This one is TOO much.

That's what Goldilocks would have said if she was countertop shopping with me.  Allow me to summarize, full story coming soon (and somehow this is more palatable as a fairy tale):

Goldilocks wanders amongst the countertop options.

"This one is too boring.  This one is too bright.  Oh look, environmentally sound made in Brooklyn!  This one is just right."

Then she tries to pick a color.

"This one is too white.  This one is too grey.  This one is bright blue - and just right!"

Finally, she thinks to actually price it, having realized that in the search for just right, she has wandered out of the easily purchased at Ikea.

"This one will not install.  This one installs but doesn't have my color.  This one is - $4K????  You must be joking.  It's only 15 sq feet!  So much for just right!"

Stay tuned while the 3 little bears provide Goldilocks with restorative beverages and help her find new options.

I may be slow on the posting, but the work is moving along!

Actually, I'm really slow on the photo uploading.  And I think posts without pics are somewhat boring.  Project for post kitchen - get my tech situation situated!  For tech support, this is just embarrassing ;)

Anyway.  Thanks to some amazing help and some great contractors, here's where we are.  Floors are done, except for the final coat.  My great floor guy said he would come back when I was pretty much done with the kitchen to do the final, as he's pretty sure I'll scratch it during the process.  All drywall is up, and drywall patching and taping is probably about 3/4 done.  The plumbers are coming back tomorrow morning to center the sink, so I can order the island countertop soon.  All cabinets are assembled and attached, and the butcher block countertop (for the cabinets on the stove side) is on!

So what's left?  I get that question a lot.  Still quite a bit.  But at least the thing is now usable!  And we should be done enough with the dust that I can put things in the cabinets and clean up the dining room...  Anyway, things that are left:  (Actually, I'm not going to make a list.  I started to, but it got kind of overwhelming.  Answer - quite a few things.  I'll just keep chugging along!)

2 weekends of work and only one blog post

I know you were all waiting with bated breath!  ;)

Ok, sorry.  But somehow there also seems to be a ton to do after work as well.  And at work.  Besides my actual work, which I still do on occasion.  At least often enough to hit all my deadlines.

Anyway - the electricians came and roughed in.  The plumbers came, turned off the stove and the sink, and roughed in.  I destroyed.  R2 destroyed.  I put up drywall.  R2 very patiently held heavy drywall so I could put it up.  A journey in photos below...

After the electricians and plumbers came, I had holes in the wall, wires on the floor, pipes sticking up out of the floor, and a detached stove and sink.

From Kitchen Reno 2

I tore out the old sink and base cabinets, to discover -

From Kitchen Reno 2

tile.  Set on about 2" of mortar, which was set on a half inch of plaster on wire mesh.  Translation:  about 2.5" of concrete.  Never fear, I had a plan.  I would just put up a sheet of half inch drywall on the top portion of the wall, down to the tile, pop off the tile to reduce the thickness, and construction-glue a sheet of 3/8 drywall to the bottom part.  Sure, there'd be a little mismatch, but no problem.

First, I had to pull the tin molding away so the drywall would slip under.  Then, we had to chisel out some holes for the outlets, one of which was just chilling out on the floor, and the other was fastened to the old backsplash.  Finally, we had to put up the drywall.  R2's muscle was key here.  (Her height was pretty handy too!).

From Kitchen Reno 2

Does anyone see the hole in this plan?  Anyone?  Yeah, me neither.  Until - the drywall wasn't even close to sticking on to that mortar with the glue.  See - glue needs a flat surface.  Mortar is bumpy; there are lines in between all the tiles.  Plan = fail.

Well, ok, fine then, I would do it properly and tear out enough of the concrete to put up another piece of drywall where it would be seen.  I did this much in 45 minutes.

From Kitchen Reno 2

Then R2 came back from the gym, and did the rest in a half hour.  (I loosened it.  I swear.).

From Kitchen Reno 2

So then it looked like this:

From Kitchen Reno 2

And the part of my hand I kept hitting with the hammer when I missed the chisel looked like this:

From Kitchen Reno 2

So I went to the bar.

Next day - remember that 1/2" drywall I put up yesterday?  Yeah, well, now it's too thick.  R2 flexed again, drywall came down, 3/8" went up, and I went about my merry way covering the new hole.

From Kitchen Reno 2

Which left me with a conundrum.  See the base there where the two wires are coming down?  See the exposed insulation?  Honestly, I'd have just cheated and ignored it, since you'll never see it.  If it was behind cabinets.  But - that part would be behind the stove.  Maybe exposed insulation behind a stove is a bad plan.  Back to the drawing board...  I was tired of re-doing though, so I consulted.  The Dad and the Google.  And Rachel's brother.  End result - I cheated again.  I perhaps should have torn it all the way down.  But it's perfectly sound concrete.  And all that chiseling just takes too long (and hurts!).  So I popped off the tile again, cut a piece of drywall, and used concrete screws to fasten it to the wall.  Problem solved.  Sort of.  Well enough.  I hope.  Pics to follow when I upload the photos from last weekend.

What else did I do?  What, you think that didn't take me 5 days (one 3 day weekend + one regular)?  'Cause it kind of did...  Ok.  I also put up some more drywall, and put together a few cabinets.  I thought the plumbers would need the island cabinets ready when they came, but they did not.  They will need them on Thursday though, when they hook up my new sink and faucet (and old stove)!  Sans countertop still, but who cares, we'll be using the kitchen again!

Sink ordered!

Thanks for the voting all - went with the stainless.  I think my favorite design guru is right and I'll probably like the look of the white a little better, but I don't think it's worth all the extra scrubbing to keep it white.  I mean, let's be honest, I can't even keep plaster dust out of the dishes...  Thanks, I appreciate all the thoughts!

Gotta order the sink

Ok, so a ton of work was done this weekend, and I'll post when I get the pictures downloaded - but the plumbers are coming, and I need to order the sink.

So, this one:

Or this one?

It goes with this faucet [update due to voter confusion - both sinks will use the faucet below]:

The countertop will be blue, and the cabinets are beech.  Thoughts?

Leaps and bounds

And the kitchen jumps forward!  The electricians have been and gone.  They did a great job, managing to move the riser line without a splice box, and even removed an old unsafe outlet that I hadn't noticed while they were adding the new line for the fridge.  And I came home to a basement that was neater than I'd left it!  Mind, they did accidentally steal my tape measure, but I consider that karma from the time the insulation guy left his...

Last night I trekked out to Ikea and ordered the cabinets.  Akrum built ins, Nexxus Beech.  They'll be delivered on Sat.  Please please let me not hate them when they are in...  The plumbers are coming on Fri to turn off the gas and the kitchen water, so there will be lots of work to do this weekend!  Hopefully a big fat update post to come next week.

This is what happens when you plant self seeding things.

And then ignore them in favor of working on your kitchen.

Crazy Dr. Seuss plants (no, I don't know their real name) and morning glories!  Make me laugh every morning though.  And then swear when I try to walk down the path to the composter or water the tree...

The electrician is selected (I went with the guy that didn't annoy me), and coming next Tues and Wed.  Progress keeps inching forward!

Let's be honest.

My budgeting estimation was crap.

I mean, ok, it probably would have been closer to fine (though still not flawless) if I wasn't putting in an island, and thus moving plumbing. If there wasn't a random electrical wire that was discovered in the reno process and needs to be moved. But the fact is - I am and there was. Which means I have blown the budget already, and I didn't even buy anything fun like a fancy stove or something. So this means - definitely Ikea cabinets. No new appliances until next year. And maybe a great deal more eating at home for a while (if I ever finish a kitchen to cook in...).

So now I have to decide which electrician to call. Electrician A, who was there for 10 min, grasped everything I said, and called me back 3 days later with a price? Or electrician B, who was there for 30 min, did a lot of investigating, was slightly slower on the concept grasping, gave me a detailed estimate on the spot - but also sort of irritated me by wanting to do other work and by charging for said estimate? (I mean, do I really need to replace the doorbell wires? Yes, I know they are old, but everything old is not necessarily bad...). Roughly the same price. Which to pick?

And the plumbers. I wanted to go with the guy I used for everything else, but he was significantly more expensive. Looks like I'll be trying someone new.

Well THAT was messy.

And exhausting - it's taken me a week to get this post up!

There was destruction.

From Kitchen Reno 1

There were unforeseen issues.

From Kitchen Reno 1

And in there end, there were new walls.

From Kitchen Reno 1

There was also, as usual, a lack of good photos. Sorry, but I was BUSY.

So, the recap.
Day one - Dad ripped out plaster. I came home from work and shoveled plaster into garbage bags. Then R2 came home from the gym and carried said bags. Whew.

Day two - Dad created wall frameworks. I went to the hardware store 4 times (note - the open box is always missing something, and it doesn't matter how well you bungee 2x4x12's to a roof, they will bounce). Kaitlin came and ripped up the linoleum. Guess what was under there! Give up? Wood! Wood that will be nice all finished! Super exciting. In the process of removing the existing pantry wall skeleton, Dad noticed the ceiling dropped a little. Since he worries about knocking my house over, he decided a supporting header and some jacks to re-raise it would be a good idea. Small glitch - tin ceilings are not actually fastened directly to the ceiling. They are fastened to small strips of wood. Translation: there's nothing above the ceiling to push up against, thus the jacks didn't raise much.

Day three - I ripped out the rusted tin ceiling panel in the former pantry, while Dad continued to make walls. After viewing the tin ceiling construction, we went with brute force to get the new wall frame in, instead of trying to jack the ceiling back up first. After re-measuring and trimming (we all know measure twice, cut once - but we should all follow an amended version - measure twice, do math 3 times, cut once), we sledgehammered that baby in. Wall!

From Kitchen Reno 1

Then...we tried to remove the header and jacks. Note - next time, wait for Kelly to come home. Result - one dropped header, two spectacular bruises, and an adjournment for beers.

Day four - Dad went to Home Depot for drywall, since we needed to rent their truck to get it home (which requires you to already have car insurance, stupid Home Depot). Rubbish guys came and moved a ton of stuff. Casey came and showed spectacular electrical skills. Hobs came and showed excellent drywall screwing skills. I went to 2 different hardware stores. Then...there was a knife incident (3 stitches for Dad, drywall cutting can be dangerous), I used my new sawzall, and Kelly was a general all-round help and made us stop for dinner.

Day five - Dad took a well earned break and went to visit friends in LI. I went to the basement to turn the water on to water the plants. One would not think this was a dangerous occupation, except - plaster is heavy. And when you remove a lot of it, the floor rises up a little bit. Which means that the jack that was firmly against the floor and helping hold your floor level is suddenly no longer tight. And might unexpectedly fall on you when you breathe near it. Result - more bruising, plus a new fear of my basement.

Day six - Dad headed home. I cleaned. Then Kelly and I cleaned. Then I cleaned some more. And - it's still dirty. But at least it's now functionally dirty! Meaning, the most functional parts are clean enough...

So what'd we get after 6 days? Well, we got a LOT. Opened doorway, moved doorway, built what will someday be the new wall for the bathroom, got drywall up, got upper cabinets out, moved some electrical. What's next? I have one estimate for plumbing, and get another on Thurs. I also get the electrician estimates on Thurs. Then we schedule and get those moving! In the meantime, there's still a little linoleum to get up, and some tin that can be patched (though some has to wait until the plumbers are done). I could start removing the other paint. But really - I think I better get some cabinets ordered...

Slideshow:

And we're off!

Like a herd of turtles, as my family always said. Really, quite apropos...

The kitchen reno is officially starting. Dad's on his way here. Tomorrow he starts swinging the sledgehammer. It may not be as fully planned -ahem- as one might hope before they start tearing apart their house, but really - close enough. Maria came through big time with the plans, and the smart cooks I know have agreed this is a kitchen they'd like to work in.


My very patient cousin, and then Mom and brother and sister have gone cabinet shopping with me, and the light colored solid doors are definitely the winners. The exact configuration and Ikea vs Kraftmaid are still tbd.

I know the countertop material I want, though still have 3 colors to pick from. Icestone (made in Brooklyn of recycled glass in concrete).
Manhattan grey:
Denim moss:
Denim sky:

The plumber is coming on Wed to give me a work estimate. I think I'm going with casement windows instead of double hung so we can leave them open at night without worrying about silently entering psycho killers, or having to install bars. If the linoleum comes up cleanly, I'll just refinish the subfloor. We'll find that out pretty soon.

So what if I don't know yet the sink, or fixtures, or whether to buy a new stove. Don't rush me. This project is going!