Chariots of Fire Week - Last week of February

Ok, get the theme song for the movie "Chariots of Fire" going in your head.  Or the Olympic Theme ("Theme For the Common Man" or something like that?).  Whatever you choose, but just choose a victorious, we actually finished something song.

I got to travel to the desert in Arizona this week for work. Beautiful time to go to the Sonoran desert - everything was blooming.  Just gorgeous!!  So while I was gone, a few things happened...

1.  The transitions for the tile into the bedrooms was installed and it looks great!! These pics do not do it justice, but in real life, it looks really good!!  Hooray!  Tile is officially finished!

 

2.  Cabinets for Laundry Room - the [solid wood] cabinet boxes we got at Habitat ReStore for $29 [total] got hung on Monday while I was gone thanks to CW and WJHtheThird!!!  The gap is intentional, we will have a couple of hanging rods for stuff coming out of the dryer in between. Smart, eh?  Indeed.

 

3.  New-new counters to replace the new-messed up counters!  This happened today sometime between the desert and the East Coast...

 

4.  Then this happened between Atlanta and home:

5.  And then this happened when I got home (no, I didn't buy a new car, that is my same old Sweet Ride - but now parked back in the garage where she belongs!):

6.  But wait!  There's more!  After I got home, this happened!!!

This new light above the table is seriously fun.  Sparkly, airy fun and these pictures do it no justice whatsoever but still, very fun!!!  Oh, p.s., we installed it ourselves, wiring and all.  Cause that's how we do it 'round here.

Wall Cabinet Day - February 19 (and some of Feb 20)

And here we are, day 54 or 55 since we took down the upper cabinets, and look! It's time to put them up again!  So soon?!  Just when I'm getting used to keeping my bowls and plates in the garage.

So our buddy WJHtheThird came out and helped get these bad boys into place!

Obligatory photos:

What you can't really see here is the nice channel cut in the drywall so the power for the light over the sink goes through it and comes out in the bottom of the cabinet...

Pretty proud of this one, figuring out how to hold a cabinet into place while leveling and screwing it in?  Answer:  a couple of clamps and a piece of scrap wood.  Easy!

Yes, I know there's a gap to the left of the vertical cabinet on the top.  We had a piece of filler all measured and painted, but upon mounting stuff on the wall, realized we were 1/8" too thick.  We'll fix it sooner than later...Cabinet door man came out today (Thursday) to measure for new 'shaker' doors.  Meantime, we're moving on in!  Check it out - dishes and cabinets all in the kitchen instead of the garage!!!

Time To Paint the [Upper] Cabinets - February 17 and 18

Yup, we took Sunday off from this house.  We slept in, ran some errands, went out to lunch, and then we did some yardwork out in the sunshine on a warm spring day.  You folks to the North don't get too jealous of that, I am sure one more round (or two) of winter is coming.  Most likely right after I plant my garden!

Cabinet painting - had to start working on the upper cabinets for the sink side since people are coming out this week to measure for new doors.  So the last couple of days have felt like that old Dunkin' Donuts commercial - the one where the guy gets out of bed in the wee hours and mutters to himself "Time to make the donuts".  Except it was us working on these cabinets muttering "Time to paint the cabinets".  And here are the fabulous photos of this exciting event (time lapse, of course), and once again, the Dooze provides most excellent supervision:

In other news, the big old refrigerator got picked up by the nice Salvation Army people on Tuesday too!

Progress!!!

A Word About The Counters

The counter people have ordered a new slab of the quartz to make a new peninsula counter top for us.  They kindly did that before we even asked, so it's all good.  They have said they will expedite the installation of the new (new) counter, so we'll see how soon that happens.  The only thing that hinders is the installation of the new cooktop.  The cooktop was delivered on Thursday but the guys are coming back after the new counters to install it...meanwhile, we have a grill with side burner, an oven, a microwave, and running water!  We can deal with this very minor setback!

Moving Back In Days 1 and 2 - February 14 and 15

So being the huge fans of Valentine's Day that we are, we ended up spending part of the evening on Friday installing bamboo roll out shelf-drawer thingies in our cabinets.  (A happy birthday shout-out to 16 y.o. nephew RTG and 40 y.o. friend CB, though, on V.D.!!!)

Oh, but in exciting news, since we have a working sink etc. in the kitchen, we were able to make a salad. At home.  With stuff we like in it.  While wearing lounging clothes, aka not grown-up-out-in-public clothes.  Very exciting, that.

Saturday we spent cleaning (will it ever end?), unpacking boxes, moving back in to the lower cabinets, and figuring out the layout of the upper cabinets.  [For real, it would have been easier to move.]  The photos don't seem like much, but believe me when I tell you that this was a ton of fun - between removing dust and figuring out where stuff will go in the new world order, it's been a puzzling day.  And, as it turns out, I have a bowl fetish.  Now, I know you're chuckling because I am, admittedly, a dish addict.  However, sorting through all of my dishes at once and realizing just how many serving and mixing bowls I have, I kinda think I have another problem.  Apparently I have never met a serving bowl I do not like and want to bring home with me.  I already avoid the dish aisle at my favorite stores, and apparently I am going to have to expand that self-imposed ban to serving dishes too.  But I digress...

Photos:

 In the above photo and the one just below, the top drawers are the originals, the others are the new bamboo ones that we installed.  The originals have roller marks from the last time I painted the cabinets, thus the weird grey and brown marks on them.

 Some of my bowls.  Not all.

Next up, painting the upper cabinets for the sink side.  However, if the weather does what it is predicted to do, we may just abandon the Kitchen Reno and go outside and do some yard work tomorrow.  It's supposed to be warm and gorgeous, and we have just a month to get the garden ready for planting...ah, spring, so close!!!

Indoor Plumbing Day - February 13

January 14 is the day we took out the old sink and dishwasher.  February 13 is the day that we got the new sink and dishwasher plumbed.  I will try very hard to remember the last almost month and never, ever take for granted the luxuries of running water and working appliances in the kitchen again!  The stock pot that has served as kitchen wash basin has been returned to its normal duty.  The bottle of dish soap has moved to the kitchen counter from the bathroom counter.  We are probably going to have a water bill to rival the water bill from filling the pool for the first time just because we keep turning the faucet on...because we can!

And yeah, we started out to do the plumbing ourselves but after a very long trip to the Home Depot trying to figure out what we needed, we got scared and called the trusty professionals.  And after knowing it took a pro 4 hours to do the plumbing, and extrapolating that out and figuring it would have taken us a month, we're so glad we did!

I know, it's super exciting, but really, it is!!

Obligatory photos:

 How cool is this faucet?  

(My team at work gave me a gift card for Christmas that was used to purchase this faucet.  THANKS Y'ALL!!!)

Oh yeah!  Dishes drying on the counter, working dishwasher, disposal, and sink!!!

Countertop Day - February 12

In the beginning was the counter...  (Apologies to John 1:1).

That's where all this started forever ago.  I just wanted new counters.  Well, we've been through what happened after that, and here we are - full circle - new counters.

Yes. It has happened.  The beautiful "Stellar Snow" quartz counters are here and the beautiful blue sink with them.  And I am one excited person!!!  This really happened!  In our house, not someone else's house!  Can you believe it?  I almost can't except I can walk in there and stare at them.  Wow.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Kidding!!!  (I can hear the screeching from here!)

Without further ado, I give you counters!  And sink! (Should be sink!  And counters!)

 

But wait!  There's more!  A little 4 inch accidental cut is keeping us from calling this done.  If it was somewhere we could hide with a coffee maker, we'd be good.  It isn't.  It is front and center, right next to the place where the cooktop will go tomorrow.  *sigh*  So we'll see if they can fix it (after two failed attempts tonight) or if they'll be acquiring a new slab of quartz to make us a new counter...

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Ah well, it is beautiful and fun to see it get this far at this point!  We shall see what tomorrow brings.  Night y'all.

Cabinet Painting Days 2 & 3 - February 10 and 11

A flurry of activity the last couple of days getting ready for counters to be installed on Wednesday!  After the primer on Sunday, two coats of the actual paint - and we love it!  Course I haven't ordered the doors yet or found the upper cabinets yet so I'm really no where near done painting cabinets, but for purposes of counters - we're done.

Pics here:

Also put the new microwave in its home.  It still needs to be trimmed out but at least it is there and usable.

Installed the vent for the cooktop too.  It's this groovy thing that the downdraft on the cooktop sends the air into and filters it and all that, and then recirculates it back into the kitchen through a vent in the toe kick of the cabinet.  I had to study the instructions several times to figure out how to install it, but once I understood the drawings, it was a piece of cake!  CW also wired up the plug for the cooktop igniter in the cabinet, so that's ready for Cooktop Day, which will be Thursday.

Oh yeah!  The smart husband figured out how to get the tall ladder positioned so I could finish that one high place on the wall, so that's all done too!

We are ready.  Bring on the counters!!!  After all, this is what started this whole mess all those months ago!