The Reveal

Since last week, for all intents and purposes, our construction has been done,* and we have been moving back into the areas we've been without for the last 5 1/2 months. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to wake up in the morning and not worry about when or if workers are going to show up. And even better than that is having a bowl of cereal for breakfast and finding all the parts, bowl, spoon, cereal, and milk, on the same floor and in the same room, to boot. What a pleasure. 

We are still trying to figure out the best use of the new cabinets. Some things seem to be working well, and others we're puzzling over. But we have all of the boxes of food and dishes out of the basement, and only a few boxes left that we are still deciding the fate of the contents.

So here is the big reveal. This is not HGTV, so the before and after pictures aren't the best, but I think you'll get the idea. BTW, this is the nicest kitchen I have ever had, and I feel very lucky to have it. 

Before: The wall with the stove leading into the office.

After: We closed the doorway into the office and gained more counter space. The stove is (mostly) in the same place. Now we have a hood that vents to the outside. That should help a lot on the days when we're cooking fish or cabbage.

Before: The wall with the fridge. On the other side of the microwave, just out of the picture, was a door. At the far end is another door.

After: The door opening at the far end of the above picture is what you see on the right hand of this picture. We expanded and shifted the other doorway. The narrow opening before was a choke point, so we hope the wider door helps traffic flow. The cabinets are arranged differently than before, so I'm unsure if we have a net gain or loss on this wall. However, we did lose counter space here. BTW, we will be getting wallpaper on the wall behind the coffee pot. 

While I'm not sure if we gained storage space on this wall, it's much more user-friendly to creaky knees with these pullout drawers.

At the end of the refrigerator wall cabinets, opening at 90 degrees to the others is this small cabinet. The idea was that it would be a drop spot for phones, wallets, mail, etc. Well, as it turned out, the shelves are only three inches deep, so not much will fit in there, including Ward's wallet. So it has become our spice rack. The shelves aren't big enough for any of the larger containers, but we have plenty of room to alphabetize the smaller jars.

Before: Sink Wall

After: Sink Wall The sink and dishwasher stayed in the same place because it was cheaper not to move the plumbing. The cabinets are a little different than before, with the main addition of a pullout recycling and trash drawer on the other side of the sink from the dishwasher. The bins for the trash and recycling always seemed to be in the way before.

Before; The peninsula extending from the sink wall.

After: The main thing we did here was remove the upper cabinets. While the storage was nice, they blocked seeing anyone sitting at the table. Since we don't have a separate dining room and use this space a lot, that was annoying.  

We made the base cabinets on the peninsula shallower so that we now have room for two bar stools on the backside of it. Ward is working on the stools and is finishing them similar to our table. 

Before: Our dining table and door to the pantry.

After: We refinished the table, but the chairs are the same. Currently, we don't have the leaf in the table. The table fits when it's in, but it makes the space a bit crowded.

We were able to expand the pantry out over the basement steps below to double its size. It's not huge, but there's room to store the small appliances there now, which is welcome since we lost counter space where some of them lived before.

There are more details, but that seems like enough for now. 

*Still to do:

1. Wallpaper behind the coffee bar.

2. Finish open wooden shelves near the sink.

3. Curtains

4. Artwork

5. Learn how new appliances work.

The first one will be done by the contractor, but the rest of the list is ours to do.

F is for Furniture and More

 You may remember that we had difficulty finding a place to donate old items from our kitchen because they were considered too old even though they worked well. It was disappointing, but I understood that the thrift stores we tried couldn't afford to fill their space with things that wouldn't sell. Then our contractor mentioned Second Chance in Baltimore which takes building materials, appliances, etc. and suggested we check them out. A quick call confirmed that they would accept our items for donation, so one Saturday, when Wally was visiting, he and Ward took a van full of things there. They came back with great tales of how it was much more than a thrift store. It was like a Habitat for Humanity Restore on steroids. I was fascinated by what they had seen and said I wanted to see it sometime. However, it's about an hour away in a place we don't go to, so I didn't know when that would happen. But we made it happen last weekend. 

After our afternoon with Wally, Ward and I ventured into Baltimore to go to the Second Chance Store. The Second Chance organization was started in 2001 to provide job training and jobs for people in need. As part of that, one of the things the organization does is to dismantle buildings, including mansions, which gives them quite a variety of items to sell in the store.

The store takes up an entire city block in the old warehouse district, and there are fascinating things to see everywhere you look. If it's ever been in or around a building, you could find it there. We saw conference room tables, hotel couches, stone fireplaces, antique doorknobs, lumber, tiles, paving stones, kitchens, appliances, etc. And what made it so interesting was that there were grand things that had been rescued from mansions among the mundane. When I walked in the door, I was like a ping-pong ball bouncing from one amazing thing to the next. I was too busy finding new things to examine that I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few that I did take.

You can't see from this distance, but the entire front of the building was lined with building stones, bricks, outdoor sculptures, and more.

In the vast area, we actually found one of the things we donated,
this light fixture from our dining room, now office. 

Our light was quite the contrast to these solid mahogany carved doors that were priced at $17,500. There were so many beautiful doors that had been recovered from some fancy houses.

Or how about some friezes for your building?

I had to get a picture of this left-handed school desk among the sea of right-handed ones because it took me back to my school days. As a left-hander, I appreciated having a desk like this anytime I could because they were few and far between.

We will definitely be returning to Second Chance sometime, and I will try to get more pictures of its wares then.

But wait, there's more!

F is for Food photos.

In my D post, I mentioned that I didn't get pictures of Wally and Ward's meals. Well, they hadn't loaded yet, so I found them later. So for the sake of completeness, here are more food photos. :)

Ward had a steak with grilled Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes, topped with onion rings.

Wally had shepherd's pie.

C is for Construction Update

 If you read here very often, you know that we are in the middle of a kitchen remodel. In addition to the kitchen, we are having a few other things done that we've been meaning to get to since we moved in. Ward and I have a history of fixing up places right before we sell them - sometimes just for the sale, or sometimes we only seem to get around to things right before it's time to move. So we're trying to do it differently with this house and fix things up so we can enjoy them. We've done a fair amount to our house so far, but much of the earlier work was either done before we moved in or outside, minimalizing the effects on our daily lives. Not so this time. But there is an end in sight even if the project is taking longer than anticipated. We should be done by June if the supply chains behave themselves.

It's been three weeks since I've shown any pictures, so here are a few if you are keeping track. Still, not much of the pretty stuff to show, but we are getting good work behind where the pretty stuff will be.

This window got reframed to include a wider sill. It will be above the sink, and I hoped to have a place to put a plant or two. We shall see. Since they had to leave room for the faucet, it didn't turn out as wide as I had hoped. 

The pocket door to the pantry has been installed as well as new drywall over the pocket part. This door came from an opening into the kitchen from the garage. We never closed it, so we repurposed it for the pantry. That way, there didn't have to be a big search to find a door that matched the others. I don't know if they will take it out to paint it or not.

They have taken the washer and dryer out several times, and the last couple of times, I thought the clothes were coming out of the washer warm, especially for a cold water rinse. Unfortunately, the water lines had been installed backward, so Ward changed them and put up a label to help when they have to move them again.

They are changing the door frame to the basement to a cased opening. We took this door off soon after moving in because it was in an impossible place where three different doors interfered with each other. They used Bondo to fill the holes in this area and the pantry door.

The repainted vanity and the new top have been installed. The faucet will be installed when the plumber comes to put in the toilet.

The wainscotting has been reinstalled around the new opening into the kitchen. Luckily, they were able to make the new configuration work. In addition, you may notice the new air filter Ward built. It is helping with the dust somewhat.

Until next time...

Construction Update-We Have a Floor

 Construction continues with progress being made. However, most of it is still prep work for when the "real" stuff gets in, like cabinets and appliances. But we do have the new floor done, except for the threshold transitions. The floor took about a week with some additional inconveniences involved. First was, the washer and dryer were unhooked and in the garage. The next was that we couldn't walk on the floors during various parts of the process. That meant we had to go outside and around the house to enter the basement where our food and temporary kitchen are. While both of these were annoying, they were not really a problem. As I have said, I am lucky, blessed, and fortunate to have these kinds of issues.

Here are a few pictures of the floor being done. (Realize that these captions are from someone who doesn't really know how to install floors. I'm just describing what I saw.)

You can see the beginning steps of the prep here. First, they wetted the floor with water. Next, they spread mortar (thinset) on the floor. On top of that, they added an underlayment layer (Schluter Ditra) and pressed it down with the roller you see under the window. It took about two days to do the entire area with additional drying time (i.e., a time we couldn't walk on it.)

After the underlayment was securely dried in place, they added another layer of mortar to the top of it. This required another day of drying time.

Then they started laying the tile on top of another layer of thinset.

They had a complicated system of gadgets to space and level the tile that I didn't quite understand. I don't know if there is a difference in function between the red and blue pieces. It took about 2 days to lay the tile and another day or so to grout it.

The workman had the completed floor covered up with paper for protection before I got a picture of the finished job.

They have also been doing finish carpentry work in the pantry on the shelves. The picture makes the pantry look bigger than it is, but it is bigger than what we had before.

They were also doing finish work around the opening into the kitchen.
You can see the washer in the background. It's disconnected again
in anticipation of working on the floor molding in the laundry room.

This is an air filter that Ward built from 4 Hepa filters and a box fan. It works as well as or better than the commercial one we bought and costs about 1/2 as much. However, the commercial one is sleeker and takes up less space. Also, in this picture, you can see the displaced cleaning supplies which now live on the hearth.

Now for the disappointing news. The cabinets that were supposed to be done by the end of February are now slated for delivery at the end of April, which puts the completion time for the project at the end of May. But it is what it is. We're too far into the project to turn back now. So patience is the name of the game at this point.

Until next time...

Construction progress

 We're 2 1/2 weeks into the remodeling process, and things are moving along. The only problem is that the dust is driving my nose and eyes crazy. They have done a good job containing it, but dust is just part of the process. However, Ward and Theo don't seem to be bothered much by it. I guess I'm special that way. Also, the toilet that the workers were using developed a leak. Luckily, the water was cleaned up before it leaked onto the ceiling below. And fortunately, we were going to replace that toilet anyway. In addition, we made the final selection of tile for the backsplash yesterday, and I think it will work well with the rest of the kitchen. It's a relief that another decision has been made.

Here are a few pictures of the work. There's not much to look at, but people have been asking.

The entrance into the office (formally the dining room) from the foyer has been closed off. Ward is making a console table for this spot, so there will be a drop spot when you enter through the front door. There's a closet on the other side, and we just couldn't fit a table in the space before, which made it awkward when people visited.

Another opening into the office from the kitchen was also closed off. You can see that work partially through the doorway. The new entrance for the room you see here will be a set of French doors from the hallway.

Down the hallway a little from the office, you can see another door closed, and another one opened up right beside it into the kitchen. The single door into the kitchen from the family room was always a choke point, so this wider opening should help things flow better. We have closed off a total of three doors and opened up two to replace them.

The pantry is getting widened with a couple of shelves. These extend over the basement steps below, so we are limited with what we could do and still follow code. There will be a pocket door to get in, and the actual opening will be 1/2 as wide as what you see here. That's Enrique you see in the picture. He is always smiling.

And speaking of code, the entire kitchen has to be rewired to meet the current code. Every appliance has to be on a separate circuit including the garbage disposal and microwave. And the outlets above the countertops have to be on at least two independent circuits, with every other one on a different circuit.

And while the electrician is here, we've had some overhead lights installed in the family room and office because those rooms had very poor lighting. The new lights are working, and we love them. What a difference they make, especially this time of year when it gets dark early.

We continue to search for things even though I thought I was very organized when packing up. But overall, we're doing okay with the temporary arrangements we've set up for the job. That's about it. There's been a lot of work, but not much pretty to see yet, unlike on HGTV when you get perfect results in an hour. :)

Until next time...

Decisions, Decisions

We are closing 3 doorways and
opening 2 new ones.

We are a week and a half into our kitchen remodel, and things are going well. Cabinets and flooring have been removed, and doorways opened and closed. The main activity this week has been by the electrician. We are taking this opportunity while he is here to add lights to a couple of rooms and additional outlets where we have none. But with this comes questions about switch configurations, outlet placement, etc. Not as easy as it sounds. I just keep saying for him to use his professional judgment, but he wants feedback. I guess that makes sense since it will not be easy to undo his work.

And I thought we had decided most everything about the design, but we got a question on Monday about the profile we want on three different kinds of moldings. I don't know. I am just happy to have moldings, but they want to know our preferences. And what do we want the shelf configuration to look like in the pantry? What are we going to store there? I don't know. The cabinet configurations are totally different than before, so I'm not sure where everything will go. 

Ward and I are also working on pulls and knobs for the cabinets. Too many choices. I think we've picked them out, and then we change our minds the next day. Actually, I don't care that much anymore. I just want to get them ordered. We have not yet researched garbage disposals to know what we get there, but that's a little later in the process, so there's time on that.

Pull of the hour.

What is more urgent to keep things moving is ordering the tile for the floor. I've been working on that this morning. We picked out something they keep in stock, but there were words about supply chain problems that may affect our order. So they're getting back to us on that.

Otherwise, the process is noisy--headache-inducing noisy sometimes, making it hard to concentrate or even hold a conversation. But such is the nature of construction. The workers are very polite and friendly, and we are lucky that way. However, it is interesting when we hear an exclamation when something goes wrong. We are very curious about what happened, but so far, nothing has been bad enough that they have had to tell us about it.

The only real problem was when the old refrigerator's water supply was unhooked and leaked, which I mentioned before. What I didn't know when I talked about it last time was that water had leaked through the ceiling into Wally's room, soaking his bed. Luckily, the linen and pillows absorbed most of the water, and the mattress was only a little wet. So everything is dried out, and the only reminder of the slight mishap is a stained ceiling.

I feel very lucky that we can do this work on our house to make it work better for us. We are very pragmatic people, so while we want things to look nice, we mostly want things to improve our day-to-day lives. And I think that will happen.

Until next time...

 

Weekly Check In

or Whenever-I-Get-Around-to-It Check In

We made sure that Leo could get to his favorite window when we were stowing things.

Last night was one of those nights that sleep eluded me for several hours. Sometimes it just happens, but I'm always careful to warn those around me that I'm going to be cranky after one of those nights. I really need regular sleep. If this happened very often, I would have to take up drinking caffeine.  

In other news, work was slated to begin on our construction yesterday, February 1. However, we got a surprise Sunday afternoon that they were coming Monday. That sped up our clearing of the work areas, and we were thankful that Wally was here to help. All was ready Monday morning when they showed up.

When we weren't packing things up, we were out shopping. The contractor is supplying most of the materials, but we are picking up a few things for the jobs we've added. Over the last few days, we have purchased two toilets, two faucets, and a vanity top. Still on our list is a garbage disposal and cabinet pulls, which by the way, are really expensive if you get better than the very cheapest ones. Or maybe it's not so bad, except we need 44 of them.

Before this project, the cats were fed in the kitchen, and it took them a little while to find their new feeding spot in the bathroom. Leo seems nonplussed by the whole operation, but Annie visits the workers regularly and yells at them. I think her message is I don't like you messing with my food because she is more food-oriented than any other cat we've had. But she is chowing down regularly in the new spot.

Here are a few pictures.

We have put stuff everywhere, much of it in the basement. We will move the old fridge and range down there and use that as our kitchen for the duration.

In addition, we have set up a mini kitchen in the living room on the main level.
This is also Ward's temporary office. You can see the back of his computers on the right.
We don't have curtains on the bow window, so he moves poster boards around to block the sun on his monitors.

This is what the kitchen looked like when I went to work yesterday. 

This is what it looked like when I came home.
Some of the cabinets are moving to the basement, and the workmen have taken some of them along with a couple of doors. As it turns out, our appliances are too old to donate to the Habitat for Humanity Restore, so they will be recycled. Everything else is in the dumpster. We tried to minimize what we threw away, but the reality of construction is that it creates waste.

This morning the fridge was disconnected from its waterline in anticipation of the move to the basement. However, the valve that was supposed to turn the water off to that line didn't work, so water to the whole house was turned off. We never used the icemaker in this fridge and don't plan to hook up water to the new one. We are happy using ice cube trays and a pitcher of water on the counter. In addition, the water part of a fridge is notorious for breaking, so we're not going to tempt fate. If we had a house full of kids, we might think differently, but we don't.

So until next time, she says, wishing she had taken a shower before the water to the house got turned off.