Saturday

John, doing his version of Lucy stomping in the grape vat. He climbed in several times to walk around in the tub to agitate our underwear. After several cycles, he deemed them clean and started the rinse cycle.

I had a moment of panic that we didn’t have enough backsplash tiles, so I pulled some out to see.

They don’t photograph well with the plastic wrapping still on.

Even though we ordered two extra squares, it’s still going to be close. By my estimates, we have an extra 3 inches.

Not a lot of room for error. (They will go to the end of the cabinets.) They do add color!

Resupplied!

Friday

 

It's a struggle to eat well without a kitchen, but we're trying. We got our first Sumo oranges for the season. We are burned out on cold sandwiches.

Before our kitchen and laundry room project, we hit up Beal's Outlet and picked up extra socks and underwear to get us through the 4-6 week project without a washer and dryer. It's now been one month and we were running low, so John got out the bucket and started washing them. We are now on our third set of sheets. We've started cannibalizing the other bedrooms for fresh sheets. When we get hooked back up, we are going to be doing a lot of laundry.

I painted the laundry room doors and trim. I wanted to keep going down the hallway, but I was able to get a hold of myself and stop. If we replace the floors with the bathroom remodel, we can paint then. 

Waiting for the carpenter to replace the molding and baseboard.

The pocket door from the laundry room into the hall is also missing its molding. Still waiting on the doors for the laundry room cabinets.

Everything else remains the same.

Next up: the weekend, New Year's Day, a 4-day lull. Trim and countertop template waiting for next week, we hope.

Thursday

 

The installers finished the cabinets in the kitchen today, including installing the cabinet pulls. The installer thought that he could adjust all the drawers and doors to create the space needed in between for the pulls without having to router a slot for them to rest in. It looks as if he was successful. Without the slot, the pulls could be replaced easily in the future is someone wanted to make a change and use something more conventional.

The wall color is looking light blue today. Sometimes, it looks gray and sometimes white, depending on the light.

We both love the cabinet pulls. They are so subtle, especially the upper cabinets at eye level. John said they're like sequins, the way they catch the light and then disappear. 

The crown molding got installed with a 1/4 inch overhang. 

They loosely nailed the toe kick cover instead of gluing it like they usually do. That will make it easier to remove when we replace the flooring.

You can see the upper cabinet pulls in this shot above, just a glint.

The pantry pull is from the same company as the other pulls, but is actually a handle pull. 

Here's a good shot of the crown molding.

Another one.

Light blue walls in today's light.

Microwave cut out, waiting for the microwave to be installed and plugged in.

Two sinks: one for the kitchen and one for the laundry room.

Night time view

The boss came by mid-afternoon to check the progress and investigate which switches control what lights to make sure they haven't forgotten anything.

Up next: They finished the cabinets in the laundry room, but they haven't installed the doors yet. The next big event happens when countertop fabricators come out to do the countertop template. I'll paint the laundry room doors, inside and outside, either Friday or Saturday. Perhaps the carpenter will come to install the door casings and baseboard trim Friday.

Wednesday

 

We took these pictures while the workers were on lunch break.

Everything is progressing nicely. They had to make one small adjustment on the side of the kitchen above. They called me in to explain that they were moving all the cabinets down one inch and putting a spacer next to the near wall to make up the difference. They needed to do this to prevent there being a gap in the tile floor at the other end. The range will be centered. I asked what was the downside. "None," said the carpenter. I said, "It looks like a no-brainer then." He said that they always mention a deviation from the drawings ahead of time in case there are issues later. You can tell they have experience.

The cabinets rest upon a separate frame that makes up the toe kick, which is made of marine-grade wood in case there is ever a leak or water damage.

Almost the entire kitchen will be made up of drawers, which are easier to get into and easier to reach to the back.

There will be doors under the sink, of course. 

The garbage/recycle compartment is to the right of the sink (previous picture above). There will be a plastic insert in a wooden tray for each, one for garbage and one for recyclables (above).

The microwave drawer goes top right with a drawer beneath. To the right of the stove is a pull-out for oils, spices, etc (shown in the picture above). To the left of the stove is a tray, cutting board, cookie rack cabinet. To the left of that are more drawers.

John is looking for a place for his cereal to go.

This is the pull out pantry waiting to be installed.

And below are the end of the day pictures. They are coming back tomorrow to finish up, tweaking the gaps, putting on the crown molding, and finishing the laundry room.

Our cabinets are flat panel, meaning there is no trim or crevices to dust or clean. The pulls will be polished chrome tab pulls that stick out over the top of each drawer and at the bottom of each upper cabinet.

John is checking out the pull-out pantry.

And the pull-out oil and spice rack.

In the picture above, you can see the routed insert for the under-counter LED strip. It will be embedded in the crevice.

The installers asked us how much we wanted the crown molding to hang over the upper cabinets. We could do it flush with the cabinets or 1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 inch. Of course, the two of us had opposing opinions. In the picture above, the crown molding is not attached yet, so it's askew. Also, the countertop will continue for a foot beyond the bottom cabinets in the picture above, making the upper cabinet not look so forlorn hanging out there.

We asked the installer what would Angela do (WWAD)? He laughed. So we called her and face-timed the decision.

Her response is that to make it flush is very difficult, and any deviation will make it look like you tried and failed. She suggested at least 1/4 inch overhang. The picture above is about 1/8 of an inch. 

This is 1/4 an inch.

This picture shows 1/2 inch overhang. (Ignore the overhang on the right end; that will be the same as the overhang on the front once we decide.) 

Which do you like, 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 inch?

Angela said the overhang will mimic the overhangs in the living room, as you see above. I am so glad we have her. She has saved us so many times!

I pulled out a drawer pull to see how it looked. It can be installed over the top or it can be routed in.

We were going to wait to see how they work with the countertop before deciding how to install them.

The upper drawers were our main concern because of the overlap of the countertop. But I think they allowed enough room to get a good grip. We'll see.

Laundry room without the trim work or doors installed.

The owner's son brought by the primed trim pieces for the door and baseboards for me to paint. (We opted to do all of the painting except the cabinets.) I really appreciate him doing that. It will be so much easier painting them at waist height without having to cut in. I can touch up any nicks once they are installed.

I set up a painting apparatus so that I could paint at waist height.

It's been an eventful day.