Kitchen cabinets ordered!

Ok, now the clock starts ticking on the kitchen renovation (which is intimately tied to re-doing the small bath upstairs, adding a powder room, and adding a laundry room downstairs).  Last Saturday, Em made her final cabinet decisions and we paid a deposit for the cabinets’ delivery 7-9 weeks hence.  One of the last decisions was whether to put a pantry to the right of the fridge (more food storage), or a countertop with cabinets above and below (a place to put your groceries and things you take out of the fridge).  She chose the pantry.

Meanwhile, my plumbing repairs are still holding–no leaks!

Recent photos

Here’s Emily with dust mask while working at the computer (no, it couldn’t have been that bad!): 

Here’s Steve sanding away at the ceiling, creating dust for Emily’s filter: 

Here is a shot of the guest room with paint samples:     Poor Emily agonized over that one.  Final selection:  a yellow/tannish/greenish mix for the guest room, and a steel blue for the den.  With white trim, they both look nice.

Here Em and our good friend Nicole who helped prime the two rooms a few weeks ago.  All that’s left now is install some trim and the closet doors, touch up some paint, switch our door hinges (the old ones are covered in a hundred years of paint)

Here’s a picture of my second plumbing attempt (I already had cut and capped some lines with success).  No wonder I had several pinhole leaks.  Let me tell you, “sweating” (soldering) two pipes together is not easy!  It is simple, yet can easily get screwed up by oxidation, not enough flux, residual water, and so forth.  I replaced 20′ of galvanized pipes yesterday because I didn’t want to pay many hundreds of dollars for a plumber to do it.  Ok, so I screwed up the first time; today I reworked about 12 joints and didn’t have a single leak.  See the photo of a new, professional Plumber Steve:  I’m not going to quit my day job just yet.

We’re using Angel Floors to redo our old Red Georgian Pine floors that have had zero maintenance for decades.  Will the floors ever look perfect?  No.  But stay tuned for the after shots–they look good.  Here’s the sander padlocked to our radiator; good thing, like I was going to take it out for a spin:

We’re in process of redoing the stairwell, half of which was rotted plaster from the water leaks (ah, last year’s ice dams; this fall’s roof leaks–who could forget).

Musings

My life is:  get up, work, come home, sleep, repeat five times, work all weekend on the house, repeat from the beginning.  Though predictable, it’s a good life.  I think I actually have more fun on the house, and wish my weekend were five days long.  Besides, construction (especially demolition) is the ultimate stress reducer.  It’s good physical exercise, too (I’ve lost five lbs. in the last few weeks sanding, painting, etc.)

Here’s a short list of what’s happened in the last month:  den and guest room primed and painted; floors sanded and–today–being stained with MinWax stain and coated with the first of three layers of polyurethane; basement doors replaced with steel, insulated doors; large basement window replaced with window that matches the rest of the house; rear stairway and upstairs hall re-sheetrocked; final kitchen cabinet decisions made (will order this Saturday); and plumber chosen (and let me say, his kids probably have braces and will go to Harvard, for what this job will cost us!).

Though we don’t know of anything being stolen from us, here’s a list of what contractors have left behind:  nice screwdriver, gloves, specialized window trim tool, a/c register template, and heavy duty extension cord.  They’ve also left behind cigarette butts, open ketchup containers, and various trash items.

 Scare of the week:  the door contractor, by mistake, took away one of my two doors I’ve been refurbishing.  That was a problem, in part because the upstairs closet was specifically measured for these doors.  Luckily, the crew still had it on their truck and was able to return it.  I hope the door sent postcards detailing its journey.

I’m too much of a perfectionist.  Little imperfections (e.g., a slight ripple in the sheetrock ceiling that I installed, taped, and sanded) that no one else would notice, drive me crazy.  I notice them, and consequently have to fix them.  On my gravestone it will say, “He scraped paint of the inside closet trim that no one will ever notice.”  I bet Obama and Clinton don’t get involved with such minutiae.