There's light at the end of the tunnel

It's Easter and we've got through two holidays with this project and you've traveled with us. It's almost time to say good bye to this project. All the appliances are in and are working (in fact today, Mark's making home made pasta for dinner, yum). The lights are all in, the flooring, everything. Oh, there's a few touch ups to be done, so paint that needs touch up, the grill for the vent, all little things that'll be done quickly.

Last week I had Sears come in and clean the carpeting in the dining room and family room. Both rooms took a beating in the remodeling, especially the dining room. Unfortunately, as we were reassembling the dining room we discovered the floor is now warped. Mark thinks the last cleaning was the last straw for the floor. All the years of cleaning the rugs has taken it's toll. We've sent a note off to John to see if we can add this to the project (you know the project, it's the one that I just said was almost done). I'm seriously beginning to think we may have to add Blue Ribbon to our mail box with all the time and work they've done here. I've sent a note off to Blue Ribbon so we'll see what we can do next. Well I wanted bamboo flooring in the kitchen and couldn't do it, so now I'll get it in the dining room. It's all about compromise.

Friday, Mark & I went over to look at stone for the new mailbox column. I did tell you that we have to replace the mailbox since the last one was blown down in a storm a couple of weeks ago. We found some nice stone, it's manufactured so it's lighter than real stone. It was a cool place to check out (and I wish we could have wandered around some more). We'll have to head over there again soon, I need to find a four foot piece of flat stone to put over the filter of the water garden to limit the amount of algae growing in there.

So, while the kitchen may be just about finished, the house will continue to need updates, upgrades and maintenance. Guess I'll have to think about renaming my blog.

It's almost done

Well, Friday came and we had an army of workers here. The plumber installed the dishwasher (which of course now needs to be either repaired or replaced but that's a whole 'nuther story) and of course the most important feature, the commodes were installed, no more mad dashes up the stairs. The new refrigerator was also installed which makes cooks so much nicer now that we don't have to run out to the garage for everything. The quarter round (I think that's what it's called) was installed and the whole room is looking great. They have to come out once more to do a little touch up work on the paint and a few other places and I think we're done.

The electrician installed the ceiling fan in the kitchen (we got our ceiling fan back) and it's looks incredible (I'm so running out of adjectives got any suggestions?). Wayne came by last Friday and delivered the cushions for the banquette and it makes for a nice comfy seat. We did find the three cushions Wayne made us were to much for the space so two of them were moved to the living room. I'll keep an eye out for a couple of small pillows that we'll put in there. We've installed an old mac laptop in the kitchen to look up recipes on and it's just a nice place to surf. While the cushions have only been here a week, I'm finding we're having to move the cats just to sit down.

Got good news from John at Blue Ribbon, we're actually under budget, (who would have guessed) and there's very little left to be billed on. From what John said that's unusual for a remodel project.

Now, I best start planning a gathering to have everyone come over and check out the new space.

I'm soooo excited...

All

We heard from John yesterday and this coming Friday they're installing the commode (I wonder if that includes the commode in the laundry room), the dishwasher and moving the refrigerator back in to the kitchen. The crew from Majestic will also be by to install the counter top in the bonus room. It's going to be fantastic but a busy day. I can't wait until we don't have to run to the garage for everything.

I may be mistaken but I believe Bill, the electrician will be at the house today to finish up the installation of the lights and the switch plates so that'll be cool. I think they're also installing the ceiling fan over the banquette, the front hallway light and the new dining room light.

I still need to call Habitat for Humanity to have them get the old microwave and see if they want the dining room ceiling light.

Tomorrow, Wayne will be by (at least I think he's coming I'll have to confirm that tonight when I get to my e-mail) to drop off the cushions for the banquette, I can't wait to see them done.

Last Friday, Vincent was at the house and installed feet on the cabinets. They look nice and give a finished look but I'm still not sure about the cabinets having feet thing. All the quarter round on the cabinets is installed and it looks nice having that all finished. The picture on the left is the cabinet under the cook top and the picture on the right is the cabinet under the sink.

If this all comes together on Friday, we'll be enjoying a nice leisurely breakfast Saturday morning and not having to balance an armful out to the garage.

As the Light Turns

To steal a phrase from Mark, the lighting saga continues. The new under cabinets lights couldn't be installed. They're much smaller than the old ones (which is why we liked them) and the wiring is in the wrong place. So if we installed them the lights would end up being installed installed significantly off center which lead us to the decision to stay with the old lights. While Bill, the electrician was here he also looked at the electrical boxes to make sure the chandelier going in the dining room would be supported (you remember the story about the chandelier right?) Anyway, while Bill was here, he checked all the boxes to make sure they'll support the various lights we want installed.

Anyway, Vincent will be here again today to finish up the cabinet adjustments and finishing touches. So I guess I had better go make some breakfast before he gets here. We'll be posting pictures of the kitchen when Vincent is done for the day so you can see his amazing work.

A quick update for your reading pleasure

Greetings all, got a couple of emails last night from Chris and they are going to take care of the breezeway flooring. Chris and Rodney got together and agreed that the flooring isn't acceptable. So they've ordered two boxes of the flooring and are having them shipped express so they should arrive next week. Once the boxes acclimate they'll replace the section or if necessary the entire breezeway flooring.

This is why we chose Blue Ribbon Construction (http://www.blue-ribbon-construction.com/) , they work hard at making sure the customer (as in me) is satisfied with the job.

Vincent from Kitchen and Bath Galleries will be over to finish up the final touches to the cabinets and I sent an e-mail to Shauna last night letting her know the light trim I'm interested in. Bill, the electrician will be over today to finish up the wiring (gotta remember to let him know about the outlet in the banquette).

A slight change in topic here, we had a wild rain storm the other night, with our neighborhood suffering a number of fallen trees, power outages and in our case, our mailbox was knocked down. We've been wanting to replace the mailbox with a locking one but just hadn't gotten around to it. This now makes it a necessity so, we're going to look into having a stone foundation put in with the locking box integrated in the construction.

So, while the kitchen may be done soon, looks like the house projects (or as Mark refers to them "the Honey-do" list) are never ending.

Small comments

Finally got around to sending a note to John about the breezeway flooring. I kept hoping that I'd grow accustomed to the flooring but not so much. I wonder if John doesn't feel like a counselor having to deal with dissatisfied customers.

Anyway, here's the update John and Chris will get together with Rodney to see what can be done about the floor. I'll let you all know (I know you're just holding your breath in anticipation for this).

We have floor

It took three tries, but we now have flooring. I've gotta say, the kitchen looks great and I gotta admit, the new flooring choice is in my opinion perfect (ok so I'm prejudice). The almost random pattern really adds a nice touch. I think if we had gone with the original color we wouldn't have looked a nice.

The crew worked hard to get the flooring done and the pattern was a challenge for them. It did take two days for them to finish but the kitchen and 1/2 bath are worth it. The installers really deserve a round of applause for all their hard work. Though Mark did have to remind them to put flooring down in the area where the dishwasher will go.

That said, the breezeway is another issue. Almost from when we moved into this house I wanted to get rid of that ugly blue carpet and this was the big chance. While the tile choice is great, there's a problem. When you order the tile, they tell you that there's no guarantee all the tile will come out of the same run. Well in our case, the breezeway shows the difference. We have a wide section in the middle of the floor that shows the difference. I'm sure at this point in the game there's not much that can be done about it, but I find it very irritating, I know I'll learn to ignore it, but it's gonna be like fingernails on the blackboard for me for a while. This wouldn't have been an issue if the installers had just spread the tiles around through the room rather than just one wide path. I'll have to check with John and find out if there's anything that can be done and if there is, how much is it going to cost.

So, now we're on to more fun things, we heard from Wayne, the guy making the cushions for the banquette and we'll have them around the second week of March. You know the boys (especially Milo) is gonna love those cushions. I think it'll give them just enough height so they can look out the windows easily without having to stretch. We moved the new kitchen table in (actually Mark did that since I was battling a bug this past week) and we've discovered the table is quite a bit bigger than we thought it was. We did have a couple of meals at the table and Manny really liked being able to sit next to me on the banquette, he managed to get quite a few pets out of me as we ate.

Mark ordered new under cabinet lighting this weekend which should arrive sometime this week and we have to choose a new light rail. I'm hoping the commode will be installed soon (I'm so missing my 1/2 bath downstairs) and I've got my fingers and toes crossed that the new fridge in the kitchen will be moved in soon.

We're still unpacking boxes of kitchen stuff (I really think someone moved a bunch of their old kitchen stuff into my family room when I wasn't looking). It's now getting challenging to find a place for everything.

Well, that's all for tonight. Since we seem to be on the downward slope of this remodel the updates will probably be slowing down again. Thanks for joining us.

First meal

There is still got a lot of small items to finish, but we've got a working kitchen again! With the tile backsplash and floor done, we can actually cook in our kitchen. Having the refrigerator out in the garage is getting old, but it works.

The first meal we prepared was garlic scallops, saffron rice and roasted asparagus. The cooktop and oven worked great, but our old rice cooker flaked out on us and ruined the rice. I was very annoyed at wasting that saffron. Fortunately we still had one of those microwavable chicken flavored rice pouches from cooking in the bonus room, so we had a substitute that we could heat up quickly before the rest of the meal cooled off.

We've also made steak fajitas one evening. On Saturday, it was shrimp and sausage gumbo with brown basmati rice (in a sauce pan - haven't taken any time to look into the rice cooker's problems yet). I know basmati is not traditional with gumbo, but then again we used turkey kielbasa instead of andouille sausage and replaced half of the butter in the roux with olive oil. Used paprika and cumin to bring some smokiness that we lost by not using andouille. It tasted great.