Tile layout and lighting test

Friday night we went to Lowe's to pick up the tile, that was more painful than I anticipated however I still think that we are going to be happier with the end result than we would have if we have gone with formica. Of course they did not have enough of the bullnose tile for us so that is on order they gave us an estimate of a week to a week and a half. Of course that was really the component we needed to get things started. Oh well at least we had a pretty relaxing weekend.

I of course could not resist unboxing some of the countertop tiles and doing a test layout. I think it's going to be really nice.
I'm also hoping to order the light soon however before we get to that point we need to decide on a length. According to the resources I have found online for pendants over an island or peninsula you want them to be 72" of of the floor. Our ceiling is 7'5" which would give us 17" for overall fixture length. I didn't want the chain to be too short so I bumped that up to 18" and then as a test I hung a string from the ceiling 18" long. That looks about right to me. Chris is of average height so I had him stand on the inside of the counter top and look towards to door and it didn't seem to be in his face so I think that will work nicely. As someone who is on the short side I have absolutely no concept of these things.

You can also see in this picture that we have the pantry door remounted. I think it looks really good. If the tile gets in by next weekend we will be tiling. If not we'll be sanding the floor, either way fun for everyone.

Cabinets, Part 2

It is now day 2 of the cabinet install. Looks like it's going to be a couple of hours again tomorrow. Although I wish that it were done it is somewhat gratifying to know that we're not the only ones that have trouble beating the old girl into submission.

Here are todays install shots. The rest of the base cabinets are installed, the counter top base is in, and the hood is installed. Troy also installed the knobs for us. True this is something we could have done ourselves but at this point we can use all the help we can get.

The sink was also installed today. The sink has always been an interesting design challenge. You see our sink is right next to the refrigerator which is less than ideal to begin with and then when you work in the semi custom realm of cabinets things don't always work out perfect so we had to choose would the sink be centered on the the cabinet or would it be centered on the window. We went for the window. Right now I'm having a little bit of self doubt about choosing the window but I am relatively confident that when the faucet is installed it will all come together.

I'm also going to have to work out some things as far as the tile. The sink ended up being a lot larger than I thought it would be leaving only a small area to tile to the left of the sink and on the front edge. I'm hoping that if I draw it up I'll be able to work out all of the kinks.

Day 405 - We have Cabinets

After 405 days our Kitchen has Cabinets once again. The install isn't complete but it is an excellent start.

Here is what the kitchen looked like on our first tour of the house.

I certainly think it's an improvement. I'm excited to see what it will look like when it's finished. Troy will be back on Monday at 7:00 to finish up in addition to the cabinets he's going to install the base for the counter tops as well as the sink. Which will be very nice. I can't wait.

Looking Into the Past

Chris sent me this picture today.

And here it is from a similar angle tonight.
Tomorrow we put on the wall color and then we will be as ready as we will ever be for cabinet installation. Troy will be here at 9:00 AM on Friday to install the cabinets.

Weekend Update - The Grand De Dusting

We had a successful weekend on the house we finally got the kitchen de-dusted and Chris did a very impressive job replicating the trim on the two windows that we added. I spent Sunday night shellacking the wood, a process I am not going to do again that dyed shellac is a total and complete pain in the ass to work with but I committed myself early in the process and at this point I just need it to match. I'm going to see how dying the polyurethane or using the dye to make an alcohol stain works with the pine in future projects I also want to tame the color a bit as it turned out a bit darker when brushed than I intended. Anyways on to the photos...

Plaster

First off I will answer the question why in the heck did we decide to plaster in the first place. The first and totally impractical reason is that I just happen to like it. The second and much more practical reason that we decided to try plaster is that it has the benefit of of a flexible depth, which is very handy when transitioning from new wall surface to the old. If you have ever attempted to compensate for a difference in surface wall heights using joint compound you will know what I am talking about.

We decided to use a veneer plaster system we were able to find blueboard at our local home improvement store as well as Diamond Veneer Finish Plaster. However the prefered method is not to use just the finish plaster but to have a basecoat in between. Of course they didn't carry the basecoat so I went on a wild goose all over town. The moral of the story is don't screw around with the home improvement stores when you can go right to the building supply place.

The plaster turned out ok, it was hard work and although in general I improved on every wall I did I have a long way to go I ended up having to sand high spots and fill the low spots with spackle. Would I do it again? Yes, but I'm going to need awhile to recover.

Let there be light

Just a quick post. After a year the kitchen now has light again!!


The two lights in the center of the room are actually on a 3 way switch so we no longer have to trapse through the kitchen to turn on the light. Instructions for wiring a 3-way with two lights can be found here http://www.electrical-online.com/3wayvariation6.htm. Despite being a more complicated design then the last 3 way switch I did this one actually worked on the first time. I am beyond trilled! I would also like to praise the ideal drill attachment for use with drills my hands hurt now I can only imagine how much they would have hurt without the help of that attachment.