Kitchen Remodel--Day 44

Big things happened today!

 Oven and Dishwasher found their forever homes!  Wine rack got hung but needs the shelves to be totally functional.  Sink cabinet got repaired and floor was added.

Let's go to the pics....

Dishwasher.  She'll e be prettier without the plastic and bolted into to the counter.

Oven.  I ordered this oven from a computer screen...there wasn't one on the floor, so we were a little surprised to see that it isn't flush with the cabinets. In this picture that doesn't seem like such a problem to me.

Isn't she pretty?  She'll be prettier still filled with bottles of wine.  Thanks Aunt Kate!

This is the floor to my sink cabinet. They left a bucket of parts for other parts of the kitchen in it, but now I can move my cleaning supplies out of the bath tub!

This last picture is very exciting to me.  It's my cook top.  The oven and the dishwasher are not completely hooked up.  That will happen on Thursday.  But when my counters are installed on Wednesday, I should be able to use this appliance immediately.  I won't because I won't have a faucet in my new sink until Thursday...

Pretty new cook top. I wonder where your grates are?

So this brings you up to speed on my kitchen project.  Tonight will be the last (I hope) Date Night that has to happen completely on the grill.  Don't get me wrong...I love my grill.  It's just that it's rainy today...

Kitchen Remodel--Day 42

That's right...day 42 means six weeks in and far from done!  Okay, not really "far" but I don't have a working kitchen nor do I have cleanable, fully livable home/ I predict (or at least I hope) that by week's end it will be mostly done.

Day 42 was about the rough plumbing and electrical.  "Rough?", you say incredulously.  "Hasn't your kitchen already been painted?  Don't you have cabinets?" Yes and yes.  But it was the rough stuff that was done.

I now have a plumbing connections for the dishwasher and ice maker.  Do I have those things yet?  No. That will happen Wednesday with my counter installation. (Counters!!!!)

More exciting though is the roughed in electrical for my ovens.  They will be installed Tuesday.  I'm also hopeful that my wine rack and open shelves will also by hung.  And maybe my can lights.  After all, the electrician will be here.

So here's the pics:

Place for the new conduit in the garage.  

Conduit in the upstairs funny triangle closed.

Now, I added a comment to my last post about my hood.  It was wrong.  Wrong style, wrong color, wrong size.  That has added another 2 weeks (at least) to a project that could be done this week.  This next picture really feels like a step back.

Place where the hood was but is no more.

That brings you up to speed on the kitchen.

I am hopeful that I will be able to post great Date Night pictures on Wednesday...should have a workable stove, oven an dishwasher.  You have no idea how much I'd like to eat with really silverware on real plates and drink out of a real glass!

Kitchen Remodel--Day 39

It always feels like one step forward, one step back.  Maybe I'm not fluid in constructionese, but I thought all of my uppers were going to be installed.  And that my cook top drawer was going to be dummy-fied.  That's not what happened.

Don't get me wrong.  I am THRILLED that anything has been happening. Let me show you the progress...

Now because these uppers (not the ones towards the dining room) were installed, we were able to do this...

The cabinet beside this one I intend to house more of my "ingredients"...EVOO, balsamic, savory herbs and spices.  I'd like to do a similar thing in the cabinet on the other side of the stove that will hold baking necessities...flour, sugar, sweet herbs and spices.  Because...

the end lower cabinet holds my backing "team"...mixers, pans, rolling pin.

Here is the other lower that I loaded...

This sweet cupboard with roll out drawers holds my food processor, immersion blender, juicer, and brand new toaster.

Isn't she pretty?  Wide slots to hold bagels, dual controls and all sorts of special settings...like for frozens.  It has a retractable cord and easy to remove and clean crumb liner thingys.  I may be in love.  Small electrics are so fun.

Now if you were paying attention, you would have seen in an earlier photo that we hung our new painting from my folks.  If you missed it, you can see it again here...

We think it fills the space as we wanted it to.The reflections on the glass make it hard to read, but we like it.  A LOT.  Those shades are not the "forever" shades.  We want to get Roman Shades in neutral khaki or linen.

Right now, our big concerns remain the wiring of the oven and also the water line to connect to the fridge for ice.

I'll keep you posted on those issues. At eh moment, I'm waiting for my Lowes boys to come and check things out.  They may be able to address some of those concerns.

And procrastinating cleaning.  We are having a small dinner party tomorrow and you don't know how I loath the idea of serving on paper plates with plastic utensils.  This is NOT a cookout or picnic.  Okay, I do have to prepare all the food on my grill, but it's not a hot dogs and burgers kind of a menu.

Kitchen Remodel--Day 38

This is the real "day" count. Honestly! I counted!!!   Project began with demo on 7/29.

This project is taking for-ev-er!!!

However the end is in sight. At least I think it is.

I have been able to begin loading my cabinets/drawers.

I think this means that I'll soon be able to eat off these instead of paper. What to you think?

Ahhhh cereal...with milk!  Maybe next week?

Food storage!  Can't wait to fill these bad boys up again!

Casseroles...baked chicken...roasted veggies.  YUM!

And this is the painting (it is a painting...you need to see it in person to understand) that Mom and I picked out in SC a few weeks ago.  It looks lovely in my kitchen.

So this was yesterday's achievement.  The construction boys did a lot in the attic, but they are not done up there yet.  

Oven cabinet was installed today, but not the oven.  I'm hopeful that they've figured out how to run the wiring.  

And they still need to install the can lights.

Right now they're figuring out how to mount the exhaust fan into the decorative cabinet hood-thingy.

I'm hoping that today's second post (Day 39) will show completely installed cabinets.  Hardware may be asking too much, but a girl can hope, can't she?

Kitchen Remodel...Day 15,001

Okay, not really.  But it feels like it!

I have a date (sorta) for the next phase. Cabinets should leave the warehouse next Wednesday. THEN the delivery agent will call me to set up delivery. Once those 2 cabinets are here, installation can resume. I'm hopeful that won't take more than 2 days.

Of course there's more after that.  Counters installed...dishwasher and fridge connected...backsplash installed.

I'm hopeful that it will all be done by Labor Day.

In other news, my old sink was temporarily hooked up!!!

Kitchen Remodel...Day 7.5

So things happened today!!!

For example, my fridge moved upstairs!

Isn't she pretty.  I may be in love.

You're probably noticing that the fridge is sticking way out.  While we didn't buy a counter depth fridge, it will sit farther back.  That won't happen until after the counters are installed. You see (or probably you don't because I've had to have it explained to me multiple times) the finish plumbing won't happen until the new sink is installed.  That won't happen until the counters are installed. And that can't happen until the new sink cabinet front is delivered.  Alas, it was damaged in transit and despite being expedited is taking much longer than expected.  After it is received the sink cabinet can be built.  THEN the counter be installed.  It is my hope that all of this happens next week as the counters are scheduled to be installed 8/27.  We shall see.

Next, the GC gave me temporary counters.  Plywood, MDF, whatever.  Yay!!!  Chopping veggie and other things on my little deck table was getting old.

You can see, we immediately put the new counters to good use by making cocktailss

After that, and possibly most importantly, my Josh helped bring the contents of the old fridge up to the new.

Again, I think I'm in love. So much room for so much good food!

The last thing that happened was that I received from my wonderful mama, the really cool paper towel holder I had admired, and quite honestly desired.

In my finished kitchen I see this behind my sink.  A good use, I think, for that otherwise useless triangle space.

The paper towel holder came just in time.  I made my first big mess in my kitchen.  I know.  It's not even done.  I wasn't even cooking.  In moving a bottle of grenadine into the fridge it slipped; the bottle broke.  It was sad.  But it was also bound to happen.

The contractor took pity on  me with my stunted project. He is coming back on Monday to rig up a temporary sink for me.  Woohoo!

That's all from the reno zone.

Date Night--Wednesday August 13

My kitchen still isn't done.  Nowhere near completion.  I went into Lowes this morning and watched emails get sent to the contractor...AGAIN, but still haven't heard from him.

Anyhoo, it's Date Night and I'm trying my hardest to make a nice one.

I was in the mood for shrimp and had decided that we'd have shrimp cocktail for dinner.  So I bought 20 shrimp at Mariano's.  The lovely, very helpful fish monger weighed my shrimp, printed off the label and then added another handful to the bag.  Then, after I had told her that today is National Filet Mignon Day, she took me to "the wall" to show me a much cheaper ($3!!!) cut.  I bought it and we'll give it a try.  (I think it was labeled "chuck roast tenders.) Right now it's in the fridge smeared with garlic an Dijon mustard.

I found a cucumber tomato salad on LaaLoosh that was low in points and easy on the dressing as we are still eating on paper plates with plastic utensils. I modified it a little based on what I had and what I like, but this is basically what it looks like.  Or what I hope it will look like when it's out of the zip top bag in the fridge..



This is dessert.  Mind you, I'll be serving it in a plastic cup.  This washing dishes in our bathroom is the pits.



It's strawberries in balsamic with a little grind of black pepper.  I'll serve it with vanilla greek yogurt.

I do realize that I'm telling you about dinner all out order.  My life seems a little out of order so I ask you to please forgive me.

Cocktails are Martinis.

Appetizer involves proscuitto.  Mine with melon, Josh's wrapped around a breadstick with a hunk or two of parm.

These are my dinner plans, how 'bout yours?

happy cooking