Christmas Kitchen

I have been waiting a long time to write this post. Over five years since we bought the house and redoing the dreadful kitchen was in the project pipeline, and close to six since we first walked through this house while we still lived in California in the spring of 2008. That was when I first started envisioning what you're about to see!

We're not done yet, but it's mostly details that remain. Important details, like finishing the bar counter, the backsplash, installing and painting trim and baseboard and probably other things I'm not thinking of, but it's mostly done. Here's the first round of "afters."

These are the pendant lights over the bar/peninsula, up close.

 This is the fixture over the kitchen table, from Lowe's.

 Looking into the kitchen from the dining room (previously impossible, due to the wall that used to be there).

Standing in the eating area looking south. You can kind of see the sliver of space behind the new slide-in range that will need to be filled with a bit of counter.

Another south-facing picture. The back of the bar, where your knees are if you're in one of the seagrass chairs, still needs to be painted. We picked up the paint to match the cabinets today.

The eating area and bar on the left. Counter still needs to be finished there. It's just plywood right now. Kind of splintery. We also have to figure out what kind of pads to put on the bottoms of the bar chairs. They have feet, but I'm worried about them scratching the floor. Everything I've stuck on so far just comes off, so I have to keep experimenting.

 From the dining room looking in facing east. LOVE the dishwasher.

All the dishwashers with the control panel on the top and just a blank stainless front were $$$$ but this was on crazy sale and really well rated. It's so pretty.

I'm thinking I'd like to get some remote-controlled puck lights to stick under the cabinets. The big upper on the left, anyway. The corner is pretty dark.

Deviation from our original plan, we ended up getting a new slide-in range. Slide-in is the kind without the back, so it doesn't stick up awkwardly above the wall. This was another well-rated, on-sale buy. I went in Monday night to Lowe's to talk with an appliance person and make sure it'd fit our space.

The site said it'd take until Jan 2 before it arrived, so I told the guy that Home Depot had the same thing and could get it to me three days earlier, hoping he might be able to match that. He paused for a second, then said he thought he might have one on the warehouse. This exact model. Turns out someone had ordered it, opened the top of the box and decided it wasn't going to work for whatever reason. So we got our range a full week before we thought we would; it was delivered the day after Christmas. I get to eat eggs for breakfast again!

The counters are beautiful. Next time for pictures, they'll be darker because I need to wipe them with mineral oil to protect them, but we are so happy with the choice.

The new faucet doesn't leak, which is obviously a very positive thing. Unfortunately they sent the wrong hose, so it's a regular braided hose instead of the chrome coil one, but I haven't dealt with that yet. I do love the faucet though, and it's perfectly in proportion to the giant, fabulous sink.

This is the trash and recycling pull-out. It's great. The silent-close drawers and cabs are spoiling us though, and we both have been accidentally slamming other things in the house that don't have that feature.

I have probably about half of the hardware on. All the single knobs are on but I haven't felt patient enough to try for the handles, other than the two in this picture. Lining up two holes is a lot trickier, and I am just plain awful at measuring. I try so hard, double check, and then somehow screw it up. I'd say detail orientation isn't my strong suit, but... have you met me? I'm not really sure what the issue is.

 This used to be the laundry room. I know.

Speaking of terrible measuring, why yes, I did in fact hang the mirror exactly 1.5" off center. How? No idea. Another product of careful measurement. Also notice the doors in front of the washer and dryer in the mirror!

Kitchen from the opposite direction, standing in the mudroom looking north.

 Again...

 Ok just one more. I just love it so much.

And lastly here's the dining room, looking mostly put back together except for the not-pictured old range sitting in the corner (anybody want to buy a five-year-old gas Maytag? It's a champ!) and the to-be-installed dining room light fixture sitting on top of it.

Can't wait to show you befores and afters when all the little details are finally all in place!

Difficulties.

I don't know why, but this is the only picture that will go into this post properly oriented so I'm making it extra big. 

Today, the floor was finished, the remaining lights were installed (pendants and the table light fixture), the dishwasher electrical was hooked up, the garbage disposal was mostly installed AND the hot water heater was fixed. 

It was a stupid $95 loose wire nut in a junction box. Oh well. Win some, lose some. Having hot water back is definitely #winning. (Thank you, Charlie Sheen, for this singular useful contribution to pop culture.)

Tomorrow's a big day too. The doors get put in and trimmed upstairs, so the bathroom and the storage unit guest room will be real rooms again!!

Another victory for today: I convinced the nice folks at ATG customer service to convince Ruvati, the faucet manufacturer, to ship the replacement faucet second-day air, so we'll get it Thursday and it'll be installed Friday. If all goes as planned (unlikely, but maybe a Christmas miracle) my kitchen will not be under construction by this time next week! Quiet. I think I hear angels singing.

That floor. I DIE.

Spitting Distance

We've taken some good leaps forward in the last week and a half since my last post. I'm happier now, though I did say last night that IF this remodel doesn't finish quickly, I'm going to start killing people. One person each day until it's finished. Todd said I sounded like a Bond villain. I responded that villains are people too, and probably people whose kitchens and laundry rooms are being remodeled. This is bringing out the best in everyone.

Aaaanyway.... it's been a bit of good, bad and ugly around here. With no further ado, the good first:

Possibly, this should have been ugly. Oh well. The good part is that ... do you see any green kitchen chairs in here? NO. No, the chairs have been banished to the landing upstairs. That's where they should have been in the first place, but more on that later. Literally everything about my living room is better in person than this picture would have you believe. Seriously.

Moving on. Into the reno part of the house. This is a pocket door, on which I installed pocket door hardware with minimal complications. Mostly. There are always complications. I might be a dedicated DIY-er, but between us, I am really not all that good at it.

Behind door number one, we have...POWDER ROOM!! No, the mirror will not be indefinitely positioned awkwardly next to the toilet. I nabbed that mirror on crazy clearance last spring, something like $20 marked down from $70, and it fits the space perfectly.

This is the sink. Not only was it the very cheapest sink Home Depot had ($54 for base and sink) we got the pedestal marked down because it was the display model. The whole shebang cost something like $48 when all was said and done.

Also the faucet, which is the Price Phister Ashfield (something of an icon right now) in Tuscan bronze or some other equally pretentious-sounding finish, was acquired on clearance from Lowe's. $100 instead of $160. I was cruising past the bathroom section one Saturday morning and noticed a bunch of vanities with my favorite yellow tags. So I enquired as to why this particular faucet was $100, and could it come home with me? Indeed it could, and they threw in the hoses for free!

All it cost me was a half hour trying to return the non-display model, which I now know is a very complicated process when you 1) have bought two items, one of which was a display, 2) you do not have your receipt, 3) you do not have your phone to pull up the receipt from your email, and 4) you tell the nice lady helping you it was purchased during the month before you actually bought it. This allows you the opportunity to go to Lowe's twice on a Sunday the week before Christmas, which is time when sane people stay inside and well away from the hordes. Anyway, worth it.

 Light fixture. Milk glass shades. Interesting, dark-gray brushed nickel finish. Missing two bulbs.

 I did laundry. In my own house. Last night. I liked it so much I put two more loads in tonight. Additionally, that little magic box in the wall...it's an electric heater. And it's lovely.

Back to the kitchen. This is the pantry. Microwave is off the counter, which is fabulous. Other than that, I'm only marginally satisfied with the organization, and I expect that I'll have to tinker with it to get it functional. PS, Bed Bath & Beyond is for suckers. Organization items from the dollar store. For one dollar, I got essentially the same (admittedly somewhat less sturdy) things that cost $15 at BBB.

Glassware, put away. Most of it anyway. I have collected a fair amount of glassware in the last seven years. Wedding sets, several-years-after-wedding-I'm-sick-of-wedding glasses, miscellaneous... But most of it has a home now!

 This is ONE of the lazy susan base cabs. You can be jealous. I would be.

 Bookshelf for cookbooks, scale and other "soft" kitchen stuff. Counters not finished here yet.

Dishwasher. She's not that beautiful wrapped in plastic, but you just wait. Front handle not yet installed, but the controls are on the top, so it has a clean front. Didn't think that was going to happen, but we snagged a good deal on it, and it's really well rated. Whirlpool.

Fridge in place and oh, I love it so much!!!

This is one of three pieces of Christmas decor I have up right now. It's a swag from my late Nana's Christmas collection.

 Awful pictures aside, it's really pretty and I'm glad to have a bit of her in the house.

Next, the bad. Are you confused? Well, this is confusing. Because this picture should be all kinds of good. The faucet and sink LOOK amazing. Unfortunately, this is only part of why we buy faucets. What's the other part? To get the water where you want it. Which this does not do. According to the plumber, it leaks, so I am in the process of getting a replacement over a month after the return policy expired. I'm trying to get them to overnight it to me, because...it's not my fault they made a beautiful leaky faucet. We shall see.

Bad, not pictured: hot water heater, which was putting out suspiciously lukewarm water on Saturday afternoon when we got back from Bend. Said water got progressively colder as it ran, which is the absolute wrong progression for water temperature...well, any time, but most definitely when it is freezingcoldDecemberIcan'ttakeashower kind of weather. Plumber is supposed to come check it out tomorrow and the water heater is only a year or two old so still under warranty, but what a pain.

Moving on to ugly: so this isn't totally cut and dried, because it's obviously partially very good. But also partially a disaster.

 Yep, disaster.

And lastly, this floor, which should be disappearing from the face of the earth tomorrow. The guys came and put leveling compound down today and will be back tomorrow to finish laying the floor. Take a good long look at this eyesore, because it's the last time.

Now, wish me luck. I'm going to go wash my face and go to bed, and hopefully the approximately 35-degree water doesn't give me hypothermia.

Wrapping Up the Kitchen...Not Soon Enough

So it's been a month and change since I last posted, and we've (contractor) covered a lot of ground since then. We're both kind of annoyed things aren't done yet, since we're approaching two and a half months and things were supposed to be wrapped up by now, but we love the shape it's taking. Let's have a look, shall we?

First, from the living room/entry looking into the kitchen. No more plastic! We did come home from two weeks in Chicago with my family to find our house covered (for a third time) with a thin layer of grit and dust. Who doesn't like to end their travels (delayed travels, with an impromptu overnight in the cheapest hotel United could find in the vicinity of SFO, I might add) by coming home to clean their house? Gak. Anyway, looks good, hmm?

 From the dining room, same view. Having the wall gone is AMAZING.

 It completely changes both the kitchen and the dining room. Both feel huge, and it's so much lighter and brighter. Very pleased with that choice.

 And how great do those cabinets look?

This is the looking at the eating area and bar counter. I'm still looking for furniture, but the plan is for a round pedestal table and two wingback chairs in front of the window on the right.

This is standing in the kitchen looking at the rest of the house. Disastrous as it is at the moment, I still love the view.

This is the bar counter and west side of the kitchen from the eating area. Obviously still unfinished. It'll be topped with the same slate as the rest of the counters. The wood still needs to be painted.

 Looking into the rest of the kitchen from the eating area. Trevor and Todd's dad were here putting in floors yesterday. Not finished yet, but they made a lot of headway.

We moved the fridge into its spot this morning. I need to measure for furniture and have also been antsy to make any progress that I can. Putting the fridge away felt like progress. Also, it opened up the kitchen a lot so we can actually get a feel for the space.

 Here's the window over the sink. Despite having to be kind of cobbled together by our contractor, it came out looking really nice. Or will, once it's all caulked and finished. The counter extends all the way out to the windows.

Looking through both pocket doors, so from the kitchen into the mudroom and laundry/powder beyond that.

Another shot back into the rest of the house. Note the giant drawers for pots and pans and whatever else. Much more convenient than cabinets.

Looking back the opposite direction, from the mudroom into the eating area.

West side of the kitchen.

The sink is kind of like a coffin. It's really big. But I think I'm going to love it.

 

And lastly, we had a pretty decent little snowfall yesterday and last night. Enough so that everyone apparently forgot how to drive, and there were cars parked up and down our street that people just left. Most of them are gone now, but based on the behavior, you'd have thought there was a solid four feet of snow on the ground. I'm just glad nobody drove into our yard and over the laurels. And the snow is beautiful.

Things are coming along really well. The only thing I'm a bit disappointed about is that I have zero interest in decorating for Christmas. The idea of bringing something like a tree into my house right now and taking up even more space is physically painful. There is just so much crap everywhere that I want to make it all go away before taking anything out of storage. 

By next weekend it should be ok to start putting stuff away in the kitchen, and I will happily strangle anyone who says otherwise with one of the orange construction extension cords I keep tripping over. Maybe once kitchen stuff is put away I'll be able to start decorating for Christmas. And on that cheerful note, hopefully the next time I post will be to announce this whole miserable little experience will be over.