3 days maybe 3 weeks

Wednesday: half way to the end….ha ha. We--meaning Bill and Tom--are moving right along with the progress in the kitchen. I slipped out to go to my weekly Stampadoodle art demo, hoping that it would be smooth sailing at home with Larry in charge. Sort of…the cook top is giving Bill and Tom problems trying to make it fit perfectly. I like the word perfect when referring to the new kitchen.

Tony came and installed the new gas line and removed the upstairs toilets again so the flooring guys can install the new floors in both bathrooms tomorrow.

Another stop at Lowes, but the trips are getting less frequent and less costly. One of our overhead garage light fixtures needs to be replaced and Fritz said he would install the new one when he comes back in a couple of weeks.

After looking at options for doors in the master bathroom at Lowes I came up with an idea that Larry liked. Using a set of bi-fold doors, making them fixed and installing café hardware so they swing both ways. They will match the closet doors and be one-fourth the cost.

Thursday, or stress day. It appears that the factory gas regulator that needs to be installed on the new cook top is missing in action. Hours after trying unsuccessfully to contact the company, reading, re-reading, and give it the old time, third time’s the winner, try, Larry thinks he has the instructions figured out. We have one set of sixteen pages that came with the cook top and an updated internet downloaded set of eighteen pages. A slight difference but in the end we think the company has switched from a special, must only be this regulator, to a standard you can find it if you try hard enough regulator. Larry found one locally and at the end of the day everyone who knew what they were doing…don’t laugh…thought that maybe it would work. Great price on the cook top, extra cost for the cabinet, two days of beefing up the cabinet, three days of reading instructions, equals one really great looking cook top.

What could possibly go wrong? Well the cabinet that Troy came out to see on Monday and thought would work--won’t. Bill has a meeting with Troy tomorrow morning to see how to fix the problem. There is no door on the back side of the cabinet leaving a void of empty space that only calls out for open boxes and packages of food to get lost and later dumped.

Lay Me Down Floors arrived to install the new Congoleum vinyl plank flooring in the upstairs bathrooms. It was the first time this young worker had installed this particular type of flooring but he was professional, hardworking, and the new floors look amazing. They install like a laminate floor except instead of a tongue and grove they have a heavy duty glue strip attached to the underside of one plank and when you have measured, and cut you peel the protective strip off the other half of the glue strip, lay the plank down, and it isn’t going anywhere. To cut the flooring you mark it, heat it with a heat gun to soften it, then cut it. The difference is amazing. From blue and gold peel and stick tiles to dark wood grain planks that look contemporary and modern and are water proof.

The carpets are about two weeks out, after all the painting is finished and the dust has settled. Everything is looking so fresh and new, we are now considering new carpet in all three bedrooms upstairs to match the new carpet we are installing on the stairs and upstairs landing. If they will move the furniture for us, I think we will just as Larry says “git r done.”

I painted the back wall of the bathroom, where the toilet had been removed in the master bath and you could see years of previous paint colors. I had a layer of paper down and plastic over this so as not to get a single drop, spray, or splatter on the new flooring. This will allow Bob to just work on the other bathroom on Friday. I also put a coat of paint on the area behind where the other toilet is installed in the guest and where the walls were patched.

Bill grouted the slate tiles in the guest bathroom and except for finding a mirror that room is done. (We have the old one and it would work but I think maybe there might be a better option so I am in no hurry to hang anything.) As Larry would say, “it is practically perfect”--a toilet, new floors, sink, light, faucet, tile…just no perfect mirror.

Of course in the middle of the night, Larry work up worrying about the stove fittings and came downstairs and spent the rest of the night/morning doing research and re-reading the instructions again and while he was tired, he was pleased with working out a solution.

Friday morning Bill arrived after a meeting with Troy and agreed with Larry about the gas line, and the cook top is now officially hooked up and technically working even though the burners are covered in Styrofoam and the burner plates are packed away in a box…somewhere in the mass of boxes that still exist in our living room/storage room.

A new frame and finish material is being expedited from the cabinet company and should arrive within a week. This means Bill can install the existing cabinet and Tom will modify it later to look exactly like the way it was originally planned.

The granite guy came after getting lost with misspelled street names and measured the kitchen countertops and the mantel in the study. He loved the stainless steel sink and put it safely back in its little big black bag and took it with him when he left. The granite will be reinforced with steel rods under the counter and the sink will be installed when they return to install the countertops in about a week or so. He liked that we are installing tile as a backsplash as that gives an extra inch and a half for the faucet to be installed. The holes for the faucet and soap dispenser will be drilled on site.

The double ovens have been installed and look so beautiful in their new cabinet. They have been sitting in our garage for almost a year because we found them deeply discounted and got a few more discounts on top of that and by the time we were through we had saved almost half the retail price. So here is the catch. Boxed up and sitting in the garage and with assurance from Lowes that everything was there…don’t laugh…Bill found that the four mounting screws are missing and also missing is the finish plate for the bottom of the ovens. Lowes claims they can’t find my invoice so I get to go to Lowe’s today, an unplanned trip with my receipt, and have them put a rush order on the missing parts. Fritz will come out on Monday and do the final wiring for the ovens.

Not much to do today so Tom has left and will return on Thursday. Bill finished cleaning up and left for the day also.

Bob is painting the guest bathroom upstairs and getting the trim molding ready to go back on so Tony can install the toilets in both upstairs bathrooms on Monday. The banister, handrail, and lots of trim work still need to be finished.

It’s Friday and we are still about two weeks away from being finished but everyday it looks more and more like a real kitchen. Last night I needed a plastic zip lock bag so Larry shimmied and wove his way through the boxes of flooring and paraphernalia to the dining room to find one. I told him to bring the whole box and we could just put it in the new pantry. If there wasn’t such a huge obstacle of boxes, trim, tools, etc. I would have been in our dining room/storage room unloading boxes of stuff and stocking the pantry. Can you tell I am anxious to put our home back together?

Our daughter Kelly noted that on my previous post I sort of stopped without follow up after posting the details of our English/European cook top. By the end of the day Tuesday, I was exhausted, done, tired, tuckered out, ready for a headache pill, a short nap, something, anything, except thinking about how to fix a this or a that. Rest!

The ups and downs of renovation!

Last week we thought we were almost there with contractor bids and cabinet bids due by Friday.  We had the weekend to look at the numbers and weigh the pros and cons before making our final decisions.

The cabinet bids were close but still a little higher than we expected but lower than two other bids submitted by contractors and two other cabinet makers.  We had looked at all the options for countertops and had almost come to a decision when the final two cabinet makers suggested granite.

Marla and Bill said they spent a Saturday in Seattle going from stone yard to stone yard before making their selection and having it shipped to Bellingham to be fabricated locally.  Unless we could somehow tweak the cabinet bid, granite was not going to be an option for us.

I found the tile for the backsplash accent online from a supplier in Oregon and just need to make a final measurement before ordering.  The color we settled on is: sandy beaches blend brick pattern in white, dark grey, brown, and a grey blue and they come attached to a mesh backing.  Each one foot square will be cut into three strips.  The accent tile is the bling in the kitchen.  We are going with a dark grey grout and it was suggested to us to use QuartzLock2 premium professional pre-mixed grout because it is water proof, we won’t have to ever reseal it. It is stain resistant, has mold and mildew protection, low VOC, and no dust when mixing.  We are ordering the white two by four subway tiles from Lowes because you can’t beat the cost of twenty-five cents each and they are attached to a mesh backing.

We talked to the cabinet makers again and did some additional measuring.  We have eliminated the twelve inch deep cabinets backing the kitchen cabinets because we cannot remove the backs of both cabinets (this is how the existing cabinets were made when we moved in) for more useable space without compromising the integrity of the cabinets.  Since the seventy-five pound gas cook top needs to sit on top of one of these cabinets we need to make sure the strength of the cabinet will support the cook top.  Remove the bottom cabinet and you no longer need the upper cabinets.  Now the pantry is twelve inches wider and requires the backs of the cabinets to be finished with a panel.  Paint versus stain.  Maple versus Cherry.  Add a cabinet, take away a cabinet.  Molding or not.  I’m tired.

Whoops…on Monday the cabinet maker came to do a final measurement and forgot to add a cabinet where we are removing a non load bearing wall.  Larry has a saying “it only cost a dime more to go first class”--not true….  Well that wasn’t the only change we made.  I kept looking at the plan and realized that the L-shaped portion of the cabinet that houses the cook top was longer than planned and would not allow enough room to stand in front of it and open the doors without standing with our back to the cabinet and inches from the burners.  More measurements.  The bank of drawers in the island are coming out and it will be a regular cabinet next to the other bank of cabinets that make up the island.  The microwave is bigger than the plan allowed so the whole bank of cabinets being built to look more like a hutch has to be reconfigured.  The double ovens are big, bigger than the cabinet in the plans and require a larger cabinet.

W printed out the specifications for the cook top, the double ovens, and our oversized thirty-one cubic foot French door refrigerator, re-measured the microwave, and plotted.  Troy thought maybe moving the L-shaped cabinet six inches into the pantry area were we have an additional twelve inches of space since we removed a bank of cabinets, then move the refrigerator down in opposite direction three inches.  Same floor plan, just stretched out a little.

I went in search of tile samples similar to what I have picked out on the web to take to the stone yard when we to look at granite.  Troy still thinks this is an option we can afford.  It doesn’t hurt to look. 

Now we have a slab of white granite called Bianco Antico with cream, bronze, and silver.  The bronze brown to mimic the cabinets, streaks and flecks of grey to reflect the stainless steel appliances, the white and cream to blend with the kitchen island color, and flecks of silver are the bling to balance the accent tile.

We left Troy to brainstorm with cabinet layouts, adjustments, prices, appliances, moldings, heights of cabinets, and so much more.  Now we waited for a phone call and it didn’t take long.  Good news, cabinets came in with a budget cut, granite came in with a cut in price and included a remnant piece in a different color cut for the fireplace mantel in the study--everything fits where it should.

Next step for Larry and me is finish cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, packing the art work, taking more loads to Goodwill, a trip to Costco to buy paper plates, cups, and plastic utensils, ordering a dumpster,  and setting a date for the contractor to start work.

Larry keeps asking if I am excited.  Until any project begins, I am always a little apprehensive of the little details, details, details….but what I am really looking forward to is the end of the project and seeing all the planning we have done for several years become a reality.  In between the start and finish, Larry and I are planning a menu so we can invite family, friends, and all the trades people who are involved in this project over to a remodel party.