Hardwood Flooring

They installed the new red oak hardwood flooring today in the kitchen.  They had to piece it into the old flooring and the flooring guy, Edi, tried to pick out wood of similar grain.  No more ugly plywood to look at!

Pantry Floor

Chris and I are exhausted today as they originally said they wouldn't start sanding the other rooms until Wednesday morning but they were able to move so quickly they thought they might start today so we spent almost four hours moving the big, heavy furniture to the garage.  I won't mention who wanted to start this on Sunday as I thought it might take longer than we thought :)  But after that experience we will be hiring movers to move it all back in!

Week of January 15th

The week of January 15th was spent drywalling and mudding.  There was only a one man crew here so they didn't quite finish.  Saturday they had all three guys here and worked all day screwing down the subfloor good, moving a heat duct and adding one that will come out below the kitchen sink.  They also took down the walls of plastic on Saturday which created a large dustball with dust everywhere.  I was at a funeral so a big thanks to Chris and Emma for cleaning up.  But it was so awesome to finally see my vision with the wide open spaces and the flow from the front door to the family room.  Plus moving the door to the formal dining area really connects the living room/dining room to the rest of the house and allows for a much better flow.

View from family room to front door

View from foyer to family room

View from doorway between LR and DR to family room

View from far side of kitchen to front door and living room

Coat closet in laundry room

Day Nine and Ten

Friday they finished the electrical rough in, pulled more wires and installed the conduit for the under cabinet lighting.  They also started drywalling the ceiling.  Saturday the plumbers came and did all the rough in for the old sink and the new sink in the island and installed the gas line for the range top.  I was surprised it took them all day with two of them working as it seems so simple but obviously takes more effort than it looks.  

We are down to a one man crew for this week and he is busy putting up the rest of the drywall.  With a single person team it is taking quite awhile to make any real progress so I can see why he will need all week. Here are the latest pictures:

Plumbing for larger sink under kitchen window

Plumbing for new island sink

Walls drywalled and new doorway to dining room framed in

Old doorway to dining room drywalled in

Ceiling drywalled

Nook for refrigerator and double oven

Another view of kitchen window and doorway

Day Eight

Thursday, Jan. 11th

They started a little later today and did mostly electrical.  They were busy pulling wires and they moved the 220 amp outlet for the double oven.  The plumber also came an rerouted the vent for the sink (I was incorrect in the copper pipe going through the soffit was not a drain, but a vent :) ).  Here are a few pictures!

On left is the 220 amp outlet for double oven and on right separate outlet for the refrigerator

My last minute addition -- an outlet right inside the door to the pantry for a cordless broom

Vent rerouted through the wall and ceiling.  Code now requires PVC piping versus copper

Service switch next to the outlet for the garbage disposal required per code

And since there wasn't much exciting going on in the kitchen I thought I would throw in a few pictures of my cabinet configuration in the basement that once installed will be a craft area.  The upper cabinets are piled in the corner but it is nice to have an area to put some of the small kitchen appliances we are using since we don't have a kitchen. 

Also, I primed a small area of the basement ceiling to see what it would look like painted white.  Now to decide whether I want to tackle the whole area as it is a very messy job.

In the corner there is the countertop that went over our corner cabinet and dishwasher.  The corner cabinet was too large to fit through the basement door but I plan to have then install the countertop with support and it will be a nice workstation area for my sewing machine or cricut.

Day 6 and 7

Wednesday, Jan. 10th 

They have been busy wiring all the can lights and outlets and they framed out the opening for the larger window and ceiling above refrigerator and ovens.  I didn't realize how much work it is to put a few lights and outlets in :)   

Can lights in kitchen work and with ten in there it is very bright!

Two can lights in the pantry set to illuminate shelving to be installed

Old window removed and new header and framing installed for new window.  We will have two casement windows.

Day 5 Update

Monday, January 8th

They spent all day working on electrical.  Placement of the can lights down each side of the kitchen which they increased to a total of ten and lighting in the pantry and closet was done. They also placed outlets and switch boxes.  One guy also spent about half the day pulling nails that kept the mesh that was under the tile floor in place.  Fun job!  Lastly the hardwood flooring guy came out to measure and discuss our options.  Big decision as to whether we just redo the kitchen, family room area and hallway or redo it all so we ensure it matches.  Of course there is a big $$ difference between the two!  

Here are few pictures but there really isn't much to see right now!

Day 4 Update

Friday, Jan. 5th

They spent most of the day removing the tile floor which was set in mesh.  It took them over half a day.  They also completed framing in the walls in the pantry, closet and refrigerator and oven bump out.  Finally they removed the drywall from the two walls and most of the ceiling and cut out the new doorway to the dining room.  It seems like much of the demo is complete!

New doorway/old doorway to dining room

Vent pipe for upstairs bathroom that ran through the soffit and needs to be rerouted

Day 2 & 3

Combined post for Days 2 & 3 as Dana couldn't get in the house on Day 2 as the key broke off in the dead lock!  Thankfully the contractor's keys worked fine in the front door and they were able to punch out the deadbolt and open the door between the garage and house so they did not have to haul all the garbage and demo debris through the house!

They did more demo and removed the soffit, took down the paneling in the laundry room, removed the laminate flooring in laundry room and put some of the support beams in place.  They have the new pantry, closet and area for refrigerator and double oven framed out.  Below are a few pictures. 

Soffit removed

Support beam installed over where refrigerator and double oven will bump into old mudroom area

Old doorway between kitchen and dining room framed out and ready to be drywalled

Floor framing for pantry and refrigerator, double oven and small closet in old laundry room area.

Walk-in pantry doorway.  Will have 5 feet of shelves on long wall and 2 1/2 feet on short wall.  Shelves will only be 12 inches deep so I everything can be easily seen.  Also were able to configure so can door swing inwards versus out

They removed the soffit.  One surprise was the drain pipe from master bath ran through the soffit but according to contractor that is an easy fit.  Why they ran it down one wall to corner and then to window I do not know.  We also found another return vent in laundry room wall that needs to be rerouted.

Phase Two starts

We kicked off Phase Two of our remodel a couple weeks ago.  It started with us purging a tremendous amount of "stuff".  I first started with the storage area in the basement and went through old paint cans, filled about ten of them with kitty litter to absorb the paint and then disposed.  We had lots of odds and ends from other home repairs that we had kept "just in case" that went to the curb. We also recycled a few older appliances that I hadn't touched in several years and five tube TVs.  

This cleared up a lot of space in our storage area in the basement so we could tackle the next step which was removing a large cedar particle board closet built randomly in the basement by one of the previous homeowners.  Luggage, craft supplies, Christmas trees, and other odds and ends were moved to the storage area and the rest donated.  We tackled this on a Friday night and while a "few" interesting things fell from the top of the ceiling we got it disassembled in a few hours.    We took this apart because the closet was where I want to put the old kitchen cabinets and counters to create a craft area in the basement. 

Next weekend we started purging and packing the kitchen while Chris started removing items from the family room, dining room, and living room.  We moved the living room furniture up to the sitting room area of our bedroom and the family room furniture to the living room.  Another fun adventure moving the big leather sofa out the patio doors, around the house and in the front door!  It took more time to pack the kitchen than I thought as you never realize how much you have until you start looking in the back corners and upper shelves and cabinets and you have to pack it.  

So with everything packed up and moved out of the way and lots of things covered in plastic on all three floors in anticipation of the dust and mess we left for vacation on Sunday, Dec. 31st.  The contractors started on Tuesday, Jan. 2nd and from the pictures below that my friend shared they just removed the kitchen cabinets and appliances.  I am hoping they tackle removing the tile floor today as that was one of the messiest part of the job last time.  It is laid in metal mesh and it covered everything on every floor in dust and debris.