We Have a Cooktop!

Went to the local appliance store to order the cooktop and found out that Electrolux is backordered and it would be a minimum of 2 and 1/2 to three weeks before we could get one. Luckily, they had a perfectly good display model, never used, and were willing to sell it to us. For $100 less! So I bought it and brought it home, and we'll take the other (wrong) one back to Sears tonight and get our money refunded. What a relief!

The guys are working now, putting in the pocket door. They are getting ready to sheet rock and will take down those hideous soffits today. The old flourescent light that I hated is now kaput. I now understand the people on all those renovation shows on TV who get excited about demolishing old cabinets and fixtures--what a relief to see them go and know that what will replace them is so much nicer.

Half a Kitchen

As you can see from the series of pictures, quite a lot got done today (finally!). The top picture shows the kitchen with the upper cabinets removed (thankfully, we had already emptied them out a week ago). The next picture shows where the old microwave was, as well as our awful floral wallpaper from 24 years ago. Next we have all the stuff I moved from the counters to the dining room table, just to show how messy it gets when remodeling. While the fifth picture shows a closer view of the icky wallpaper, the fourth and sixth pictures show the end of the day: no more laundry closet walls, no more wall between the new room and the old. Tomorrow they will put the air conditioning into the new room, have the floor guy come to see about leveling the two floors (the fellow who poured the slab incorrectly has been fired), and try to get the refrigerator moved into the new room before the new pocket door goes in. Maybe.

In other news, I have found a locally owned appliance store (which we have used in the past and why we didn't use them this time, I'll never know) that can have the correct cooktop here by Monday. So tomorrow I will go order that and proceed directly to Sears to cancel the other cooktop and get my money refunded. Wish me luck!

We Have a Laundry! (Sort of....)

With the new laundry room primed, we're just waiting on the air conditioning duct to be extended into the new room. At some point the new ceiling tiles will go up, but not before the upper cabinets are demolished, which I expect sometime next week. Meanwhile, the lovely man hooked my washer and dryer back up and I am now doing a week's worth of laundry. Never thought I'd be so happy about doing laundry.....
It will be unhooked one more time for the installation of the tile floors, but that will only take a couple of days, so meanwhile I have their use. Whoopee!

Getting Ready to Paint

The boys were hard at work for the past few days, getting all of the seams taped and mudded. Today they put up the primer coat, and we had to get off the fence with our paint color. We finally chose Valspar Vanilla Steam, which is a warm beige (not unlike the beige of this post). We thought seriously about a very light green color, but although it was pretty on the wall, we decided not to lock ourselves into that one color. The beige is neutral and will go well with the tile we've chose as well as the dark granite counter tops and the honey spice tone of the cabinets. Later today or tomorrow they plan to paint and get my washer and dryer hooked back up (yahoo!). They are getting the pocket door ready to go as soon as they get the air conditioning ducted to that room. The range hood arrived yesterday and the rest of the appliances should be here next week sometime. Right now, I'm just hoping that they get the appliances in before I have to go back to work on August 10th!

Time Marches On....and On....and On....

The good news is that in the next two weeks, we should have:

the washer and dryer hooked back up (until the tile floor is laid)
air conditioning in the new laundry
new doors in the new room
a new pocket door
the ceiling tiles put up
the tile floor put down
the upper cabinets and the old laundry wall and soffits all removed
the new appliances all delivered

The bad news is that the new cabinets are not going to be ready for three weeks, which puts their installation (and therefore the new appliances installation) right into when I have to go back to work. Joe will probably have to take a few vacation days to be here while installation goes on, just so that someone is on site who knows what is supposed to go where. Sigh.

Here is the sink we chose tonight, as well as the faucet. Even though our cabinets are simple Shaker style, we like the sleek modern design of this faucet--and the height!

This is what the new plumbing looked like before being covered. You can see how the line comes from the left, where the old plumbing is.

And the bottom picture shows what happens when your workers forget to look at the plans frequently (or they are dyslexic). The icemaker line is on the wrong side! Thankfully, it was an easy fix and he caught it during the dry fitting.

Tonight we went to Lowe's and picked out the sink, the faucet, the baseboards and door casings and crown molding (for the ceiling, since we are having gorgeous ceiling tiles put up), as well as three shades of paint we are going to try out over the weekend. The paint will go into our dining room, too, so it needs to be right.

Here is the inside of the old laundry, with the new hookup for our icemaker on the new fridge (which will go on the left). You can see how they rerouted the plumbing for the washer, saved a lot of time and aggravation.

Got sheet rock on all the walls of the new laundry room, and also a temporary door (not the one we are getting, just their place holder so we can get the air conditioning going out there).

The third picture shows the new plumbing for the washer in the new room. Dryer goes right next to it, then the back door (framed out but not cut out yet).

Picture four shows the door into our kitchen, which is a mess with all the packing and construction. This wall is not finished as there will be a pocket door installed. Note temp door on left.

Last picture is from the garage looking in.

Progress at Last!

Lots and lots of photos of the laundry room in progress. The plan is to hook my washer and dryer up early next week (the tiler will move them to tile both laundry and kitchen at once). I've called for the appliances to be delivered next week so they are on hand. The top kitchen cabinets will be taken out on Monday, leaving the bottom ones and the stove and dishwasher so that we can cook for as long as possible. Once we have word that the cabinets are almost ready, the bottom cabinets and appliances will come out and the tile will go down. Joe and I still have much to do this weekend: empty the top cabinets, pick out baseboards, paint, door hardware, and cabinet hardware. But it's getting there quickly now!
From the top down: the new room with no insulation or sheetrock. You can clearly see where the old door to the outside used to be.

And....Nothing

The good news is that the cabinet guy is fabricating our cabinets and we decided on the Windster range hood. Well, actually I decided and Joe will just have to catch up. He liked it, we've seen nothing anywhere that we like better in a ductless hood.

The bad news is that nothing has been happening on construction all week. Contractor was over two days ago to discuss electrical and agreed that the little concrete pad where the door to the outside is going is not in the right place. Not only that, but he said it's sloping the wrong way and he was very disappointed in his concrete guy. So they will bust that little outside pad up and redo it. They've also got to level the floor with quick set concrete, as it didn't quite come up to the level of the house slab on one side. Getting this done by August is beginning to look iffy.

The Range Hood Controversy

So it seems my husband is less thrilled with the look of the Broan range hood than I thought. Now we are looking for other options, and found this ductless, brushed stainless steel beauty. It's 36 inches, has three speeds and up to 450 CFM (that's supposed to be really good). I'm a bit disconcerted, because none of the stores around here carry this brand: Windster. It's based in California, or at least that 's where we would order from. I'd love to know if anyone out there knows anything about this brand, as I can find no reviews online.