A New Kitchen

Everything in its Place

The range finally made it into its nook today, after sitting in the middle of the kitchen for the better part of the week! Finally, all of our appliances are in place, and the room feels open and spacious. The electrician had to order some more breakers, so we're waiting on those for things to be really up and running, but in the meantime isn't it pretty? I love the nice clean back, and the cast iron grid over the entire top of it.

 

Is anyone else craving a fried egg?

Progress Party

I came home over lunch yesterday to check on progress, and couldn't believe the activity. In addition to the contractor, there was our wrecking crew (now acting as trim carpenters), the plumber and the electrician all working hard. It was a progress party! So the changes from the day are widespread and oh-so-satisfying.

First thing - see those glowy things at the top of this photo? That's right - we have lights in the kitchen for the first time in over two months!

Don't worry, these lights are just temporary. The real lights - surface mount schoolhouse fixtures - will be installed after everything is painted. But these are great in the meantime, so we can actually see our new room!

Moving along, we also have running water in the kitchen now. This was originally slated to happen last Friday, but our farmhouse sink required a special fixture to connect our garbage disposal, so we had to wait a bit longer. It's so nice to have it up and running, and washing my first load of dishes in the sink was wonderful - it's such a nice deep basin.

Garbage disposal! Our last one hadn't worked for about a year, so this is a pretty novel improvement for us.

We also have lots of nice, new oak trim installed. The trim guys have been working hard all this week, and expect to have everything wrapped up by the end of today. It really gives the room its shape and will be a great frame once it's all stained nice and dark, to match our home's original woodwork.

They used two of our original doors on the main floor - an old close door in the office became a closet door in the kitchen, and an old door adjoining the office to the kitchen is now our half bath door. They cut oak to fill in the opening from the old mortise, and used nice new, oversized hardware to cover old hardware holes.

Our dishwasher is installed - it was also waiting on the sink drain connector. And see the blue tape to the left, at the corner of the sink? The trim guys cut little wedges to fill gaps around the curve of the farmhouse sink. All they need is a little stain to feel right at home.

And the stove is next in line for appliance installation. The plumber ran the gas line today for the cooktop, and the electrician got the outlet all set up, so the wrecking crew guys should have it in place today.

Speaking of the electrician, he went to town with outlets everywhere. The ones in the kitchen and bathroom tile will have matching white ceramic switchplates to tie them in, and the rest will have bronze switchplates, which we have throughout our house.

So that's it for now. The trim guys should have everything wrapped up today, and then the hardwood guys come back tomorrow to put a final coat of polyurethane on the floors. Painting begins next week, and should be the beginning of the end for this project.

Icing on the . . . . Cabinets?

Our counters are in! Our counters are in!

Need I say more? We've both been totally antsy all weekend waiting for Monday, when we knew our carrera marble countertops would finally be installed. Then we woke up this morning to another surprise - tons of beautiful oak trim lumber being delivered.

We were thrilled for all the progress to begin in a single day. Don't the boards have beautiful grain? We are splurging a little on the main floor on large oak trim to match the style and grain of the original oak trim that goes throughout downstairs.

 I couldn't help coming home for lunch to check on the progress, and while the trim guys were sanding up a storm in the driveway, the countertop guys were inside working hard. The kitchen stone was all in, and they were working on the seams which are tucked very discreetly behind the sink, so they shouldn't be noticeable at all when we're working in the kitchen. They had yet to drill the faucet holes downstairs, and were preparing to begin installation of the bathroom counter when I left to go back to work.

Here are a few quick photos I snapped. I was working hard to stay out of their way and not be TOO pesky, so please excuse the poor quality!

I am so thrilled with how they look - I love the dark rich lower cabinets, with the cool, matte stone on top leading to the white uppers. It's amazing to see the look coming together. Naturally, I couldn't wait to get home to see everything completed.

So, I was a tad disappointed to come home to this:

There's a protective layer of cardboard taped around the entire surface! Very opaque cardboard. I think they're teasing me. Of course, I very much respect their work in protecting the beautiful new stone as construction continues. I'm just glad I got a little midday peak. And I can still get the gist of the faucet, which is nice.

Fortunately for my sanity, the view upstairs was a much easier one to see - no cardboard on the bathroom vanity counter at all, and cute little undermount sinks to boot!

I love the simple, straight edge profile - it makes such a nice clean edge on everything.

And wait, there's more! Stone isn't the only thing that happened today - those trim guys got going big time. Our upstairs window is all trimmed in, and trim is installed in our downstairs half bath.

As you can tell, it was a big day for us and our old house. We're calling this week and next the "home stretch," with high hopes that everything will be finished by late next week or early the following. At this pace I think that feels pretty reasonable.

Handy Hardware

The cabinet guys were back in full force yesterday, installing crown and hardware to our cabinets. To be honest I wasn't too excited about it yesterday morning - I kind of felt like this week would be a slow one in terms of progress. So imagine my excitement when I got home to see these lovely details.

Cat added for dramatic effect.
 

We're using a two-piece trim, so you can see in some places where the first piece is in, a flat piece with decorative lines along the bottom. The pictures above of the white cabinets show the final look with both pieces in, and below you can see what the under piece looks like over the dark cabinet.

The crown and hardware may be small details in terms of the overall project, but they make a tremendous difference in the look. We are so happy with how things are coming along, and pleased with the surprise of the dramatic change.

They should be back today to continue their good work, and the stack of glass cabinet inserts, doors and trim left in the kitchen makes us very excited for another day of great strides. They will also putty and put a final finish coat over all the nail holes and cracks for a perfectly finished look.

And while we're on it, let's take a moment to look at the grain in the dark cherry cabinets. My original pictures were in poor light and with my ancient cell phone, so here's a close-up of the grain. We were actually originally going to use oak for our dark cabinets, as that's what the rest of our downstairs trim is made out of, but when we got into the cabinet showroom C spotted a beautiful cherry vanity and the rest was history.

So that's where we are. We appear to be about 3 weeks from finished now (and we're on our 6th week, so we should land around 9 total weeks when all is said and done). Next week they're refinishing our hardwood floors on the entire main floor, so we're busy moving out of the house this week, and have scheduled piano movers to move my 1920's upright (which translates into incredibly heavy but very lovely old piano) out to the garage so that it's out of the way. Then refinishing should be about a week of work/drying/defuming. The following Monday, which happens to be Halloween, will be countertop installation (I'm so excited) followed by two weeks of painting, trimming, installing fixtures and faucets, etc. until everything is finished and we can enjoy our new home!