The last cabinet

Installing the last cabinet. It had to be shimmed to match the height of the rest of the cabinets. The shims are almost 2 inches tall:


Here is chad installing that last cabinet. I think he almost had a heart attack because I was so frusterated this morning and we were working like maniacs to make progress.

Ta-da! The last cabinet is in. See that light fixture on the right? We had to change the orientation of that to horizontal so that the countertop would fit underneath. We had not taken the shimming into consideration when measuring the height. Add it to the list of minor details which we overlooked the first time and had to rip out and start again. We also had our new fridge delivered on Saturday. Here it is, we need to clean the front with some goo-be-gone:
And the interior view. What a sweet fridge, I am feeling a little guilty for having such a nice thing, the fridge is worth more than my car at this point:

And our other Saturday project was tiling the floor under the stove and the fridge. Here is the floor under the fridge:
A close up of the new tile:

And here is the tile under the fridge:
And another design detail which I have not mentioned before, Chad had a great idea of painting the wall looking into the living room with chalkboard paint. It's really subtle and you don't notice it until you walk in the kitchen. It provides a nice little unexpected venue for messages and drawings:

How many days until we are done? I wonder the same thing. The countertops are slated to be installed the weekend of May 20. Hallelujah! From there the sink can go in, and I can stop washing dishes in the basement. It has been a long process.

I took a quick stop at the Minneapolis St. Paul Home Tour this weekend and saw one house that was a sweet remodel. It gave me some hope that this entire project will be worth it. My mom says I will forget all the anguish. I hope she is right.

Still Working on the Cabinets, part II

Oh for god's sake. We are still working on the cabinets.

We finally got the cabinets in that were causing so much trouble. See below. The fridge goes in the middle. We had to change a wall and rearrange electrical to make this fit.

There is one cabinet left to install. Woo-hoo!

Long view of the kitchen:
Also, we bought a new microwave and fridge. The microwave came today, I ordered that online. Here it is in all it's packaging:

We are nearing on six months with this project. Spring is here, and I wish we were done. Sigh. We are getting closer. We ordered the countertops on Wednesday, and those should be ready May 18 or sooner. June 1 -- that is my party date. But i am not sending out the invitations yet.

Still Workin on the Cabinets

Cooking dinner with no sink, half installed cabinets, and shelfs for countertops:




Oh, this is the wall we have to CUT OUT because the cabinets do not fit:

Atleast the magnolias are blooming in the front yard:

The new light

We put in recessed lighting in the new kitchen, but we left room for one swanky light fixture above the new kitchen sink. We finally decided on it. It's got a touch of modern, a touch of rustic. It will arrive on Monday:



I am ashamed to admit, it is from Pottery Barn. Our first Pottery Barn purchase ever.

Our new faucet

Here is our new faucet, safely on it's way via UPS to us. Chad says, BITCHIN'

Breaking News

1) Mike Gunther new video now available online . CD Release par-tay Saturday, April 15 at the Turf Club in St. Paul, MN. Doors at 9pm. Come one come all. We will be there.

2) Congratulations to Jason and Courtney!

This project is taking forever -- but it's gorgeous

We are moving at about the speed of a snail. Still, no sink, no kitchen. Atleast we got the living room back, after the FIASCO of fixing the ceiling. That took atleat a week, and it was a week that we were not planning to spend. The scraping of the popocorn was fine, it was the fixing of the drywall that had 4 screws per 8 feet that did me in. And the sanding over the head, with dust falling into the hair, that was really the worst of it.

It's April. We wanted to be done by now. Chad is getting a ton of calls for his landscaping business, Diggit Landscaping, and our best laid plans were to be easily done by now. We started everything December 15 or so, 2005. That's a solid 4 months of effort. My dad says we have the easy stuff left. I am sure he is right, but I am growing very tired of eating out, dishes in the basement, and no kitchen.

Atleast we have passed the point now where the house is no longer covered with dust. Last weekend I cleaned the bathroom, and it was a great feeling, because I know that it will no longer be covered with dust.

Why do we remodel? I am still asking myself that. Because it takes a long ass time. Its more work than you imagined, and you run out of steam. But the cool thing is, stuff is starting to come together. Our vision is becoming a reality. Opening up the wall to the kitchen has really changed the house, and changed it for the better. I think we are going to like our house more, and that is a very awesome feeling. And I love everything so far, the wood floors are gorgeous, and we are starting to put in the cabinets..... if only I can hang in there, one more month, we are close. Help!!

This is the soapstone, in slabs, at the distributor. We are in the middle of sourcing a local distributor that would sell us the soapstone pre-cut, but not fabricated, to save some dough. If we can't find that locally, we will order from a company in New Jersey that only does Soapstone and caters to DIYers.

Look at those gorgeous cabinets. There have been quite a few unexpected events with the cabinets, including 1) damaged cabinet 2) uneven floors and ceilings to to tune of atleast 4 inches, 3) we goofed when installing the new floor and did not account for the fact that the toe kick is actually 2 inches less wide than the cabinets. But we are overcoming. Thanks to Mom and Dad (Tom Silva) for 1) invaluable assistance with cabinet installation and 2) three course meals on wheels dinner delivery.

The upper cabinets. The microwave will go on the right.

Here is the tile for the backsplash. Each little tile looks like an individual painting.

The floors are done

They turned out beautiful. We had no idea that there would be so much variation in the colors:

Sanding the floors...

Halfway done:


Chad liked this picture because he looks tough:




Taa-da!! All sanded:
Scraping the ceiling.. it's snowing!

This was a MESS.

The before pictures of the floors and ceiling

Here is our yucky popcorn ceiling in the living room:



There was a funny cut out in the floor in front of the kitchen, so Chad had to take out all the boards and re-do the floor:

We moved all the stuff out of our house and crammed it in the porch:

Here is another view of the porch:

Look at that hottie, after sanding some drywall:

The house without furniture:

The kitchen floors, before:

The office floor, before:

We had the help of some good friends who were encouraged by the mere mention of beer and brats. Moving is a pain, but it only took a few hours with help!!! It was especially helpful given that Chad's back was not fully healed. Thank you to Adam, Matt, Holly, Zak and James!!

The new lights, and sanding drywall

Before Chad hurt his back, we were able to make some progress on the kitchen.

Our new recessed lights are in! There is now more light in the kitchen than in the entire rest of the house combined:



The new pre-set dimmer switch is the best:

Sanding drywall is the pits! Look at the dust!

The drywall, and the lights:
The beginnings of the new back entry:

And then, a snow storm:

An Unexpected Set Back

Chad hurt his back at the gym. Major bummer. He was doing squats, and was fine afterwards, but the next day, he couldn't even walk. Something major was pulled.

Of all the setbacks I was planning for, this was not one of them. Our plan originally was to refinish the floors this weekend, but that is not going to happen.

Instead we are going to be in a music video for our friend Mike Gunther. So that's not a bad trade-off I guess. I've never been in a video!

We went for a walk in the winter snow on Monday. We met a neighbor lady who told us an interesting turn of phrase. She said that this was a good opportunity to exercise our patience. She was totally right in that patience, although totally slow and annoying, is an activity that requires effort and exercise. So that is what we are doing. Holding tight. Recovering.

Why do a DIY Remodel?

(Another interlude for a Carrie Bradshaw moment..... )

Everything you have heard about remodeling is absolutely true. Over schedule? Check. Over budget? Check. Discomfort while living in chaos? Check.

So, why do it?

The NYTimes article got me thinking about this question. Is it really to prove that us young, ambitious go-getters can have more house than our wallet can afford? It is just being too cheap to pay someone else to handle this project? Is it the enjoyment in seeing a project that you have labored over finally come together? Or is it the pure utility of what you get at the end?

Partially this project was a test. To see if it is worth it at the end. To see if we could figure out how to do everything. To see if we could work within budget and our schedule (that test failed, btw, but I pretty much figured as much -- atleast there are no disasters yet).

The question is still not adequately answered for me. I am very impatient, and also not very handy. These two qualities do not fare well for my handy partner. He atleast is finding some satisfaction in doing the work (while also being overwhelmed by it), while mostly what I find is impatience. I am trying to be more patient.

Time will give a better answer to this question. I'm hoping that it's going to turn out like the story that my friend Holly told me last night. She was talking about a trek she took in Laos. The climb was impossible, draining, and a test of her mental and physical strength.

But in retrospect, it was the best thing that she did there. Let's hope this damn kitchen project turns out like that.

Now the New York Times is writing about home remodeling blogs.

Check it out. They even call house blogs "smutty":

"Like all things smutty, so-called yuppie pornography — glossy magazines like Metropolitan Home and Architectural Digest, in which the houses of the rich are offered up to the longing gaze of middle-class readers — has found its way onto the Internet. And like all things smutty on the Internet, it is dirtier there, more amateur and thus more satisfying to the jaded connoisseur."

And now, to continue this break from home improvement, some pictures from New York: