mostly FINISHED kitchen!!

Xcept for the pantry door and the baseboards--the kitchen is DONE!

new DOOR, cabinets, induction cooktop, retractable vent, new floor

ORiginal

custom cabinet, European oven

ORIGINAL

pantry entry w new floor

converted pantry to refrigerator alcove with new microwave and appliance center




NEXT..........porch redo! 

new cabinets, sink, granite, upper cabinets w rain glass, new dishwasher/sink

A FULL YEAR

Well here we are July 20th--We have lived in the little beach house for a Full year.  Wow--It has been a PROCESS.  I am so thankful we have AIR conditioning this year.


Here are some PIX to get things updated.

retractable clothesline! Love the fresh air smell on clothes! 

nasty front door removed, entrance WIDENED! 

Lovely, solid, new exterior, door, both open OUT!  Add a lot of light to the living room now!



Well, we have added some new changes to the kitchen as well, But I don't have complete photos yet.
The stainless steel microwave shelf arrived, J put it up and it's nice to have that counter space back.

We are waiting on details now:  the remaining toe kick, the knobs and door pulls, the paper towel holder mounted under the cabinet, the blind I ordered from Smith & Noble to hide ugly kitchen windows.......it all needs to be hung and put UP!

And I need to paint the final bank of cabinets.  I hope to complete them this weekend!

New floor

We had talked about a floor guy with our very favorite framer Al,  and the floor guy is named Benny.  There is this  underground group of good contractors that don't need to use Angie's list.  Word of mouth.   Benny is not timely, but he is nice and interesting and very knowledgable.

In addition to the floor looking very good so far, he has been doing floor work since age 8 with his dad.  He new almost immediately that we had a type of pine called heart pine.  A desirable, on its edge, pine from the 1930's era.  Ours is not the best grade, it's called porch grade, but still its heart pine.

He gave me great hints about our ugly stairs, hints on finding a re glazer for our original windows, and hints on how to clean the old window interior frames and baseboards.  (Steel wool 00 and mineral spirits, the use Johnson paste wax)

On the stairs he suggested painting them w oil based paint. And possibly tiles or checkerboard on the risers.  He suggested a grey, like the beach weathered grey, and then I told him about the replacement of current wallboard w either reclaimed pallet wood or panels of the breadboard.

He also gave me a name of a house builder. One who wants to do a concrete house. He said that a builder doing a new type of house as this would be for the builder will take extra time and special are since it's his first.  My thought was no skills w first house, prone to errors and delays, but he seemed to think the opposite.  But wouldn't the builder have a HUGE learning curve?  I'm not sure I'd want to be his first.

He also shared his heart tumor story with me, it was amazing from a doctors perspective, no typical CAD, but a, most likely, congenital tumor that had grown in his right heart.
He had to have it removed, and the procedure was pretty interesting from the way he described it.

So back to my (our) floor.  We decided to get half of the downstairs done just to complete the kitchen.  The upper cabinets arrive tomorrow.
They will add two coats of the sealant tomorrow, we will sleep at a hotel because the fumes will be awful. They will do a final coat Saturday. And then Sunday it should be habitable.  J will be home Monday.  So the timing will be good.

He demo'd the existing tile that had been placed over the floor at the back door.  It had a rotten sub floor that he also replaced.  It has a cool build in doormat look with some contrasting darker wood.   And he fixed the gaps at the fridge and pantry opening.

So here are some pix.

this used to be a rusted chain link fence and overgrown vines and scrub bushes

ornamental grasses

well sanded

living room ready for the finish

built in door mat, where nasty tile and rotten subfloor once was

We have appliances!!

CUSTOM cabinet

so we FINALLY have an oven and a dishwasher, that is hooked up and works ----after 11 months.  Wow, what a relief!  I'm still learning the OVEN, it is convection also, so that takes some getting used to.  I think I need to get an over thermometer to make sure the temp gauge is true.

dishwasher waiting to get hooked up

OVEN, DW and pull out for long things ALL WORK!

  J did all the plumbing for the dishwasher. We had an electrician hook up the oven. 

closed look

J installed this, too.   ($330 at Lowe's) 

new screen door, very excellent, window on top drops out to reveal screen, thus keeping cats safe behind glass! 

Easter

april already.  We have had the beach house almost a year.  We closed last yr at the end of April.  On our anniversary.

This yr will be our 15th yr anniversary

So the kitchen.  I started the final demolition, J had to help finish with the big ugly stuff. What a mess. But it's gone, gone, gone.

I hired a new drywall guy, Tim.   One person worker.   Nice fella.

The leak, despite assurances of the contractor Ryan, was NOT fixed.   So he came back yesterday and added more caulking.   Both J and I have doubts this will fix the leak.  But it will cure in 2-3 days so then we will see.   I have considered just ripping out the door upstairs and replacing it with a new sliding glass door.   The door is about $600.  But the install will be A Lot more I am sure.

We tried to install the ikea cabinet.  But it is incorrect in depth.  And, ikea has since changed their cabinets---after 17 yrs same cabinet base!  So that means I can't get the correct size.   I'm not happy!   But we will probably use that cabinet in the garage. Because IKEA will not let me return it.

I will have to drive the 3 hrs to ikea with measurements and get the uppers now that the drywall is mostly done.

Maybe next weekend.

partial demo of soffit

full demo cabinets and shelves gone

with new drywall

So now onto granite snafu.  Javier sent his bro (Diego) to measure.   I showed him the vent hood and cooktop, gave him the specs and cut out templates.  The granite he brought Does not fit. They attempted some extra cutting to make it fit.   Looks like crap.  So they brought two pieces of granite about the size of a half a bar of soap to use as a "decorative " cover for the gap.   Again ---looks like crap.
So now they are gonna redo the granite. This time with a cut in it to slide the two pieces together over the two appliances. The granite seams are almost undetectable nowadays .  So I hope this will look ok.   Of course he said he would do it today,  Saturday, but just texted and said it was now postponed to Tuesday.
Surprised? No, me either.     He sucks at time management. His intentions are good though.  I'm  usually not this patient with a tradesman, but for some reason I like him and his brother.  They are  hard workers.  From Peru.

The fence guy was supposed to stop by yesterday to repair the fence he installed in December.  It is leaning and loose.  He again failed to show up or call ---such a dirt bag.   I, of course, emailed and called.  No response. I would like to stab them when they lie about showing up.  Not a fatal stab.  But something that teaches them them importance of follow thru.  Maybe just a firm kick in the groin. I finally called him today using a different phone, and I caught him at home, he PROMISED to come by tomorrow between 3 pm and 7 pm to repair the leaning fence.

So today I'm dead in the water.  I could paint, but I'm not inspired to do so.  I've found I need inspiration or it is a chore.

I have no oven and no cooktop STILL!   So the best I can do is microwave and toast.  This becomes unpleasant fast.  Fortunately, there is still vodka.

Tim the drywall guy was reasonable about completing the job ---pending the leak fix, he asked I pay him less $200 so he is motivated to come back and finish.   I agreed!

He accepted a check, but then sent a frantic text the next day saying that the bank would not cash it. So I went to the bank, and they had a different story---said he was a jerk, cussed them out and tore up the check in font of them.  His story was the ATM machine torn the check---funny! and sad, he said he did not have a  bank account and he could not cash it or deposit at his bank.

How in the hell do you survive without a bank account?

Almost spring

Well, per the calendar, it IS spring, but it's still cold.

We did a lot this weekend.

J nailed all the balusters onto the balcony so it would pass the city permit.  We had 6 months from early October.  So we are just getting it finished.  Inspector is coming tomorrow. I'll be happy to have that permit closed.   I did not like the inspector visits.  Nor the stupid regulations.  Plus they are so variable depending on which person you get.

I made sure J had a new compressor.  Our old one died.  I placed it in the curb for pick up at 5 pm, at 530 pm it was gone.  I don't know why I bother calling the city for bulk pickup.   The scrapers usually take most stuff.

new blusters on balcony- passed city inspection!!!

We have been struggling with the type of railing for the balcony for 9 months.  We wanted the metal line railing like you have on a sailboat, but just to do a small balcony would have been well over $1000
 The wood balusters were about $50.   They are a bit more obstructing of the view, esp from the prone position while laying in bed.  But they look nice and uniform.   And they were fairly easy.   I still have to paint them.
And if there are EVER kids on the balcony, the balusters are less than 4 inches apart, so the kids' heads will not get stuck. Like that is EVER going to happen--NOT.

Then we had to empty the garage off all contents because they were coming to move it.  It is now a mini me.  It is in line with the home roof line as opposed to 90 degrees off.

new built-in book cases J made, in the bedroom/office area. 

J also finished the built-in bookcases. I have to paint them. (still)

Pigeon deterrents

J also was motivated to get the pigeons off the roofline becauses they poop onto the balcony. So he added these plastic and stainless steel bird discouragement spikes on the house edge.  We didn't know if plastic or metal was best so we got both and he arranged them in an alternating pattern.  Liquid nails did the trick, the adhesive that came with the product was crap.







We had electrician visit yesterday.  He worked on kitchen lites and addition of 220 and 110 outlets.  He also added a few halogen bulbs too.   Today I had the plaster guy do his thing.  First he had to repair the 8-10 cracks that had occurred in the past 6 months since he did the original work.
That was not to bad, he just rolled on the mesh tape and used the 5 minute plaster to swipe over the cracks.
UNFORTUNATELY, now I still have to prime and paint over the areas he re-plastered.

We also have electricity in the mini me garage and an outside plug for the GEM.

I had a new cabinet guy come today to estimate the cost and to plan the cabinet for the wall oven.  Although it is not ideal, he seems to think it will work with the pull out Rev a shelf.

He actually worked for the same cabinet guy that did our other two kitchens.

I tried calling that cabinet co. first, but they never respond.  Maybe I'm blackballed.
All I know is the older man was nice and I liked him, the younger guys seem lazy to me.


So I believe that the next stuff that has to happiness is this:

0. hang IKEA cabinet above refrigerator, cut out wood near pantry floor.
1. get leak fixed, flashing--general contractor, not contacted me yet, will call in AM.
1a. finish demo
2. dry wall, need to tell him not to do behind the refrigerator.
3. pick up granite and install it, the stone guy called today, told me if I picked it up and installed it myself it would be $150 less.  I told him YES, because it is a small piece and honestly, most will be cut out for the cooktop and vent hood. So it will not be that heavy.  Worry that the part he cuts out is centered just in the cabinet for cook top, not the entire 48 inches.
4. Get cabinet placed for wall oven.
5. get electricians back to hook up wall oven, dishwasher, cooktop and vent hood.
6. J is working on vent hood venting
7. worry if the european plug on the cooktop can be converted to US type plug or just hard wired in.....
8. paint, ? back splash?
9. door on pantry
DONE
Ok here are pix:

MOVING the garage

garage contents

new recessed can LED lights, in kitchen

new bank of cabinets for cooktop and pop up vent hood, waiting for granite

partial demolition of soffit in kitchen

work in Kitchen

We were able to secure the services of the framer who did all the work upstairs, Al.
He came out gave us a quote and did the job the next day. DONE like magic!!!

We had to scramble the night before and find a new back door, a Masonite (brand) that is rot free, because it faces the water.

We found one at home depot and also got a cypher lock for the door.  That's a locking deadbolt with 8 numbers, you get to select a 6 digit code and that is how you can get in.  There is also a key.

After J had ripped  out the drywall to make the refrigerator space, he found rotting and wet studs, so this is what Al replaced. Al also added 2 headers so we can add the cabinets above the refrigerator and the door to the pantry.

Today I had Dave come by and discuss the insulation, he is the salesman for the spray insulation company. Because it was such a small space, he told me how to do it myself to save about $200.  Thx Dave. :)

I have to get these sheets of spray foam insulation, that you cut to fit, then use the spray cans to seal the edges.

If there is room you can add batting type insulation. But that typically ends up being too thick then to add the drywall.

I'll see this weekend if I can find the stuff at home depot.

I also had the cabinets for the cooktop cut down from 24 inches to 18 inches.  This will hold the 2 burner cooktop and the 30 inch down draft.  I have that on order, it should arrive in a few weeks.

I'm picking up the cabinets tomorrow.  I will have to wait to get the granite until the downdraft arrives.  They use a laser to make sure the cut is exact.

We have discussed and planned lightening, one "can" light above coffee station, one above cook top, and one above sink.  All LED lights since they draw the least amount of electricity.

Then a fixture aimed at the bar top.

I also have the wall oven on order, but it will not arrive for about 6 weeks, it's on back order. But it's pretty cool, a 24 inch FAGOR wall oven 2 cu feet, fits a 20# turkey, and it has a right side hinge, so you can get stuff in and out easier.

This will sit above my lovely 18 inch bosch dishwasher, that I am anxious to get installed.  I will have an extra 5 inches next to DW so we will add a pull out cabinet for either rolls of plastic and foil wrap OR cookie sheets/cutting boards.

So here are two pix:

old nasty door with rotted wood

lovely clean, strong headers for both pantry and fridge area, new door, and cabinet with granite will be the new coffee station.

The insulation will be above the new door and in the currently exposed walls. 

Today has been SUPER windy, gusts up to 50 mph.  J's plane was on a delay for 1 1/2 hrs on tarmac due to wind.  But he finally got to work! 

The wind is STILL howling!