Kitchen in stages.

Before:


During:






Today (waiting for countertops & finishing touches):

Kitchen - End of Day 8

This is how our kitchen will sit for around 10 days until:

• counter top comes in and is installed
• replacement doors (3) come in and are installed
• finishing touches put on (once the two above are done)

Pantry & fridge on the East wall.


Left corner.


Right corner.


Sink base.


Island.



(Glass for the doors will be installed once countertops are in).

Kitchen Progress - Day 7

Some photos of the kitchen taking shape.

The pantry being framed & completed.




New microwave goes in.


Contractor mounting doors.


Sink base complete.

Flag irises blooming strong.

Looking good - will be great to spread them out before next season.

Our cabinet pulls.

For those who have heard the saga of these pulls, it's nice to finally see them in. We first chose these when we were building a house, and then when we chose to end that process and buy an existing house - as soon as we knew we were re-doing the kitchen, we went on a quest for the pulls.

They're cable pulls. By Merillat. And apparently, no normal home improvement store has them or can get them - we tried Home Depot, Lowe's, Great Indoors... no luck. After a search online, Brian found them through the Merillat store.

We ordered our 40 pulls almost immediately - to ensure they were here when the cabinets arrived. About 3 weeks later, still no pulls. I called them and they said their courier tried to deliver them to my office - at 4:15 am. Of course, no one was there. (This was over 10 days prior to my call). So they took them to one of their dealers in Aurora - and there they sat.

After my call, they had them UPS'd (from about 5 miles away) to my office the next day - still in plenty of time for the kitchen redo.

Thankfully, after a few ups and downs - they look great.





They do look a little dark here because of the flash - they're really a nice brushed aluminum cable. Easy to pull. Nice to look at.

End of Day 6

And here's where we ended up today - looks like 2 more days and we'll be done except for countertops/sink/dishwasher.

New pantry is framed out.


Bottom cabinets have most doors & pulls on.








Shot of the full kitchen from the dining room (note the new microwave is in - though they didn't vent it out the top, so they'll likely have to redo it).



As always, more pics if you click here or click through to the photo album.

Kitchen Day 6 - In Progress

Here are images from today in progress (Day 5, for those counting, was electrical. Then we took a day off).

The old pantry being torn apart.


Last corner cabinet going in.


Doors & drawers go in.

Countertops Measured

Countertops were measured today. They are holding with a "10-days to install" estimate for time frame. Not sure if that's working days or normal days. So by June 1 or June 5 we should have it installed.

Fingers crossed.

Here's a sampling of the color:

Ceiling Fan Ideas.

What do you think?

For the living room:


For the guest bedrooms:

The Clutter During Construction

Here's a quick shot of the dining room during construction. A mess.

Kitchen - End of Day 4

The kitchen is coming along really well. At the end of day 4, they were able to put in all but 2 of the upper cabinets, finish the island and mount the sink base. Overall, it's looking good. Here are a few shots from this morning:









The rest of the schedule (if all goes well):

Monday, 5/21 - Electrician (outlet for wine fridge, 110 outlet behind oven)
Monday, 5/21 - Measure for countertop (hopefully)
Tuesday, 5/22 - Off (was supposed to be drywall, but we don't need it)
Wednesday, 5/23 - Mount the rest of the uppers, begin finishing
Thursday, 5/23 - Finish trim & pantry door, install appliances (except dishwasher)

Sometime about 2 weeks from now - install sink, countertop, dishwasher. BE FINISHED!

Middle of Day 3

By the end of day 2 we had the base cabinets installed (see the previous post). Today, by lunch they had finished the island and begun work on the upper cabinets, starting near the fridge.

More pics end of day - the upper cabinets are going VERY quickly.

Mid-Day Kitchen Update

After a bit of scrambling and a few phone calls back and forth, the contractors are back to install cabinets today - instead of next week. Here are the updated photos - I think I'm really going to like this kitchen (once we change that green color on the walls).

First one goes in this morning:


The full set of base cabinets on the left side of the kitchen (by the fridge):



The full set of base cabinets on the right side of the kitchen (by the sink):


He's currently working on the island. once that is in (and the sink base) we can order our countertops (and then wait 2 weeks for them to come in).

In the Garden

I'm told my life is like an HGTV show. Maybe we should have pitched it to them and gotten paid for all of this.

First update:
The flowers out front are Flag Irises. My aunt has them in her fish pond - they apparently love water. Once the fully bloom we should have a TON of them (judging from the dark purple peeking through the closed leaves). Mom says they bloom in the Spring and again in the Fall. And after that, we can cut them down with the weed whacker, dig them up, separate the bulbs and replant them over a greater surface area. Cool.

Second update:
We inherited a small strawberry patch in the back. After a few Miracle Gro applications, the things were standing straight up and had white flowers like CRAZY. The white flowers are disappearing and the strawberries are starting to form.



Will be a while before they're edible, but looks like we'll have a ton. This was one of the biggest ones.

The mystery flowers bloom.

Remember the mystery flowers I wrote about a couple of posts back?



Well, today when I got home from Charleston I noticed three of them bloomed! Here they are. They seem to be some kind of iris perhaps?

The Kitchen Tear Out

I was off in Charleston for our launch there, but Brian stayed back at the house watching the contractors tear out our kitchen. Once they had inspected the cabinets, and knew they could proceed, they started yanking cabinets.

Here is the kitchen right before:





During:









The old pantry without its door.



And after...







All of that in less than one day.