Days 131-133: Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets are going in and looking great. We've found a couple issues with the Cabico cabinets (one spot with a rough finish, a splinter in a door, a door that needed to be shorter) but nothing major, and the issues are apparently all going to get resolved. The builders are happy with the cabinets in general.

The ceiling in the kitchen is a little problematic apparently, so Bryan needs to figure out how to make the crown moulding fit and look right.

Cheryl spoke with a design person from Enclave in West Concord this morning to help us decide on colors and now we finally have a decision on the master bathroom vanity surface - the tub deck and vanity top will be Giallo Ornamental granite.

Day 131 pictures
Day 132 pictures

Days 129-130: Painting

Spending a lot of time prepping, priming, and painting this weekend. The kitchen cabinets go in monday, so getting the kitchen painted was necessary. The walls and ceilings upstairs still need some attention so I could only do the kitchen. one primer coat and two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling and we are ready for cabinets tomorrow.

Next week need to decide on more paint colors for the downstairs rooms and for the master suite.

Day 130 pictures

Days 123-128: Floors, Walls, and Granite

Finally uploaded more pictures, and have yet to take some today.

We've stayed away while the floors were refinished. Back in today and everything looks great. I found some irregularities on the floor but Bryan spoke to the finisher and we'll get those addressed.

The house was abuzz with activity this morning as the plasterers came back to address the myriad spots marked with blue tape on the walls and ceiling, the floor got covered by pink paper, and the granite guys came to measure and template for the tub deck/shower seat/shower curb.

The house is far from done but I'm looking forward to seeing it coming together quickly. I'm painting this weekend.

Day 123 pictures
Day 124 pictures
Day 126 pictures
Day 128 pictures

I'm a lame blogger / Floors being sanded and finished today

OK, so the blogging fell apart when Cheryl's graduation/kids out of school/vacation came crashing down. I'll going to retroactively post updates with the pictures from the missing weeks soon.

The project has progressed well - we're getting close to having a kitchen back. The floor refinishers are sanding right now and will apply the first coat today, second coat tomorrow. For the next few days we're staying at a friend's house while they are at their vacation home, until the polyurethane cures.

Pictures coming soon...

Correction: Don't blame the roofer

I blamed the roofer for breaking our window but upon further investigation it was already broken, apparently between days 9 and 22 according to my Flickr archive.

Day 40: Breaking through into the main house

Today was a big day. Last night we emptied the remaining junk from the boy's room and the builder went about removing the window and wall. Before and after shots are below.

We had visits from the geothermal heating guy that a friend used for his system, the plasterer, and a propane salesman, too.

Mike told me that the 6 foot tub won't fit in the space we thought - I misread the plans since the 6'4" space is from the outside of the wall to the far end of the tub, which means that the tub can only be 5'10". So we think that we're going to cut down the shower size a bit to accommodate. I got into a 5' tub at Home Depot last night and I just don't fit, so we really want a 6' tub.

We also made a quick switch to change the laundry room door from a swing-in door to a pocket door, and discussed adding windows to the wall between the study and the master bedroom to let in more light.

We also finally decided on the front door (Thermatru Fiber-Classic, able to be stained to look like wood, nickel hardware) and the kitchen window (6' wide). Decisions about tile, cabinets, countertops, appliances, fixtures, and more are bearing down on us.

More day 40 pictures.

Day 38: Part 2, a new roof

At 7am Cheryl and I wake up and realize that we need to lay the plastic down in the attic. We didn't do it last night because it was too dark and we didn't find a functioning flashlight until 4am. We got it laid down pretty quickly and a good thing because the roofers arrived at 7:30 and had most of the roof off by 8:30.

Before:

During:

After:

Oops:

I came home from bringing our daughter to an activity and at 12:30 the roof was done. I did some magnet work to make sure that the nails from the roofing were all picked up, and not surprisingly I found some, so the roofer with the big magnet bar ran over the ground again. We found a bunch.

The roofers installed GAF Timberline shingles, Pewter Gray (Natural Shadow), an architectural shingle, and while I will be most happy if I never have to get up at 4am to deal with leaks, the new roof looks great. The only problem was that Cheryl noticed that we have a broken window now. I suspect that it got hit by a ladder or something, but this should be easy to fix.

More Day 38 pictures.