More Cabinets!

The office area cabinets are up and the kitchen cabinets are almost finished. The bookcase is the only one that has not yet been installed, though it is leaning in the space it will be attached. Everything looks really nice and it surprising how much bigger the room seems with cabinets in it. My worries about the office space being too small were unfounded. That area is plenty big for a desk.

The cabinets should be finished by the end of today. [I think that includes the crown molding.] Then they will move on to prepping the subfloor for Marmoleum. We've fallen behind getting that ready so we rushed out last night to pick a color and get the installation lined up. We finally chose Carribean. They're coming out to measure tomorrow, but it will be another 2-3 weeks before they can install so it looks like there will be a delay in the finish work. I don't think the appliances can go in until the flooring is down. We're kicking ourselves for the indecision about flooring, but we're hoping to have the electrical finish work done by the end of the week at least.

Cabinets

Cabinets started going in yesterday, and today the kitchen part of the cabinetry is nearly done. Just need to finish the fridge surround and install the shallow bookcase next to it. No cabinets started in the office area yet, though.


Dave was worried because the design calls for 34" panels on either side of the fridge, and all he could find in our order were 30" panels -- and lots of 'em. But Kathryn reminded me that the guys would need to fabricate the 34" panels out of the 30-inchers, which is why we got so many (I guess Canyon Creek doesn't make 34" panels). So, disaster averted...

Primer on the walls

After several days of no real visible progress, I came home this afternoon to find our walls primed. Hopefully the cabinets can start going in tomorrow or Thursday.

This three-gang switch box (on your left as you enter the kitchen from the dining room) has been giving us troubles. This weekend we realized that it's only 23" from the wall, and a floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet is going there, supposedly 30" from the wall. Eeep! So, we've been trying to figure out what to do with all those switches we need (overhead light, can lights, under-cabinet lights...). Hopefully our electrician will be able to come up with some solution that doesn't make our walls look like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

After 2 more days of mudding and taping

Frustratingly slow progress. It will be nice when this phase is done.

Not much happening...

Mudding and taping will continue through this week, so no real "visible" progress. They had a very loud blower running all day and all night yesterday to help dry out the mud. At least tomorrow they will be taking a day off. Darcy also spotted a leak in the new roof vent for the stove so they'll be addressing that this morning. Cabinets won't begin until next week.

End of Week 4

Drywall is up and the mudding and taping has begun. Oddly enough the rooms feel a bit smaller to me with the drywall up, especially the office space. With that wall extention coming out another 3 1/2 inches, it really feels like it's going to be tight putting a chair in there and still being able to get out the side door.

I checked with Dave today about when he would like us to schedule the granite install and he suggested the first full week in May. Cabinets should go in next week, but he wanted an extra week to make sure we were ready for granite. We plan to go down tomorrow to talk to our granite guy to get the install lined up.

More drywall

Looks like they are about halfway through the drywall. It's going slower than I expected, but maybe that's because there is only 2 guys and an apprentice here working on it. Also seems like there are some big gaps at the seams in a few spots. I hope taping and mudding will cover those issues. They might finish the drywall tomorrow, but I bet the mudding and taping will be next week.

I called to schedule the granite install but haven't gotten a return call yet.

We Passed!

The electrical inspection that is. As I suspected, the inspector yesterday was just crabby and unhappy about insulation being in. She wasn't going to wait around for it to be pulled out for a closer look. We had a new guy, in a better mood I guess, today.

We also have the stove vent in, and the beginnings of drywall going up. Not much so far, but we should be seeing a real difference by the end of the day tomorrow.

Post-it

Good news and bad news today. We passed our structural and plumbing inspections today. Bad news... we failed the electrical inspections. Sounds like the problems will be easy to fix. I think the biggest issue was that the insulation was already in the walls and the inspector wanted it OUT. Other than that he wanted one more recepticle in the window wall and nail plates put up. He'll be back out tomorrow to hopefully give us the OK to proceed. But all the insulation will have to be reinstalled. Bummer.

The support post went into the basement today. They also spent some time furring out the walls a bit in preparation for drywalling which should begin before the week is out.

We also got our can lights added to the dining room... but no switch yet so we can't see how they look.

We have a footer

The inspector allowed Dave to take photos of the rebar reinforcement and go ahead and pour the concrete before the inspection. So no more sump pump and our floor is put back together again. I guess the post itself will get put in tomorrow. Inspections will be scheduled Wednesday and possibly Thursday. The goal is to have the OK on everything by the end of the week so we can move on to drywall next week. REALLY looking forward to that.

The insulation is pretty much done in the exterior walls and looks like they're getting ready to start with the ceiling, too. They may also get the stove vent going soon.

Pipe dreams

Plumbers were out today and got the rough-in done, including new drains, a water line to the fridge, and a new gas line for the stove.

The sump pump is working well. Dave was so impressed he offered to buy it off us to use on future jobs. Dave will have inspectors out to have a look on Wednesday. I guess Monday will be spent finishing the footing to get it ready for the inspector. He was a bit worried the inspector may want a specialist to come out and approve the footing. We've got our fingers crossed it doesn't come to that...

Betcha didn't know we live on a lake...

No... really... ON a lake!

Ran into a problem today. They started digging for the footing and ran into water. The hole kept filling every time it was emptied. Dave advised to go down last thing at night and first thing in the morning, but Darcy was emptying about 4 buckets worth every hour so we decided to get a small sump pump to get us through the weekend and the pouring of the footing.

On the positive side, the half walls are framed in. The also had to move the beam over about 1 1/2 inches or the upper cabinets wouldn't have fit. They also got the floor in the nook leveled. Plumbers will be here tomorrow to rough in the plumbing.

Keep your fingers crossed for the sump pump holding out and that we pass inspections next week.

The beam is in! (4/3)

You can finally see how much more open the space will truly be. They also have one of the half walls up -- the one where the office will be. It's nice to see there will still be plenty of room to get out the side door. There is also drywall in the house! Can that mean closing up the walls [or maybe just the ceiling] isn't too far behind? I also included a shot of one of the cabinet fronts.

Progress! (4/1)

Both the walls are gone and the temp walls are up. One of the support pillars is in place in the basement. The header is up over the new doorway from the dining room. [And much of the plaster is down] Electricians are supposed to finish rough-in tomorrow and the plumbers arrive on Thursday. Dave hopes to have inspectors out early next week to sign off on everything so the insulation, floor leveling and drywall can get started.

Our cabinets arrived unexpectedly today. We knew we had a scheduled date of April 1st, but I figured that would be when they got to our dealer. They didn't even call to let us know they were coming until AFTER they had arrived. The completely fill the "media room" in the basement and make it very difficult for the guys to get in to work on anything down there. I don't know what we're going to do. They are so tightly packed together we can't even get at the to look at them. But -- they're here at least!

I also included pictures of the makeshift kitchen set-up. Two separate prep areas. That helps with making it a little easier to prepare a meal.

Kitchen demo, 3/23

Very productive day. I think we're ready for the contractor to start tomorrow. The only other thing I think we could have done ourselves is take the plaster off the last load bearing wall, but probably best to leave that to Dave.

Daniel did a great job. Don't know what we would have done without him. :) KUDOS to Darcy and Daniel!

Kitchen demo, 3/22

Sean and Joy really wanted to destroy some walls so they pounded the plaster off the nook walls and took some lathe down.