The Honeymoon Is Over

I haven't posted in a few days because there has been nothing to report except general frustration.  After an initial spurt of work on Monday and Tuesday of last week (demolition! electrical! plumbing! cabinet installation!) and half a day of work on Wednesday, no one showed up on Thursday or Friday.  Tony put everyone on other jobs, which apparently were more disastrous and attention-grabbing than ours, and that was that.

I know this is what contractors do.  I know I shouldn't take it personally.  BUT.  When we scheduled this work a month ago, I told Tony that we wanted to make sure as much work as possible got completed during Drew's spring break week so he could be available for answering questions and letting people in.  Tony agreed.  So much for that plan.

I sent Tony a strongly worded email yesterday, which simultaneously praised the crew for their fine workmanship so far and told Tony to arrange their schedules so our kitchen is complete in a reasonable timeframe pleaseandthankyou.  He called Drew for a man-to-man discussion later in the day (why didn't he call me? I have a guess...).  Tony didn't really say anything helpful to Drew.  It was a mighty fine strongly worded email and I'm pretty bummed that it didn't have any effect at all.

Yesterday, John came in to install the remaining two upper cabinets and put knobs on all the doors.  Today, the countertop folks are doing a template for the granite counters.  I had to take the morning off work to let them in and answer questions, which is the exact reason that we asked for all this to get completed last week.

We were supposed to get our stove back today too and our very friendly plumber came by to hook it up this morning.  He couldn't hook up the stove, however, because the microwave wasn't in above the range.  Apparently there has to be "something metal" above the stove because the cabinets are "combustible."  I'm going to gloss right over the part where the cabinets are combustible because, although I know they won't burst into flames spontaneously, that's what it sounds like.

Combustible cabinets. With knobs!

All that's changed here are the knobs.  And the dishwasher, which seems to have
fewer parts than before.  Curiouser and curiouser...

The electrician is at a job in Bourne (way down on the Cape) for the next two days and can't come back until Thursday to put the microwave in.  This means we won't have a stove (or a microwave, for that matter) until Thursday or Friday, but the plumber did say he would try to get the stove back in working order before the weekend.  I begged him to try very hard so that I don't have to eat takeout/packaged salads/pre-cooked chicken any longer.  He agreed that sounded like a pretty rough situation and reiterated his promise to try to make it before the weekend.  The plumber seems like a decent guy and I think the pregnant-woman-begging-for-a-stove thing made an impression on him.  Let's all hope together that it did.

So that's where we are.  Sort of pissed and still eating creatively.  I'll have more to report on Thursday - until then, please eat some home-cooked food on my behalf!

This (Crooked) Old House, a.k.a. Why We're Glad We Hired the Pros

Today John the Jobsite Manager returned and, all by himself, hung most of the cabinets before noon.  It wasn't quite as simple as it sounds (although that doesn't sound even close to simple to me...) because our floor is crooked.  Apparently, there is a FOUR INCH difference between one side of the stove wall to the next, and everything was pretty topsy-turvy for awhile.  But look! 

John the Jobsite Manager to the rescue!  You can't even tell.  Totally level.  We thought we were hiring professional installation guys because we wanted to be careful with our fancy schmancy cabinets and didn't want them falling off the walls.  Now we know that we hired the pros because even nice cabinets need a lot of help to look good in an old, crooked house like ours.  

The dishwasher and stove are in place but not functional, which meant we went out to eat tonight (SCORE!) because we used up our only no-cook/few dishes dinner idea last night.  The white skim coat/teal walls thing is also starting to grow on me - it sort of looks like clouds in a sky, no?  Hmm....

Tomorrow John will be back to finish hanging the upper cabinets and to ... do more stuff.  If he did all of this before noon today (including fixing the crookedness) I think he'll be here for twenty minutes if all he has to do is hang the two remaining upper cabinets.  I'm sure there's plenty left for him to do.  

In other news, we hit a little bump in the road with the countertop folks.  Apparently everyone is installing their kitchen cabinets this week and the guys who go around and make templates for the granite countertops are quite busy.  They can't fit us in until NEXT WEDNESDAY, which is not so long, but then you have to factor in the making-the-countertop and installing-the-countertop parts of the process.  This leaves us without countertops until, I don't know, our child goes to kindergarten or something.  That's not true, I realize, but it's a pretty long process.  Bummer.  So apparently Tony P. is going to "sit on" the countertop guys and see if they'll come over sooner.  I think he might have more success if he offered them cake or something but if sitting on them does the trick, who am I to interfere?  

Wall Repair + Hauling

There were two main parts to today's work - wall repair and hauling away all the junk from the old kitchen.  After a lovely Patriot's Day off from work, I had to return to the office today while Drew stayed home to write his dissertation and hang out with the workers.  He apparently learned some pretty key lessons involving doing your morning business (ahem) before the workers arrive instead of doing it while they are five feet away.  I was just glad I was dressed when they arrived.  It's the small things, folks.

First, wall repair.  The crew made the previously large holes in our kitchen walls even bigger (no documentary evidence exists of this frightening time in our kitchen's day).  Then they got to work putting up new wallboard (or whatever you call it) and skim coating the whole mess.  Although we'll have to re-paint most everything in the business parts of the kitchen, this really feels like progress!  The rest of the kitchen still looks great, so our painting wasn't a total waste.

The hole in the middle of the wall is for an electrical outlet.  The hole on the right is for the garbage disposal switch.

The hole up top is for the microwave.  No word from the electrician on whether that was already a dedicated circuit but also no word on a change order, so I assume we're fine (famous last words? we'll see...).  The two wires sticking out of the wall are for under-cabinet lighting and the three holes below that are for electrical outlets.  The bottom hole is for the stove's electrical outlet.

Big lesson here - we would NEVER have been able to do this within the appropriate timeline (i.e., today) and without messing something up.  This would have taken us a whole weekend at least and there isn't a weekend coming for a few days.  We would have forfeited Tuesday through Friday of professional work, probably made the crew mad, and totally ruined everything.  This is the part where I sheepishly thank Tony for thinking I was too much of a girl to repair my own wallboard BECAUSE I TOTALLY AM.

The same two guys (brothers) who fixed up our walls were also the guys with the big truck to haul our junk away.  Mind you, we did not pay for anyone to haul away our junk, but this is another place where Tony decided to "help us out."  Thanks Tony!

We wanted to donate the old kitchen cabinets to ReStore, a great organization that sells used construction materials and household goods and then gives all the profits to Habitat for Humanity.  When we were taking out the bottom cabinets, they got pretty banged up either because we had to dismantle them to get them off of the wall or because they were too flimsy to begin with.  We planned to put small parts of the lower cabinets in the trash each week (to avoid angering our already-grouchy garbage man) and donate the uppers.  Our guest room has been full of upper cabinets for over a week now, ready for donation.

I called the ReStore today to see if they picked up cabinets or if we had to drop them off.  Do you know what the guy told me?  "I don't think I'm interested in just upper cabinets."  He was sort of snooty about it, which pissed me off, but he had a point.  Who wants to buy a set of just upper cabinets?  I think their goal is to sell complete kitchens, not parts of kitchens, which makes a great deal of sense.

It sure was a good thing that there were nice men with a large truck at my house!  Such serendipity!  Drew helped the guys haul the stuff to the truck and, on the way, some guys working on a nearby building took our sink and all the knobs off of the cabinets.  In the harsh light of day those were honestly the only parts of the old kitchen that were *really* suitable for donation, so it all came out okay I guess.

And now?  Our guest room/future nursery is void of cabinets, as is the back porch.  BLISS.  That was one huge step that was going to be a PITA to solve, let me tell you.

Tomorrow, John the Jobsite Manager comes back to start installing cabinets.  We can't paint for 3-5 days, so I think we'll end up having to do some fancy taping around the installed cabinets, but that's okay.

More tomorrow!

It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

The crew from Home Depot filtered in and out over the course of the day on Patriot's Day to begin phase 1 of the "installation," which involved making A LOT of holes in our walls and taking every formerly functional thing out of the kitchen (sink, dishwasher, stove).  It's totally fine and I totally expected this, but ohmagah the kitchen is such a mess.  Some close-ups for your viewing pleasure:

The sink used to be in this corner.  Those are "true 2x4s" in the wall, which apparently you haven't been able to buy for a very long while.  Also notice the total lack of insulation.  They moved the garbage disposal switch to the right of the sink, which will be much more useful than where it was before, halfway across the room.  

Close-up of the "true 2x4s."  We were told to be impressed, so we are.  

You can't tell from this photo, but you can see through the floor into the basement. 

Huzzah for structurally sound living spaces! 

This is the wall where the stove goes.  Peeling off one of the many layers of wallboard revealed...

More yellow paint (a different color this time), green paint, AND fake painted bricks!  

Fancy people call it trompe l'oeil, but around here, we call it crappy painting skills.  

Then came the part where the gas line was capped off (lower right corner) and the stove's electrical supply was gone (many exposed wires hanging out of the wall) and the stove was in the middle of the floor and I got a wee bit panicky about how the heck we are going to eat this week.  Hotplate?  New raw food diet?  Take-out?

Here is the "finished product" for the day -

Those shiny new blue boxes mean the electrical system will now be up to code in the kitchen.  The wires hanging out of the wall are for under-cabinet lighting, which will be hard-wired and not plugged into the wall and snaking through the cabinets like our previous (ghetto fabulous) under-cabinet lighting.

Nope, the stove is still not connected.  But it is in the right location, which is encouraging.

But look what else they did!  They took our beautiful new cabinets out of the boxes and set the up in the dining room.  They're SO NICE.

It was super hot all day, but not even open windows and plenty of gatorade could stem the intense sweaty man smell that now permeates the house.  Tomorrow the plaster guy is coming to "help me out" (Translation: They saw through our naive claims that we could repair the holes in the wall and are going to fix it for us so we don't screw everything up).

We are going to cap off a day full of healthy choices and go eat ice cream for dinner.  I'll be back tomorrow with an update!

Painting the Kitchen

All right folks, the big moment is here(ish).  This is the part where we get to put our Humpty Dumpty kitchen back together again.  It's not exactly a "moment" as much as a (likely) several-week span of having strange men in our house, but whatever.

To refresh your memory, here is the state of our kitchen:

Our neighbor knew we were re-doing our kitchen and came by the other day.  She stepped into the kitchen and cautiously asked Drew, "So, do you guys like it like this?"  She apparently thought we were going to leave it in this state.

NO, WE DON'T LIKE IT LIKE THIS.

The first tiny step in getting our kitchen back in order was to paint the walls.  As of yesterday (Sunday) morning, we hadn't picked a paint color yet and the work was slated to begin at 8 a.m. this morning (Monday).  For a girl who takes eons to choose paint colors, this was a little anxiety-producing.  I was thinking some sort of gray would be nice, maybe a shade between the bathroom and the bedroom, but that made me worried it would look a little sterile - white cabinets, white backsplash, gray/black/white granite, and gray walls didn't seem to do the trick in a house with colorfully painted rooms.  We're also leaving the ugly brown tile in place, and a gray-white-black color scheme would probably highlight the brown.  Not ideal.

We were wandering through the Copley Mall this week on our way to dinner and passed by a Starbucks.  (Bear with me here - inspiration strikes in strange places if you let it).  The Starbucks had these delicious teal walls covered in white subway tile.  Hmm.  Teal.  I filed the color away in my mind as a possibility.

We got up bright and early and headed into central J.P. to our favorite hardware store.  I was full of vim and vigor and ready to choose the perfect paint color, but the darn place opens at 11:00 a.m. on Sundays.  It's run by a bunch of twenty- and thirty-something dudes that have apparently given themselves hangover recovery time on Sunday mornings.  Fine.  I guess if you're going to sell saw blades to weekend warriors, you've got to be on top of your game.  Deflated, we decided the only reasonable thing to do with the hour and a half before the hardware store opened was ... go to brunch.

We got to the hardware store right when it opened and went straight to the paint wall.  So many choices.  We found a teal that looked remarkably like the teal in the Starbucks.  It's called "Oregon Teal" and is mysteriously absent from the Benjamin Moore website, so I can't post a color sample.

We bought an entire gallon of no-VOC Oregon Teal paint in eggshell finish, reeeeaaallly hoping it would look good when we put it on the walls.  Fingers crossed.  That stuff is expensive.  And not returnable.

In yet another bid for the Best Husband Ever Award (even though he's already won that several times over), Drew painted all the trim and all the walls all by himself.  What a champ.

Look at all that lovely white trim!  The paint is still drying, which is why it's a little splotchy looking.  

It still looks like a crack den, but now it looks like a *high class* crack den.  Improvement! 

This is what it looked like all dry this morning.  You can see a corner of the brown tile, which I think looks just fine.  The teal warms things up a little and, even if the tile doesn't look intentional, it doesn't look crazy ugly either.  Good enough!

We have all red dishes and things, which will go on the open shelves, so I put a bowl on the white table for funsies to see how it would look against the teal.  The flash is a little intense, but you get the idea.  I think it'll look great!

This morning, four smelly men have begun work in the house.  Two of them look exactly the same, which is confusing.  They were supposed to come at 8:00 but they showed up at 7:45 when no one was decent enough to answer the door.  I love punctual people, but I also love being fully dressed when strange men come in the house.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.  I'm sure things will either look worse or better as the day rolls on.

Updates to come!

Demolition!

So, we've settled on a bid, scheduled an installation date, and have a dining room full of brand new cabinets.  Everything is ready to go, which means it's time for us to get down to business and rip out the existing cabinets.  Here's a few before shots, just in case you've forgotten what the kitchen looked like when we moved in:

Dining room through the door on the right

Bathroom and bedrooms to the door on the left,
pantry through the door Drew is standing in.

Glorious white-beige-cream-gray palace, prepare to be downgraded significantly.

Drew had Good Friday off from work, so I asked him to pretty please chip off the backsplash tile so we could get the cabinets out of the kitchen during the weekend.  First, I got this photo in a text while I was at work:

Perez: Note that we continue to SAVE THE DATE, even as we demolish our kitchen. 

Huzzah!  The tile is coming down and he emptied out the cabinets and there are no holes in the wall!  Then he sent me this photo:

Well, the tile is down but what is that giant hole above the stove?  Why did all the wallboard come down?  What is going on?  I was confident that Drew had applied the same impeccable tile-chipping technique from the previous wall and that something must have been different about the tile on the other wall, potentially due to being near a heat source, but it got me all nervous about the part where we decided to save money by fixing the walls up ourselves.  Then I had to go bill more hours and tried not to think about it.  No sense getting fired over a few holes in the kitchen wall, right?

But oh my, you are a large hole.  And that wall is a really big mess.

And then I got this photo:

At some point, the kitchen was apparently painted the color of urine.
The horrible creamy walls just look better and better. 

Gaah!  It's great that he removed the cabinets but I'm such a worrywart that I wanted to be there for the cabinet removal to help and/or call 911.  I assumed he was okay since he had the presence of mind to take a photo and text it to me, but it still made me nervous.  Luckily, the end of the day was near and I could go home and inspect the damage to my kitchen and husband.  Upon coming home, I found several silver linings to my previous concerns.  First, Drew was totally fine.  Other than cut up hands from handling tile shards, there were no injuries.  Second, he'd cleaned up the mess in the kitchen.  Third, he was doing the dishes.

Best husband award! 

Saturday morning, we woke up full of vim and vigor, ready to tackle the other wall of cabinets.  The tile-chipping, cabinet removal, and clean up had taken Drew about three hours by himself.  We were hopeful that the other wall wouldn't take too long, but we knew that removing base cabinets (one of which had a gas line threaded through it) and a microwave could add some complexity to the day.

Cute butt award!

The cabinets were attached to the wall with 3-6 long screws.  Some of the screws came out easily using our power drill and some took some more muscle (Drew's, not mine).  The first cabinet we tried to remove was mysteriously attached to the cabinet to its left.  We could see no screws.  Sticking a 5-in-1 in the crack between the cabinets indicated a lack of adhesive.  There was just no clue about how the darn thing was still on the wall.  He decided to try and unscrew the center cabinet, the one above the microwave, to see if that would come out.  Then everything was super wiggly and I got very nervous that the entire wall of cabinets, plus the microwave, would come crashing down.  There was a fair amount of cursing before Drew decided to yank the cabinet around a bit while I "held up the microwave" (as if I were actually strong enough to do that) and see if it would pop free.  At the time, it was the most reasoned decision we could come up with.  So he yanked and wiggled and the cabinet came off the wall!  Better yet, the microwave and center cabinet didn't come crashing down!

Note the footstool and set of antique history books that served as a "just in case it falls off the wall" back up.
WHO'S A PRO? (Answer: Neither of us).  

More urine-colored walls.  And more holes.  Hmm.  It turns out that the crazy person who installed the cabinets screwed them together with visible screws (which we removed initially) and super secret screws underneath the door hinges.  Talk about annoying.  If there had been no visible screws, we would have obviously thought to look under the hinges.  But there were screws all over the place, so who knew there were ALSO super secret screws?  Harumpf.  Lucky that screws rip right out of cheap particleboard if you pull hard enough.

We also got the inside scoop on what was between the microwave and the upper cabinet.

Very long anchor screws.  Some mouse poop.  A 2x4 with our favorite "decorative" tile on it.  The microwave and center cabinet popped right off and we were two thirds of the way there.

I really hope that blue electrical box contains a dedicated circuit!  

The corner cabinet was pretty tough to get off - there was more cursing and yanking than ever before - but the antique books did their job and we were finally done with the upper cabinets.

Removing an errant screw left in the wall. 

Taking the stock of the crazy quilt that is our kitchen wall, it seems like the stove used to be about 18-20 inches to the right.  Clues include that weird unpainted rectangle to the right of the stove, the odd location of the microwave plug, and the location of the gas line.  Maybe this means that moving the stove 18" to the right will be easy as pie!  Maybe not.  We'll see.

Then we set about removing the base cabinets near the stove.  The left cabinet was tucked behind the baseboard and window sill, so we had to remove the right cabinet and then scoot the stove over to get the left one out.

Removing the right cabinet was slightly complicated by the presence of the gas line, which had been installed after the cabinet was already in.  After some questionable attempts to cut the cabinet away from the gas line with a hacksaw, I took a screwdriver and a hammer to the cheap particleboard frame and it came right away.  I'm a nervous nellie about a lot of things, but hacksaw + gas line is near the top of the list.

Ta da! No gas leak!

Anyway, it all worked out nicely and now our kitchen looks like a crack den.  The whole thing took about 3 hours, which left us plenty of time to enjoy the day.

At least this is what I imagine a crack den would look like...

We decided to leave the base cabinets in place on the other side of the kitchen so that we could continue to use the sink and dishwasher up until the last possible moment.  Doing dishes in the bathtub can wait.

Drew gets the best husband award a million times over because he really did most of this himself.  Although I did step in at a few key moments, I mostly stood around in my slippers and snapped photos and got anxious about things falling down.  This is partly because Drew said that this was kind of a one person job and I would just be in the way (probably true) and also partly because I'm pregnant and not very useful for things like yanking cabinets off of walls.

At least I helped with the cursing.

More updates to come!

The Installation Bid(s)

It's been quiet here on QUESTING:boston because I haven't really thought any of the stuff we've had going on was worth a blog post.  It turns out that lots has been going on and I should have been blogging all along, so I'll break it up into a few parts for you.

The first step in all of this was getting an installation bid from John, who works with the Home Depot.  He came over one morning and measured things and looked at things and then gave me an estimate.  Home Depot is great because they break out each item separately - it will cost $X to install your sink, $Y to hook your dishwasher back up, and $Z to tile your backsplash.  This is handy for people like us who are trying to cut costs because we can choose what to pay the pros for and what to do ourselves.  The original bid was about $6000.  I knew we could negotiate a lot of that down by doing certain things ourselves, but it was still a shocking number.

Then the cabinets arrived, which was very exciting because it meant we were well on the way towards our new kitchen but stressful because we hadn't settled on an installation bid yet and our dining room looked like this:

You'd like to get together for dinner? Great! We'll be right over.

I contacted John to let him know we had received the cabinets and wanted to negotiate the bid a start date and ... no response.   JOHN.  Let's GO.  My dining room looks like a warehouse.

After a few days, I emailed Jose, who told me "John is no longer with the company."  Super.  Meanwhile, it was already late March and we had ordered the cabinets waaaayyy back in January.

Jose did what Jose does and fixed the problem.  He sent Tony over to do another bid and to discuss an installation timeline.  Tony showed up at my front door and I knew he was the man for the job.  He looked just like my Italian grandfather (except with white hair) and told me he wasn't leaving until he'd given me a bid I was happy with.  Swoon.

He went through the kitchen and did a much, much more thorough job than John did. (Perhaps this is why John is no longer with the company? We'll never know.)  Tony noticed lots of existing code violations in our kitchen, especially with the electrical system, which sent my heart into my stomach.  Electricity is one of those things I'm just not willing to DIY (except in very limited situations, mostly involving light fixtures) because you can fry yourself pretty easily and there are lots of crazy codes (see below) that I feel compelled to follow.  As a result, electricians strike me as a shifty bunch, as do auto mechanics, plumbers, and some dentists, precisely because we can't get from point A to point B without their services.  If you have feces all over your bathroom floor or need a root canal or your power goes out or your car breaks, you're usually willing to pay what it takes to fix the problem so they've got you by the proverbial balls.  But I digress.

It turns out that you have to have an electrical outlet every four feet (My friend Natalie astutely pointed out that this sounds less like a safety law and more like a solid victory for the electrician's lobby) and an over-the-range microwave has to have a dedicated circuit.  We have to move our outlets around, which is not a huge expense, so the kitchen is up to code.  Fine.  The microwave is another story.  There may already be a dedicated circuit, which would be the best-case scenario (dare I hope?).  If there's not a dedicated circuit though, we're in real trouble.  The previous owners installed a humongous central air conditioner and, while I'm sure I'll be singing their praises about that this summer, they maxed out something or another with the electrical system, which means we would have to do something complicated and expensive in order to keep the microwave over the stove.  Can you tell I wasn't paying much attention when Tony was telling me about that part?  It's because I was getting a little panicky.  Forgive me.

If there's not a dedicated circuit already, my current plan is to get a countertop microwave and do something else in that space.  Spice rack?  Pot rack?  Something else that can get covered in grease?  This is all TBD and will likely be the subject of much whining in the not-too-distant-future.  I know you're excited.  I sure am.

True to his word, Tony didn't leave until we'd settled on a bid.  We saved a bundle cutting out the demolition/hauling, tiling the backsplash, and installing our super cool open shelving.  After a few tweaks, the final bid was $4700.  It's still more than I was hoping to spend, but all those code violations added up.  Tony was also very sweet and slashed many installation costs, either because he felt bad that John had left us in the lurch or he felt a family connection with me too.  I'd like to think it was the latter.  Either way, we're all set for installation to begin on April 16.  Woot woot!

Coming right up: DEMOLITION.  More pictures too, I promise!

Moving right along!

I don't have any pictures of the kitchen today (sorry!) but we're making progress, even if it's not photo-worthy!

The cabinets (American Woodmark Reading in Linen Maple finish) and countertops (Home Depot granite in Azul Platino) are on order!  After a very, very long Friday evening full of technology failures, we finally put the order in, just in time to get all the awesome deals on the cabinets.

American Woodmark cabinets are "semi-custom." As far as I can tell, this means they only make certain sizes and colors (i.e., they are not custom) but don't have any warehouse space (like Ikea) so they make 'em when you order 'em.  Our cabinets will arrive at our door in about three weeks unless we tell them to slow that timeline down.  We have house guests (mom and dad!) coming in early March, so I think we'll likely tell Woodmark to hold onto our file for a few weeks so we're not playing the renovation game while my parents are in town.

We also decided to go with HD's granite.  I had a good lead on $35/sq. foot granite, which beats HD's sale price by $10 per square foot, but the guy had some terrible Yelp reviews.  I'm not one to put too much stock in a few negative reviews, but most reviews were really bad - like, "they installed the granite and it cracked down the middle and then they refused to fix it for three months" bad.  Also, I called twice and he never called me back, which doesn't bode well.  We're just not going there.  

We are working with HD's installation folks to get a bid together for cabinet installation.  Although I'm quite confident in our DIY abilities, I'm certain that hanging heavy, expensive, cabinets on a wall so they don't look storm-tossed like our current cabinets is a job best left to the pros.  Also, if we do it wrong and the cabinets fall off the wall, we will have broken cabinets, damaged walls, and shattered plates/cups/etc. Furthermore, HD insures all their installation work directly and if anything goes wrong I can call Jose, who will fix it.  All of this makes my little risk-averse heart sing.  If they give us a good price, I'm all over it.

So that's that.  Sorry for the wordy, boring post.  Have a good week, everyone!

R.I.P Walk-in Closet

Booooo.  This is the part of the project where we have to be super duper honest about our DIY capabilities and/or willingness to have strangers tearing down walls in our bedroom and kitchen.

Let me back up...

The pantry/closet is just off the kitchen.  The "R" is the refrigerator.  

Our pantry is essentially a square.  Currently, our closet juts in on the left side of the pantry, making the pantry an L-shape (see super helpful diagram, above).  Knocking down the two walls that make up the closet would create a giant, square room with two doors--the closet door and the door to the pantry.  The plan was then to frame in the door to the kitchen, put cabinets, etc. on that new wall, and have a glorious walk-in closet.

Here are the drawings that Jose created for us:

The pantry door is currently behind the fridge.

Another angle.

But then we got nervous for about a thousand reasons, a few of which are below:

THAT CORNER: It's really tight in there with a hulking fridge and a sink and a dishwasher.  There were three options:

• Layout as above: If someone is standing at the sink, there's only 12" clearance before the handles to the fridge.  That means the person standing at the sink would have to move (or suck in his/her gut) for someone else to get into the fridge.  Dinner prep and cleanup is pretty dynamic around here (e.g., Drew starts to cook while I do stray dishes, I pack up leftovers while Drew does the dishes, etc.) so that was going to be awkward. 
• Switch the dishwasher and fridge: We tried putting the refrigerator where the dishwasher is and putting the dishwasher where the refrigerator is, but then the dishwasher is behind you as you stand at the sink.  I had fears that one of us would end up like Zach Braff's mother in Garden State, who fell over an open dishwasher and got paralyzed (yep, I remember all the worrisome things from all the movies).  Also, it would make dishes awkward because you can't have the dishwasher open while you're at the sink, and that's how you do dishes (at least that's how I do dishes).  It also closed off the space considerably to have a giant hulking fridge right next to the door.  Not functional or visually pleasing? Nope. 
• Corner sink: We also thought about putting in a corner cabinet and having the sink in the corner.  That's the way our upstairs neighbor has it and it looks great.  She hates the layout though, because she bangs her elbow on the fridge all the time while she's doing dishes.  Cue Drew standing at the sink and flapping his arms (think: chicken dance) and saying "See? I can't do this if the sink is here! I have to be able to do this!"  So silly.  Really though, we are two differently sized people and we both need to be able to use the sink without injury.  I don't want poor Drew banging his elbow on something for our entire stay in this house.  The corner sink was a no-go.  

None of the three plans gave us a layout that we were happy with.  I am not knocking down walls for something that makes the kitchen less functional than it was to begin with.  

THE PANTRY:  Pantries are, in fact, a selling point for houses around here.  Almost all the condos we looked at had them, and people like them.  When they're nice, they lend a bit of old-world charm to kitchens.  Our pantry isn't in great condition (and the giant fridge takes up way too much space), but with a little TLC it could be a great little space.  We don't eat a ton of packaged food, so our pantry is full of stuff like a dustbuster and laundry supplies, but other people fill pantries like it's their job and our future buyer might be a spam-aholic or make his own preserves or something.  Furthermore, this house is over 100 years old and it feels a little ... something ... to replace a feature of the house that's been here forever (and stored lots of food for lots of families throughout the years) with a walk-in closet.  Call me sentimental, but I would feel a little bit guilty about somehow "defacing" the house so that I could store my shoe collection more neatly.  I fell in love with our pantry while we were thinking of tearing it out, so I'd rather hold onto it and keep the kitchen layout functional than get rid of it and take away Drew's ability to flap his arms like a chicken while doing the dishes.  

ELECTRICITY:  On the more practical side, knocking down the closet walls and building a new wall across the doorway would have involved lots of moving electricity.  There is a plug in the pantry on that wall and there is no electrical anywhere near the wall we would need to build (which we would need to add to plug the fridge in).  This would have involved significant work by an electrician (No, I will not take my chances DIYing electricity, thankyouverymuch).  Electricians cost money.

THE GREAT UNKNOWNS:  When you start knocking down walls in 100-year-old houses, you find weird stuff.  Mold?  Pests?  Dead bodies?  Plumbing/electrical/gas lines you didn't know existed there? Anything could happen.  'Nuff said. 

THE COST:  Because of the electrical issues and the great unknowns, it's likely we would have had to call in the experts to help with this part of the project.  We understand that every home repair project ends up costing more (in money or gray hairs) than planned, but we were nervous about starting at the top of our budget to begin with.  

THE TIME:  Our bedroom and our kitchen are two rooms we use a whole heck of a lot.  Maybe this whole thing could be done in two days while we're at work and it would have been just peachy, but maybe the great unknowns would cause delay and we'd be sleeping under a fine coat of plaster dust for a month.  If we decided to DIY the whole thing (other than the electrical), we would absolutely be sleeping under a fine coat of plaster dust because we both work full time and it would have taken FOR. EV. ER.  

All that stuff factored in, but the real concern was that we were about to spend time and money on a kitchen that wasn't functional.  Function is the name of the game when you're cooking, so it wasn't going to be worth it.  

So, we've retooled the plans.  We're keeping the pantry and the layout almost the same as they are now.  I handed this drawing to Jose, who was impressed with my mad drawing skillz and asked me what I did for a living.  I told him I was an attorney and he told me I had a real future as an artist, should I decide to pursue a Plan B.  I'm not sure there's a living to be made drawing cartoonish representations of pretend kitchens, but I'll take my compliments where I can.  I also made sure our friend the wooden chicken made it onto the open shelving, obviously.

The two changes we're making are (1) scooting the stove to within 18" of the wall and (2) inserting a smaller sink cabinet.  Moving the stove allows for a long stretch of counter space to the left of the stove.  The stove is currently centered, with 36" of counter on each side.  36" isn't big enough for two people to stand side-by-side and it's not really big enough for one person to do any serious prep work either.  We're also putting in a smaller, deeper sink to replace the shallow double bowl monstrosity we have now.  Don't worry - Drew stood 15" from the wall (which is, in theory, where the new sink drain will go) and was happy with his arm-flapping capabilities.  Otherwise, we've got our open shelving (yay!) and we'll be able to put a little love into the pantry (and get a fridge that isn't as big as a space ship) with all the money we save not changing the layout.  Here are the new color elevations:

So much glorious counter space on the left!

The left cabinet overlaps the trim by 1" so we're changing out the 24"
cabinet (pictured) for a 21" cabinet.

Also, there is definitely not a window right there - that's the bathroom.  

We had to buy two more "cabinets" to get the super deal on the Woodmark cabinets,
so we bought two wine racks (they were the cheapest option).
We're not sure they'll go right there, but now we'll have approximately a
thousand bottles of wine for when y'all come visit!

So that's that.  We're both feeling better about the plan and like it will be a more manageable project.  We'll have to buy a wardrobe so poor Drew can move his clothes out of the guest room, but we can do that.  We are headed to Home Depot to sign final papers tonight, and the cabinets should come in about three weeks!  So exciting!

Happy Friday!

The Chosen Finishes (for now, at least)

I thought I'd also share some of the finishes we're thinking of using.  In my head, "finishes" mean the color of the cabinets and the kind of tile and stuff.  It might not mean that, but that's what I'm talking about.  Without further ado, here they are:

The cabinets will be Woodmark's "Reading" cabinets in "Linen" finish.  

Home Depot is running a serious sale on cabinetry right now that make these babies super affordable -  So affordable that, when we priced out cabinetry at Ikea, the total for the cabinets would have been only about $400 less than the Woodmark cabinets.  The Ikea cabinets would have been made of MDF (medium-density fiberboard) and we would have had to put them together (along with all the improvising and cursing that always accompanies Ikea furniture assembly).   The Woodmark cabinets, in contrast, are solid wood and are put together in a factory by someone who knows what they're doing and has all the right tools.  If I'm going to put my wedding china in these cabinets, I'd rather the assembly process be somewhat more systematic than Drew and I in our socks trying to decipher those blasted little Ikea blob men's instructions.  And cursing.  

WHY DON'T THEY JUST USE WORDS?

Furthermore, the Home Depot price includes delivery and tax, which the Ikea price doesn't, probably bringing the two prices to within a hundred bucks or so.  If all that weren't enough (and it is), we love Jose much more than we loved the disgruntled Ikea kitchens guy, who looked like he would rather have been getting a root canal than helping us design our kitchen.  

I also priced out other options, but got nervous and overwhelmed because a lot of them involved buying cabinets online with no in-person guidance.  We feel like we're getting a great deal on the Home Depot cabinetry and like the person we're working with, so we felt okay taking the plunge.  (I'll share all the pricing information once we finalize everything).  

We briefly considered doing stained wood cabinets but decided against it because (1) the kitchen doesn't get a ton of light and we want to keep things as bright as possible (a new light fixture will help with that too) and (2) we already have a ton of wood in the adjoining dining room (floors, table, china cabinet) and it feels like way too much to have wood cabinets in the kitchen too.  More of a hunting lodge vibe than I'm going for.  I'm sure we could have made it work, but I like white cabinets and it's my kitchen, so there.  

The choice of countertop is a very personal one and people can get pretty heated about it, it appears.  We considered butcher block, which we saw in one property we looked at, but ultimately decided against it because it needs tons of maintenance and could look beat up in a few years.  Stone countertops add more value to a house than synthetic (i.e., Corian) countertops, according to the internet (which is never wrong).  We're also not very good about being careful about putting hot stuff on the counter (our laminate countertops have not been ruined yet, but it's really just a matter of time) and the synthetic stuff isn't super heat-resistant.  So far, all the granite we've looked at is more reasonably priced than quartz (by quite a bit), so that's the choice for now.    

At the moment, we're thinking about Azul Platino granite (see above), which is in the lowest-priced group at Home Depot ($50 per square foot).  We'll probably get it from these guys, though, who installed our neighbor's granite and apparently charge $35 per square foot for the exact same stone.  

We also want an undermounted stainless steel sink.  The one above seems cool to me (I found it on overstock.com) but we haven't really gotten far enough in the process to start choosing sinks.  

Finally, we're going to try and do subway tile all the way to the ceiling by the sink (to highlight all the stuff on our super-cool open shelving) and as a backsplash in the stove area.  Subway tile is cheap, timeless (hopefully), and neat looking.  I also don't care that every kitchen remodel right now includes subway tile.  The only potential issue is that the cabinets are "Linen," not pure white, so it may look a little funny.  I think it'll be fine, but it's on my list of things to check out, just to be sure.  

I think we'll slowly replace the appliances with stainless steel versions as necessary but (other than the fridge), replacing appliances won't likely be part of this project.  It's very expensive and it feels terribly wasteful replacing totally functional appliances just because they don't "match."  

So there you have it.  Our current thinking on finishes (or whatever they're called).  Our meeting with Jose went well yesterday (we even have an appointment for someone to come measure for cabinets!) but decided on a few design changes that I'll tell you all about later.  With that, I'm off to work.  Have a great week, everyone! 

Kitchen Inspiration

I've been stalking kitchen blogs for months now, trying to figure out exactly what elements to put in our kitchen.  Sherry and John over at Young House Love are redoing their kitchen and are putting in a range hood and open shelving above their stove kind of like this: 

I don't know who took this photo, but I found it here. 

Swoon, right?  It's not like our kitchen will ever look this good (hello huge island, exposed beams, giant window, etc.) but I really liked the look.  Drew agreed.  He thought it looked "hip," which we strive for (and fall short of) on a daily basis around here.

We wandered into Home Depot's kitchen department (and by "wandered in" I mean I steered us there on a mission) and met Jose, a kitchen designer there.  He told me that open shelving and range hoods are very "in" right now.  He proceeded to show us a million design magazines that featured the same setup and I became convinced that I was ultra-fashionable (or at least that Young House Love was).  Jose did a mockup of our kitchen with new cabinets and the open shelving/hood combo near the stove and away we went.

Then I started thinking.  We are doing this renovation so we can get more enjoyment and functionality out of the space, but we also want to increase the value of our home (or at least not have people walk in and say, "omigosh I could never live with that").  Some people (the kind folks at Young House Love included) make a very powerful case for open shelving near a stove, saying that if you have a good hood, only keep frequently used stuff on the shelves, and dust every now and again, you'll be fine.  But what if most people felt differently?  I turned to trusty old google and found that open shelving near a stove is a love/hate thing - about 50% of people who posted on the subject were all hot and bothered and adamantly against the idea and the other 50% passionately defended it.

After a brief discussion, we jettisoned the idea.  If we had been head-over-heels in love with the open shelving/range hood idea, we would have done it and hoped that a buyer from the 50% of people who love open shelving would scoop up our little house.  But we weren't in love enough to take the plunge. I also hate the idea of having to climb onto the counter to wipe a potential grease/dust combo off of something that hasn't been used in awhile.

Furthermore, after more discussion with our upstairs neighbor, we found out that none of the ranges are actually vented to the outside in this little house of ours.  Nope!  They blow right into the room.  Super odd, but whatever.  Decision made.  The over-range microwave will stay, venting its little heart out into the center of the kitchen.  (Note to self: Do not turn on the vent in case of a stove fire).

Here's what we're thinking now:

I am relatively proud of the top drawing.  Not the bottom one, though.
My sixth grade art teacher would kill me for my terrible perspective. 

Scooting the stove over to the right (from its current spot in the center of the wall) will give us more usable counter space and cabinetry on the left.  Those of you who can decipher the ill-conceived drawing in the lower right-hand corner will see that the idea of open shelving has survived, albeit in a cleaner area of the kitchen.  I figure we can keep our plates and mugs and mixing bowls and other lovely items on those shelves.  There will be plenty of closed storage in the stove area for the ugly stuff.   We may also throw a corner cabinet in there and bridge the spaces between the fridge and cabinet and between the cabinet and wall with open shelving.  Other inspiration photos are below:

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

So that's that for now!  We have an appointment with Jose, who I will tell you lots more about, tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying a lazy day at home, drinking tea and watching the snow fall!  Happy Saturday, everyone!