Post Housework Feast

Finally the time came to clean the paintbrushes, put away the grout and get to the real work of Thanksgiving: eating.
We enjoyed a soup course for one simple reason: we have a lot of soup bowls. I have inherited two sets of china - one from my great aunt Eno and another from my grandmother. Both sets include soup bowls, plus a set of crystal soup bowls from my grandmother's collection. This really left me no choice but to start with the soup course while the turkey finished in the oven.Matt took charge of the turkey this year. Not only did he carve the bird, as you see above, but he made arrangements to have it deep fried. After a night spent in a brine, the bird had a 6:45 am appointment at a bar in Potrero Hill to meet some hot oil. It was quite delicious and took away much of the Thanksgiving dinner stress. How else could we keep painting until 3 pm?

Every few years, Thanksgiving shares the spotlight with my mom's birthday, as it did again this year. To commemorate, her pie earned a candle. Happy Birthday Mom!

Experts Agree

the ideal time to install tile is six months after finishing the rest of a major project. Most also agree the best time to install a kitchen back splash is on a major cooking holiday.

Kitchen Project: Last Task

While we've been using the new kitchen for quite a while now, there is still one glaringly unfinished piece: the backspash between the range and microwave. It remains an uncovered 18"x30" section of backer board, just waiting for tile. All the tile has finally arrived (we ordered it in May, only 1/4 of our order arrived in late June, the rest a few weeks ago) and now we have to actually tackle this project.

The plan is to use three different color tiles, all hand made in Texas or Tennessee or somewhere, to coordinate with blue/red pendant lights. Unfortunately, being handmade, none of them are exactly 2"x4" as advertised. Mostly, they're 1 7/8" x 3 3/4" which leaves us with a bit of extra cutting & filling to do. Oh, well.

Last night we decided to determine the pattern & see how random we could make the color scheme. Here is the winner:

This is an earlier variation, before some Rummikub-like moves.

And our first attempt - tried a basket weave pattern to be different, but it looked too American flag / quilt-like.

Cat in the Ceiling

After the walls in the kitchen and dining room were in place, we had the HVAC guy return to punch a hole in the dining room to install the heating vent and punch a hole behind the microwave for ventilation. Unfortunately, I had marked a reminder on the ceiling but that was not the right location. The HVAC guy took my sketch as an indicator of location and cut a hole, to discover the duct was not there. Matt's just thrilled at the prospect of repairing a 5x5" hole, but we hadn't started it yet.

We return from a walk yesterday afternoon to discover Marin IN the ceiling. I had seen her peering at it from atop the old fridge, but figured she wouldn't be that curious, right? Wrong! She managed to jump from the fridge into the hole in the ceiling, but couldn't figure out her escape. I had to convince her to reach out of the hole paws first, which was challenging as she doesn't speak much English. She did eventually reach out, after a few failed attempts by me to pry her out via collar. Hopefully she didn't eat any insulation (not as much of a concern with her as it would be for puppy, tho she has been known to gnaw on wires) and we dusted her off, sent her on her way and immediately started the patching process.

I guess she'll do just about anything to get away from Sunapee.


Update 6/3/08: She did it again. I came home from boot camp at 7:10 am and while I was talking to Matt as he sat at the counter, I noticed a furry brown face looking at me from the ceiling. The wall patch was on the floor. This time, however, she decided to explore the crawl space more fully and went missing for several minutes, while I tried every trick I have to get her attention (which isn't much; she's the least responsive of the 3 animals). She eventually came out and jumped back onto the fridge. We then moved the fridge to the other side of the dining room while it awaits removal.

Cats and the Kitchen

The kitchen has really turned into a feline jungle gym. The uncovered dishwasher was a big favorite for a while. It is wrapped in a thick felt blanket, making it a warm, soft haven with the key bonus of being unreachable by puppy.

At this point, you can see I was unpacking all the storage boxes. Any cozy space will do for this cat.

Kitchen Project: Counter top installation

The counter top installation happened last Tuesday as planned. I worked from home in the morning to get them started and Matt took over around noon. It was a slow day and I was surprised to see their truck out front when I arrived home again at 6:45pm. They stayed until about 10pm! Apparently some pieces weren't cut right and they had to do more on-site trimming than planned.

It was all worth it because the counter is in and it looks fantastic.



The other pieces waiting to be carried upstairs.

Kitchen Project: Counter top

Getting ever closer to gaining a usable kitchen, the counter top fabricator sent their man to create a template. We have two slabs of black honed granite on hold at the stone yard and just need the fabricator to pick it up, cut it and install it. Granted, it could take two weeks, but what's another fortnight, really? It should give us time for the electrical and plumbing to get finished. Hopefully by the time the counter top is installed, the kitchen will be reasonably functional and we can stop washing dishes in the bathroom, stop bleeding money to neighborhood take out joints and get our living room back.



Thanks to Dad for snapping these pictures!

Cats and the home upheaval

How are the cats feeling about all the change in the house, you ask? Well, now that the plastic walls are down and they can resume full reign of all 1048 square feet, they are thrilled. They are a fan of the cabinets
They are a little less enthusiastic about the 20 pounds of curious canine.
Marin chooses fight and will hold her ground and even growl and hiss at Sunapee when he comes to check her out. Franklin, however, prefers flight. Unfortunately, that makes for a fun game of chase for Sunapee and an extremely poofy orange tail.

Kitchen Project: Cabinets!

Saturday was the big day. The room started to resemble an actual kitchen. All of the cabinets crept their way upstairs.


Starting in the corner made sense, until they realized that due to the curve in this particular cabinet, setting it at the correct angle was a challenge.

Kitchen Project: Expanding the Mess, Real Walls

The drywall guys returned (after the nail pattern passed inspection) to conceal and smooth all the seams. This caused quite a mess, including plaster all over the place, on the bathroom sink, doorknobs, cats.
If this weren't messy enough, they returned again Thursday to sand and smooth the mud. Again, plaster dust covered everything - the living room (in its entirety), hallway, cats. As soon as the sanding was finished, the flooring guy arrived to repair the foyer floor and install the flooring in the dining room and kitchen. At the same time, the appliances arrived and the fridge and stove were heaved upstairs.

After wiping down the walls to remove the plaster dust Thursday night, Friday was the day to prime the walls and ceiling. Although painting walls that do not have any trim should be easier and faster, getting the ceiling and angled section was not so much. Friday night was devoted to painting (Susan) and heaving cabinets upstairs (Matt & Dad).

Matt ended the evening with a relaxing beer and some cat love.

Kitchen Project: Walls! Progress!

We have walls! I have never been so excited about walls before. The kitchen/dining room feel almost like an actual room now. It no longer resembles a barn. We have to now get this inspected (yes, there is a code for the nailing pattern) then we can get it taped/mudded, sanded, primed, painted. This week will show major, visible, tangible progress. I'm sure to some, seeing the new electrical wires go in looked and felt like progress, but for me - walls, flooring and cabinets will be progress!




This week's ambitious plan:
Monday - nailing pattern inspection
Tuesday - tape/mud drywall
Wednesday - sand drywall? Welcome the master home renovator (aka Dad)
Thursday - flooring installation! Appliances delivered!
Friday - finish flooring; prime/paint walls
Saturday - start installing cabinets!
Sunday - continue with cabinets! Hopefully empty the garage of cabinets so we can park and not drive around and around the block looking for parking that is not impeded by street cleaning.

Kitchen Project: Skylight

While we were at it, we punched through the roof for a teeny skylight - need to get as much of that California sun inside as possible!

Kitchen Project: Raising the Ceiling

As noted in previous posts, we determined that we could raise the ceiling in the kitchen & dining room without too much trouble. Granted it pushed out the timeline, but it will be well worth it. Here's the photojournal of the boys (Matt, Hans, Chris) raising the ceiling joists.