Kitchen Update-Fireplace, Doors, and Grout

Despite another busy weekend, we were able to mark a few more things off of our list.  The list is definitely getting shorter, which makes me very happy!!

The Mason came on Tuesday and took down our brick fireplace facade.  Here's what it looked like when I left Tuesday morning.

 

Mitch snapped an in progress photo.

This is what it looked like when I got home that evening.  Pretty, huh?



Mitch snapped some more in progress photos for me. Here is a shot of the mason building a new brick surround.



Here is what it looked like at the end of the day Wednesday.  He is going to come back tomorrow to clean up the brick. We chose some slate tiles for the floor.  Mitch is going to build a wood surround and mantle.  Then we are probably going to drywall above the mantle, but we are going to finish the kitchen first.



I spent Sunday afternoon painting cabinet doors.  One side had been painted so I needed to prime and put 2 coats on the other side.  We stayed up late last night putting a final coat on.  There will be touch ups that we will have to do once they are hung back up, but for the most part I am done painting cabinets.



Mitch was able to hang the doors on this side of the room.  He is going to try to add the pulls and knobs some time this week.



We also found a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to grout the tile.  I know it is hard to tell from the photos, but it looks so much better now.  We just need to let it cure for another day or so and then seal it.



Our contractor is coming on Thursday or Friday to put up the hood and trim.  We really are in the home stretch.



We still need to finish the butcherblock countertop, install the ledge in the opening, install the quarter round, reinstall all the doors, add knobs and pulls, and put a toe kick around the bottom of the cabinets on the sink side.  Then we move to the fireplace room. 

Kitchen Update- Tile and Paint

We had a busy weekend working on the kitchen, but made some pretty good progress.  I say that every week don't I?

I primed and put a couple of coats on one side of all the cabinet doors.  I also put another 2 coats of paint on the base cabinets.

We sanded the drywall, then primed.   Mitch painted the ceiling.   Then we painted the walls.  You can see the crazy color that we finally choose.  It is a little out of my comfort zone, but it is growing on me.  We also installed 2 light fixtures, which gives us so much more light.  I forgot to take a photo,  but I will post some next time I do a kitchen update.

Then Sunday was spent tiling the backsplash.  I tried to help, but this was really a one man job.

 

 

Here it is all finished.  Well, mostly finished. We still need to grout. 

 

 

 

It's marble and I love it.

 

The hood will cover this space once it is installed.

I have walked into my kitchen at least 50 times just to stare at it.  Harper walked in this morning and said, "This is not our kitchen."   I take that as a good sign. 

Hopefully we will get the tile grouted this week.  Mitch needs to decide if he is going to install the hood or have our contractor come back.  Then we need to put up trim and quarter round, stain and seal the butcherblock, and install a piece of wood for the pass through.   Oh, and finish painting the other side of all the cabinet doors.  Then we can tackle the other room.  We have a mason coming this week to take down the brick facade, so I am sure I will have more photos to share.

Sunday Snapshot- Green Belt

Harper tested this weekend for her green belt in Tae Kwon Do.  She even got to break a board.   I didn't actually get a shot of her breaking it, but here is an action shot.

 

She is now a green belt.  I am so proud of her.  She has worked really hard.

A Functioning Sink

Mitch installed the faucet Monday night, but we had to wait 24 hours before we could use it.  I washed my first batch of dishes in it last night.  It works much better than washing dishes in the bathtub. 

 

The dishwasher still needs to be properly hooked up.  It is leaking where the discharge pipe connects with the garbage disposal.  Mitch should have time to fix it this weekend.

I really want to get rid of the drying rack.  I don't want the countertop cluttered with stuff,  but function might win this battle.  I am intrigued by the over the sink collapsible drying racks.  Anyone have a drying rack they love?

We Have Countertops

The countertops were installed today.  In case you missed it, we chose Caesarstone in Pebble. I was so nervous that something was going to go wrong or that they would not turn out the way I envisioned them, but they are perfect.  

We have to wait 24 hours before the faucet can be hooked up so I still don't have a sink or dishwasher, but at least I have countertops!!

There is way too much gray and silver in the room so we are definitely going to have to pick a different wall color.  I am thinking robin's egg blue.  I am still trying to convince Mitch. What do you think?

I keep walking into the kitchen so that I can stare at my countertops.

We are one step closer to a functioning kitchen.

Painting and Drywalling

Last week was a very productive week.  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We still have lots of work to do, but the countertops are going in today.  So hopefully (fingers crossed) I will have a useable kitchen by the end of the day.  I will share photos of my new countertop tomorrow.

Here's some progress photos from the week.

The paneling was removed from the room adjoining the kitchen.

 

 

The next day Mitch and our contractor drywalled the room.   Ahhh, much better.

 

 

When Mitch took the molding off around the fireplace, we discovered that the fireplace is pulling away from the wall.  Nice, huh?  We have a mason coming out on Friday to look at it and tell us what he thinks we should do.  More than likely it is going to have to come down.

 

 

Our contractor made all the doors for our cabinets last week.  Mitch sanded them and I put a coat of primer on them . 

 

It's starting to look like a real kitchen.

 

I primed and put one coat of paint on these cabinets.  Our contractor installed the dishwasher and sink, so the faucet is all ready to be hooked up once the countertops are installed.

 

 

The plan is to tile the backsplash next weekend.  We also need to sand all the drywall and prime the ceiling and walls.  Then paint all the cabinets doors, plus all kinds of little things.  Once the tile is up, the contractor will come back to install the hood and put up the trim around the room.  We are slowly but surely getting there. 

Cabinets and Countertops

 The cabinets are officially installed.  Of course they may be uninstalled soon because Mitch is freaking out about the cabinets being on top of the laminate flooring.  He is afraid that they will end up buckling since it is a floating floor and there is no way for them to move.  Anyone have any experience with this?  Our contractor says he does it this way all the time and never has had any problems.  Mitch isn't convinced though.

 

Hey Bailey!

 

 

 

Here's our sink.  I can't wait to have a kitchen sink again.  The things we take for granted!!

 

 

The countertops are being templated today.  Woohoo.  They are scheduled to be installed next Monday.  In a week I should have a some what functional kitchen again.  Picking out the countertop was probably the hardest part of the kitchen remodel so far.  When we started I was pretty set on Silestone, but someone at one of the granite places we visited talked me out of it.  So we spent way too long trying to find granite that we both liked.  The problem was we didn't really find anything that we were in love with.  Well, except for some high end marble that was not very practical.  Then we stopped at a place to check out some soapstone and the person that helped us happened to be our neighbor.   He showed us Caesarstone's quartz surface, which we both loved.  So basically we ended up right back where we started.  Caesarstone and Silestone are basically the same product just different brands.  We choose Pebble, which has a honed finish.  Hopefully ours will look as good as the photo below. 

I am trying to decide if I should hold off on kitchen updates until we are finished, so that I can have a big reveal.  Or just keep posting updates so that you guys can see the progress.  Any thoughts?