Before and After, part 2

Half-bath before:

Half-bath after:

And then there was one

I finally knocked out the half-bath this weekend, leaving me with just the backsplash tile in the kitchen left to go on the remodel project I started back in September of last year! I had installed the dual-flush toilet and pedestal sink in the half-bath a few weeks ago. The toilet closet flange was cracked so I needed to repair that before setting the toilet and the pedestal sink was a royal pain in the butt to install...just too small of a workspace for my big hands and clumsy body. Once these two items were up and running, the bathroom was a nice feature to have downstairs! This past weekend, I installed the light fixture, glass shelf, toilet paper holder, and hand towel holder. Suzanne added the final "finishing touches" with the addition of a new hand towel and trash can. I will finish painting the window trim and door trim sometime later this year.

Excuse me sir, which way to the loo?

So I ordered a new dual-flush toilet and pedestal sink for the downstairs half-bath about 3 weeks ago in anticipation of finishing the bathroom project before the end of April. The items where supposed to be ready for pick-up from Lowe's on April 14th so I spent most of the weekend prior to the 14th sanding drywall and painting the half-bath to get it ready. Well, the 14th came and went without any word from Lowe's so I called them on the 15th and was told that the pieces would be in on the 17th. I stopped by the store on my way home from work on the 17th and was told that my order was "still in transit" and to check back tomorrow. So, I stopped by on the 18th on my way home from work and was told this time that the toilet and sink had been lost in transit by the supplier...which basically meant that the supplier never shipped my stuff. Lowe's was pretty nice about it and called me the next day to say that they were contacting the supplier to have them re-ship my order and to expedite the shipment. They also mentioned a discount on my order. I was hoping to get my order last Friday (April 25th) but when I called Lowe's, I was told that the supplier was waiting on the toilet to come in and that my target arrival date in the store is now May 5th...so much for expediting the order. In the meantime, I've been spending my weekend hanging out with Hudson, Suzanne and the dogs so I can't really complain too much about not being able to work on the bathroom. Now I'm just hoping that Lowe's holds up their promise of a discount.

My next "project"

Suzanne stitched this RUSH logo on a onesie for Hudson, but we all know that it really was to appease daddy! Here's hoping that this kid has decent taste in music, lord knows, he is going to get exposed to plenty of it long before he has any choice in the matter!

True...True...

So my father-in-law, Ray, sent me this in an email today...best damn IKEA joke I've ever seen (Thanks Ray!). If you've ever bought anything at Ikea, you'll see why this is so funny.

"IKEA has announced its intention to start selling cars"

Let Levi Ride!

I've kind of put the remaining remodeling efforts "on hold" right now in anticipation of Hudson's arrival, so in the interim, I figured I'd use this Blog to promote something that I probably love more than remodeling...cycling!!

I'll try and sum this up in one quick sentence while trying not to bore you to death with the details. Basically, a US Pro cyclist is getting royally screwed by the organization that manages the Tour de France. You can read all about it on the link below, but if you do nothing else, please, please, please, PLEASE, sign the petition to LET LEVI RIDE!!!

http://www.letleviride.com/

Thanks!

-Craig

PS - I'll get to that half bath and tile backsplash sometime between now and the end of this year so stay tuned!

The Full Monty

Here you go folks, I've loaded all of the pictures from the kitchen remodel (well, at least all of the ones that I was able to recover after my computer decided to up and die on me) to Kodak Gallery. So, if you are bored out of your mind and want to burn a good 20 or 30 minutes, check them out at this link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1994rry7.1jad5fev&x=0&y=-tlq5rk

And for those of you still keeping count, I still have the downstairs half-bath and tiling the backsplash in the kitchen to finish, as well as painting the hall and stairwell. All that will probably happen after Hudson is here (heck, he may even help!).

I'm in the wrong line of business...

So, after months of hard work on the kitchen, the fruits of my labor ae starting to pay off. I have pretty much finished everything in the kitchen and sunroom except tiling the backsplash and hanging the remaining 3 bamboo roman shades in the sunroom. As a way to free up a little of my time (so I can start working on finishing the half bath), Suzanne convinced me to see what it would cost to have someone else come in and tile our backsplash in the kitchen. This seemed liked a logical idea, and assuming that it couldn't cost more than six or eight hundred bucks (materials & labor), I decided to check it out.

I went to a "specialty" tile store near us, armed with everything from cabinet drawer fronts and countertop samples to color swatches and floor samples from our kitchen, thinking that these "specialists" would be able to ease the pain of deciding on a tile scheme. Well, let me tell you, this was the biggest waste of time I have had so far with this project. I spent a good hour with the "designer" basically picking out my own tile with little to no help from her at all. Turns out she is new to the job, and boy was that apparent! So after my hour of doing what I could basically have done at Lowe's in 30 minutes on my own, and without an appointment, I left the store with a couple of samples for Suzanne to look at before making the final decision. We decided to go with a very simple, clean, and modern natural slate tile in a 4" x 4" dimension, laid horizontally and in straight rows (no fancy diagonals here).

The tile store was nice enough to give me a list of tile installers that they had used in the past so I called three of them to see about getting a quote for doing the install. Only one returned my call and I quickly scheduled a time to meet with him at the house. He came out, measured, showed me pictures of some of his previous work, and then gave me a quote of $1800, including materials, to do the installation. After coming to, I politely thanked him, and quickly escorted him out the front door. 18-HUNDRED-FRICKIN-DOLLARS?!?!?! Are you insane, man? I should have gone into tiling instead of engineering!! That very next weekend, I went to Lowe's and lo and behold, found a very similiar natural slate tile for half the material cost of what the "specialty" store was going to charge me...so much for the middle man!

I have now come full circle on this next task and have decided to handle the installation myself, and for a fraction of the $1800 it would have cost me to have it done "professionally." My free weekends are quickly running out so I am hoping to start next weekend and maybe have it completed before Hudson arrives. While deciding on how to handle the tile debacle, I ended up painting in the sunroom, window trim, and kitchen. I also installed the trim mouldings, as well as the new hall closet door. All that is left is to tile the backsplash and finish the half-bath downstairs. Oh yeah, we are also shuffling our office from the upstairs 3rd bedroom, down to the sunroom so that we will be able to put a futon (thanks Sandi & Ray!) in the guest room for any future guest crazy enough to stay with us! Oh yeah, and did I mention that Suzanne is due in less than 3 weeks...YIKES, I better get back work!

In the short rows

With the upcoming party looming, I'm burning the midnight oil to wrap things up in the kitchen and sun room this week. This past weekend, I trimmed out the bar and cleaned out the sunroom (it had been my staging/tool storage area during the kitchen remodel). Tonight, I painted the 5 windows in the sunroom (I HATE WINDOWS) along with the wall that you can see from outside in the sun room to match the green shade in the kitchen. Tomorrow night I'm grabbing a couple of beers with a few buddies of mine at Tyler's Taproom. Wendesday night I'll knock out the rest of the wall painting in the sun room, leaving only the baseboard and shoe moulding to finish up with on Friday and early Saturday morning. By 4 PM on Saturday, the kitchen and sun room should be finished!!!! I'll probably start on finishing the hall entry way and new coat closet on Sunday.

Before & After

I know that I'm not completely done yet, but I just couldn't help myself...

Close, but no cigar

Ah, so close and yet so far. If you have been keeping up with my Blog, you'd would probably believe that the countertops were installed last Wednesday and that Suzanne and I have been enjoying our functioning kitchen now for the past four days...and yet, you'd be wrong. The countertop guys came out on Wednesday, as planned, and I quickly gave them the tour of the kitchen, pointing out the little things that I felt needed to be shared before the got busy installing the countertops. I then disappeared upstairs to work and keep an eye on the dogs, and also to stay out their way downstairs. About 45 minutes into the installation, I hear Brad downstairs yell, "Hey bossman, I need you to come look at this." That has got to be the last thing I wanted to hear that morning. So I proceed downstairs, where I find Brad and his helper staring at the countertop cut out for the slid-in range. That's about when I notice that the countertop to the left of the range is about 3 inches too short, leaving a gap between the cooktop and the countertop. Brad tells me that because the range is off center in the cut out, the guys back at the shop who fabricated the countertop messed up and centered the opening about the middle of the cut out, which left the countertop short on the left side and long on the right. He then tells me that he will need to take the countertop back to the shop to get it fixed and that it will be Saturday morning before he can come back to finish the installation...ARGHHHHHH!! Well, what was I going to do other than say o.k. and wait until Saturday? Hey, it has been 3 months without countertops, what's another 3 days right?

So Saturday rolls around and Brad shows up with his 15 year old son to help him finish the installation (turns out Jr. is one of four boys in the family, 17 yrs old, 15 yrs. old, 12 yrs. old, and 3 yrs old!!). After about 3 hours of work, they finish up and low and behold, we have countertops again! I spent the rest of Saturday installing the sink, disposal, dishwasher, and water filter and by late Saturday night, we were running our first load of dishes in the dishwasher...no more hand washing!

So folks, the kitchen is functional again. I'll be picking out tile for the backsplash over the next couple of weeks (still deciding on if I want to do the install myself of just pay someone to do it for me). Then, I'm moving on to the sunroom and half-bath. I still need to finish smoothing out the ceiling in the sunroom, paint the ceiling in both rooms, paint the widows in both rooms, mud and paint the half-bath, install the toilet and sink, and paint the sunroom. I also need to install the new closet door and finish installing all of the trim moulding. These next couple of weekends should prove to be the last few work weekends before the little one arrives. Here are some pictures of the semi-completed kitchen (no tile backsplash yet).

Quick update

I realized that I've been quiet for a while so I thought I'd post a quick update to keep my loyal reader(s) off my back. I've spent the last week or so knocking out a few odd jobs around the house. I've installed the curtains in the nursery, painted the knee wall in the kitchen, purchased the countertop overhang supports, started installing the base moulding and quarter round moulding in the kitchen, and just some general cleaning/organizing. The next big step comes this Wednesday when Design Concepts will stop by in the morning to install the new countertops and sink!!! So by Thursday of this week, Suzanne and I will officially have a fully functional kitchen again! Stay tuned, I'll try and post some new pictures of the nursery and kitchen on Wednesday evening.

Side tracked again

Oh yeah, and I did a little painting in the nursery this past weekend. I think that this room is done as far as decorating goes, we just need to pick up the crib from Liz and Brian (thanks guys!) and hang a few prints on the wall. Everything else is good to go so I can focus on finishing up the kitchen and half bath these next few weeks.

I have made FIRE!!

Sometimes, a picture truly is worth a thousand words...

While the cat is away...

So Suzanne has planned a "girls weekend" at the beach, which means I've got the entire weekend (minus a brief 65 mile bike ride on Saturday morning) to knock out a bunch of work around the house. On the schedule for this weekend is painting the nursery, painting the kitchen knee wall, painting the sun room, painting the entry hallway and stairwell, painting, painting, painting...YUCK!!!! With Hudson only 67 days away, I'm hoping to get all of the painting done with Suzanne and child out of the house so that they don't inhale the fumes. If I get all the painting done, I might also try and finish wiring the microwave hood outlet above the stove, connecting the dishwasher to the water supply and electrical supply lines, and hang the new coat closet door! Yep, it's going to be a BIG weekend again!

Coming soon to a kitchen near you

FIRE!!! Yep, the guys from PSNC came by yesterday to install the new natural gas fuel line for the stove. They ran some new piping, drilled through the floor behind the stove, installed a shut-off valve, and pressurized the line with air before capping it off with a pressure gauge. All was right in the world...until I walked downstairs and saw that the gauge had dropped from 25 psi to 0 psi in about 30 minutes of them leaving. I called PSNC and they came back out and checked the new line for leaks. Everything looked good in the new fuel line so they thought that the gauge itself had a leak. They re-taped the gauge and re-pressurized the line before leaving again. I've been keeping a close watch on the gauge as it has slowly dropped from 30 psi down to 17 psi. They told me that it would fluctuate due to changes in temperature, and considering that we had one of the coldest nights so far this season, I'm holding my breath that this drop in pressure has to do with the weather! I'm cautiously waiting for the Durham County Inspection Department to make an appearance soon! Once the new line passes inspection, I have to call PSNC to get them to come back out and hook up the stove and turn the gas on. When that happens, we'll be cooking again on Cobble Glen Ct.!

This ones for you, Wendy

So about 4 months ago, Suzanne's friend Wendy was down from Maine visiting with us. We were swapping home remodeling "war stories" since Wendy had recently remodeled her kitchen and downstairs basement room. At the time, my current kitchen remodel was just a twinkle in my eye. I was kicking around the idea of replacing the cabinets instead of just slapping some white paint on them and calling it done. Well, little did I know that my conversation with Wendy was going to lead to pretty much a complete kitchen make over! It kind of went like this:

"So, your kitchen looks awesome Wendy, I can't believe how much space you have in the kitchen!"

"Yep, that's because I moved my fridge into what used to be a closet, you could do the same here in your kitchen and it would really open up the space."

"Really?...where would I move the fridge to?"

"How about that closet under the stairs, you could cut a new opening in it so that the fridge was facing into the kitchen and then seal up the existing door...it would be pretty simple."

Simple, yeah, well maybe not exactly. But, I will say that Suzanne and I are both very pleased with how the kitchen has turned out...and we have Wendy to thank for that!

half a range

With the help of my neighbor, Travis, I was able to get the new dual-fuel slide in Bosch range installed last night...well, and least half of it. You see, the "dual-fuel" refers to the fact that the oven is electric while the stove top burners are natural gas. That's great if you have both electrical and gas service installed in your kitchen. However, since our old stove was electric only, I am having to get a new gas fuel line installed in order to have full functionality on the new range. The gas installation is scheduled for January 2nd, so hopefully "we'll be cooking" in early 2008! Here a few shots of the new equipment in the kitchen, brought to you by the fine German engineers at Bosch appliances...

What a day

not much in the mood to type, my hands are killing me from having to use a screwdriver for the last 3 hours because my cordless screwdriver ran out of juice. Needless to say, the base cabinets and lights are finally installed! Tomorrow I meet with the gas company to talk about running a new fuel line for the stove. I'll probably run by Lowe's tomorrow evening or Tuesday after work to start the ball rolling on the counter tops as well. It's going to be close, but I still think that I will have everything done in the kitchen and sunroom by the end of the year.

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

You may be asking yourself, "Is it snowing in Durham today?" Or perhaps you are thinking, "Has the stress of home remodeling pushed Craig over the edge to the point he is now snorting coke?" Well, fear not loyal reader(s), that white powered on my face is not snow or "blow", it is; however, drywall dust from my 5th round of sanding the ceiling in the kitchen. I've got the final skim coat of mud on the ceiling now and it is drying. Once dry, I'll give it one final light sanding and then roll on two coats of paint. After that, I'm popping the cork on a tasty beer to celebrate the end of the worst job so far...ceiling repair! My hope is to have the ceiling finished in a few hours and then start placing the base cabinets and appliances. Check back later tonight and hopefully there will be some pictures showing my progress for the day.