Rejiggerin' the Kitchen

From the time we first toured the house, the kitchen has been missing all the upper cabinets, and two of the lower cabinets (I mean, there's even holes in the hardwood for where the lower cabinets were, or should be).

Turns out, through a twist of fate that Kevin has an old friend who is an electrician, and helped on this house years ago. He came by recently to see what we were up to, and was surprised that the cabinets were missing, as he said they were custom built for the kitchen, and that the whole kitchen had been finished beautifully... (Even said he might try contacting the former owners and inquiring about the missing cabinets).

Well, as we can't count on us finding the original cabinets (and who's to tell what condition they're in if we find them), we went ahead and purchased the plywood (ok, we purchased the plywood before he mentioned he knew the former owners and could ask about them) to build new boxes for the missing cabinets. At the same time, we have some modifications we want to make...

The current kitchen configuration:





The bottom left corner is empty... This is where the lower cabinets are missing. Oven and microwave are against the south wall, fridge against the north wall. And a bump out where the chimney is walled in.

So, we want to move the microwave and oven cupboard to where the fridge is, and open up that south wall and make it into a bar, move the fridge to the west wall, and install a pantry as well...

Something like this:








We'll echo the arch of the wall similar to the break between the living and dining room:



So the red wall will open up, with a bar on the right looking into the kitchen, and then a pellet stove in the left corner.

Fun math = architectural doodling

This first one I was just measuring out the spaces available on the two walls where we need upper cabinets...



And this second one was designing the cabinet boxes, and how they'll fit/look around the window.



We had to look up the clearance above the range top... 30"!!! Yikes... The rest will be 18" off the counter... And I can't wait to do the full backsplash!!!

Anywho... Bedtime. G'night!

Trim Part 2!

Kevin went ahead and finished cutting the trim for 2 windows today! They look fantastic!!!! I'm so excited! Had to share!!

Before and after:

Fit and Trim!

Though it would be nice to say I'm feeling fit and trim (well, much better thanks to ACME Crossfit!!) I'm actually super excited that we got our moldings delivered today!!!! Never thought I'd be so ecstatic to see wood! (Uh, don't read into that). Lol.

Check it out!!!









Isn't that just so sexy? (Oh there I go again).

We'll be replicating the original window and door moldings throughout the house... Check out the original moldings:












So if you know wood, then this will make sense... If you don't, you can look at the pretty pictures. :)

* Top trim is 5/4x6 (15 deg angle on the ends)
* Legs (side pieces) are 1x5
* Windowsill is 5/4x4
* Skirt (under the sill) is 1x4
* Baseboards are 1/2x8, with a quarter-round shoe-base (mop-edge)






Kevin is also moving all the electrical outlets so they will be mounted sideways, and situated low on the baseboards.



Progress progress progress!!! We'll Start framing out the windows this weekend! If you want to come help (or see the progress) please feel free to drop by!

My Friend Craig

Oh yes, what would I do without Craigslist? Seriously, since we started this process, I've been on Craigslist nearly every day searching for everything and anything... From tools to tile, from drywall to light fixtures. And if you know what you're looking for (and willing to research the value of it before you buy) you can find some great stuff! 

One of the items I started digging for early on was glass mosaic tile for the backsplash in the kitchen. There were certainly patterns that I really loved, but many of them either I couldn't afford on such a tight budget, or just wouldn't work in a craftsman-style kitchen. My only absolute requisite was that I wanted glass. 

Then I found this Ukranian gal who had ordered way to much for her home remodel, and was selling off the extra. It was the right color, and the photo online showed square mosaic tile (really bad photos online, so I wanted to check them out in person). So we went to take a look... And yes, she had some square tile, but she also had the same color tile in the mini subway brick tile! Then the magic words "if you want a lot, I'll give it to you for a good price." A whopping $2.50 per sf. I was giddy!!! 

The other tile that I'd been looking at had been between $5 and $25/sf... So absolutely, I bought all she had... 106sf, brand new in box. Far more than I could possibly need for the backsplash, but better to have plenty than not enough. 

Had to put up a few and see how they will look! Still wrapped in plastic. :) Can't put them in till we get the upper cabinets finished. I can't wait!!

One Lysol Wipe at a Time

New house = moving.

All of my stuff has been packed up and been sitting in a barn for the last 7 months... Next to the barn is a chicken coop... And behind the barn, a large field... All of this spells = RATS.

We moved out of our last place in a hurry, so there really wasn't a lot of thought put into the packing process... And it was the middle of winter. By June, it became strongly apparent that we had definitely not packed correctly for storage on a farm... Evidenced by the rats eating anything they could get into. They got into corn meal, cake mixes, pasta, cereal, jello... Yeah, we lost nearly all the food that wasn't in cans or glass...

And as we started moving everything out of the barn and into a storage unit (not much room for the stuff in the house while were still renovating) the things we've decided to bring to the house have had to carefully be sorted, washed or Lysol wiped to death. I wasn't even cringing anymore as I wiped the rat footprints off my shelves and yoga ball, but I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the rest of it as it comes out of the storage unit in a few months (definitely learnedly lesson about food in storage... Not to mention they ate everything in the barn, so there was no perishable food left to move).

The laundry would be a heck of a lot easier to deal with if we could actually hook up our washer and drier. For now, it is piled in my dining room and taken in small batches to my brother-in-law's house, or the laundromat.

Go!!! DEMO!!!!

The best part of any house remodel? (Besides sitting back and relishing in the finished product) is Demolition. (Seriously, does anyone want to disagree with me on that??)

Literally the morning we were waiting for confirmation that we'd closed on the house (crazy to think that it can now be done all with electronic signatures and emails, when 10 years ago it was a big deal meeting with the closing agent and signing papers for days...) Quentin was ready with hammer and crowbar in hand, and only moments after we got the email (and sighed in relief, and danced in a circle), we jumped right in! All the trim and moldings came down, then we had such a party we tore the ceiling down, and circus left town... XD

Here's Quentin taking the wood paneling down in the soon-to-be-library/former-circus-tent.




After a great deal of struggling, they finally got the closet door out... Not only had it been caulked, and painted... But they had LOCKED IT! Had to fireman-kick the door in (which kinda destroyed the door and the door frame... But we're going to frame it in and drywall over it anyway).




Some of the super cool wallpaper we found under the wood paneling.






We also found some newspapers from the 1940's jammed around the window for insulation. Have to post some pictures of that!!

Taking down the acoustic ceiling tile in the front bedroom, we found this beautiful wall paper too!! (It's a soft pink/peach type color with an iridescent pattern on it)






Now we'd gone back and forth about maybe putting in a secret bookshelf that would conceal the stairs to the attic, and it seemed like an awesome idea... But unfortunately the stairs were super steep... Then my father-in-law comes by one day and says "why don't you just put in a real staircase, and have it come into the room?" Kevin and I both were like "ah... Duh... Why didn't we think of that?"

So, we got to work taking down the stairs.












And the very next day, Kevin went to work building a new staircase.



Not only did we widen the doorway, but we also have to take out a chunk of the ceiling to have enough head clearance to go upstairs. (Now let's pray we get all our permits for the attic, or this will just look silly).

Good news: there is a guy in our ward/neighborhood who is friends with the family, and he's on the city council... Sincerely hoping things will go well!!!!

Ready... Set...

Ok so... What can you do on a house before you close? (Well, you really shouldn't do anything as IT'S NOT YOURS YET, and there's still a chance the sale will fall through)... Well, me... I left town. Yep, ready to close on a new house, and I go on vacation. While I was gone though, Kevin and the kids got cracking on the landscaping. Only what they could do without spending any money.

(My sister told me a story that her realtor friend told her about a lady... Um ok... So some gal was almost closed on the house and was all excited to get rolling on her new pad, and spent $7,000 on new paint pimping this place out... And the sale fell through. Think she got her money back? Yeah, hard to take the paint back once it's on the WALL! Big fat donation to a house she would never live in). Moral of the story... Don't touch the house till you're 100% closed. (And who in their right mind spends $7,000 on paint anyway??)

Here are some before and after pics. They did a great job!







I think the pond transformation was the most stunning!!! Great job, Quentin, on all of his super hard work!!

The pump and motor still worked, and there didn't seem to be any leaks in the liner, but he dug out and cleaned and rearranged all that rock!! Then we got 4 Koi fish to snazz up the pond. Sadly, one of the four turned up missing within a few days, and a week later we found him belly up in one of the little rock caverns. We all worried he had been snatched up by some bird (we've got this big scrub jay's that lurk over the pond) or that maybe he was just so darn fast we never saw him... Then we found the body. Poor guy.