Cabinets and Countertops!

Pictures are worth 1,000 words at this point, so I'll keep the text to a minimum and just show lots of pictures of the progress this week.

Sunday night:

Monday night:

Tuesday night:

And a few details:

I can't believe these floors were going to be thrown out!

We're loving the combination of the quartersawn oak, bronze hardware, and marble. The cabinet maker said his wife saw the island and wanted it in her kitchen!

Tomorrow we get faucets and gas lines connected and maybe appliances installed!

Three and a half weeks down!

During Week 2, the remaining drywall on the ceiling was removed along with all the old plumbing and electrical wiring. Halfway through our East coast trip, we got this picture from our contractor to update us. All those studs are brand new because the old ones were so uneven - not the mention the ceiling was sagging - that the new, level cabinets wouldn't have fit correctly.

By the end of Week 3, new electrical, plumbing, insulation, and drywall were all in. We were told it was time to paint, so we painted...and then we were told it wasn't time to paint yet...we'll be painting again this weekend...

The original wood floors were covered by a subfloor and two layers of linoleum. We removed the linoleum and got it to look like this.

Then, the contractors removed the subfloor and it looked like this (wood with tar on it).

After some sanding and lots of paint thinner, it looked like this. They also had to mill new floor pieces from reclaimed white oak wood (because there were some pieces with large holes from previous plumbing coming up from the basement below), so you can see some of the brand new pieces in this picture (left, middle). Apparently new trees are conditioned to grow faster than trees 80 years ago, and this affects how the wood absorbs stains and finishes. Thus, we went with custom-milled, reclaimed oak (ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching) versus using new wood since we were patching the floor.

And at the end of the day today, this is what it looks like.  Three different grits of sandpaper and it's like new...yet 75 years old. Beautiful!

One week down!

When we left town this past weekend, this is what our kitchen looked like. After one week of renovations, we headed East for two weeks to give the crew time and space to work (and to get us and Ellie away from the dust). After two days of professionals working, all the walls, insulation, and subfloor were out. And under the subfloor we found original hardwood floors! Needless to say, we're looking for an alternate use of the unreturnable cork flooring. :-)

Sometimes the "after" pictures don't quite do the effort-to-date justice, so maybe a comparison will help. Here's a photo of the kitchen from the real estate listing when the house was for sale last fall.

 And here's how it now looks with a larger cased opening connecting it more with the dining room beyond it.

Plumbing and lighting have been laid out and hopefully this week it's all being installed so drywall can go in next week. By the time we're back on August 18th, it should be time to paint, which is good, since we're doing that part!