Now for the finishing touches

I apologize for it not being cleaned, but we're still a little bit away from the kitchen being totally done. Anyway, the counters were installed yesterday morning, and we absolutely LOVE them!

We still have to put the toekicks on the cabinets, install the baseboards, install the under cabinet lighting, hang the shelves in the pantry, move the fridge back into the room, and touch up the paint on the walls, ceiling and trim.

Our new kitchen table - this was where we decided we really liked the look of the white finish with black granite. We don't have much space, but we think it will work nicely.

Electrician one day, drywaller the next. Last night Joe added "plumbing" to his resume of home repair items that he's successfully accomplished!

3 Appliances Down, 1 to Go

Progress has been somewhat slow but steady this weekend. Yesterday, Joe drywalled the panty and put the first coat of mud on. He decided that the pantry was too dark, so our daily trip to Lowe's included picking up a small recessed light for the pantry. It took a while longer to install than we anticipated, but you can tell from the picture above that it's installed and working! It definitely made the sanding in the pantry a lot easier and we think will make the pantry extra nice. Tonight Joe put the second coat of mud on, which we'll sand tomorrow, then prime and paint. I'm hoping to have the pantry painted by the time Joe gets home, so we can hang the shelves and door tomorrow night.

We also finally found a light that fits in the tight space between the ceiling and the door to the garage! We've had a lightbulb hanging down in this space for the entire past year, and decided we needed to get this minor task finished while we were working on the hallway. It's not our favorite light, but with less than 3 1/2 inches of clearance and not enough space to install a recessed light in the ceiling, we were pretty limited in our options. Any anything looks better than how it's been this past year!
We also moved the stove into the room on Saturday. As you can see from the picture above and below, we installed the huge lazy susans into our corner cabinets this weekend, too.
The dishwasher's in place, but we're not sure if it's sitting too low. Since we had to raise the cabinets a bit to accomodate for the countertops, we raised the dishwasher and stove, but there's still a gap between the top of the dishwasher and where we think the counter will sit. Everything's hooked up, but it's easy enough to fix tomorrow if we need to.

I'm hoping that the next set of pictures will show the kitchen essentially finished! There are still a bunch of small things we have to do before we can say we're completely done, but we're getting really close!

3 days to go!

Last night we kept plugging away at the kitchen. We secured the backyard wall cabinets, and most of the base cabinets. Then we installed the doors on the wall cabinets and installed the over the stove microwave. We also bought the baseboards and hope to put those up tonight.

We actually got to put some of our stuff away last night! Dishes, glasses, cookbooks and our plastic cups and nalgene bottles are all put away!

The dogs are really ready for all of this to be over! So ready, they'll roll over and play dead in the middle of the kitchen floor... :)

Cabinet Doors!

Tonight was finally the night for the beginning of the cabinet doors! We secured all of the cabinets on the garage wall together, then tightened them to the wall. We also placed the support rail under the base cabinets, but realized we don't have long enough screws with anchors to set all of them. Instead, we went ahead and hung the cabinet doors. I am getting so excited!

Joe adjusting the position of the doors. They can adjust side to side and up and down, in case they don't go on perfectly. These cabinets also came with door dampeners - a little device that makes them slowly close when you try to slam the door shut. It's so fun to play with, and no more squished fingers!


Lucy hanging out. The poor dogs are so sick of the crazy mess in the house. Hopefully we'll be mostly finished in 5 days and the house will be back together by then.

As Promised

Here are pictures of the kitchen as it currently sits. We have to finish mounting the wall cabinets and attach the base cabinets to the walls. Then we'll be ready to bring the appliances back in, install the baseboards, finish painting the trim and ceiling, and wait for the countertops! We also have to finish the pantry, but we're hoping to get that drywalled this weekend.


The two longer cabinets on either side of the microwave/stove will have glass front doors. On the other side of the kitchen is a 36" wide cabinet that will also have a set of glass front doors. If you look closely, you can see the lights Joe's in the process of installing in the top of them.

Our great big farmhouse sink! It's absolutely enormous, and we love it! I can't wait to get it installed on the real counters, but for now, it's resting on the plywood. This sucker weighs over 130 lbs, so it's not something we want to move more than we have to! The counter guy needed it set in place to get the exact measurements. When they bring the counters on Monday, they'll actually install the sink for us. Then we'll just have to re-hook up the plumbing and it'll be ready to go!

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Or should I say, "Heat Wave!" The weather in Kansas City over the last couple of weeks has been up and down on a daily basis. Take last week. We had days where the high was 3 degrees. Yes, 3. No snow, just sunny and cold. The next day, the cold front moves out, and it's 35 degrees. Building on that, the next day and it's now 60! A 60 degree day two days after a high of 3 simpy feels like summer's just around the corner! Not to be undone, a new cold front moved in, dumping a couple inches of snow and dropping the temperature back into the 20s. The next day ushered in highs in the 40s, melting all the snow and again feeling spring-like. My immune system has decided that it's had enough of the drastic up again/down again temps and is waving a white flag against the cold that's moved into my body. And let me confirm, having a cold while trying to finish a major remodel like we're in the final stages of isn't fun.

Last night we were supposed to get a lot done, but ended up only figuring out how to drill the holes in the top of the wall cabinets for the cabinet lighting we bought. We only have 4 holes to cut (as we are only doing this in the cabinets with glass fronts and glass shelves) but we made it through 1 cabinet before deciding it was time to call it a night. Tonight's Joe's late night at work, so we're hoping to finish the last three and get them hung before it's lights out.

And for the record, I did take pictures this morning. Unfortunately for you, though, the camera had been in the car over the weekend, so when I brought it inside, the lense fogged up. The resulting pictures look like you're seeing the kitchen through a haze. I've opted to wait until tonight to retake the pictures and post them so you can see the kitchen the way it really looks!

One More Week!

Today the countertop guy came and did the template for our new counters. Hopefully all will go well, and the counters will show up next Monday to be installed. This afternoon the UPS guy made my afternoon, delivering all 14 boxes of our last shipment of kitchen goods! Hard to believe, but 3 cabinets, some cabinet lights and drawer pulls took 14 boxes, somehow. I spent the last couple of hours assembling the remaining cabinets, and when Joe gets home in a bit, we'll spend tonight securing all of the cabinets to the walls. We're also hoping to bring in the appliances tonight. After everything is mounted, we can go ahead and start putting the shelves and doors on - I imagine that'll probably happen tomorrow, as we were up late last night and had to get up early this morning, so I know I'm dragging today, and trying to fight off a cold. If Joe brings the camera home, we'll take pictures tonight once all the cabinets are up and post them!

Weekend of Work

Well, Joe and our friend, Ben, started hanging the wall cabinets yesterday. Turns out I messed up a measurement (again!) and they cut the rail too short. Although the cabinet is the proper size, I just drew them out on the wall wrong. Which also meant the outlet we installed last week is now in the wrong place! We've had to make some creative changes as we keep installing cabinets, but it's all coming together well. Tonight we have to place the sink and bring the last base cabinet into the kitchen.

Tomorrow the last three cabinets should show up, which I'll assemble while Joe's at work. We also decided to go ahead and splurge on granite counters, as the stone we liked best was actually the least expensive, and the price for the granite installed really wasn't that much more than the laminate we thought we'd be going with. The affordable price, along with the fact that they can come measure and make a template tomorrow and have the counters installed a week from tomorrow made the decision much easier.

We also put the new kitchen table and chairs together last night. The table is really small - only 30" x 30" - but it fits perfectly into the little space we have. Now that the room is starting to come together, I can't wait for it all to be done - it's really coming together nicely! :)

Time for Cabinets!

I can hardly believe we're nearing the finish line! Now that Joe's initial estimation that we'd have the kitchen finished in 1 week has long since been shot (due to complications outside of our control....sort of), it's great to see that we really are almost finished. We put the second coat of paint on the walls last night, and touched up the ceiling this morning. While I'm working, Joe and a friend will start hanging the wall cabinets.

IKEA has what appears to be a great DIY system for hanging cabinets. You install a metal suspension rail, make sure it's flush and level, then hang the cabinets from the rail, clamp them together, and you're set! The verdict's still out if it's really as easy and convenient as it seems, but then again, everything else has been pretty simple. The rest of our cabinets are due to show up Monday, so we'll get everything hung that we can this weekend, then I'll assemble the last three and we'll get those up Monday night.

Once we get the cabinet boxes up, I'll post more pictures. For now, suffice it to say, things are really getting exciting! And best of all, once all the cabinets and appliances are back in the kitchen, we can clean!! No more construction and plaster dust on everything - I don't know what I'll do! :)

1 Coat of Paint Done, 1 to Go!

Last night we put the second coat of primer on the walls, which went on much faster than the first. I guess the walls didn't soak up nearly as much primer as the first time around, so it didn't take nearly as much. We then let it dry for an hour while we watched the new episode of Grey's Anatomy. Although we had a late start, we then went ahead and put the first coat of paint on the walls. It was our first choice color, as we really liked it when we painted our living and dining rooms, but it just didn't work as well in those rooms. We color matched Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage paint. It's a really pretty shade of silvery, green gray with hints of blue in it. I'm attaching the picture from the RH website, but it changes color in different lights, so it doesn't look exactly like this in our kitchen. Regardless, so far we love it! Tonight we're putting the second coat of paint on the walls, touching up the ceiling and trim, and getting the cabinets all set to be installed tomorrow!!

Progress!

We started priming last night. All of the new drywall is soaking up the primer like crazy, so we're planning on going back over it all tonight with another coat of primer, then we'll try to get the first coat of paint up. The gray spots all over the walls are our final attempt to patch and smooth out the imperfections in the walls. We'll sand them all down again before we prime and paint tonight. Tomorrow will be the last coat of paint, then we get to move the cabinets in and get them ready to hang Saturday morning!

The light switch outlet used to be in the middle of this wall. Not sure who decided that was a good idea, but because we were redoing all of the electrical in this room anyway, we moved the switches closer to the doorway. It's so much nicer!

Our new pantry space with the finished doorways! Joe is planning on hanging drywall inside the pantry, as there's not much support right now to hang the shelves. Then we'll put an actual bi-fold door up, and it's going to look 10 times better than before!

Joe has gotten really good at mudding the walls. On this wall he moved an electrical outlet for the fridge, and closed up the hole in the wall where the old outlet for the stove had literally fallen out of the wall. He's really careful and in some places done as good or better than the finish work the contractors did!

We know we don't need to paint the walls where the cabinets are going to be hung, but we decided to go ahead and prime everything. Before we started, there were the following residual colors in the kitchen, detailing its previous lives: light burnt orange, clay red, (I think these two must have matched the awful clay tiles on the floor!), yellow, two different wallpaper remnants, and gray. Add in the new gray drywall and white mudding compound, and it was getting quite ugly!

Here's hoping that the next pictures I post are of the finished painted room, with cabinets that have been hung!

Lazy Night Off

Ok, so after getting excited about moving forward, by the time we had gotten home from work and had dinner, I really didn't feel like painting. So instead I sat and watched The Biggest Loser. I had been given advanced notice that the contestants were going to be using one of the products I sell in their challenge, and wanted to see it in action. If you watched, the pedaling kayaks that they used to get from the boat to shore before they climbed "the mountain" were Hobie kayaks. So that was kind of fun. After that show, we watched a couple of old episodes of The Office, followed by Grey's Anatomy. So nothing happened on the kitchen. It's ok, though, because I learned that the missing cabinets won't be here until at least this weekend, so it'll be more hurry up and wait.

Tonight, though, we ARE going to prime the walls.

Time for painting!

Now that the construction work in the kitchen is finished, we are able to do the final prep work on the walls and ceiling. Joe patched some of the holes and rough spots in the plaster Sunday night, so we sanded everything down last night, added a second patch to spots that needed some additional attention, and painted the ceiling! It's so hard to see where the paint is applying evenly, even with tinted ceiling paint (which we both love, by the way - it goes on pink and dries white, so you can see where you've painted!). Tonight we'll do a final sanding on the walls, wipe them clean, and prime the walls.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that the few extra cabinets we had to order will show up in the next day or two. That way, we'll paint the walls and trim tomorrow and hang cabinets on Thursday and Friday! We're still deciding what type of countertop we want... but we have a couple of days, since no one will make them without taking a template of the installed cabinets. We won't have counters for at least another 1-2 weeks, but we'll be able to load everything back into the kitchen this weekend, if all goes well. Between our new kitchen table that I picked up yesterday and our dining room table, we might actually be able to cook this weekend!

I'll take pictures after everything's primed and looks fresh, so tomorrow you'll be able to see the kitchen finally coming together and looking better, not worse!

Renovation Messes

Joe and I are learning first hand how much the rest of the house suffers when doing a major renovation project! Things have been like this since we got home from St. Louis over Christmas. We don't have that much extra space, so every spare inch is covered in appliances, things we don't want to store downstairs in the basement, and all of our new kitchen cabinets!

Even the spare bedroom is full of cabinets and all of our dishes!

I can't wait for this project to be over, and actual be able to clean again!

Bringing in the Professionals

What's that, you might ask? Oh, that's just the hole in the attic floor, that goes directly to the kitchen below! The contractor's employee started tearing out the soffit today, which on the garage side of the house, is not exactly finished. When you're standing in the kitchen and look up, you can see through to the roof joists in the attic!
This is a picture from the kitchen looking up. The gold part is the bottom of the soffit, and the gray is vertical across from the actual wall. Since the wall space behind wasn't finished, that's the attic through the hole!
It's a good thing we're not paying by the hour. This is about all the guy got finished today, along with poking about a dozen holes in the soffit on the other side of the kitchen (as shown in the few pictures above). Hopefully tomorrow he'll get the rest of the soffit down and the wall sheetrocked, as the low tonight is supposed to be 19 degrees, and we have all that cold air in the attic pouring into the kitchen!

Slow Progress

So it's become apparent the kitchen definitely won't be finished this weekend. Since Tuesday, Joe's uncle John and aunt Julie came over, and John helped Joe determine a plan for doing all of the electrical work. That, along with buying some supplies, took up most of Tuesday night. Last night we went out for dinner. After splitting a pitcher of Ponak's margaritas, which are by far the best in KC (and really dangerous!) we opted to head home and watch a movie. In bed. We were asleep by 10:30! So much for celebrating the new year in style! I guess 7 hours of driving from KC to St. Louis and back again in 1 day was just too much.

Joe was getting a little nervous about doing the finishing work on all of the plaster in the kitchen, since neither of us have done any of that. We called our favorite contractor, who kindly enough came over this afternoon. Apparently luck was on our side, as his business has been really slow, and Joe was in the middle of re-wiring an outlet when the contractor showed up. Anxious to not have to fix any more of Joe's work :), the contractor managed to give us a very good and fair price on not only taking the soffit out, repairing the ceiling and finishing the trim work around the two doors that Joe had torn out, but also adding 5 recessed lights in the ceiling, running the electrical for the microwave, cabinet lights and ceiling lights, touching up the holes in the plaster (that will be hidden behind the cabinets when those are installed) and hauling away our extra demolition trash! Essentially, his crew starts work Monday and will probably be finished by Wednesday or Thursday, and the room will be ready for us to paint. I still have some prep work to do on the walls, but since I will be working a boat show all next week, I'm glad to know that the kitchen will be getting closer to completion while I'm not able to do the work.

This afternoon we also headed to Nebraska Furniture Mart, which is quite possibly the largest furniture/appliance/electronics store in the country. It's absolutely enormous. The store also price matches everyone and is constantly running sales. We were able to get our new microwave and counter height kitchen table with chairs there, which we'll pick up a week from Monday. Our new goal is that the cabinets will be installed next Saturday, so we can finish the room on Sunday! Here's hoping nothing goes wrong that keeps us from finishing the room in another 10 days!