Tile Backsplash

On Friday morning while we were still at Steve & Lisa's we got a phone call from the tile workman to let us know they would be there soon to work on the back splash. That was very welcome news as we didn't think it would be started until Monday. When we got home that afternoon he was about halfway done with the work. He came back on Saturday to finish it up.

Neither Paul or I were real sure how the tile would look. When the boxes came we weren't sure the color was dark enough and there was some concern that the tiles would look funny as large as they were. They are 6 inch porcelain tiles. We knew we wanted something fairly plain so it didn't compete with the granite. The Granite guy and the contractor both tried to talk us into some design in the tile but we really wanted plain. They did talk us into the edges made out of granite. Here is the beginning of the work.

Here is what he did the first day.

Finished project. We are soooo happy with it!! The color is great, the design is enough to add to the look but not too much to overwhelm.

We weren't sure about the granite edges but I think they will be fine.

I do love the granite window sill!

Window sill and edge pieces with the granite.

Looking from the window seat to the new stove and back splash.

Looking from where the refrigerator will be. You can see the flooring in this picture. Most of it is covered up with paper so you can't see it yet.

One of the pendents over the island.

We are almost there. If everyone shows up it could be done this week. Okay, we are thinking maybe the next week!! We just have some more electric work, a little plumbing (hook up the ice maker water), trim around the bottom of the cabinets and finish work on the cabinets. Those are the main things so really not that much more. It will just take time to get everyone here and get all the little things finished. Home stretch!!

Wishing Everyone a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!

The Little Pilgrim

Cranberries dripping down my chin
Have stained my pilgrim suit.
I ate too much Thanksgiving day
But I don't give a hoot.
I slurped a pile of dressing,
Gobbled down a turkey thigh,
Dribbled messy cranberries
Devoured some pumpkin pie.
Within me on this special day
It's a thankful heart that beats.
For all the things that I enjoy
But mainly for the eats.

Unknown

Granite has Landed!!

The day we were thinking would never get here finally arrived. The Granite is in.......

As you can tell from the lack of postings things have slowed down a little. Some things have been getting done but mainly we have been waiting on the granite.

This was a very welcome sight this morning, the workers driving up to the house with the slabs in the truck.

Here is one of the countertops before they brought it in. This goes to the left of the stove.

One very large slab of granite. Gramps asked them afterwards how much it weighted and they said about 800 pounds! The two of them got it off the truck (I missed that, dang!) brought it in on the little dolly you can see at the bottom and then lifted it up onto the island by themselves!!

Finished!!! As you can see some of the cabinet doors are missing. This is what is called "One step forward and two backward!!" Some of the door panels shifted in the frame so they have to be redone. At least the company had no problem coming out and getting them and taking them back and fixing them but for a few days we can't see the finished product. You can see one of our new bar stools though! You can also see the new stove hood that went in yesterday. I love it!

Microwave is in. No electric pulled to it yet but it is in. Fits right into that opening like it was made for it. Oh, that's right it was!!

I think the picture shows a little more red than it is but it is close. As you can see some of the plastic between the rooms has fallen down. I helped it along a little this afternoon! I couldn't wait any longer!!

New sink. Dishwasher goes to the left.

Next week will start out with the flooring going in on Monday. I don't know if they will get the back splash in next week or not. That goes in back of the stove and all around the counter by the sink etc. It has seemed like forever but it is getting there now. The Thanksgiving holiday will push everything back some but a couple of more weeks should get to almost the end. I'm thinking three weeks but don't tell the contractors that!!

Poem: Sometimes by David Budbill

Sometimes
by David Budbill

Sometimes when day after day we have cloudless blue skies,
warm temperatures, colorful trees and brilliant sun, when
it seems like all this will go on forever,

when I harvest vegetables from the garden all day,
then drink tea and doze in the late afternoon sun,
and in the evening one night make pickled beets
and green tomato chutney, the next red tomato chutney,
and the day after that pick the fruits of my arbor
and make grape jam,

when we walk in the woods every evening over fallen leaves,
through yellow light, when nights are cool, and days warm,

when I am so happy I am afraid I might explode or disappear
or somehow be taken away from all this,

at those times when I feel so happy, so good, so alive, so in love
with the world, with my own sensuous, beautiful life, suddenly

I think about all the suffering and pain in the world, the agony
and dying. I think about all those people being tortured, right now,

in my name. But I still feel happy and good, alive and in love with
the world and with my lucky, guilty, sensuous, beautiful life because,

I know in the next minute or tomorrow all this may be
taken from me, and therefore I've got to say, right now,
what I feel and know and see, I've got to say, right now,
how beautiful and sweet this world can be.

"Sometimes" by David Budbill. Reprinted without permission of the author but with gratitude.

Cabinets almost done!!

Most of the cabinet installation is complete. They are still missing a couple drawer fronts and the lazy Susan door and two of the glass doors on the hutch. (how did Susan get so lazy?)

Other than that, fixing a couple small problems and doing a little touch up and they are done!!! These pictures are taken from where the bird's cage used to be in the front hall working toward the back patio.

Window seat, sink under far window and stove straight ahead.

Island. The granite will add about 5 inches to the end and 4 inches to the sides. Bar stools will be on this end and on the right side, facing to the front of the house.

Charging station. Garage door straight ahead. If you look at the floor you can tell where the wall used to be.

You can see the hutch in the dining room.

Bar stool side of the island. I didn't add a picture of the other side. Next time. The other side has the main drawers and shelves in it. This side will just be hold things we don't use very often as we will have to move the bar stools to get to them.

Where the sink will be.... I can look out the window. Dishwasher to left of "sink"

Refrigerator wall. Microwave will be in opening on right side of Refrigerator.

Hutch in dining room. The two opening on the sides of middle shelve unit will have doors with glass in them. The shelves will also be glass. Under counter lights and lights in top of hutch in glass area and middle also.

Handles on doors.

Knobs on drawers.

That's it for tonight. What do you all think? Feed back?!?

General Contractors

http://www.jmaconstruction.com/

*

I have waited until Week Four to post the information about our General Contractor. I think I did that so I could tell if we like them or not. I think it is safe to say: We do. We had several people come out and give us estimates on the kitchen and we liked John and Lorri Azar the best.

The price was in line with all the others and we just felt comfortable with them. I liked having Lorri there to help me through some of the steps. It is nice being able to call her with questions. Paul got their number through an ad in the Acorn Newspaper. When they first came out they told us they had done our neighbor's addition, kitchen remodel about 19 years ago. The funny thing was that John remembered Darcy from that time!! He said she was around 13 at the time and she brought cookies over for the workers. She doesn't remember anything about that and I sure don't!! She was friends with the neighbor girl that was her age. Check out the funny tv ad on the web page!!

Both Paul and I wanted to go with a General Contractor instead of trying to manage the job ourselves. Neither one of us felt that we knew enough about what had to be done to do it ourselves. I think we are both very, very happy that we went this way!! There have been a few minor hiccups but we just had to call the Boss (or the Boss Lady) and hear "Don't worry, we will fix it!" They set up for the plumbing and the electric and drywallers and painters. They planned when people should be out and what needs to be done first, second etc. There is no way I would have known what to do and in what order!! We still question some of the order of things but it seems with talking to other people that have had their kitchens done it is the order that everyone goes with. See, we would have done it differently and everyone knows that differently isn't always better!

http://www.1creativewoodworks.com/

The only subcontractor that we didn't go with was the cabinets. The company that JMA usually goes with came in several thousand over the estimate and they finish the cabinets in the house after they install them. I'm sure that is great for most people but with my fumes "issue" we didn't think that would be the smartest idea. We saw his work and it was very, very nice but we went with another company that has a spray booth so they finish at the company. Christy had them several years ago and she had been very pleased with them so that was good enough for me! They were very helpful in the design stage walking us through several different problem areas. I wanted a semi-walk-in pantry and they talked me out of it. Now that I am looking at what they did come up with I will have to say they were correct!!

When we first went over to meet with Steve Hull, the owner he walked us through their new workshop area. Wow, they have massive machines to help with the building and spraying and drying. It is a new shop for them and it is very impressive. This is not your neighborhood handyman doing the cabinets!! The quality of the cabinets that they are installing now shows that also! We are very pleased with them.
This is the fourth day they are here and they should be finishing up most everything today. There will be a couple of things that they will have to come back and finish but almost everything will be done tonight!! How exciting!!

I will try and post some pictures of the cabinets in the next couple of days. Paul thinks everyone must be getting bored with my day by day posting but I figure you can read what you want and skip the rest!! At least this way I have a record of everything. With my memory that is very important!!!

Week Three Wrap-Up

I didn't get anything posted last week so I will try and wrap up the whole week. It was a little confusing this past week but everything worked out in the end. It always does I guess.

Tuesday morning the city posted signs that they were going to slurry the street on Thursday and that the street was going to be closed. Help!! We had the large dumpster out front in the street!! Several calls later to the contractor, the city and then the trash company calling me all was taken care of and the dumpster was moved into the driveway on Wednesday morning. It just added a little excitement to our lives.

The cabinets were going to be delivered on Thursday so that was pushed back a day also.

Also on Monday Grandpa decided to have his ceilings scraped and the house painted. Busy, busy street!! He got to stay down in his house until today (Monday) but he will be up here while they finish the bedrooms and the rest of the house. I was kind of worried about him staying down as long as he did as the fumes are very strong.

My little doggy looking into the kitchen area. He hasn't be allowed back into the area and he can't understand why!! He has been getting a little worked up with everyone here so I have had to start disciplining him a little more. He goes crazy whenever someone gets near the doors. I think with a little work he should be fine. I hope so at least!! I don't like feeling that I can't trust him!!

This is the sign I put on the back door to remind the workers not to let the dog in or out! My little doggy is a lot cuter than the little doggy in the picture!!

I didn't show you the back porch before. It is just like having a summer cabin with the refrigerator on the back porch!! I'm glad the weather has been as nice as it has been. At least it isn't Alaska and freezing!!


Here the kitchen is after the texture and the primer paint was put on.

Refrigerator wall.

Exciting times!! The cabinets are being delivered!!

Dining room hutch coming in.

Kitchen area. No doors on them so they look funny but so nice anyway.

My new window seat. I told the cabinet man he didn't have to put a good piece of wood on the top as it would be covered with cushions but no go. He wouldn't put something on that didn't look great. He "threw" the top in with the deal so he could be happy too!

Refrigerator wall. The refrigerator will go between the two cabinets. My "charging station" cabinet is on the end. It is a lot more than I was thinking about at first. I just wanted someplace to put the cell phones but what I got was a beautiful piece of furniture!! There is bookcases on the top and cabinets on the bottom.

Lots and lots of cabinets!!!

This is close to the color of the wood. Maybe not quite as red but pretty close. You can see the Shaker style that will be on the doors. This is one of the ends of the island.

As I am writing this I can hear the banging of the cabinets going in. It will take a couple of days to get them in as there are so many!! I can't wait to see them in with the doors. So far we are very happy with the workmanship. We are even very happy with the color. We weren't sure if we would like what we picked out. Both of us are so bad at colors and decorating!! So far so good. More soon.