Renos updates

We are nearing the end of the first week and have made some progress!

The beam we thought was load-bearing and wasn't, has presented us with another challenge.

To build it back up with a 2x4 makes it too narrow to match the wall it attaches to, and it is too narrow to attach the pendant lights the way we planned.

To build it up with a 1x6 would accommodate the pendants but require us to build up the opposing wall to match, pushing all the cabinets down the wall.

Thankfully I am married to an electrical engineer who suggested using just one transformer for the three lights, instead of trying to accommodate for one for each. It will work, and the details- well, I don't really get it. What I have explained is about what I "get"... lol

The drywall has been replaced and patched, outlets and switch boxes put in, the sitting room wall has been sanded and patched where the chair rail was removed.

You can see the red on the walls here- the paint store matched the colour of my new stove and we will paint that long wall red. We have chosen a taupe colour for what of the kitchen wall will show, and a chocolate brown (to match my chair) to paint the bookcases and fireplace mantle. 

It's looking so much better with stuff patched and sanded.

Amy and I had to take another trip up to the granite place yesterday to choose the slab I like best to put on the island portion of the counter. The granite is called Golden Ray and is gorgeous- I can't wait to see it installed!

This photo makes it look like there is some greenish colour in it, but you don't see that in person. In any case, there is lots of movement and interest in this, and I am sure however it gets laid out will be beautiful.

They have started patching the floor where necessary and tomorrow is set aside for finishing the drywall- plus whatever else crops up, I guess.

The cabinets were delivered this morning and the garage is full of huge cardboard boxes! They are due to be installed on Monday and then they will template the granite on Wednesday, assuming that everything goes according to plan... lol

I will keep you updated- in between trying to stay on top of this horrible dust mess that is EVERYWHERE!!!

Days 2 & 3 of renos!

Monday saw the kitchen completely emptied out, except for the dishwasher, which we are keeping. It looks so much smaller- hard to believe all of those cabinets came out of that space!

Monday afternoon, Amy came with Eddie, the cabinet guy, so they could draw all over the walls and floor,  marking where all the new cabinets will go.

Monday evening Amy came again, this time with Ron, the electrician, to mark out where we wanted switches and outlets. That took a lot more time and discussion than I would have thought. I let the three of them talk and ask me questions about what I do in the kitchen and where- and where I was planning to put things that need electricity.

You can see that the nice hardwood floor has been installed on at least two previous floors- and it is raised throughout most of the main floor- the kitchen, DR, front hall, and main floor bath. The sitting room is significantly lower- I would guess because they didn't go over top of anything...

We also discussed fixing the switches by the garage door (there are two separate ones now, and not straight or lined up which drives me crazy! lol) and installing the new fan we bought on the weekend for the sitting room. I think we covered everything. I think.

Tuesday (yesterday) saw the plumbers here for a good portion of the day, replacing old pipes and making sure everything is set up for moving the fridge (which has water & ice in the door).

The vent was put in for the new hood that will go over the stove. Previously, there was just a hole in the ceiling. It worked a little, but not well enough. And with a big six burner gas range coming in, we needed to make sure we got a proper hood with it.

In the afternoon, Ron came and started on his part, roughing in the electric. He is scheduled to be here all day today as well.

I can't say that I see what happened yesterday for the most part, but I know there was a flurry of activity all day!

My new sink is sitting in the garage, and the dishwasher has been moved out there now too. I still can't really picture how it will all look, but I am very excited!

Vent for the new hood fan

The holes cut- not sure for what... electrical maybe??

New pipes installed for the sink and dishwasher

What used to be the laundry chute, looking down into the basement

And the top part, looking up towards Chloe's room. She says she will miss the laundry chute- but how do you miss something you rarely use??? lol

Down in the basement; either electrical or gas line for my new stove. Or both. lol

The demolition begins...

Yesterday marked the first official day of the demolition in our kitchen. YIKES! lol

The guy just got a start, taking out most of the upper cabinets and stacking them in our garage. They will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, along with anything else they want (once I know what all we have that is worthwhile!).

In the meantime, Rich and I met with our designer to choose the pendant lights to hang over the island portion of the counter. We settled on some nice ones, ones that I think will accent the elegant feel of the whole room.

Rich said he thinks it is a little weird, to choose all of these components, but have no idea of how everything will look once it is all put together- and it's true!

Tomorrow (Monday), they will finish taking everything out and the rest of the week will be a slew of jobs going on: roughing in the plumbing (we are moving the fridge), roughing in the gas lines (we are moving the stove), roughing in the electrical (we are moving around switches, outlets, and pot lights), removing tile and drywall and replacing drywall, finalizing all the roughed-in stuff, and getting ready for cabinets.

The cabinets are due in on Friday, and IF everything goes according to plan, the job shouldn't take more than three weeks. But coming from a family that was in the construction business, I know all too well that many things can crop up unexpectedly, so I am prepared for that.

I have more than 30 meals in my freezer, either fully cooked and ready to warm up, or partially cooked to where I can easily finish with very little prep work. It might be a little repetitive but it is better than having to eat out too frequently or having to live on cold food for the whole time. Don't get me wrong- I love to eat out! But when you HAVE to, it loses some of it's appeal to me, and it can get kind of pricey.

So here are a couple of before and after photos from yesterday- the first ones are from before the demo guy showed up and the last ones are what it looked like when we got home.

Other than the lighthouses up on the border, this is a nice kitchen right now (well, not anymore, since they have banged holes and taken out cabinetry...lol  But as I love to cook and bake and make preserves and such, the space really isn't workable. The oven is tiny, the cooktop is problematic and a pain to keep clean, there is hardly any usable workspace, and the sink and counter are just counter-productive, being white... it started out with such a simple idea of improving things, to THIS. lol

When the job is completely finished, I will put in before (when we moved in) and after photos to see. I am anxious to see it myself!

This side of the counter is where we sit- Rich uses his computer, the girls do homework...

Behind them is usually where the kitchen table sits, and my computer desk.

A better view from the sitting side. You can't see the appliance garages, since they are rolled up in this photo. Handy, but they leave you with hardly any space out in front.

The door beside the fridge leads out into the hall, towards the front door. The door to the right of that leads into the dining room.

A bunch of cabinets and overhead filler gone- it's starting to look bare!

It's really happening- no going back now! lol

I wonder why they left so much space at the top when they put these cabinets in? The new ones will go almost to the top- just leaving enough room for wiring and such. I want to use every inch of space I have!

This island area will be ALL workspace in the new kitchen! We chose some granite that we LOVE- and I can't wait!

And so it begins...

With our vacation over, and Holly and Ben back home safely, we are back to our normal (and I use that term loosely! lol) routine.

Only our routine is about to disrupted in a pretty big way: we are renovating our kitchen.

We have hired a kitchen designer to oversee things and we have been busy this past week or so deciding where everything should go to suit me best, meeting with cabinet guys, and heating guys, and tile guys... lol  It's been a flurry of excitement for the past few days!

I have already lost track of all of the names and who will do what!

Yesterday they put giant holes in my kitchen! Looks pretty ugly, I have to say. But as the kitchen had a drop-down/soffitt/bulkhead thing over the upper cabinets, they had to look inside them to see what they were dealing with. So, you know. Pound away!

The good news is there is nothing up there to contend with.

Late last week I met with Amy to look at granite and tiles. I chose a few granites I liked and got samples to bring home. I also made a tentative decision on how the backsplash behind the stove should look and what tiles to put around the kitchen.

Then we went again with Rich on the weekend to finalize our decision, as Rich wasn't fussy on the samples I brought home (they are too small to get the idea). Thankfully, we found a couple of slabs that we are both in love with! YAY!

And double YAY! Rich likes the tiles I chose, so we don't have to think about that any more either.

We also looked at appliances, because if I am to get a red stove, that is custom- and custom takes longer.

I really like the Bertazzoni red stove, it's really lovely. But after looking and thinking, we decided- or should I say I decided because I had final say since I cook the most- on a red Blue Star. It's 36", six gas burners, huge oven- and tons of easy clean things about it. The reviews say it isn't the nicest looking stove out there, but that it outperforms many high end stoves. I know Wolf is supposed to be the best, but honestly, they aren't that nice looking (and they only come in stainless steel), and they are so much more expensive, probably largely due to the name. In any case, I am happy with the reviews and information I have read about Blue Star and I am sure I will love it!

Last night the cabinet guy came to show us preliminary drawings and talk with us about how we really want to use the kitchen. I thought it was pretty cut and dried till we started- then we had all these options that were a little overwhelming. We did make some decisions, but we still need to think about a couple of things.

I have kind of a tight deadline in mind, which is the reason we have been so busy in such a short time. I want everything completed by the end of September. Amy assures me it can be done, and personally, I think the more time Rich and I have to think about and decide on things, the more times we will change our minds. I like making a decision and sticking with it- I don't want to keep adding things to the mix.

Besides choosing things to go IN the kitchen, I now need to be thinking about planning meals that I can manage without a stove for a time. No problem! I thrive on challenge!

Summer fun!

It has been a busy summer for all of us so far.

Heidi and Chloe got out of school on Wednesday, June 2, and used the rest of the week and weekend to pack for their trip to Ottawa, to spend time with their siblings, Holly and Ben.

They flew out first thing on the Monday morning for their three week visit.

Rich and I flew out the next evening, for our trip to Italy, which I will be starting a new blog for soon...

Rich and I were gone for two weeks, came home on a Wednesday night, and the following Monday morning, all four of my kids flew here from Ottawa.

Usually the only time I get to see Holly and Ben is at Christmas time, when they fly in for a week or so.
At that time of year though, there are nine of us in the house, which means lots of cooking and cleaning for me, and lots going on at any given moment- translating into very little time to spend visiting and talking with my kids.

So this year, we planned for Holly and Ben to come and stay for a week when it WASN'T a family holiday...

We had SUCH a good time! We shopped off and on, we talked, we worked in my studio... all of my kids are artistic, and they enjoyed spending time creating things.

The kids had a day at Elitch Gardens, the amusement park in Denver, and Rich and I took them to the Colorado Renaissance Festival over the weekend. Despite the rain we got in the afternoon, it was a fun day.

We celebrated Canada Day with a nice steak dinner and poppers that we bought at the store. We were at the Renaissance Festival on the fourth- we came home and grilled burgers (with homemade fries too, of course!), and then the kids had fun setting off the fireworks that Rich had bought for them. What a guy, that Rich. He's a keeper!

They all walked up to get ice cream a number of times from Baskin-Robbins, where Heidi works. They bought copious amounts of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for home, as we have flavours here that they can't get in Canada.

There was lots of Beatles Rock Band, lots of ice cream eating, lots of laughing and teasing, lots of joy in us all being together as a family again.

Last night we had to take them to the airport to return home to real life- and NOT, as Holly hilariously pointed out to me, the G-rated version of their lives that they were living while Heidi and Chloe were there... lol

There are just some things that a mother doesn't need to know.