the remaking of a kitchen

well, not a lot happening housewise today. otherwise, we are hopping around trying to get ourselves together for leaving in the morning for an art festival. run run run.....sometimes in circles.
but the exciting thing is that we talked to chris the floor guy and the real deal starts on the day after labor day. it's been in the future for so long that it's hard to believe it is really happening in just over a week. we have some painting to accomplish first of course. i filled holes in all the trim above where the new floor would be.....that means a hurry hurry of priming and 2 coats of paint when we return. while the guys are working on the floor we hope to set up saw horses in the garage and do the multiple coats on the baseboards.
seeing a kitchen, dr and lr with actual oak flooring instead of plywood and chopped off carpet will be an astonishing sight! i cannot wait!!!

sunday evening saw the arrival of the buffet that matches the dining room table and two chairs that belonged to my grandparents. we are not sure where it will end up in the house, but it's neat to have it here.
the guys who delivered it were really nice and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. it was a HUGE truck and it evidently took some exceptional driving to get onto our court. eek

yesterday was a painting day. i finished the second coat on the dining room windows except for the outer portion that swings out. i am hoping to complete that on a cooler day when screens are on the inside and i can stand on a ladder outside and do the job. anyway, the paint has a soft glow and looks great with the walls. don continued working on the living room windows and has a first coat on them, and a prime coat on the wood between the inner and outer windows.....they are not true thermal with the vacuum seal, but just double panes one of which can be removed on the inside. they look good and we are asking ourselves why we didn't paint them many years ago. motivation, motivation. :)

i think i didn't mention that brian was here again working on the heating unit that fits in the toe kick of the cabinets in the mudroom. he was zooming right along and then discovered that he needed a piece of wire to be a constant to the back of the wall plug in above the countertop, and also ALAS the wires to the wall thermostat were not live. so.....we wait on that.
in the meantime don started painting the trim and the windows in the living room and WOW what a difference from the u-g-l-y dark stain and shiny varnish. it is quite striking, and we like the look a lot. i worked on some nicks and bumps on the dining room windows and have promised myself that i will put on the second coat of paint tomorrow, sunday.

just checking out the photos of the latest wild things. wild thing ii? perhaps, haven't chosen a name as yet, but wanted to see it published. holding it in my hands just doesn't do it.

you are looking at the mudroom floor and the pipes coming into
the room from under the living room floor. white is the drain pipe
and the copper pipes will deliver hot and cold water to the sink.
you may ask where is the sink? a good question.
it awaits us somewhere......perhaps a sink store?

the floor is almost covering the pipes at the time of this shot. they are all covered now, and on monday we will talk to a flooring guy and get the word from him on what he can do.

brian arrived at his 9 am which was more like our 11. he worked away and soldered the copper pipes to carry the hot and cold water to the mudroom. so now we have the pipes in the mudroom just waiting to attach to the sink that we will purchase to reside there. yesterday the drain pipe was installed so we are READY.

this is the part that has to be completed before we get into the oak flooring for the 3 rooms. isn't this gorgeous?? NOT

not sure what is happening here, but i am hopeful that it will all come together. i hope.

while dana was caulking and sealing, brian started the demo. he confessed that he LOVES demo. here we go again! he is removing sections of our good to go plywood so he can find the pipes under the floor.

voila! and then there was light....a bit more light anyway. i really love the way it looks, and we still have the door that we liked.

here we go with the windows in place as well as the trim that holds them in place. pretty cool.

here's our front door lying across the picnic table on the concrete thing. tom is about to begin delicate surgery to remove 3 of the squares of wood and replace them with thermal glass. i expected him to use a saw, but he used handtools so that the glass would be supported by a little lip of wood on the outside. i was amazed.

we passed the final inspection on the project!! what you are seeing here is the backside of the inspector as he approaches his car after giving our project the city's final blessing. at last.
tomorrow we are going to be finetuning another item and getting some caulking and sealing accomplished. the windows for the front door should also be in place.....that will be so neat. hopefully we will really get the additional light that we need in the entry. each little step is pretty exciting!

while i was wandering around an art festival, don entertained jeff the tile guy as he grouted all the tile in the backsplash area. he will return on thursday or friday to seal the grout and then one more part is complete. the grouted tile looks fantastic!

well this is a crazy picture of tom.....looks like he's performing on our deck. actually we were just sitting outside, enjoying some conversation but the camera seemed to set him free.

today jeff returned as promised and when he left all the tile was in place in the backsplash of the countertops. it is really quite lovely. i am pleased with our choice of tile and also with the way jeff laid the tile. it's rather understated, but i didn't want anything fancy, so it's all fine with me....well with both of us. don is pleased too.

today i planned to run over to the bead store and get that one color that i don't have, but really do need. first it started pouring rain and don had just left for downtown, so i stood and watched the gutters pouring over, and said, self, you can do this. so i got out the magic tool and stood in the garage and tried womanfully to dislodge the clog.....it worked sort of as it started draining better and lots of olive leaves came out the downspout. it also worked in that my sandals were squishy with water, and my t-shirt was soaked pit to hem and my cropped pants had dripping hems. ahhhhh. so then i decided to wait for the rain to slow, and as i was dry and ready to make the drive the phone rang and it was tile guy asking if he could come over and just start laying out the project. i said YES. he came, brought in the tile which i really like thank goodness, and made his plan about how to do stuff. he cut some of the tile and will be back tomorrow to begin the messy particulars of the job. things are really happening. :))
did i mention that it's raining, really raining!? fabulous!

put in a call to the state electrical inspector yesterday morning and he appeared in the afternoon and gave us a sticker. well a really nice sticker that acts as the seal of approval on the upgrade of service and the whole nine yards of the electrical saga. whew, sigh and whoop-d-doo!