to the island, I need to do something about venting it. After looking at all kinds of cooktops, I'm pretty sure I want gas with integrated downdraft ventilation, and an electric oven. I like several cooktops, but Jenn Air is the only one with the kind of downdraft that I want. So I guess that decision's made. They make ranges, but I didn't see any combination fuel ranges by Jenn Air, and I'm still leaning toward an electric oven. So, maybe I'm not all the way decided yet.

But today is about lights. I'm to go over to the house and see it in the daylight and figure out what kind of lights and where.

Kitchen Changes Part Deux

With assignments in hand for the weekend, I spent almost NO time doing any
productive thinking toward my house and my kitchen.  I arrived at a couple of
decisions that will get/keep things moving again.  1: cooktop in the island, it
just makes too much sense, and move the prep sink to the west wall in front of
the new windows.  2: place the posts on the front porch to have some symmetry
with the dormer above, rather than the front door.  That second point is still
open for a vote, but that's my working assumption right now.

When I last spoke with Dave, the plan for a work party this weekend is to
demolish the front porch.  He and his crew will shore up the roof nearer the
end of the week.  Porch demo and removal is the kind of thing that can use as
many hands as we can put toward it.  As we near the end of the week other
things may arise that need work.  Earlier we were thinking we would be
sheetrocking at this stage, but with electrical and plumbing happening this
week, it would be an ambitious plan to be doing drywall by the weekend.

If your plans don't include working on my house this weekend--heaven knows we
all have a lot of stuff going on these days--I hope you'll stop by and visit
and have a look if you have a little time.  It's an incredibly exciting thing
for me to be doing in my life and I'd love to be able to share the experience
with you.  The more other people see it, the better I feel about doing it, so
please don't be shy.

Thanks again.  I hope we'll see you Saturday, early or late, here or there or
anywhere.

Kitchen Changes

So, after talking with SEVERAL people about my kitchen, I think I'm close. I went over the floor plan with Dave today and we decided to move things back to roughly where I started. I'm back to having a cooktop on the north wall, just a little too close to the fridge, and two big windows in the west wall, one in the south wall, and a skylight.

Now the question is whether or not to move the prep sink out of the island to the west wall or leave it where it is...

"As-Built" Drawings

Julia did these drawings for me about 2 and a half to 3 years ago. They were incredibly helpful to me. For as much as I might think I think in words, in this case, a picture painted way more than a thousand words. I couldn't figure out how to get them on a blog without converting to jpeg format. The dimension numerals are a bit small for me to read, hopefully you can see where the walls are and all.

I don't have any finished drawings for the plans. After we got past the structure, we've been sort of spitballing. After thinking about this project for so long, it seemed the only way for me to do it was to throw myself in and sink or swim. I think I'm still sort of flailing, but I'm making it.

For the following images, east is toward the top of the drawing.
2nd/top floor:



1st floor:



Basement:



The lot/site:

New Stairs Upstairs

Went over to the house this morning to clean out the basement, living room and dining room. Well, I thought of more too since then, but that was enough for today. I was THRILLED to find the new stairs in place... sort of.

The stairs are placed, but the treads are temporary. It's a lot easier to visualize. I think the new beam will be in soon and then the rest will be, even more so.

photos

Yippie!

New Basement Stairs

I went to the house and took some more pics on Thursday night. They're at flickr with the rest. Mostly they're of the new basement stairs, but there's one of some new kitchen subfloor as well.

A Good Meeting

For pictures as of the morning of April 4th, find them in my photos on flickr.

I had a great meeting with Dave yesterday. We made plans on how to go proceed including some concrete discussions for the next couple of days' work. We determined the spec for the stairs and some modifications to ceilings and floors that that entails, and material decision for the new posts and beam. We're going to go with "ugly" wood for the structural demands and then apply trim afterwards.

I've also decided to take out the wall from the middle bedroom upstairs and incorporate that space into the hall. It'll be a nice space that will sort of overlook the stairway and the kitchen below, and the opening will let natural light into the hall from the east.

Today I need to decide what material to use for the stair treads, which pretty much depends on whether or not they'll be covered. If they're bare, oak; if not, then probably pine or some kind of manufactured composite. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards oak.

We also decided to deal with the front porch. That's pretty exciting. I think I'm going to go with a concrete footing and hopefully keep the brick for appearances. Now I need to figure out what the posts and railing will be like.

The greatest thing was that Dave and I were able to review some plans that Julia and my friend Kelly did a couple of years ago. It's always seemed like it should be doable but has always felt a little pie-in-the-sky too. He helped me to understand a few alternatives for how it could go if I were to go through with it, and it turned out that was just what I needed in order to feel more confident about the finished state, or planned finished state of the current project. Doing what I can now and keeping the dream alive for later. I left that meeting happier than ... well, I was going to say happier than I've felt in a long time, but really, it's probably happier than I've been in a week, and more confident moving forward than I've been yet. I'm very grateful to Dave for his patience in letting me explain all that I was thinking about.

Finally, it dawned on me last night and this morning that if I'm going to feel settled with this for a while--and I'd better--I'm really going to need to address the upstairs bathroom, maybe just keep the layout how it is and replace/repair the subfloor. Or maybe put in a shower separate from the tub?... Hm. I haven't sprung the bathroom notion on Dave yet.

At long last

Finally, here's a view of the last of the plaster and lath in the house. Yippieeee!

Looking Up

Looking upstairs to the north.

Standing at the crossroads

Here, I am standing at what will be the crossroads at the bottom of the stairs and the walkway between the kitchen and the dining room. Right now it's looking down stairs (stairs that are now gone, incidentally), but in a few short days, from here I'll look upstairs.

The "Balcony"

Looking up at the second floor hallway from the kitchen. This will remain as a "balcony" over the kitchen.

Going into the kitchen that was

Looking in the back door toward the kitchen. Hmm. Exterior needs a little work too.

Everything else, er almost everything else

Appliances, the half wall from the stairway, oh yeah, and the kitchen sink. Bwa ha ha! Everything and the kitchen sink. :)

On the back deck

Drawer cabinets and some lath on the deck.

That what used to be my kitchen.

Rubbish in the back yard.

Chillin'

Sara Lee with Lara on the couch. Ideal relaxation, away from the chaos.

Henri!... O Yuck!

I spent all day yesterday trying to make judicious decisions in the kitchen about what to throw away, what to put in storage somewhere else in the house, and what to take with me to Lara and Kimmo's for the duration of my stay there.

It was as bad as going through clothes or anything else and trying to decide what to keep and what to give to the Goodwill. Just as with a nice pair of pants that are in great shape but don't fit properly any more, I had a hard time deciding whether or not I'd like to make curry or pozole in the next few weeks (am I being optimistic here?...). I also made a box for the food bank.

It's a little disheartening when, at first glance, there's NO visible difference in my kitchen. But, my fridge is unplugged and probably 70% of the cupboards are empty now. I feel like I keep walking around my house and seeing spaces that need to be cleared for demolition. Like I'll put something in my coat closet and then realize, hmm I'm actually going to have to move that again because that's coming out.

Anyway, through the course of the day yesterday Henri got out of the yard a few times. It's no biggie 'cept he's deaf and defiant. He never goes very far or runs away really, he just goes to the nearest garbage can with interesting contents. As I was emptying the kitchen yesterday and the day before, there was all kinds of interesting stuff in my garbage can. So as I was taking loads of boxes out to my car I wasn't too surprised to see a Beagle butt wagging from the depths of my overturned outdoor trash can.

All the things I'd thrown out in the last two days came to mind: mayonnaise I didn't like--nearly a whole jar, pickles, peppers, pita chips. Aagh. Honestly though, the story might just as well have ended at mayonnaise. It'd been in there for 2 days. That was just not gonna be good.

So for the rest of the day I put up with Henri's demanding to go in and out. Hopefully if I did that he'd do whatever expulsions he needed to, outside. And so the day went.

Finally around 8pm I'm packing the car to head up to Lara and Kimmo's. 4 boxes of kitchen stuff and a couple bushels of clothes, at least to start. It was just after 9 by the time I actually got to their house. Unloading the car went much more quickly than loading, of course. Then Henri and I settled down to relax a bit with a glass of wine (no wine for the beast of course).

A little later when I'm going to bed I noticed Henri's still looking a little bloated. H is a small dog. His figure is pretty telling when he's ingested too much. All I can think is it's gonna be a long night.

I got up twice in the night to let him out and to have some water. Still, pretty good if he's not puking--or worse--I think.

But then at 6:15 a.m. I hear him heaving in the corner. Dang. Cleaned that up, then I think, well at least now he's done.

WRONG! When I feed him, he has no interest in his food. Shoot, it's not over. H is always interested in his food. 9 a.m. I come back to the bedroom to get dressed after a shower and I hear the same gacking in the other corner of the room behind the bed. Ugh. Funny the way methods of cleaning this stuff up reminds me of my early youth and cleaning cloth diapers when my younger siblings were babies and toddlers. Vivid memories, I'll spare you the image details (in case you're not nauseous already).

After cleaning that up and getting dressed I head upstairs to join Lara and Kimmo for coffee and the morning news. [I love being in a house with people and activity. When I'm done with my remodel, I'm finding a housemate or two.] Come to find out Henri puked in their bedroom last night. Shoot! No sooner do we determine that we'll try to keep the bedroom door closed than Kimmo discovers that H's done it again this morning. UGH!

Well, Henri seems to be on the mend. He's not shivering any more and he's able to relax. Anyway the bedroom doors are closed, so there are a few fewer corners for him to target. Whew!

So the day begins. We've got furniture and appliances to move around at L & K's, and I probably should get back to that kitchen for a few hours today. "Be brave" Dave said. I laughed, but it's true that's what I need to do. I need to be brave and heartless with all my crap.

Concrete Carcasses

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

At 10 o'clock this morning the fellas were carrying these bags full through the side yard into the basement.

New Post and Secondary Beam

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

Here's the new post that they were jacking up yesterday, and the secondary beam it supports, under the main central beam through the basement. I'm a little suprrised by the amound of concrete above the slab. That's going to be tricky to dress up.

Close Up of the Jack

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

Here's a close up of the jack level of the bracing and jacking rig. Note the compression of the 4x4 that the jack is sitting on. That's the weight of my house talkin'.

Bracing and Jacking

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

Will's explaining to me why there are all the angular connections to the bracing. It's because it takes LOTS of force to lift the center of the back half of my house. Remember, it's been sitting on loose dirt for a while, the beam was kind of used to sagging in the middle.

Bracing and the New Post and Beam

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

Across the top is a secondary beam under my main central beam that's sort of the spine of my house's structure. Will in the background is turning on his camera.

Henri in Waiting

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Originally uploaded by dbull67.

H is doing fine for the remodel, although he's a little more restricted than usual.

Okay, I'm Really Behind Now

I've missed a whole day of pictures now. I arrived home last night to find all the CDF poured and the post placed on the footing by/under the stairs. What used to be a bathroom (a long time ago that was) adjacent to the kitchen is visqueened off. They cut a narrow channel in the sheetrock so that they could brace the joists directly with a new sort of temporary wall kind of thing. Unfortunately I was behind on the cleaning agenda so there's an old cabinet in there that I'd meant to clean out and mostly throw out or take to Goodwill, but now it's also masked in plastic and blue tape. I think I can still get to it...

That was yesterday.

Today I'm off work (thus I can get a little caught up here). I think they're putting in some more posts in the basement. I believe I overheard something about taking out the bracing, so they must be working on posts. Also, Dave sent me some drawings/views of what the new kitchen space should look like, before cabinets and appliances and everything, just the naked room.

The images here are views of the upstairs with a new linen closet in the hall and a skylight (not depicted). And then a view from the kitchen space with new beam and stairs.

Prepping for Posts and a CDF Pour

A new footing for a new post under where the kitchen wall won't be anymore after the remodel. (And a bunch of crap stored under the stairs).



And the dangling post is now dressed in a sort of reverse form for the CDF to go around it. Then the space created by the form will be filled with higher quality concrete.