Kitchen Planning

Since I don't have tile, and I don't have moisture barrier and therefore can't work on anything in the bathroom (ugh) I've been spending some time getting things ready for the kitchen. So far we've figured out what to do with the walls and have it down to two candidates on the flooring. Both of us are leaning towards the striped one...







The reason a piece of flooring is in there with some of the pictures is because it'll sit next to the wood floor in a couple of places, and because it's really close to the color we're going with for the cabinets. The lines really pick up a lot of the blue and brown tones, which is a huge part of why we're leaning towards this option. We'll probably be looking at a granite that's silver in color and a backsplash that's a multi-color / multi-shape and size blue mosaic glass tile.

In bathroom news... it's looking like the flooring and travertine that I ordered way back when will be here on Monday so tomorrow I will be picking off the last few spots of mastic left here and there and checking one last time for level so we'll be ready to go when the stuff comes in. I'm hoping to have a test layout done the same day and to start installing the stuff Tuesday. The moisture barrier is supposed to get here soon. Apparently the place I ordered it from had a system failure on July 5th and all of their orders placed online were somehow never processed. Whatever, as long as the stuff gets here soon.

Bathroom Held Hostage

The title pretty much says it all - that's what it's all come down to.

The flooring was ordered 6 months ago... guess what's not in yet? No floor = no cabinets = can't order granite = no mirror and backsplash. The moisture barrier was ordered close to 2 weeks ago so this I'm a little more understanding about. No moisture barrier = no shower and backsplash around the bath tub.

So what have I done? The hamper is up now. The doors weren't installed in the frame when it all arrived, so I built it up in another room to get the position of the doors correct, then installed it in the bathroom once that was set.



It came out pretty well... still needs hardware though but we have something picked out. The whole thing was designed to mirror the existing one, and the shelves that are built into the space. The old one was very well built and we're glad to be able to design a new piece that will pick up where the old front left off.



The lighting and plaster is also finished. This required running a few feet of new wire since we went from one fixture to two. Also two boxes because there wasn't one for the original light. From the look of things they realized there was only going to be one light after the sheetrock and wallpaper was up. It's nice having a regular light again! Door casing is also back up - it needed a few minor adjustments but it's back where it belongs again.



So at this point there is absolutely nothing left to do that doesn't require the flooring or moisture barrier. What to do now? I made a blueprint for the kitchen and will go check out a few stone and tile places, hopefully getting in an order by Wednesday. No, none of them are Carpet Source because dealing with them has been a total nightmare. I can think of absolutely no reason to recommend the place to anyone. If nothing gets in soon I guess I'll have to start working on the kitchen, or maybe paint the main bedroom although we were putting that off... I'll find something to keep busy.

One Month In

Today I'm about a month in to the project. Things have been going pretty well - so far there haven't been any big surprises, and I'm pretty much on schedule.

Since the last update I've turned the corner from removing things to installing new stuff. The biggest piece is that the plumbing is done now. The old shower and bath valves are something from Mixet. They're really small compared to the new Delta ones we have now. Both still worked, but probably didn't have a whole lot of time left before they start to leak.





I also installed the new bathroom fan. The new one is MUCH quieter. It's a Panasonic that I picked up on Amazon. This one is properly sized for the bathroom and water closet and includes a night light which is a nice touch. For anyone installing one in existing construction, to make the night light work you will need to put in a short run of wiring from your light/fan switches to the new fan or else there's no way for the light to be on all the time - if you wire it up with everything else the night light is on a switch with the light or fan, and there's no point to having it anymore. The difficulty in doing this ranges from easy to next to impossible depending on how your house is built and how many walls you have open at the time for some other reason.

Yesterday and today I installed the doors in front of the bathtub. Now there will be access to the plumbing and pump, and the jetted bathtub will be up to code. Earlier I was planning on waiting for the flooring to get in but doing it now works just as well.



At this point, until I either get in the stone for the floor or the moisture barrier for the shower and tub there's not a lot that I can do anymore. Tomorrow I'm cleaning up and painting the baseboards but really that's about it. The tile for the shower and backsplash came in, but I can't put that in yet because I need to waterproof the shower. The cabinets and hamper are here, but I can't install those because I need the floor to be in place. We'll see which comes in first. If delays get too bad I'm either moving on to finishing the rain gutters behind the house or removing wallpaper from the dining room. Both have to be done sometime.

It's nice to be completely finished with removing anything and finally building again. If materials start coming in soon I could be done in under two weeks. Here's to hoping for no big delays!

Day... Notsurehowmany

It's been a little over a week since the last update. Things have been going pretty smoothly though - about as good as they can be anyway. Here's what all has been going on.

The people I talked too were too flaky to get me a quote for how much it would be to remove the tile, so last week I just did it myself. There were a couple of problems though... I started on Monday and noticed that the compressor wasn't running very well. On Tuesday it had enough and left me stranded 1/3 of the way through the job so I had to get another one - bigger of course. Long story short, the tile was out 5 days after I started.

The shutoff valve for the toilet and the hot water line on the left side sink leaked so they were replaced. My only advice - don't bother trying to reuse the nut and compression ring on the water line. 2 times out of 3 it won't work, and you'll just have to cut the line and put a new one on anyway.

We ran into a little problem removing the sinks and countertop because of one thing I overlooked. I had no idea just how heavy that thing is! 6 feet of cultured marble weighs a whole lot more than I can manage, and I didn't want to try and break it up because that would mean debris flying everywhere, and even more stuff that I'd have to break up and bag so the trash guy would take it. Finally someone came over to help this evening and we got it out. This will allow us to do three things.

Work on replacing the valve for the tub because it can only be accessed from behind.


I can finally take out the cabinets.

I can plaster that short wall off to the right.

Sometime soon I will also need to work on a little construction problem that came up before the foundation was poured. The drain line for the sinks was about an inch too far in to the bathroom, so now I have to make a workaround for this. I have a couple of ideas and it won't come out perfect, but it will look better than it does now. The big hole was covered in plywood with two layers of wallpaper on top - I didn't cut it. Luckily this is below the vanity so it won't show very well.


I spent a little time tracing the electrical lines behind the big light fixture and so far it's looking good. Instead of going down the middle it looks like the electrician ran the wiring down towards the right, to what would be the right side if there were two fixtures instead of the one long one in there now. That will make life a lot easier when I get around to installing new lighting.

Tomorrow the shower will finally come out and that will pretty much wrap up the demolition work. This weekend it'll be time to install some new plumbing for the shower and bathtub, and then I will be able to start working on the cement board for the shower.

I would be able to start test fitting the floor, but Carpet Source (12027 Huebner Road) has broken their delivery date for the stone and tile I ordered twice now. The latest time was because they thought they had the material but they don't (so how did they expect to deliver it the first time???). At this point I am tired of excuses and can no longer recommend them to anyone. They're great at sales, but bad at delivery and following through. They're supposed to call tomorrow about a new time... hopefully the third try will work out.