Cabinets, Counters, and Everything (well, almost everything)

We now have a kitchen. It'll be a working kitchen by the end of the day.

Last week we had our cabinets installed.



We were happy even then, because we just put boards on top of the open lower cabinets to make counter space for the week.

Then yesterday the counter guys came. They did the final cuts to the stone in our driveway (luckily it was done yesterday because today it is pouring Texas-style).




All said and done, this is what they left us with:





Now we have some work to do.

The gas line sticking out of the cabinets is preventing us from pushing the range back into place.


The outlet up above the cabinets needs to be sealed over or moved. There's a box behind the range that we can return to it's formal state as an outlet. Once that's taken care of, we need to install the range vent hood.



Above the sink we have an electrical quandary. We removed the previous fixture that had a built in switch and bought a new one to replace it that does not have said switch (unaware of the problem at the time of purchase).



As for the sink itself, the drain and garbage disposal need to be installed.

Our dishwasher needs to be installed (so that I can transfer the pile of dirty glasses in our utility sink to it and therefore avoid doing dishes).



And then, yes yes yes, we'll have a fully functional kitchen! Beyond function, we need a backsplash of some sort to add some color, a window frame above the kitchen, the transition piece installed, and the base molding affixed to the breakfast bar thingy.

It's All Here!

Our cabinets arrived today.



It gets even better.

Before Anita, the kitchen lady, had left, the furniture arrived!

Moving on Up!

We now have tile and doors, which means all of the biggies that Chris and I had to do are pretty much done. Our kitchen should be installed this week, if everything goes according to plan--just in time for our weekend guests, in town for Paul and Laurel's wedding. We still have some minor things to do such as molding, quarter-round, small paint jobs, etc., but the end is in sight!

Between projects,





we went outside to take a break. While looking around at the back garden to determine what shrubs needed trimming (out of desparation we hired a gardener to do a one time mow and trim because we don't have any garden tools yet, including a mower), we noticed that our shrubs were the victims of a hostile takeover. We began our counter-attack...









and succeeded.

Tile

This past weekend, Chris and I spent most of our time working on the tile in the kitchen and sunroom with the help of Robert and Thomas. I am sooo glad we decided to get the help of some seasoned professionals, because laying tile really is a very difficult job--especially travertine. Chris and I did the grout though :)

Mudding at Midnight

Yep, this is our life for the time being. We work all day then slave all night. I'm lucky to get out and go to capoeira every once in a while. As it turns out, our wall in the kitchen where the sink goes had to be redrywalled. Originally it was done so that it stuck out about an inch because of some ancient fat pipes that stick out there, but Anita-the-kitchen-lady said that just wouldn't do. Here's Chris preping for drywall take 2:



Here is some video footage of our midnight-mudding-capades:





On another note, the rest of our house is really coming along. Aside from mounting the TV on the wall and creating some hanging fabric art to cover it when not in use, the guest room is pretty much complete. On the other hand, the living room is still missing some major furniture pieces, you know, like a couch. So, Chris and I improvised and pulled the mattress out of the guest room to watch a movie the other night.



I feel like that couple in the movies...

Living Here

So, all of our stuff is here at the house. We are living in our construction zone.
Here's Chris working on a makeshift desk in the sunroom:

Laika decided that the safest place in the house was under Chris.

If it's not one thing, it's another

Oh man. Our new fridge doesn't fit, despite the fact that the guy swore that it was a counter-depth fridge. It looks like we can exchange it though. Phew!

The Doors

All of the internal and closet doors (except 4), don't fit their frames anymore. I guess they were all sized for the linoleum stuff that was down the previous 55 years of their existence. What do we do now? Chop them down 1/2 an inch I guess...

The Glue Incident

I know, I haven't posted in a long time. I have a perfectly good reason for that, we've been crazy busy working on the house. One of the main things that held us up a bit is what I like to call, "The Glue Incident." You see, when we were purchasing our wood Lee the Pine Guy, as I like to call him, said that he would just cover the entire floor with filler so that all of the holes would get filled (of which there are lots, due to the fact that it is recycled pine). Then, like 3 more people said to use wood glue and saw dust as filler instead of traditional wood-filler. Soooo, Chris and I spread glue and saw dust all over our new floors. Consequently, we spent the next 5 days sanding and resanding the floors. We rented a total of 4 sanders and borrowed another 2 to get the job done. When we were finished sealing the floor, we rented a buffer to smooth out the sticky spots.


Now we have some beautiful floors (that still aren't perfect, but they are as perfect as they are going to get)!

A Little Mishap

Our handyman/home repair consultant, Mark, accidentally shot a two-inch nail into his leg! We rushed him to the hospital and after a night there and surgery, he's walking around pretty well.

Big nasty surprise, that one!

Erasing the Walls with Paint, Etc...

After the floor guys were done, we were left with an icky splatter of glue remover up to about shin-level on all of our walls.



This made me sad because we didn't plan on painting the bedrooms because we liked it just fine the way they were. Sooo, I decided to "erase" the brown-ick by dipping a rag in paint and rubbing the spots away. It worked!!



I'm so glad it did, because it still took me two days to paint the closets and trim in all of the bedrooms.

Thursday I began on the hallway. What a fiasco. I bought some light brown paint that, according to the paint swatch, was a really light shade of the color of the couch we purchased. Once on the walls, it looked like a malted milkshake--you know how they are kind of muavish in hue. Did not work at all. So I had to go and buy more neutral, this time I went with a safe cozy cream. I like it.

Let's see, what else have we accomplished this week? Chris has redrywalled the entire kitchen and has started the mud and putty phase. Today he hopes to finish it off with some texture so that we can paint the cieling in there.






We also had Mark, the contractor guy who is helping us out, move the utility sink that was in the sunroom to the laundry room.





He has also built a pedastal for our water heater to be 1.5 feet off the ground and is constructing a closet for it, so that it'll be a sealed off combustion air zone (up to code).

We have floors and some furniture!

After sweating the who/what/how of the floors, they turned out very lovely. Now it's our turn to sand and finish...




After going to practically every consignment shop and furniture store in the Austin area, I finally found our couch and living room chair at MotifFurniture.com in Buda, Texas (about 15 miles south of Austin). I happened upon this wonderful, modern, furniture store after a failed trip to some outlets about 25 miles down the road. After grumpily stomping through stuffy, overpriced, over-marketed furniture outlets, you can imagine the glee when I walked into a showroom full of furniture that seemed to be made just for me. They had not 1, not 2, not 3, but several microfiber couch and chair options that both Chris and really liked. This is what we settled on:
Imagine expresso
Imagine peridot or little green jungle frogs

Sledgehammer Fun

Oh man, yesterday was exhausting yet awesome. In a day, you too can get rid of your kitchen. Here's how:

1. Remove all appliances and upper cabinets.

2. Hit counter with sledgehammer at the weak point.


3. Kiss counter to say goodbye.


4. Hit again with much force.


5. Keep going until the counter crumbles.


You will know when you are finished when you have blisters on your hands and an empty room with lots of damaged walls with beams showing.

Next step, major drywalling...