Week 15
This week brings the completion to the flooring. The tile is grouted and sealed, now it awaits some cabinets to sit on top. We started to think about paint colors, to no avail. This may be the hardest part of the kitchen to date. Too many choices, so little time. Good thing that we have hired our own interior decorator, Cloure de Cocktail, he is French and very expensive. I am sure that he will do our kitchen justice.
Next up, drywall patching, painting and cabinet assembly. After our weekend getaway to Chicago. Then back on track to the completion of the kitchen.
Week 14
Cinderella would be great at laying tile and grouting. After finishing up the floor tile this weekend, I have new appreciation for my knees. The grout color is Nutmeg, and should match the cabinets nicely. The tile is 90% complete, the only thing left is 3 days of curing with 2 daily mistings and sealing the grout on Thursday. Then the floor will be finished.
The window received another coat of paint on the exterior trim, only a little bit of caulking is left to do. We also picked up some sample paint colors for the wall. Deciding is the hardest part of this whole process.
Shrimpy made a new friend this week, a match made in heaven, Shrimpy Jr.
Week 13
Lucky 13 has come and gone and so has the 80yr old kitchen window. Saturday was window installation 101. Maybe we should have invited Lowe's to join us. When we ordered the window we placed the Rough Opening size to be 6'-0" x 42 1/4". The typical window order then subtracts a nominal size from that to give clearance for installation. Guess what size window we received, 6'-0" x 42 1/4". Nothing that Old Faithful Sawzall can't handle, only we can't handle it because of saw parts overheating in our hands. Other than that little snafu, the window install was textbook.
Then can some subfloor TLC. There was some crafty floorboard reinforcing and replacing, some recycling of old cabinet faces and general hole filling in. There is nothing better than seeing the Washer from the kitchen. Uncovered was an ancient colony of yucky bugs, who called the floor home a long time ago. Then Diesel ate them. We stayed up into the wee hours attached the backer board to the subfloor via mortar to help level out the floor and make a solid base for tile. That is fine except for the gaping air gap between planks and the morter stalactites that have formed in the laundry room. There are exactly 400 screws in the floor to anchor the systems together.
Sunday brought a late morning because we had the sleep in to ensure that the floor had set overnight. Tile has been laid, on the 45, and looks great. The floor is about 75% down with most of the cut border pieces left to go. Knock on wood subfloor, we still have 45 pieces of tile left and have not come across one broken piece. Recruiting for grout layers officially starts Monday. We will look for volunteers first.
Week 12
This week has brought on more work, after a long week of moving to the new office, there is nothing more refreshing than back breaking work at home. The drywall is complete, minus a few small touchups. The entire room is primed and ready to accept a to be determined paint color. Probably Universal Khaki if Joe has his way, but this is my project after all.
The top layer of floor has been removed and the subfloor screwed in tightly all in hopes that the backer board will find a home by the end of the week. This was the hardest sorest work we have done in a long time. Joe bailed early because he stabbed his finger with a piece of wood and it bled a little. Then he jabbed the crowbar in his leg. No tetanus required.
The window is in at the other Home Improvement Warehouse that shall not be named. But as our luck has it, the window made it but not the screens. Lucky for us later in the week they were reunited and await pick up for this weekend.
Sunday was mostly dedicated to the World Cup Soccer Game. I got to play real kitchen at the Horsts prepping for game day party, French and Italian theme of course. It was a nice break from working on the kitchen, nothing but soccer, beer and cornhole. Just like real summer time fun as a kid. Of course we rooted our homeland of Italy, and they won, head butt and all. I will start to worry when John makes a nest in bed like Diesel because France lost and Zidane is a thug.
Up this week, window installation and floor tiling.
Week 11
This week brings little productivity, all energy was spent trying to get Diesel out of bed. He has been in severe withdrawal and depression since the "incident". As you will see, he has made a permanent home in bed, making a pillow and blanket out of the sheets. The other two cats have tried to get him out of bed, but he refuses.
On the kitchen front, IKEA has made good on their royal mess up on our cabinet order. After being accused of not being able to count and a magical "easy" spreadsheet to follow appears, we finally have our complete order. The sometimes nice and sometimes not so nice Deena from IKEA drove the missing part of our order from Pittsburgh all the way to Columbus to make sure everything was finally in order. Luckily, Mom Berardi was there to accept the delivery, and Joe made an appearance at lunch to make sure things were kosher. I was no where near, seeming the last conversation ended firm, but not so pleasant.
Final mudding of the drywall has begun.
