China Cabinet!

Next up, the china cabinet.  Remember the closet in the dining room?  It's long been a dream of mine to get rid of it and put in a buffet, with lit up glass shelves.  Guess what?  Larry (demo), Rob (cabinets) and Allen (lighting) are going to make that dream come true.  Here's Larry, doing dancing with delight at another building project.  In the soon-to-be-gone-closet!

And still to come:  the booth area, the pantry, the vanity.  Woo-Hoo!

Day 44 - Cabinet Day

This is the day we've been waiting for, working towards, wondering about.  Have we made all the right choices?  Will we have enough room?  Is the style right?  Is it worth all the work????  Very happily, the answer to all the questions is "don't worry, be happy!!!"  

Rob's truck rolled in, full to the brim with cabinets.  

Rob, Larry and Richard unloaded them all.  The second photo shows Rob and Larry carrying in the cabinets that will be the bar.  First set in, hmmm.

This first picture is Larry checking out the set of cabinets that houses the oven and fridge.  These are all HUGE pieces of furniture that they moved in and installed.  

We are thrilled beyond words with the way they look.  Rob's a genius.

Richard installed them, and it wasn't easy, and we were really glad we weren't doing it!

Allen came by to put in the undercounter lights and generally tune things up.   He left all the lights on, dimmed down and gorgeous, so when we came home after Sean's talent show the room just took our breath away.  Can't wait to show you!

Sean sang and played guitar last night in a 10-act talent show.  He was just great, and really shines in the spotlight!  

New colors!

We're on our second round of colors!

This is the view from the living room looking the whole length of the kitchen.  

We're channelling Yvonne and getting bold (it's only paint!)

After we painted, I realized that the colors are exactly the colors in the kitchen rug (now on the floor of the dining room, in the forefront of this photo...),!  So, I guess we'll use the rug in the new kitchen!!!

 We spent today in Menards picking out just the right pieces of wood for the baseboards (maple in the back hall and oak in the kitchen), and the woodwork around the windows and doors.

Cabinets Friday!!!!!   So close!

Just for fun

I thought you might enjoy a "Day 1" and "Day 33" comparison...

Not quite a before and after...but cool to see!  Use the window over the sink for orientation!

Check out (in the "before" shot) the hole in the wall above the cabinets.  We made that so that we could look and feel around to see what is actually IN that wall, to see if it was possible to actually remove the wall.  Now we know exactly what WAS in that wall!~

Day 33 - Now for the fun part!

The heavy construction is officially complete.  We've begun to get our house back!

The floor is in, the ceiling and walls are done, the electricity works (thanks, Allen!)

We took down the plastic wall that kept the dust out of thehouse (HA!) and we reclaimed the dining room.  Here's how the dining room looked...

We visited Rob Higley in his cabinet shop.  What a thrill!  The cabinets are just beautiful!  Here are some shots of that day...  the long run of cabinets is the set that will hold the sink and the cooktop.  Larry took a moment to sit in a drawer space.

Now we are deciding on finishes.  We're going to wallpaper the back hall in maps we've collected over the years.

Here's a shot of the finished floor, it's birch, and BEAUTIFUL!

It's officially Spring here in Minnesota.  Here's a shot of Larry and David going down to the sauna on Thursday night.  Look at the lake:  that's the big iceberg that is the remnant of winter's frozen lake, being pushed eastward and out of our bay.  As of this morning the lake is completely open (as far as I can see...) and it's ready for summer fun.  So get out your calendar, pack your suit, and come see us!!!

The cabinets are going in on Friday, all the appliances are coming in that day.  Stay tuned, and thanks for watching!

With love from construction land...Kathryn and Larry.

Day 28 - The wood floor goes in

This floor is a masterpiece!  Maestro LaBonté (with the on-and-off help of his apprentices KTS and Sean) has

1. planed and leveled it
2. reinforced it by adding new stringers every 2-3 feet
3. installed a 3/4" plywood subfloor
4. put down aluminum sheeting all over for heat distribution
5. overseen the installation of the p-flex tubing for the infloor heat
6. cut and nailed this incredible new subfloor of plywood cut to fit around the tubes...

It's a work of art, truly.  Today the new floor is being installed.  Birch!  It will run perpendicular to the joists and the piping.  The tubing has 60 pounds of pressure so it will be well apparent if a nail goes astray.  We are holding our breath....

A visit to Portland!

I took a break from the kitchen, and winter,  and went out to Portland with Annette to visit Barbara.  She just moved into a wonderful new apartment just 2 blocks from the river in a wonderful, vibrant neighborhood.  

She has a third floor porch and a big bank of windows that look out over the street and into the middle of a big, beautiful tree!  

It only needed a bit of paint in the kitchen, so the midnight sister-crew did the job!

Here's a shot of Barbara and Annette at Barbara's office.  Check out all the projects she's working on!