It’s been a few months since I really updated (partly because it’s been that long since we did much house work other than slowly chipping away on trim). This weekend Ryan got a bunch of the doors and arches trimmed out (he had been working on them slowly but got a bunch done this weekend) so I have pics to show.
Also last week we had our well drilled an extra 200 ft as we were having issues during the drought running out of water.
Here’s some pictures! Don’t mind the house mess it’s pretty crazy here on weekends. Note all the tops will get caps but he will do those all in one go once we’ve finished all of them (waiting on a few doors to arrive and install before they can be finished).
Playroom doorwayKitchen doorway from hallKitchen to diningroom beam. This will get more trim at the top and then crown molding so no cap on this one.Other side. Again in the diningroom we’re actually doing a coffered ceiling – so there will be fake beams running down the middle then trim around the inside of those and crown so the top of the beam will be hidden by all of that.Sliding doors trimmed out.Archway to my office. The door to the basement there is one we are waiting on from home depot.
There are a few more but they got a bit tedious since they look the same. I’m sure there will be more pics after this weekend!
First off Ryan got a lot more trim done in the ‘playroom’ – all except the crown molding is done – but we immediately filled the playroom with everything from the ‘office’ which is twice the size of it so I never got a picture and now you can’t see the wainscoting at all. I’ll do pics once we empty that room again to paint/finish it. The reason we were rushing was that the main goal was to use the playroom as office/playroom while the floors got finished in the real office during the end of Ryan’s paternity leave (now over).
Ryan with the help of his dad got the new floors installed in the office, front hallway and diningroom – that’s it for our flooring. The kitchen and livingroom will be tiled. We had planned to have enough wood for the kitchen too but it didn’t work out that way and tile will be easy enough (no long delays and needing to leave the house like we did for the wood floors).
Office floors installedHallwayDiningroom
This is all Cherry just like upstairs and we did a clear satin finish. The finish was tough because we had to get the kids (and ourselves) out of the house for a week so on Monday I moved the girls over to my parent’s house for the week. Ryan sanded the floors with some help from my dad on the drum sander. He had finished by about 4:30 pm so we decided to test out Evie taking a bottle for the first time and he took the girls to gymnastics and then to mom and dad’s for the night. I stayed and vacuumed and put down the first coat of poly. Evie took the bottle splendidly.
First coat – still wet
Tuesday night we swapped and Ryan did the sanding/vacuum/poly.
Wednesday Ryan was back to work so we decided to tackle the rooms together late at night using babysitters for the kids. Luckily we have awesome grandparents on both sides that helped out with piano lessons and the baby duties. Ryan and I got the floors sanded, vacuumed (twice) and poly’d and back by just after 9pm (basically 3 hour job). Evie did great with her bottles again (and no issues going back to nursing – yay!).
We moved back in kind of on Friday but then we were away for 1/2 of the weekend so we really moved back in late Saturday night. We’re keeping the floors empty for now although we are using them, just no furniture – giving it until next Saturday when our new diningroom table arrives before anything heavy goes on. The office will stay pretty empty so Ryan can work on trim in there and we can hopefully completely finish that room! Once that’s done we’ll empty the playroom again and finish that room (including poly the floor in there which is still waiting). We shouldnt’ have to move out for that at least as we can close that room off and open windows to air it out quickly.
Lots of house progress and now it’s getting toward summer and yard work. Ryan got a new mower and has started the process of seeding the lawn to make it look nice this year. I’m going to clean up the gardens next to the house and use them as a veggie garden this year (just a little bit – nothing major) – maybe next year we’ll actually put in our real gardens but for now it will be good to have a little something as our kids LOVE fresh veggies.
It took 2 months which actually is quite good considering how large this kitchen is AND considering Ryan was in horrible back pain a lot of that – but the kitchen is back to useable shape. Not ‘done’ but done enough we could enjoy it for the holidays!!!
The counters came a week before xmas and they did not disappoint at all!
The 3 large slabsThe smaller one in the diningroom
We had to give it 24 hours to cure (glue) and then I was up on the counters installing lights, switches, outlets etc. Brad came over and hooked up our sink and dishwasher shortly after (YAY!!!!). Friday night Mark came over and helped me to get the final pantry cabinets in, the fridge/freezer moved into place and then all the cabinet pulls installed! It was perfect!
Saturday afternoon Brad came over and installed the stove for us (gas line) so we were cooking by xmas! The ovens got used for cookies and then xmas eve we had a roast in there. We love the kitchen!!!
Pantry cabinets and fridge in placeNew lights all installedCabinet hardware installed and moved into the kitchen!More cabinet hardware
These pictures are friday night so the stove wasn’t in yet. I’ll get a stove picture when we finish the hood install which isn’t done yet. Right now we’re taking a break and just enjoying the kitchen!
A small checklist of must do’s soon :
Install Island outlet
Finish pantry (still needs a bit of spackle/sanding/painting etc plus we need to order doors for it)
Install the range hood officially
Hang the bookcase on the end
Flooring
Trim
Build shelves above fridge
Not too bad and some of that will be sooner than other parts (flooring will be spring time).
Ryan had his back surgery right before xmas so is on recovery but doing well. The kids had a wonderful xmas and I’m enjoying spreading out into a diningroom – the office has become a bit of a play room for now but playroom finishing is ‘next’ on our list of rooms to truly finish!
We’ve had a very busy few days and the kitchen progress shows it! Thursday night Ryan and I stayed up late sanding both the kitchen and diningroom. Friday night we vacuumed the ceilings/walls then started priming – getting the ceilings primed and 1 wall.
Saturday morning Ryan and his dad started with a ceiling paint coat, then finished priming all the walls. Once the ceiling was dry they got the second coat on and we got all the paint stuff cleaned up. We won’t paint walls until later on (we haven’t even picked a color yet.
The first cabinets to go in were the 2 small diningroom cabinets – these were initially going to be part of our island so they are the Bali Blue color but we decided to make the island smaller (larger walkways between island and cabinets) – and these 2 cabinets work wonderfully as a buffet in the diningroom. We may build some shelves above or make a matching cabinet with glass doors or something down the road to make it even more hutch like but for now it is wonderful as a place to put our china – lots of storage!
Diningroom cabinets
These will have a matching counter top so it will really make it tie in with the kitchen perfectly.
Next up was the kitchen base cabinets – starting with the corner. Saturday they dry fit the first few cabinets and got an idea of level but waited to install them.
Sunday installation started in earnest and the stove/oven side wall was first. Next was the sink and dishwasher. We have an end panel on the side of the dishwasher that still has to get installed – we’ll do that Monday or Tuesday night since the counter folks come Wednesday to stencil.
Next up was the island. This took a few steps, we had to put them in place, then move them to cut out a hole for the return that will go under the cabinet. Also we had to drill and run wires up from the basement for the outlet that will go in the cabinet/island. Finally some 2x4s were anchored to the floor so the cabinets could be attached to something.
Island cabinets (also a view of the sink dishwasher).The rest of the L part of the cabinets
There is still plenty to do – we have 3 upper cabinets to install, 1 small shelf unit on the end then the 2 pantry cabinets that flank the fridge. Those things all don’t have to happen before counter stenciling though so they will happen in the next couple of weeks.
Obviously we also have to install appliances and plumbing. Plenty to do but the main rush is done! Counters take 2 weeks so getting them stenciled was a huge priority. We can’t do the sink or stove top until counters are in! Should be in the week before xmas and our plumber (ryan’s cousin) promises he can come over and do our finish plumbing before xmas! So far we’re on track. Now we just need ryan’s back to hold out. It’s been tough and he still has 3 weeks before surgery 🙁
The kitchen progress continues even on a ‘holiday weekend’. Ryan and his dad finished hanging the sheetrock in the diningroom on Saturday! I got the kitchen taped and some more spackling done on both Saturday and Sunday.
Dad surprised us and came over today to help continue the spackling – which makes our goal of finishing it this week much more manageable!
Progress this afternoon after dad’s helpHard to get a good view of the diningroom but ceiling and corners are taped
I’ll spend time each night after the girls are in bed spackling and our goal is at the latest to sand on Friday night (bonus if we can get to it thur night). Then we have to prime everything, then paint the ceiling. The painting will be on Saturday for sure. Sunday we’ll install cabinets!
That means we can get the counters stenciled. After that while we wait for counters to be made/installed I can get some electrical done, maybe painting – we have to pick a color still. The diningroom won’t get too much more once it’s primed and the ceiling is painted – so we can move the table back in there and free up space in the office which means we can move toys out of the livingroom into the office. That frees up space in the livingroom for … a xmas tree! Tis the season!
Well it was a very long week for Ryan – and a long weekend for me as I took Friday off to do electrical which of course took time on the weekend too as we did it in phases.
First we moved the ‘kitchen’ out to our hallway (luckily we have a very large hallway) – technically speaking this is quite a spacious galley kitchen – if I had a good sink it’d be nothing to complain about at all. Unfortunately the bathroom sink is TINY and the faucet small and old so it makes a huge mess. But we are managing and using lots of paper plates to reduce dishes quite a bit.
Temporary kitchen – even our huge fridge/freezer fits and I wired the stove out here so I have that too!
Once the kitchen was empty they took up the old floor and put down a new subfloor – it’s so much sturdier now and looks great!
New subfloor in the kitchen
While the guys built the new knee wall and the walls around the chimney we focused electrical work on the main kitchen wall as a priority (before sheetrock was delivered friday afternoon and would block this wall).
Main kitchen counter wallKnee wall – i didn’t get a picture of the new walls until after sheetrocking started
Friday we also got all the lighting in the kitchen installed and wired. Saturday Ryan got the ceiling in the kitchen sheetrocked himself – impressive. I got a bunch of the diningroom electrical started – I couldn’t finish until Sunday morning because I needed daylight (short days are killer!). But we got the recessed lights in the diningroom installed Saturday night and wired up. So Sunday morning I just had to connect the old to the new wiring in there and then Ryan was able to sheetrock the diningroom ceiling.
These pictures are from last night so this is the progress of a 1 week renovation – i’m really impressed!
Outside of the pantry closet the kitchen sheetrock is mostly done!That venting for the hood will be covered behind cabinetry eventually. It was also the best we could do for venting with as few bends as possible.Diningroom is almost done sheetrocking as well. The knee wall needs to be sheetrocked on the back side and the archways both need sheetrock
We’ll do some sheetrocking 2 evenings this week after the girls are in bed. Then we have the break for the holiday and next weekend hopefully we can get some major progress on taping and spackling. We’d like to get cabinets installed the weekend of Dec 2/3rd so we have to tape/spackle/sand/prime (and paint ceiling at very least) first. Then cabinets installed. Once cabinets are in and counters stenciled we can finish any other spackling/sanding/priming/painting in the diningroom and the front area of the kitchen/pantry areas while we wait for counters. We’re hoping for counters to be installed early the week before xmas giving us time that week to get final plumbing done and cabinet knobs on.
I ordered the lighting last night – 3 drop down pendants over the peninsula, 1 small drop down over the island and a chandelier for the diningroom. I also ordered our faucet so I think purchase wise we are done except for picking out knobs for the cabinets! It’s good to be prepared and we have all the appliances and cabinets on standby!
