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.