Our kitchen, in its stark, non-existent phase
February 8, 2008
This is what our kitchen looks like right now. Lovely, huh? The guys have been working on it all week, but it looks like nothing has happened yet. They have made good progress, though, but everything has been boring for me so far. Basically they removed the tiles, repaired the wiring, reframed the doorway, fixed the plumbing, and repaired a damaged structural support in the corner of the room. Today they started the drywall and retextured the ceiling.
I wish they could hurry up and install the cabinets and counters! I’m ready for some pretty things to look at! Note to self: Find patience, young grasshopper.
Here’s where we left off in my blog post on Monday, the end of Day 1.
On day 2, they removed the splotchy blue soffits along the ceiling and reframed the doorway.
On day 3, they discovered that the ceiling was slowly collapsing along the exterior wall, by the window. It took them most of the day to figure out what to do about it. I didn’t take any pictures, but I wish I had. Fortunately it’s all fixed up now.
On day 4, they finished repairing the collapsing ceiling (yikes!), did lots of electrical work, and started the drywall.
This morning I slept in, because of a brutal headache. Mike took some action photos.
By the time I woke up today, the walls were white and Mike was watching Michael work on the ceiling. It was starting to look like an actual room!
It’s not easy to live in a house under construction with no kitchen. All our kitchen items and dining room furniture have been moved to the living room and basement. We squished all the furniture together to make room for the guys to walk around. Worst of all, there is a thick layer of dust everywhere.
This is our basement this week. We set up the dining room table with dishes and appliances like the microwave and George Foreman grill. Boxes of kitchen stuff are everywhere. Extension cords run throughout the room. I hate living in a mess.
I figured that it might be the dust and construction debris that were causing my headache, so Mike and I left the house and worked from a coffee shop for few hours today. After 20 minutes or so away from home, I felt much better.
When we got home this afternoon, the kitchen looked like this. I’m so excited to be able to move on to the painting, cabinets, and other fun stuff next week! In the meanwhile, I’ll be at the coffee shop a lot this weekend. 😉
wow! so amazing!
will be waiting for the result of this work!
wow! so amazing!
will be waiting for the result of this work!
so what color will the walls be?
Oh my god, your house was devoured! I applaud you for coping with it all!
http://she-rambles.livejournal.com/131158.html#cutid1 – that’s just a few of the photos I took during the whole thing, mostly of the bathroom. It was creepy seeing all the damage to the beams in the house, we had this real sense of “good thing we never leaned on that wall, it would have fallen down”, because the termites had just eaten straight through many of them. And it’s just so gross to look at all that termite mud! And, this being Australia, termites weren’t the only things in the walls – the builders had to keep killing spiders. :\
http://she-rambles.livejournal.com/131158.html#cutid1 – that’s just a few of the photos I took during the whole thing, mostly of the bathroom. It was creepy seeing all the damage to the beams in the house, we had this real sense of “good thing we never leaned on that wall, it would have fallen down”, because the termites had just eaten straight through many of them. And it’s just so gross to look at all that termite mud! And, this being Australia, termites weren’t the only things in the walls – the builders had to keep killing spiders. :\
Holy crap.
I hope you were honored with a grand prize of some sort, because I would have CERTAINLY killed someone and gone to jail.
They do! lol. They had to take out a wall between their dining room and kitchen, so I think that added a lot of work.
Can your mom come over to our house today? 😉 That’s really impressive. We’re going to have to do a big cleaning this weekend, because this dust is getting unbearable.
It sounds like your family had a great system going for your construction!
Thanks, Peggy! I love our house, too. It still has lots of 1970s era tackiness in places, but it’s really coming along just the way we like it. 🙂
We say Noelle just a couple days ago! We’ll probably head to Pikes Perk again today, so we’ll give her your hello if she’s there!
Ooo, sounds neat. I will wait as patiently as I can for the unveiling! 🙂
Was all the dust worth it? Do you love your remodeled kitchen?
I can’t wait to show it off! We picked out our granite counters and tile floors the other day, and I think this kitchen is going to be really pretty!
OMG, that breaks my heart. It’s hard to imagine that little insects can cause such tremendous damage! It sounds terrible. I hope it’s all better now!
How exciting! I hope you’ll love the new kitchen!
Aw, that’s sad! I can just imagine their reaction when they got home with that frozen pizza. We’ve been eating out a lot for the most part, just because that’s easier. Unfortunately it’s expensive and fattening, though!
We’re getting fat, that’s what we’re doing. Mostly we’re eating out all the time. We did plug the fridge in the garage, but it doesn’t have much in it but some cheese, yogurt, milk, and juice. We have bread, soups, and cereal in the basement, as well as a microwave and a couple other small appliances. It’s a big nuisance to eat at home, though, since we are washing dishes in a bathroom sink and trudging out to the garage for food. Not fun.
Absolutely! It might be kind of cool to buy a second house and flip it, but only if we have somewhere else to live.
Oh man, eight weeks! I hope it doesn’t take us nearly that long. I hope they love the results of all that hard work.
I’m still impressed that my mom vacuumed every day during the messier parts of construction. We kept the stove and fridge plugged in in the kitchen for almost the entire reno while the contractors worked around them, so dishwashing was the main hassle. It’s just more annoying since kitchen sinks and faucets are shaped the way they are for a reason.
The fridge and stove were only moved out of the kitchen for the duration of the floor installation (floor went in before the cabinetry, and was hard wood) which was under a day.
I love your house so much! Every time you post pictures, I think it’s one of the nicest I’ve seen. You have great taste in decorating too. XD
I wish I was back in CO, say hi to Noelle for me next time you are in Pikes Perk! 😉
I am anxious to see your finished kitchen, too. heh
I definitely do not miss all the dust from when we had our kitchen redone.
It’s great to see all the progress they made this week. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product!
We’ve had extensive termite damage to our entire house, bit by bit, over the last 8 years or so. It started in the kitchen, which was rebuilt, then went into the lounge room, which had to be rebuilt. A couple of years later, an entire wall in my bedroom had to be rebuilt, our METAL PHONE LINE had to be replaced because termites ate it, and we had to chop down the peach tree in our backyard because of damage ….. at this point we were told by our pest control guy that the termites were gone. Couple of years after that, my sister started complaining that she could hear weird buzzing coming from her walls at night, and one morning she dropped her bag against a wall, and part of the wall collapsed in.
We got new builders in for that job, and after a lot of head shaking he’s like, “you’ve got damage to two full bedrooms, the entire length of the hallway, the toilet, the entire bathroom, the garage, the main bedroom, the ensuite, the walk-in-robe, the lounge room (again) and the entrance area of the house.” They ripped down the bedroom walls and gutted the hallway, and once they moved into the bathroom … discovered live termites. Which meant the builders had to move out while we got (a different) termite control guys back in, and to do a decent job of the termite control they said the builders couldn’t do anything for three months. So we had to live with a half-gutted house for a good three months. This was while my son was just learning to crawl, too.
My point being: totally feel your pain on the living with disruption and mess! I had days where I just had to take my boy and leave because I couldn’t handle the mess. I was stupidly, ridiculously pleased when the builders finally got the go-ahead to return to the house and just finish everything off!
Excellent! We ordered a new kitchen which will arrive in about two months – then we’re going to go through a similar process too. I’m not looking forward to living without a kitchen! Hopefully it won’t be for long.
We’ve had extensive termite damage to our entire house, bit by bit, over the last 8 years or so. It started in the kitchen, which was rebuilt, then went into the lounge room, which had to be rebuilt. A couple of years later, an entire wall in my bedroom had to be rebuilt, our METAL PHONE LINE had to be replaced because termites ate it, and we had to chop down the peach tree in our backyard because of damage ….. at this point we were told by our pest control guy that the termites were gone. Couple of years after that, my sister started complaining that she could hear weird buzzing coming from her walls at night, and one morning she dropped her bag against a wall, and part of the wall collapsed in.
We got new builders in for that job, and after a lot of head shaking he’s like, “you’ve got damage to two full bedrooms, the entire length of the hallway, the toilet, the entire bathroom, the garage, the main bedroom, the ensuite, the walk-in-robe, the lounge room (again) and the entrance area of the house.” They ripped down the bedroom walls and gutted the hallway, and once they moved into the bathroom … discovered live termites. Which meant the builders had to move out while we got (a different) termite control guys back in, and to do a decent job of the termite control they said the builders couldn’t do anything for three months. So we had to live with a half-gutted house for a good three months. This was while my son was just learning to crawl, too.
My point being: totally feel your pain on the living with disruption and mess! I had days where I just had to take my boy and leave because I couldn’t handle the mess. I was stupidly, ridiculously pleased when the builders finally got the go-ahead to return to the house and just finish everything off!
My parents redid our kitchen about 8 years ago. They had taken out all the appliances and we were doing dishes in the bathtub, keeping food in the fridge that was plugged in in the den, etc. One night they didn’t feel like trying to cook with such limited resources, so they went out to get a pizza, and ended up going to a take-n-bake place… only to come home and realize we didn’t have a stove 😀
what are ya’ll doing for food this week? did you plug in your fridge somewhere else?
I always love the idea of having a space to remodel but the reality of living in it? Not so much.
Bless your brave, brave heart!
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law redid their kitchen and bathroom at the same time a year and a half ago. WOW. It seemed to take forever (though I think it was only about 8 weeks) and they lived out of the little bit of the dining room that wasn’t covered in construction stuff.
I hope they have it all finished soon!