Kitchen remodeling day 41: The devil is in the details

Our kitchen, a week ago. I haven’t taken any new pics since then.

It doesn’t look much different today, even though they worked all week, and it’s not done yet. I realize now that the contractor’s original estimate of a two-week project was unrealistic, but I never expected it to be incomplete after six weeks. I want my kitchen finished and my normal routine back, please.

Otherwise, I love the kitchen! It feels much larger and brighter in there now. The granite counters are gorgeous, the maple cabinets are luscious, and the stainless appliances are much more contemporary. I love it all!

Since this photo was taken, our contractor Michael widened the doorway by the refrigerator, textured and painted the new doorway, painted the ceiling, insulated the ceiling, and fixed a plumbing problem. After all that work, today it looks pretty much the same as it did when I took this photo a week ago. The details left to do include painting the window frames in the kitchen and dining room, installing the cabinet hardware, and adding some task lighting. It should be all done by the end of next week, I hope!

I think this is we left off last time, four weeks into the project. I hosted this month’s book club meeting at our house, and had hoped to entertain with a sparkly new kitchen that day, but this is how it looked when the ladies came over. Bummer.

Here’s Michael preparing to install our sink.

Fortunately we’ve had some warm weather to keep our depressed, lonely dog comfortable.

What contractors saw in this moment: The counters were perfectly level.
What photographers saw in this moment: The light was pretty that afternoon.

We have an appliance!

The microwave and dishwasher went in the next day.

The large counter tiles look really sleek. I love them. They are similar to granite slab, but much more affordable.

Each tile is about two feet wide, and the depth of the entire countertop.

We love our extra-deep granite sink, too. Unfortunately the ugly window distracts. I took this picture a week and a half ago, and the window still looks like that today.

That’s Ally’s fluffy tail in the lower right. 🙂

They finished the trim around the tile floors, and it looks really pretty.

A few days later, they plumbed the sink and dishwasher. We finally have water! That was huge, because that meant we could wash dishes.

Ahhhh, it’s looking so pretty.

OK, this wasn’t a fun moment. This was a week ago, at the end of the day on Friday. Randy and Michael had finished most of the big projects, and finally installed the refrigerator. We would have a fully-functional, mostly finished kitchen for the weekend!

Then they discovered that we couldn’t open the freezer door. The newly-drywalled doorway didn’t give enough room for the door to open.

AAARRRGGH.

None of us saw that coming. This problem ended up costing us an extra week and several hundred dollars to fix. Michael spent the last week ripping out the doorway, widening it by six inches or so, adding new drywall, retexturing the wall, and painting it.

This afternoon the wall was all dried and finished, so we slid the refrigerator back into place. It fits great now! I will take pictures of it later, but the wall is looking great now (thanks, Michael!).

I hope to post finished photos next weekend! But who knows what will come up between now and then. 😉