Week 4

We are already (finally) in Week 4! The family is getting quite tired of workers coming and going and not knowing where things are. Thankfully the next door neighbors have come through with necessities (like a corkscrew with our one unpacked version wasn't up to the job) and niceties (like home-cooked dinner). Day 22 was a busy one. Mr. Engineer and I left work early and took my Photoshop designs back to the tile store to pick our backsplash. The choices are overwhelming and we became hopelessly lost until the nice tile man helped guide us through the choices. When we arrived at home that night we were greeted with a pleasant surprise. The carpenter was there installing the newly arrived handles and fixing some of the things that needed attention.


Day 23 brought more surprises, but they weren't all pleasant. Young Man had come home the night before feeling unwell and he was much worse in the morning. I quickly informed my co-workers that I would be working from home and spent the day attempting to work. I say attempting, because Day 23 was the day the electrician installed a new electrical panel. Yes, the power was out for about half the day. Luckily we have good batteries on our laptops and the wireless modem has a battery backup! It was quite noisy and the last surprise was when we realized that the electrician had poked a hole through the master bedroom wall when he removed the old panel! That was not a room we intended to have worked on!

Day 24 came and Young Man was not better. He hid out in the master bedroom while the granite guys came and went to work. By the end of the day we had many square feet of Uba Tuba granite.

Photographing granite is a lesson in futility, but trust me when I say that it is quite lovely. It is mostly black with some ivory and gold throughout. It is dark like we wanted, but not completely black and is interesting without being gaudy.

The new sink is also very nice.

The week isn't quite over, but we aren't sure what more work will happen. The tile for the backsplash won't arrive until mid-Week 5 and we still need to pick up the new range hood (it is in but didn't make it onto the appliance delivery truck). There are several things that need to be fixed and touchups needed, but we are getting close. Very close.

We can't wait to move in!

Week 3

After the disappointing end to Week 2, we were very happy to see some good things in Week 3.

On Day 18 of the project, the carpenter returned with cabinets that were now the correct height. He and his assistant worked all afternoon and into the evening to install cabinets.

Lots of cabinets.

Lots and lots of cabinets!

On Day 19 we picked out granite for the countertops. On Day 20, we tried really hard to figure out our tile backsplash and on Day 21, I spent much of the day playing with Photoshop to design a backsplash. Day 21 also ended with another delivery. This time (most of) the appliances were here!

Week 2...

After the excitement of Week 1, things settled a bit. Oh, that was dust, wasn't it? Yes, Week 2 saw it's share of dust. The week started off very quietly. President's Day found me staying home to have an off-day with Young Man. We watched Gnomeo and Juliet and generally goofed off. I did order the cabinet handles, Amerock BP26204-G10 satin nickel finish. In the evening we made the final selection of floor tile, Tilecrest Fantasia in Almond.

Tuesday was a completely quiet day, but things started to get interesting again on Wednesday. That was the first day of The Great Tile Invasion.

I know, it doesn't look like much, but that was the progress for the first tile installation day. The goal was to get the kitchen done quickly to prepare for cabinets. Thursday, the tile seemed to grow.

In fact, by Friday, the tile had grown all the way through the family room and entry!

It even grew to take over the dining room!!!!

Yes, the spreading tile did what 20 years hadn't: it pushed out the disgusting green (formerly brown) carpet from the family room and entry and even took out some of the nasty stuff in the dining room. Only one little patch of disgusting carpet remains and its days are numbered!

All this growing tile made way for Saturday's event: it was cabinet day!!!!

Hmmm. Something doesn't look quite right. Can you guess? Well, when the carpenter made the cabinet design, he estimated the new ceiling height. When the final ceiling height wasn't as high as the estimate, the project manager neglected to pass on the new measurement. So on cabinet day, the carpenter showed up with full-height cabinets that were all three inches too tall! The carpenter took all those cabinets away and promised to return with proper-height cabinets in a few days.

Thus, Week 2 was filled with ups and downs and ended on a bit of a downer. We remained hopeful that Week 3 would be better.