Mini Update

Yes I'm holding out for a bigger update... the bathroom is really close to being done - basically all I have to do is put in the medicine cabinet, the last four tiles and touch up the plaster in a few places that got dinged but that takes time. And the small plaster trowel and I have no idea where that's hiding... I've been delayed for the last two days by other things and feeling too tired to work which happens sometimes when you put in 12 hours a day working on the house on saturday/sunday. Tomorrow I should be back in action.

The kitchen still looks ugly but it's moving forward at least. After I spend some time touching up the piece that I'm building to go between the small cabinet to the right of the dishwasher and the dishwasher I'll be moving a little faster again.

Ovens and cabinets

The oven is finally in and powered on. This was a big worry of mine, since the oven was a floor model and came from a different source than everything else. Best case is that it works fine (although it's missing a $15 trim piece at the bottom that I need to order) / worst case is that it doesn't work at all. Luckily when I turned the circuit on everything worked fine. On a side note, the wife can lift a whole lot more than she leads everyone to believe... we had no problem getting the oven up and into its space in the cabinet at all.



I also installed 4 cabinets today. Wanted to do more, but it took a long time to build a shelf strong enough to hold a 190lb oven in one of them. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the others taken care of. Two of them will be a challenge. One has a cutout to go over the vent, while the other has a half dozen cutouts for water and drain lines as well as an electrical outlet. Fun stuff. The good news is that once those are done all the cabinets are in and I can do other things like plaster and grouting, lastly installing the crown along the top of the cabinets and baseboards. I'd like to say that it'll all get wrapped up tomorrow but every day feels like there are only one or two more left to go. Maybe this time I'll be right about it.

Thursday Progress

Finally a few pictures of what all of this looks like. I didn't do a lot this evening - it's a short day because of a thursday night activity we go to. I put up the cabinet that goes over the refrigerator, brought in the big one the wall oven will go in, and cleaned up. Also lots of planning.





The cabinet for the oven will need to be modified for the oven to fit. Scary as it sounds, I'll be putting that in this weekend. Somehow. For starters, the hole in front isn't big enough. Better be careful trimming that because any mistakes will show. Then I get to build in support along 3 of the sides of the cabinet. Oven's gotta sit on something you know. Once that's in (done at the same time the cabinet goes in so I can hit as many studs as possible) I can find a way to install the oven and off we go. The one thing left over after that is that we need to find a new trim piece that goes along the bottom. Somehow that didn't make it. Luckily Sears carries it in stock and it's inexpensive.

This weekend will bring some big changes. I'll get done installing the cabinets because that's the most important part, then move on to preparing the walls and plastering them, and lastly the dishwasher will go in and the floors get grouted. Every day it looks like the end of this project is right around the corner and this weekend is no exception.

Multi-room Update

I've been busy since the last post. In the kitchen, the cabinets hanging on the wall above the cooktop are in, and the microwave is installed and up and running. All the fun stuff that makes that work (electrical and venting) took ages to do and I've got the cuts from making the vent ducting to prove it. The laundry room is also more or less put back together. Still need to finish up with grouting and baseboards in there. I think I'm happiest about having the microwave in. It's coooool compared to the old one, and it took less than a week from when the old one went out to the new one going in.

In the bedroom, the update is that the furniture is finally in! Things are getting close to being done in there; I lack reworking the blinds, cleaning the carpet and getting something nice to hang on the wall. Also the mirror was damaged during shipping so we'll have to wait on that.

Tomorrow I plan on getting the drywall back in one piece and grouting underneath the refrigerator. I also want to get the small cabinet that goes above it in, and I think I'll get to work on the huge cabinet where the wall oven goes. I don't think it'll be that big of a challenge to get in, but the challenge will be... getting it in. It's taller than the doorway and weighs a ton. It's also upside down right now. Anyway that's tomorrow. Friday will be finishing up where I left off there, and doing floor cabinets. Kind of crazy to think about it but I'll be more or less done with my work in the kitchen before long. Probably within a week. I guess after that it'll be time to throw down some tile in the bathrooms upstairs and start working on smaller stuff.

The end is in sight. It may not be near, but I can see things start to finish up.

Tile is DONE

The tile is finally DONE. Under the refrigerator, the hard pieces to cut where the kitchen and living room meet, under the washer and dryer, in the pantry and under the water softener. DONE. Even a small strip behind and in between the cabinets so all 4 sides will be supported by tile. Should make shimming the cabinets a lot easier...

I didn't do a lot else besides that. Just cleaning up some which is never enough, and grouting under where the washer and dryer will go so they can go where they belong tomorrow. Also got a few supplies for tomorrow and read up on the installation guide for the new microwave. Should be pretty easy.

So the gameplan for tomorrow is to pick up where I left off. Put the washer and dryer back, take care of everything the microwave will need, do a bit of plastering on the walls and put in the microwave. Basically a bunch of small stuff. Should be some pics tomorrow to look at because it'll start looking pretty different really quickly around here.

Two posts in the same day!

Actually finished everything I planned for the day. That's a first...



Snowy wonders why I won't walk around in the kitchen like he does.



It looks terrible but the stuff had to come out so I could tile the laundry room. At least that's done so I can go ahead and grout tomorrow and put the washer and dryer back in. Unfortunately we'll be without water for most of the day because I have to move the water softener so I can tile underneath it, and then the thin set has to take some time to dry before it can go back. I'll try and do this as early as possible to try and minimize the inconvenience.

So tomorrow the plan is to tile the last few odds and ends that need to be done, then do a little grouting in the laundry room and move on to working on the microwave wiring and vent. After that's done the sheetrock will need to be patched and then plaster can go up. I may just focus on that one area so I can get a few cabinets put back up and think about installing the microwave. If all that is done tomorrow I'll consider myself very lucky. Scary thing is, if I work hard on this the kitchen may be put back together by the end of the week except for countertops.

Saturday Morning Already?

I put down another 50lb thin set bag worth of tile this evening. Could've done more, but the two pieces going from the kitchen to the laundry room and pantry were really complex. Luckily I think those are the only nasty cuts. There's another doorway to deal with but I got lucky how everything comes together around it. Several small cuts on a bunch of tiles = good. Complex cuts on one tile = bad.

So anyway the informal dining room is done and the laundry room and pantry are getting there. The kitchen has all of two tiles in. The gameplan for tomorrow is, first do the kitchen minus the refrigerator and place where the dishwasher will go. Next, pull the washer and dryer out of the laundry room and do that + the pantry - the spot under the water softener. That should keep me busy most of the day. Those missing spots - I'll do those on Sunday and grout everything.

Sunday I'll be free to relocate the microwave plug and move the venting into the wall. It was a downdraft vent and took up a ton of space in the cabinet. Both of us hated it. Right now there's a 6in (or maybe 9?) inch pipe coming up from the foundation as the vent line going out but that shouldn't be hard to work with. Otherwise on Sunday I'm basically going to just do plaster and maybe if I'm lucky hang some overhead cabinets. Once those are in we'll be able to hook up the first of the new appliances, making it a grand total of 3 days that we used my brother's microwave from when he was in the dorm. Not bad.

By the end of next week I basically expect to be done minus the granite. Doesn't that sound familiar...