Kitchen Progress

Everyday new details are added to the kitchen.  Vinnie has worked hard on the pride and joy of this house and I really have no idea where we'd be without him.  He is so creative and so FAST at just making beautiful things out of nothing!  Also he is so knowledgeable.  If we don't know how to do something, or have a question about where to start or proceed with a project, Vinnie knows exactly what to do. And he listens.  This is the biggest thing I love about him that I have learned many other construction guys lack.  You go over the details and hash everything out multiple times and you come back 10 minutes later and they're doing something completely different.  But not our beloved Vinnie.  I could sing his praises all day long and our kitchen reflects how wonderful his attention to detail is.

So, without further delay - here are pictures to catch you up on what's happened in our kitchen since my last update.

First - please remember that this is what the room looked like in May:

And here's where we are now:

Granite being installed in August:

A close-up of our Verde Butterfly granite:

Trying to make final decisions on the paint colors...

We went with Behr Laurel Mist (that green) for all the walls in the kitchen, living room, and back hallway, and Behr Castle Path (reduced by 25%) for the ceiling in the living room, with an even lighter version of it for the kitchen ceiling.

Putting up the back-splash: 2in x 2in slate with a stone border.

Tying the kitchen together with finishing details.  If you look closely you will notice above the cabinets where he added the border of our stone back-splash below the crown molding for added height, color, and to tie everything together.  All the molding was taped up at this point as we tried to decide a color for it.

Back-splash behind the stove top.  

Vinnie had the tin piece "just lying around" and we've since polyurethaned in to darken it and take out the extra colors caused by oils on it.  I love it there!

Vinnie putting all the grout in the back-splash:

Another one of Vinnie working - nailing all the trim into place:

If you notice on these last few pictures the beams are darker with a richer color.  These were the original beams used to build the house - they were originally 24ft long here, spanning the width of the house.  Vinnie cut them and sistered two of each together when we decided to add the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen.  All that was done to them for the color was sanding them down (to remove the big imperfections and coloration differences) and adding a coat of polyurethane.  I love the character they add to the kitchen!  Another great, great idea by Vinnie.

And this is what it all looked like a few day ago!  More details have since been finished, but it is really getting close to being done!

View down the back hallway so you can see the stained-glass windows

Sheetrock + Granite = Progress!

We were gone last weekend in the Boundary Waters (I know, I need to blog about it - maybe tomorrow...or the next day) and came back to our sheet rock going up!  They finished hanging it all this weekend, on Saturday, and today they start the mudding and taping.  We're way past this video, but I thought I should share it anyways to give you an idea of the progression of things. 

Today the granite men showed up with their big slabs of rock for our kitchen!  I just want to sit over there in  a corner and watch them work all day.  It's SO interesting.  They are quick and I feel like I'm missing lots.  However - I have so much school and this other house to keep up.  Also, who wants some girl hovering around watching your every move as you work?  They'd probably be irritated.

Here's the work station they have going outside to make all their final cuts and holes:

Working inside - making all their final measurements

(Like our front-and-center pile of trash? We're getting our THIRD dumpster today)

Wooden counter top before the granite:

Alright, my curiosity is killing me!  I'm going over to check on them again :)  

Everything's Coming Together

Here's a quick video update of the house for you all - enjoy looking at those studs!  It's the last time you'll see them on video.  Sheet rock starts going up on Monday!

(Sorry it's rather shakey and discombobulated - I was in a hurry and a little distracted when I took it)

Big things that have happened with the house in the last week:

• We ordered our shower for the master bathroom and bathtub/shower for the front bathroom
• Almost all the cabinets are installed - only two left to go!
• We picked out the granite for our kitchen (Verde Butterfly) (sounds green, but the slabs we are getting are more black with silver specs to bring out the stainless steel appliances) and put our deposit down.
• We decided on tile for the back splash in the kitchen.  This was a big step for me, for those of you who don't know, I mini-panic when it comes to decorating and picking colors.
• The exterior of the house started getting painted - the first coat is on and they're working on coat #2.  It's been raining rather randomly though so they're trying to work in between all of that.

Plugging Along

Our kitchen is coming right along.  A huge amount of time in the last two weeks has gone towards sanding the multiple layers of lead paint off the bead board that is going into our kitchen.  Much time has been spent at the drawing board (which is any piece of plywood or extra 2x4 nearby - most commonly this plywood hung in the kitchen is used:)

We stand and discuss all of our options and Vinnie draws us lots of pictures of all the ideas he has in his head so we can try and figure the best options out.  We got the layout for the kitchen finalized and a peninsula designed after much discussion.  Vinnie threw this together for us two days ago so we could see what he was thinking:

This is a rough idea of what the peninsula/bar/whatever-you-wanna-call-it will look like:

View from the front as you walk in from front door ↑ and the view as you walk 

around it into the kitchen ↓

View from standing in the kitchen looking towards front door ↓

Now, of course you have to use your imagination a little. It will be closed in from the front (so you don't see those studs in the first two pictures) and the cabinets will of course be out of their boxes in the end. As you may notice, there are three different levels - bar height in front where we will be putting a few bar stools, the counter height coming around from the rest of the kitchen, and then the appendage that sticks out in the back is table height so we can eat/hang out/work on stuff comfortably there. We love it and are so excited with what Vinnie came up with.  

Also, you may notice that there is plywood hung on the walls in the kitchen - at this time we are ready to hang/install the cabinets directly to that. Vinnie likes to put them onto plywood as it is stronger, due to the fact that you are sure to hit wood, no matter where you screw a cabinet into the wall. We're going to wait to hang them though until after the dry wall is up, so they don't get damaged during any of that and aren't in the way as we finish other things.

All of our siding has now been replaced on three sides of the house - we will deal with the front eventually, but for now it's not necessary.  Here's the left side of the house all re-sided:

Since March, the back of the house/yard has gone from looking like this:

   To this: 

I guess the house looks better - the yard certainly does not though.  Looks like we'll be needing another dumpster soon... We're still needing to paint the exterior and that back porch will have to be replaced as well - it's all about priorities though, and for now those are cosmetic things, which rank last on the list.

We've gotten bids on the sheet rock this week and hope to be able to get that started by the beginning of August.  We still have lots of little details to get finished up before then so we're trying to get the tedious stuff out of the way as quickly as possible to move on.

Decisions...

Well, the time I've been a little anxious about has come.  We're starting to make decisions regarding design - not just, "Should this go here? Or right there?" but more specifically regarding colors and stains which will lead to decorations.  This stresses me out.  I know that most girls would say this is their favorite part, but I feel lost.  Quite lost indeed, and it overwhelms me.

The first decision came today.  What to do with the bead board in the kitchen?

      

Vinnie quietly went the extra mile (which is why we love him) and took a few pieces of it home to make examples for me to get better ideas so I could see things he's done with bead board in other houses before.  Today he surprised me with them.  We have several options as seen below. (The wood behind these three boards is a panel from our cabinets - to get a better idea of what it will look like up against the natural stain that they have.)

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(Going from left to right)

1) He sanded all the old layers of lead paint off the top and put a coat of polyurethane on it to bring out the texture and the slightest bit of green left in the grain of the wood.  The bottom of that piece is what it would look like if we just polyurethane over the bead board as it is now.

2) He very lightly sanded the top layer or two of paint off to reveal the original green they painted it, and added a coat of polyurethane.

3) He added a gold/yellow paint over the board as it is, gently wiped it down with a wet rag and then added polyurethane.  (This is something we could do with any color we like)

I tried to take a picture without the flash and that was NOT going to work so I'm bummed it kind of changes the appearance.  However, after much discussion and a nice spike in my blood pressure at my perceived stress over this silly decision, we decided to go with the top part of option 1.  We immediately decided option 3 was out as it was just waaaay too yellow next to those cabinets.  Option 2 was somewhat overwhelmingly green to me and although I love green and really liked how vibrant it was, I've never been in a green kitchen (that wasn't straight out of the '70's) and just couldn't picture it.  Truthfully, I think I just wasn't ready to pick ANY color for the kitchen and the classic wood-look seemed the easiest for now.  That way I can accent with any other colors I please, and it really brings out the beauty of that old wood I think. 

We'll just have to see how it turns out!  Anyone want to come and be my interior designer from this point forward????