Day Seven: Paint and Prep

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Steph and her Mom did a wonderful job finishing up with the painting, and we're ready to put in the cabinets. We went to Lowe's and picked up the counter tops today, and everything is a-okay. There was a little scare at the store when they couldn't find them right away, but eventually the rocket scientist looking for them realized that it was damn near impossible to not see a 10' counter top with our name all over it. Go figure. We had to unpack and bring in everything from the garage so the cabinets could expand at room temperature. It's pretty cold here right now, so if they were put in cold, after they heated to room temperature, they could potentially expand and crack. That's not so good. We should have nearly everything in tomorrow with the finishing touches being done on Monday. I can't wait!

That's my cat Punkin (Punk for short, and man is that appropriate) in the bottom of the shot. I took about 10 shots in the Kitchen, and he somehow managed to find his way into about 6 or 7 of them . He's just dying to become an internet celebrity.

Ack! I missed my deadline! Day Six: Primer

Okay, so today was obviously a busy one. I'll be posting a picture after I finish my first coat of primer and actually get one shot. This is actually my post for the12th, so there will be two for today.

*Edit*
Well, the primer is done. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but now it's done. Steph and Char will be putting on the main color and the trim color today, and the cabinets should be going in on Sunday. Oh, and by the way, if you can avoid it, NEVER paint your ceiling. What a (literal) pain in the neck!

Day Five: Sanding, Sanding and Sanding

This is what it looks like when your Kitchen is in a pile. Believe me, it was at one time far more organized than this. It's never been so difficult to locate a box of cereal! But I have to admit, I've grown quite fond of my Boston Market frozen dinners. Don't mind the little Christmas tree, we'll take it down eventually....

Today was all sanding. That is the hard part, and surely the messiest. It looks like right now we are on track to paint on Saturday, which is a good thing. Steph's wonderful mom (Hi Char!) is coming down Saturday to help with the painting, so hopefully we'll get it done then so they can finish Sunday and Monday.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the leaky window! When the guys tore down the soffit, they uncovered a pretty substantial leak from the upstairs window. The original window wasn't installed properly, so water would just sit on the window ledge. Eventually the wood rotted and started to leak into the house. We obviously weren't able to see it because it was behind the soffit. They're putting a new window in the "tent room" (it's in the peak of the house and shaped like a tent) so we don't ruin our newly drywalled ceiling. That should be done tomorrow.

Thanks Steph for the photo idea!

Day Four: More Mudding

This, obviously, is not a shot of my kitchen. I snapped this shot as I was leaving work this morning, and thought it was far more interesting that a picture of white walls. For those of you who don't know, I work for Daimler Chrysler Corporation at their Belvidere, IL Assembly Plant. We build the Dodge Caliber, the Jeep Compass, and the Jeep Patriot. This shot is just a very small piece of a massive facility that employs more than 4,000 people. I've been there for about 7 months now, and hopefully I'll be there for the next 30 years.

The kitchen is starting to resemble an actual room again. The drywall is all hung, and the seams and screws are all mudded. A lot of sanding will be going on tomorrow, and thankfully, I won't be taking part in that. Anyone who has ever done drywall before will know what I'm talking about. The sanding is a pain. Our counter tops came in today, so that was welcome news. We have everything we need now, so all we can do is wait for it to be finished!

Day Three: Drywall & Mudding

A little more progress today. The drywall is completely hung, and most of the electrical is ready. Steph began mudding the screws, and the guys will do the rest tomorrow. The cabinets and the dishwasher were delivered today, but for some reason the counter tops have been delayed until the 17th! Lowes has been jerking our chain since we put the order in. HOW ANNOYING! First they sold us cabinets and a diswasher without seeing if they were in stock (they weren't), then they told us the counter tops would be in on the 5th. When the order was placed, they delayed the delivery date (without calling us!) to the 10th, then on the same day it was delayed again to the 17th. We still don't know why. I guess a certain number of problems will always pop up in a project like this, but it's getting a bit ridiculous.

Day Two: Electrical & Drywall

Well, unfortunately, not much progress to report today. The contractors ran into some issues with the electrical they were running, and it looks like they had to re-run a lot of the original wiring. The previous owners used the wrong gauge of wiring, and if we were to add the new appliances and outlets, we would've been blowing fuses like there's no tomorrow. So they did wiring mostly today, and then hung about 6 panels of drywall on the ceiling. the apparatus shown here is what they use to when drywalling (is that a word?) the ceiling. It holds it up for them so they don't need more than one or two people to do it. Each sheet of drywall is 4' x 8' and weighs about 55 lbs. That would be a little tough to hold up. So it looks like our time frame for completion has moved back a little further. It's really difficult not having a kitchen!

Day One: Teardown

Well, the destruction went well. Everything is now gone from the kitchen, including the god-awful color scheme. Well, that's not quite gone yet. The trim and curtains are still there. I decided to post four pictures today. There was some really interesting things that were revealed beneath the walls that I wanted to share. Some really cool abstract stuff. It's really interesting to see the multiple layers underneath the walls we've been looking at for the last 5 years or so. It really gives you a sense of history from the house, and reminds me that although this wing of the house is a newer addition, the house is still over 100 years old. Tomorrow they start the drywall!