Now the kitchen (Part 1)

While the kitchen we inherited when we bought the house was functional it was far from perfect.
It had granite counter tops, a travertine floor and stainless steel appliances. It also had bad lighting, no outlets along one whole wall (not to building code), a dishwasher that actually made the dishes dirtier, an over the range microwave oven that did not vent out and did not have a glass turntable (the previous tenants were using it as storage).

So we decided to continue the modern theme from the bathrooms and use the same flooring and style of cabinets. There will be very little upper cabinets because we will use the wall space to hang our pots and pans and we will also enlarge the window to maximize the southern exposure and canyon view.

We have been working on the kitchen for a little over a  month now. Done all the work ourselves with the exception of the electrical work that we had completed this last Monday.  Our cabinets were delivered last Saturday and we will have the appliance delivered on December 19th.

Overall it is not as bad as I thought living without a kitchen. We eat out more often or eat microwave food and cleanup is really easy since we are mostly using paper plates. I do miss cooking good healthy food though. When we do wash dishes it is in the bathroom sink.

When we demolished the kitchen I was really worried about how hard it would be taking off the granite. We wanted to save the cabinets because we planned to reuse part of them in the garage and donate the rest.  When granite is installed a sheet of plywood is attached to the cabinets from the top with screws and the granite is then "glued" to the plywood.  So I thought I might have to either smash the granite into tiny pieces so I could unscrew the plywood or just destroy the cabinets. Thankfully they only nailed the plywood onto the cabinets. I could not believe how easily they came off. Of course the granite is heavy as hell so "A" and I had to put some muscle into getting them out of the house.

Temporary kitchen

Microwave that doesn't vent outside

Of course the back splash didn't come off easy

Sooooooo easy to remove

200lbs (90kg) of granite

it got dusty

Addition completed

I AM BACK!!

After a 5 month hiatus I will give you an update as to what has happened. The addition is finally done and we have moved into the new house. I thought it would never end but nothing lasts forever.

We are now working on our kitchen so stay tuned for more posts.

Below are the pictures of the completed floors and bathroom.

Stucco complete and floor installed

We are really close to the project finishing and us being able to move in. Actually the project is never finished around our household but we are close to moving in.

The electrician guy has done his part and today the floor guy and the stucco guys did their part. I talked with Jim (project manager) and he thinks he can get the final inspection this week. So that means that the deck will be put back together and the only thing remaining is for the floor guy to sand and urethane the floors next week.  We ripped off the carpet in the guest room and thankfully it was in pretty good condition.

The floor guy is not associated with our contractor because our contractor does not do floors, I know!
Anyway Jeremy, he's the floor guy, looks just like Nicholas Cage. I kid you not. If I can get a picture of him I will post it and you can judge for yourself.


Next Monday they should be able to sand and urethane and then a week after that we will start the move.

Painting Party and other things

So this weekend we finished painting the doors and the master bedroom, with the exception of the crown molding. That is for a later date.  The contractor installed the plumbing items (toilet, vanity, shower nozzles and handles. However they installed the wrong shower arm. Being a little taller than the average bear, I wanted the shower head to be higher than normal so that I did not have to duck my head to wash my hair, I hate that. I also wanted the shower head to extend further from the wall. We ordered and 8 inch shower arm but the plumber installed a much shorter one. I don't know if the place we ordered it from made a mistake or the contractor just grabbed the wrong one, either way I paid for it so they will install the one I wanted.

We asked the contractor to have all the inside work completed by June 13th with the exception of the base molding and hanging the doors. That way our floor guy can get his work completed.

We are almost there, just another 3 weeks or so.

Tile work is done and the painting has begun

Finally the tile work has been completed and now the glass guy was able to get the measurements for the shower. I guess the delay was due to not all the tile arriving. Not sure I buy that, but they went into overtime to get it completed this last weekend.

This weekend we painted the master bath and put a coat of primer and paint on the doors. But since the doors were raw wood we need at least one more coat. I also painted the eaves since the contractor does not paint. I know it is odd.

I also trimmed the tree that was blocking our view from the bedroom and the deck. I wanted to get it done while we still had the scaffolding.

Today they installed the crown molding and put the vanity in place.

We decided to go with Board by Board to do our flooring. he was recommended by several people on tour nextdoor website. We met with him last week and felt the quote was reasonable. So today the wood for the floors arrived and Jeremy said he will install on June 13th.  If the moisture readings are good he will then sand urethane on June 20th and then we should be able to begin moving the heavy stuff a week later.

Hopefully the end is near and we can finally put our house on the market.

The tile work has begun

So finally the tiles are going on the wall and floor. For the walls and bench seat we have chosen the classic white subway and for the floors we have chosen a new tile that mimics cement. We wanted to go with a modern feel so the floor tile is a 12x24 and the shower pan is a 4x4 of the same.  For safety reasons we had to go with a smaller tile for the shower otherwise the large tile could make you slip. Our desire was to have a visual effect that the floor was all one type of tile, so when we met with the tile guy we conveyed our layout. Well we stopped by and were not disappointed. So far he has done a very good job. The floor tile grout lines are really small and the grout blends into the tiles.  Once all the subway tile is up the grout will be white and everything should blend nicely together.

One of the problems we are having though is with the wood flooring. Our contractor does not do flooring, which he told us up front. However he said he did have someone who we could get with for a quote as the project got closer to completion.

What we need is to remove the carpet from 2nd bedroom refinish the floor and then feather new flooring to the master bedroom and stain both rooms to match the rest of the house.  We also wanted to get some independent quotes of our own to compare. Well it's not as easy as we thought. I called two companies that were highly on Yelp and neither one called back, so I guess their business must be awesome for them to ignore potential customers.  So we thought that if the contractor's guy's quote was reasonable then we would just go with him.

Today we met at the house for a quote and he showed up with one of his workers. He was probably late 20s and his worker was early 30s but then again I am a very bad judge of age. Anyway, as we were explaining what we wanted I was getting a bad vibe because he just stared and seemed completely lost. Once we were through, he said that all they do is install floors, they do not finish them. That tells me that they just lay floating floors, hell I can do that!! They then said sorry and then beat a hasty retreat.

So today we researched more and I have two bids set for next week, we shall see.

2nd Bath