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!