Fire yesterday, water today. And yet, a sad story.

It’s finally, really, almost finished. Fire yesterday, water today. As of tonight, I can cook over an open flame, put stuff down the disposal, and use the dishwasher. No more Teflon-coated electric wok, no more washing dishes in the shower, right?

So I stopped at the store on the way home from a very long day at work to get beer so I could have my favorite supper: beer and popcorn. But not only could I not find any popcorn, I couldn’t find the popcorn popper either. Good thing there were two episodes of Glee on the DVR to console me.

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All that’s left is screwing in the pulls, finding some damn undercounter lights, and punch list things. Oh, yeah, and finding a table to fit the completely bizarre space for it.

There are mistakes, that’s for sure. But I really can’t believe how wonderful it is. The blue is perfect, and the main excuse for the whole thing — no counter space — is really, truly, much improved. Seems like there’s a place to put something down everywhere I turn.

Color happy

One day I will put all these kitchen pics in order — but here you can enjoy the time-lapsed progress of just one day.

All of a sudden the cul-de-sac was full of trucks again. Counters, appliances and electric. Most of what’s left is hooking things up and fixing mistakes.

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Light — morning v night, flash v no flash, lights on v off — makes a huge, wonderful difference.

and other things I desire to have

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Week 23: Kitchen construction begins

Day 1: demo kitchen. Day 2: wake sleeping concertgoers at 9 am–with a jackhammer to remove slate floor and 3 inches of concrete below it. Day 3: frame kitchen and clean up. Day 4: install all new subfloors. Day 5: rest and wait for electrical rough on Tuesday.

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Living with boys

“Tom already called first poop.”  This is what Warren said when I told him the plumber was at home installing the toilet and faucets. This is the world I live in, folks.

Dan still has no terlet. I had to pay $411 to special order it today because of that 10-inch rough thing.

The little things are killing me

Looked in the bathroom yesterday and realized I hadn’t picked trim colors. Honestly, at one point that would’ve been what I thought of first. Kids’ bathroom is getting white. I think I’m going to paint the trim in Dan’s bathroom the same color as the cabinet — what do you think?

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Mostly all good

Tile’s pretty much finished. Now I’m just second guessing a few of the details.

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Just have to talk with the builder about what to do for all these unfinished edges. And decide if I want to regrout the marble floor tile with a lighter color. I chose that beadboard vanity cabinet before I knew how busy the floor would be, and the gray grout makes it even worse.

Tile’s all in!

Grout today. Can’t wait to see it. They did a very nice job. It’s hard work to do it right, and you have to be smart. I couldn’t deal with all those patterns and math, as is evident in the fact that I had to make a little change yesterday morning because I hadn’t thought through the floor pattern all the way to the door. Mea culpa.

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Week 3, and progress, begins

No real remodeling progress last week, really, except that I packed up the kitchen and Dan took the cabinets off the wall and hung them up in the garage. The Tile Guy didn’t seem to be able to get here, so nothing else moved forward.

But Monday, Tile Guy showed up, the floor in the kid’s bathroom is down, and I think I like it! I’m never sure, you know, because I can’t imagine what something will look like, so I never trust our decisions.

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Rounding out week 1

Days 4 and 5: Tile is purchased. A thin film of dust settles over most of the house. On Friday, we did four showers in under an hour in one bathroom. With no unpleasantness.

Day 6 and 7: We pack up the kitchen. My cabinets are like a magical bottomless croker sack. I fill up a box, turn around, and the cabinets are still full.

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