Proof Of Progress

We still haven't found our camera but here's a picture I found on my computer that I must have uploaded a couple of weeks ago.

What we started with:



Where we are now:

We re-wired all the electrical outlets, got some sheet rock up, built and installed most of the cabinet boxes, and sanded all the boxes to prep them for primer.

See that big box across from the island? That's our new pantry. It's sa-weeeet! Two people can fit in there. I bet three people could but we only tried two.

The Fun Stuff

At a party this past weekend, friends kept saying "I've been reading your blog..." (of course I was thrilled they kept up with the blog) and in the same breath out comes "but I haven't seen any updates in awhile." Alright, I get it. Subtle hints to my slacker-ness.

I thought about updating the blog when I got home that night but I didn't. In my defense, we've lost our camera with the latest renovation pics. It's somewhere in the house. Not all that surprising considering the chaos we've been living in.

And then today, I get this on gchat.

Lisa:  i need more blog
me:  huh? need more blog?
Lisa:  i need you to blog. i have checked at least 4 times

Ok. A not so subtle hint about my slacking.

This one's for you, Lisa.

Until I can find my camera with the latest pics, I thought I'd share the fun stuff (i.e. not the sweaty, cursing, whining parts of the renovation).

When we started designing our kitchen renovation, we focused more on the functionality of it. Most importantly, we needed more efficient storage solutions and a counter top that could handle our everyday use and resist stains. We had settled on pouring our own concrete counter tops because my brother wanted to give them a try. So the counters became the focal point of my inspiration for the aesthetic design of the kitchen.

I am going to say "I" throughout this post because generally that's how Jon and I work when it comes to design/decor. I come up with something I like and then I just run it by him to see if he's cool with it. Usually, he likes it but he definitely doesn't hold back if he doesn't like it. Don't let him fool you into thinking that I don't give him a chance to put in his two cents. Of course, if I really like it and he doesn't, I have veto power over him. We work hard at keeping our marriage 60/40.

I wanted to keep the cabinet color white to reflect the little natural light that we have coming into the kitchen by way of the small window above the sink and the door to the patio.

Next, the back splash. This was my first choice. It's from Lowe's. I really like that it picked up the color of the cabinets in the marble pieces, the counter tops in the dark gray pieces, and a subtle hint of color in the light blue pieces. By the way, that's a sample of our concrete counter tops that my brother, Phu, poured. The counters will look darker than that because we will polish, wax, and seal them. That sample is just straight up concrete.

I'm a very visual person. I was dead set on this back splash for about a month. Then I saw this picture on Houzz.com. It's a similar back splash in that it has long narrow pieces of various types of stone and color. After seeing this picture I was worried my first choice would be too busy because of the pattern and the fact that our kitchen is not as open and airy as this kitchen.

modern kitchen design by chicago kitchen and bath Rebekah Zaveloff

Back to the drawing board. I considered white subway tile but thought that might be too plain. I searched online and in magazines for inspiration. I kept going back to white marble. It's gorgeous. One day, I hope to have a beautiful slab of carrera marble somewhere in my house. It's not as plain as subway tile because it has gray veining throughout which would pick up the color of our concrete counters a bit. A slab of marble for a back splash is definitely way out of our budget.

So I went back to Lowe's. I kept going back to Lowe's because I have coupons to use there. I also found that Lowe's has a much bigger selection of tile than Home Depot but mostly it was all about the coupons. Lowe's came through! I found this awesome marble mosaic back splash for a price that's easier on our budget.

I love the stark contrast of the white against the dark gray concrete but there is still some interest to the tile due to the light gray veining throughout. Don't mind that green spot on the tile. It's just a reflection of the green tank top I was wearing when I took the picture.

We had already purchased stainless steel cup pulls and knobs for the hardware. We found a really good deal on them online so we just went with it. All of our appliances are stainless steel, as well as our sink, so we figured it'd look fine.

One day I was checking out photos of kitchens on Houzz and I came across this one. I loved it instantly and then realized THAT is our kitchen. Well, kind of. It's really similar. The white cabinets, the gray concrete counters, the cup pulls for the drawers, and the white back splash (minus the sparkles).

 

contemporary kitchen design by san francisco interior designer tineke triggs

Like I said, I'm a very visual person. I had all the fragmented pieces of our kitchen design in my head but I couldn't picture how it would all look together. This image did it for me. It is how I want our kitchen to be. It's very calming and neutral. It also gave me some inspiration for stools for our island. I like how the wood from the stools adds some warmth and the overall industrial feel of the kitchen. So with this inspiration in my head, we've decided on three of these stools and two of these pendant lights to hang over our island.

 

image: World Market

image: Sundance

And that is our kitchen design to date. Or at least we hope. Shoot, anything better than what it looks like now is a step in the right direction.

Demolition Time

Demo is as fun as it looks....on the first day....on the fourth day, not so much.

A little reminder of our before

 

And in progress.



Oh and we demolished the island too. We're going to build it back up again but with better storage underneath so half my body isn't in there trying to get a pot.

And we have big plans for this wall that connects to our den that I forgot to tell you about in our renovation plans. *I'm really annoyed right now because the hyperlink thing isn't working in Blogger so I can't easily get you back to the post about our plans or any other post for that matter. Doesn't Blogger know this is my first time blogging and I'm trying to do my best to make it easy for my reader(s) to follow my ramblings?!* 

We want to take out the pocket door, remove that column that now splits the door and the pass through window, bump up the header, and bump out the window to the right. So we're keeping the lower cabinets for storage and it will look more like a peninsula. If I knew how to do all that fancy stuff with arrows on pictures to show you what I mean, I would. But I don't. So you're stuck with my crappy description and your imagination. 

There must have been a sale on nails (along with the ugly molding) when our kitchen was last remodeled. Is it really necessary to use so many nails to secure a small 10 inch piece of trim on the cabinet? It made demolishing a sloooow process since we were trying to salvage as much of the cabinet boxes as we could. We were shaking our fists in the air and cursing the previous carpenter/owner, who we dubbed, Bob. Because it's so much more gratifying to yell at someone with a name. 

And then good 'ole Bob got us again. We were prying out the shelves in the cabinets and the hammer went right through the back....which was just sheetrock. Awesome. Norm, the Master Carpenter, would be so disappointed in Bob.

Bob (a couple of decades ago in the local hardware store):

Hmmm, if I don't buy wood to back the cabinet uppers and lowers, I can use the money saved to buy a ton of molding and paneling to cover every square inch of the kitchen walls and one billion nails on sale! I'll just paint the sheetrock to match the cabinets and nail the shelves right into the studs of the walls. Genius Bob, genius (while patting himself on the back).

So there were no cabinet boxes to salvage and we just went crazy ripping everything out. We stopped at the base of the bottom cabinets and figured we could just build up from the bases already in place.

Until we realized that the floor underneath the cabinet bases was just particle board that disintegrated to the touch. Thanks again, Bob!

So we tore up all the bases and particle board and replaced the floor underneath.

And since we were in a Bob-cursing-demolishing-mood, nothing was safe. Not even our pantry....

Buh-bye pantry. We'll move you over by the fridge and make you even bigger and better in the next life.

Remember this molding and paneling that we hoped was attached to some salvageable sheetrock? Well by now you kind of have an idea of how Bob works. There was nothing behind it. The wall was just a very thin piece of flimsy wood nailed directly into the studs.

So we tore everything off.

 

And after all that, here's what we're left with. We're about 95% done with demo. I say 95% because the wall with the pass through window will be the last to go since it's currently keeping all the dust and chaos out of our livable space. We quickly built up the base of the island so we'd have a work station.

 

Miraculously, we only had one minor injury that involved blood. My brother's leg was cut from a flying piece of porcelain tile.

On the up side, we did find a dollar in the walls.

Lessons learned:

1. Be flexible in your plan because if you're as lucky us, you might have had someone as cool as Bob who built your kitchen in the past. There will definitely be surprises.
2. Wear a mask when removing back splash tile with black grout or else you'll end up with black boogers. So I guess that's digging for coal instead of gold. Trust me, gold is much better.
3. Demo is exhausting. Our bodies and especially our hands were incredibly sore after a long day of demo. They always make demo look so easy on the crashing shows on the DIY network. I guess it's because the home owners do it for like 10 minutes and then a team of 25 comes in to finish it off. If you're DIYing, make sure you have some able bodied friends that you can trick ask to come over to help. 

Why Yes, That Is An Ant

Recall my massacre with Raid a couple of days ago?

Well, the termite guy came today and told us we DO NOT have termites!

They were just flying ants.

I didn't know ants could fly.

Roaches, yes.

Ants?

Ugh. Just another bug that could potentially fly at me and attack.

Great.

Prepping For Demo

We had to do some preparation before we could start swinging hammers at things. 

First, we removed the appliances with the help of our friend Paco. We have a gas stove so we shut off the gas line at the back of the stove which was as easy as a quarter turn of a handle. Then we just disconnected the gas flexible gas line to the stove and wheeled it out to the garage. 

The refrigerator was supposed to be easy. Just unplug it, turn off the valve underneath the sink to disconnect the water line to the fridge for the ice maker, and roll it into the dining room to plug it back in. 

Jon turned the valve underneath the sink (that little clear football looking thing below)....righty tighty lefty loosey.

Disconnected the small copper water line from the back of the fridge.

And water rushed out and wouldn't stop! 

I'm in the back yard and Jon runs out past me like the roadrunner screaming "The water's not off!" trying to look for the shut off valve for the main water line to the house. 

I grab the closest thing I see, our 15 gallon crawfish boil pot, and run inside. By then Paco has already filled up a plastic bucket of water. He tells me Jon tried to turn the valve underneath the sink even more but the water was still coming out. I switch him out with the crawfish pot and he joins Jon in looking around outside the house for the main water shut off. 

I'm screaming at them that the crawfish pot is almost full. I go grab our igloo and switch to that. 

 

So after we fill up a plastic bucket, a crawfish pot, and part of an igloo, the water finally stops. I breathe a sigh of relief and ask where the main water line shut off was? 

Paco: I just turned the valve underneath the sink about five more times.

Jon: What the heck. I turned that thing about 15 times the first time.  

Lessons learned...

1. Righty tighty means turn it to the right a billion times.
2. Know where the main water shut off is ahead of time (just in case) so you're not running around outside of the house like a mad man. I'm sure the neighbors were staring and just shaking their heads.

Moving on after that mini fiasco.

We removed all the quarter round toe kicks going clockwise around the kitchen and numbered them to remember where they went. We plan on painting them white and re-using them.

 

 

Then we laid down builder's paper with painters tape and placed hardboard down to protect our hardwood floors during the renovation. 

 

 

We bought one roll of builder's paper and 5 sheets of 4' x 8' hardboard from Home Depot.  

Last but not least, we turned off the electricity and checked the outlets to ensure they weren't still hot. 

Safety first!

What is that...an ant?

Don't get me wrong. I love our house but can we catch a freakin break please!

I saw these tiny tiny little ants crawling up and down in a nice single file line on the exterior of our patio door. I went ape-sh*t on them with Raid. I sprayed the entire exterior of the door from the ground up because I wasn't sure where they were coming from or where they were going to. I also sprayed in a little gouge in the wood on the door because I saw some coming in and out of there. They died instantly. I hate bugs.

Jon saw my massacre when he came home yesterday but he discovered something else. A bunch of big ants were dead too. I was confused because all I saw and killed were small tiny ants. The big ones must have been in the little hole during my reign of terror.

He picked up one of the big ones and that sucker had wings!

Dang it. I was fooled. They are not ants.

They are termites. Ugh.

Calling termite guy to come out asap.

If things keep going at this rate who knows when our kitchen will be done.

I'll stop my whining now.

Kitchen update to come. I promise.

Thanks For The Shower YMCA

This has nothing to do with our kitchen renovation but I promise I'll catch yall up on the kitchen this weekend. We've made lots of progress and we might just meet our end of August deadline. Crap. I'm sure I just jinxed us by saying it (tying it?) out loud.

Anyway, for now I just wanted to share one of the many joys of owning an old home. Something is always going wrong at the most inopportune moments. 

The hubs went out of town on Wednesday last week for work for a couple of days. The day he leaves I discover water shooting up out of the grass in our backyard from a broken water pipe to our washer (which is in our garage). 

Awesome. Gotta love the 1950's standards for a completely exposed water pipe.

I turned off the main water line so we wouldn't have a flood in our backyard. Jon was coming home Friday evening so I figured I could hold out with no water until then. I don't like having service guys come by if I'm home by myself. Really the only thing that concerned me was taking a shower. Then I realized I could just shower and get ready for work at the YMCA after my work out in the mornings. A shower is really good motivation to get out of bed and get to the gym.

Thursday I wake up early, get to the gym, work out, shower there, and leave for work. Worked out perfectly.

Friday I wake up late. No time to work out but I really need a shower. I go to the YMCA (in my work out clothes so I at least look the part) and go straight to the locker room to shower. I walk out all clean and dressed for work about 40 minutes later. As I walk out I glance at the front desk to see if anyone noticed I just walked in there to shower. No one sees me. I'm in the clear! *whew*

Jon and my brother fixed the water pipe and we turned our water back on on Friday evening.

In case you're wondering, you can get two good flushes out of a toilet (number 1 only, no number 2) after the water is turned off.  Use them wisely.

Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.