Silence...

The silence is deafening! The contractors finished up yesterday and everything on our punch-out list has been completed. Here's a little before/after pic of the job...


...there's still a lot of touch-up to do and it will be about a month until we have all the pieces in place. Cherie and I will be finishing things up... still left is the clean-up, the sliding glass door install, the pecan top install for the kitchen/family room divider, the basement door install, stools for the counter, more painting, and a weekend run to Costco for more Advil.

A lot is ahead of us, but having a fully functional kitchen after several weeks of various states of disrepair is fantastic!

What a week!!!

It's been a week since my last post and has it been a big one. Seems like we have been on an episode of Battle on the Block. Here's what things look like now....


And here's a peek at the beverage center...


Today the replacement microwave was installed first. We are GE customers for life - great customer service and got a replacement out to us in a week's time. Next Brian from Dundee corporation (our contractors) came by and started with the handles and then moved on to the backsplash. About 9:30, the granite people came by and installed the counter tops. At about 1:30 the counter was complete and the rest of the day was backsplash work.

Things are looking really good!!

Last weekend and through yesterday "late" night we painted, and painted, and painted - and then painted a little more. In order to make painting the ceiling (in both the kitchen and the family room) we went out and got a Wagner Power Roller ($25 at Wallmart). This is a pretty slick way to do a ceiling and really cuts down on the mess and the amount of "dipping". Now for the downside... fully extended it's about 4 feet long and fully contracted it's about 4 feet long. Walls it works well on, but ceilings, it's your stairmaster workout on the 6 foot ladder for the day. Also, this thing is pretty light (about 2 lbs) without paint. Once you fill the chamber with paint (especially the thick Behr ceiling paint), the thing weighs about 5-7 lbs. Quite a shoulder workout to go along with you stairmaster!!! So don't go to the gym before you paint!

Wednesday through Friday got us to this point...



... where we had the floor grouted and the cupboards installed.

Cabinets are up...

The cabinets are up and look great (I really like the saw sink, too)!! After putting up a couple of pieces of backsplash, Cherie thought that cabinet lighting under all the cabinets would best showcase the backsplash and granite... time for an internet run for 3 more CounterAttack lights. We also had the granite "templater" in this morning to do the measurements. The granite should be ready late this week or early next (my bet is early next). Also, the sliding glass door should be in this week - so hopefully that will roll in before the grout is put down so the door gap can be grouted with the rest of the floor is.

We were excited to finally have a microwave to cook with again - but this is not a good message to pop up on your brand new microwave when you plug it in...


...so after giving GE customer care a ring (their call center is in the USA - yea!!) we'll be getting a visit from their technician between 1 and 5 tomorrow. BTW, the person who programed the message did a good job with the explaination - but shouldn't they they have asked themselves how a touchscreen "ok" button would work if the touchscreen shorted out? Hmmm.

Given the lack of a microwave, we rolled the oven in.

Week one - done...

The floor was completed yesterday and really looks good. We picked 20" tiles using a 1/4" grout line staggering the tiles to center of the adjoining rows. I made sure to order 10% more to account for breakage and corner/edge waste. Guess what, we have 5 boxes - or 10% - left over. Anybody need some spare tile?

Stayed up late on Thursday and ordered the Counter Attack lighting online. We're just going to put under counter lighting on the beverage bar.

We are planning on relaxing a bit this weekend before week 2 starts.

Half a floor is better than none...

Ditra is down, half the kitchen floor is in, and the second layer of mud is on the walls. Cherie got a call from the granite fabricator today and found out that the granite templating has been delayed to Tuesday which adds an extra day buffer to get the crown molding in and install the upper cabinets before the lower ones. As it was planned, the bottom cabinets would have been installed first so they could do the granite templating before the the upper cabinets would have been installed. This would be a real pain because you have to reach over and above the lower cabinets in order to install the upper cabinetry when the lower ones are installed - so things actually worked out well with the delay. The floor looks fantastic!!!!

Cherie did a great job of finding a water purifier online today with 2 day delivery so we have it here when we template on Tuesday. The fabricator has to have the exact hole dimentions for the purifier when they cut the granite, so timing was once again is on our side! I ordered the pecan counter top from Texas today and it should be here in about a month. I still have to order the under-cabinet lighting for the beverage bar. I'm looking at counter attack lighting just because it's a cooler light and doesn't need a separate voltage regulator. Hopefully I can order those tonight and get them early next week.

More tomorrow!!