Faucets

These are the faucets we are considering; the one on the left for the main sink and the one on the right for the smaller sink in the island. Whaddya think?

Tile

Here are a couple shots of the belgian glass tile that will be the backsplash. It is opaque white tile, about 6" x 12". The 5 dollar bill is there for size comparison. The glass is polished, as you can see in the shot with the reflection through our back door. Arty, eh?

Drywall

Not much new to report. Only progress has been drywalling. The window on the west wall is now gone (compare to shot two pictures down). No more peeking into the neighbor's back yard. Darn !

Now we are waiting for the cabinets. They are supposed to be ready July 3rd. We'll see. Exciting though.

Worse before better

Today James and Brian decided they'd have to take all the old drywall off the south wall, and it was pretty uneven in places (that had been hidden behind cabinets). It has to be close to perfectly even, as the new hood will go on this wall, the tile backsplash, and tile behind the hood, so it needs be to perfect. Its the "feature wall", but all this means more money. Oh well.

The brick you see is a chimney. The boiler in the basement vented through the chimney, and the gas hot water heater currently vents into the chimney. The fireplace in the second floor den also used this chimney. If you look carefully, you'll see a place at the upper right of the brick where it looks like an old stovepipe also vented through the chimney.

The south wall is ready to go. The different colored middle section is backerboard for the glass tile backsplash.

We sold our fridge and stove over the weekend, using Craig's list, the on-line classified ads. The first interested buyers who contacted us showed up when they said they would and bought the appliances. The lady who bought the stove lives out in Eudora, and drove in to have a look with her husband. They loaded it into their pick up and off they went. The guy who bought the fridge was a young guy who came with a friend to look. He and his wife and kids are moving to Nebraska, and they bought the fridge to take with them to their new place. Strange, but whatever. Cash is cash.

Floor

Yesterday and today the main project has been the floors. The subfloor was in pretty bad shape, both from the old fire underneath, and from old termite damage. They're not quite finished replacing it all, and pictures show some of the damage as well as the new floor. So, its progress, but what a mess !

Lighting

I was talking about lighting the other day and thought it might be fun to show the holes in the ceiling for can lights. Looks like a mess now, but will be great when its all put back together.

Cabinets

Found a pretty good picture of what our cabinets will look like. We chose birch, shaker-style doors. Cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling, and be triimmed with crown molding as in the picture. We are also using the brushed nickel for the drawer pulls and cabinet handles. Drawer pulls will look just like the pciture, but cabinet handles will be handles and not knobs. We will also have glass in some of the upper cabinets.

Countertops

We've chosen the gray silestone for the countertops going around the walls of the kitchen. It pretty much "reads" like concrete. The island will have a different top, a Dupont Zodiaq product called "Black Forest".

Today's activity centered around running new wiring for lights and appliances. We will have under-cabinet lighting, can lights in the ceiling, and probably a set of 3 pendant lights over the island. One of the challenges for James was to find places in the ceiling for can lights without running into beams or joists. Apparently the joists run in different directions on different parts of the ceiling, and in a couple spots there are even diagonal joists. So he had a heck of a time finding an acceptable layout for the lights that would be approximately symmetrical. I think we've come up with a good plan now though. We are supposed to talk to him again in the morning about it. These pictures are bare walls showing the wiring. Very exciting !

New rug for family room

Also bought a new rug for the family room/TV area. Diane found it on line (of course) from a place called 1001 Persian Rugs in New York. The style/pattern is called Viss. Not the best picture here, but hopefully you can get the idea. Its draped over one of our reliners in the living room. We really like it and can hardly wait till we can put the place back together !

Old kitchen gone !

When we came home on Friday we saw our old countertops out on the patio. Cabinets were nowhere in sight - turns out they are stacked in the garage. Kitchen is completely gutted now. Looks weird. But its progress !

We did a bunch of kitchen errands yesterday. Went to the paint store to look at stains for the cabinets, went to Lowe's and Home Depot to look at sinks and faucets. Looked at several catalogs, and found a cool stainless sink. Will try to post a picture.

Also went to the appliance store to confirm model numbers, etc. We consulted Consumer Reports along with our desire for the coolest stuff, and chose Viking.

Shelter over the door

Things have been happening fairly quickly over the last couple days so I need to catch up. This is a new little overhang built over the new back door, for a little protection from the weather.

It will get shingled like the other roof when it is re-roofed.

Yesterday's progress...

Before and after in dining area

I need to remember that things get added to the top of the blog, so my "before" and "after" in the previous post are done in the wrong order. Oh well..

Here we have the dining room window (before) which as been replaced by the new back door (after). The angles aren't quite the same in the pictures, but hopefully you can get the idea. If you look closely at the bottom left of the door, you might be able to see Brian's head and shoulder. He's James's co-worker, and he's working on the decking.

That's about all the progress for now. The basement joists under the kitchen floor have also been replaced, but I haven't been down there to take "after" pictures yet. Probably the least exciting part of the job, so I'm not in a rush to post. But I will for completeness sake. Ok, now I'm rambling....

Inside views: before and after

Here's a before and after view of the inside of the back door. Note in the "after" picture that the small window on the right had been walled over. Oops; we had planned to replace but not lose that window. No problem - James will make it right when the new window comes in.

New view of back of house

The shake siding is off the house, replaced so far by tar paper. The old back door location has been walled over, and the door has been moved to its new location while we wait for the new door. The framing for the deck is also done, with a temporary floor to protect the real floor until all other work is done.

Post-vacation Update

Arrived back from our Utah vacation this evening. We had a great week but are happy to be home. The project has started! Details and pictures coming soon !