Finally… A New Kitchen!

After several months of finding and conquering our inner most dark places, feats of strength, tests of wills, our new kitchen is 99% complete.

The remaining 1% = toe kicks and paint touch-up around the tile and grout.

We’re Moved In and You Missed It!!!

No actually we got totally engulfed in getting things together so that we could get out of Mario’s apartment by the first and into a liveable house.  So this is why we haven’t updated in a LONG time, and still unfortunately I won’t be able to post pictures at this moment because I am really just killing time at work.  So those will be up tonight. 

But we are in with a functional kitchen and furniture to sit on… Stay tuned for more updates tonight.

Cabinets: Tall people are helpfull.

Jon just hung out shaking his head, as usually.

Keyton made sure everything was in order.

Measure and Mark.

Does this look infected?

Dave making sure the cabinet is stable.

You’re tall.

Dave’s leverage was key.

Men.

Panel discussion. get it? panel.

Cabinets, pre-doors

admiring greatness.

Cabinet door install.

Drilling holes for the hardware.

Doors, Doors, Doors.

This hinge was backwards…

One wall down.

Bar Lighting and two FANCY columns

Lights over the bar.

alternate angle.

columns between the kitchen and dining room.

Flat stock maple. I built these because I am a man!

view from the garage/kitchen door.

Down with the Wall

Bar height wall, framed in.

So all the floors are up, trim work and cabinets out and the framers started today.  I applied for our permit for construction as soon as we left the abstract company on friday, however I didn’t receive it approved until today, after the framers started framing and tearing things up.  So needless to say i was getting a little nervous.

So the wall between the living room and kitchen is officially done and there are all sorts of wires just hanging down from the ceiling and now I found out that by city code we have to have smoke detectors hardwired in, how much is that gonna cost!  Anyway, I guess safety first.  Tomorrow the electrician will be here to do his stuff.  Here’s to electricity!!! Come on in to see some pics!

Our kitchen or premarital counseling?

So Sunday we drove down to IKEA to finally pick up our kitchen!!!  After spending way too much time shopping through the actual store and planning Miles’ room we finally went to get the boxes of which will soon be our kitchen cabinets.  approximately 50 boxes of kitchen cabinets flat packed ready for us to spend several hours just putting it together.  Are we really gonna need pre-marital counseling?  As I stare at the back of the u-haul I am reminded of all those christmas movies where the mom and dad are yelling at each other while trying to get the christmas tree straight in the stand. This kitchen will be our tree and the tiled floor our stand.  Hopefully we won’t kill each other.  Here’s to great kitchens!

Demo Day 2, Where’s the water shut off?

So Saturday was demo day 2! My mom, step dad and dad all came to help.  All the carpet came up as well as tack strips, tile, and the rest of all the trim work.  All went well except for one hitch, WHERE DO YOU TURN THE WATER OFF!!!  Because this is such an old house there isn’t just one shut off valve, not at the water tank and not under any of the sinks.  No, the only place we were going to be able to shut off the water was at the main water hole, under a foot and half of snow and ice.  It took 5 of us all morning shoveling the front yard free of snow and still didn’t find it.  Then my brother in-law came over that evening with my sister and my two most favorite girls in the world, he took one step into the snow where we stopped shoveling and there was the manhole! we, or Jay, found it.

Electri-fried!

Its amazing what can be found inside a wall. Today I found a random wire shoved into the wall that was in no way capped, taped or really even hidden. Since the inspector said the electric service and wiring in the house left something to be desired by todays standards, I was a little concerned…

After pulling the electric cooktop and oven I removed the bottom cabinets. I then stared locating all the electric wires and boxes so I could cap and tape them up.

• 220 for the cooktop – CHECK!
• 220 for the oven – CHECK!
• Regular line for the range hood – CHECK!
• Random wire sticking out of the wall – CHECK! wait… wtf?

It was just sticking out of the wall. I pulled the end out to find it all exposed!

My brother Chris decided to test it... the old fasion way.

The mystery wire accidently touched my world class butt and overloaded the grid in a 15 mile radius!

jk, It didn’t shock me. I still have no idea what the wire is for. The electrician is coming next week.

Demolition Day

So after all the legal stuff was out of the way, it was time to get down to business.  Got the tools, the music, the help, and the house; we were ready for destruction.  As we started to work we first needed to flip the breakers to the appliances and electrical outlets in the kitchen.

Let me remind all that this is a 50+ year old house and wiring was done very different in the 50′s than it is now.  We have 3 breaker locations and Mario was sure to give himself quite the shock while standing in the snow flipping breakers.

We finally found the correct breakers but we still haven’t found the main water line to shut off the sink.  So, we just cut around the sink.  Lots of hard work but a very productive day.

This is Mario’s brother Chris

New or not new there is always dirt in carpet. We are replacing the flooring in the main areas with wood.

I may be short, but I know how to climb

Tinkerbell didn’t have near as much fun on demo day as we did

We still have to find the water shut off which is burried in a foot of snow, we do that tomorrow and work around it for now.

This wall will soon be gone

all trim is being replaced

The kitchen is finally gone!

Sledge hammer; Man’s best friends?

The Plan…

4 days to go!!!  All bills and utilities have been scheduled to change over on Friday, we took the day off and as soon as we get done signing our lives away, and together, we will be starting Demo Day.  Here is a rough idea of what our house plan is like.  The area in the cloud will be Part II an add-on that we probably won’t do for another year.