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...