Kitchen Progress

When last we visited, I had sore knees from tiling, but was feeling pretty good about the progress we were making on the kitchen. The soreness keeps moving from one body part to another as the progress continues, but the feeling of accomplishment remains fairly steady.

We were able to mount the cabinets on the new "window wall" on Friday, and then got the series of base cabinets on the opposite walls installed yesterday. We are looking forward to the templates for the countertops being created this Friday, with their installation 2 weeks after that. In the meantime, I will attempt to turn the eyesore between the lights into a range hood, and will also start work on the wood sill to go across the bottom of the windows above the stove and cabinets.

The only setback we experienced in uncrating the cabinets is that two panels, one 10" by 93", and the other 31" by 93" were delivered unfinished. These panels are supposed to go on either side of the refrigerator, giving it a built-in appearance. Sally just got a call from our former contractor, through whom they were ordered, saying that he would be in touch with the manufacturer about getting them replaced. These parts aren't as time critical as some others, so we're OK with waiting. Before we need them we plan to install all the wall cabinets and the large pantry anyway. There are also holes to cut in the ceiling and roof for the vent and Solatube, and lots of finishing work to keep us occupied.

We have absolutely no regrets about doing this ourselves, other than the sense that we are learning on-the-job just as we get the project finished. If we had only known where we were going to end up, we would have done some things differently in the beginning. Examples of that include our selection of a location for the gas line to the stove (the fit is a bit too tight), the ill-advised decision to follow the directions on filling the joints on the tile subfloor (resulting in difficult tiling and a slightly uneven surface), and our realization on Friday night that we had tiled over the access hole for the wiring for the dishwasher (thanks to some good fortune and a good drill we have power available now).

There will be life after the kitchen. This weekend included a trip to the Tri-Cities to perform a wedding. I am facilitating or leading events the last two weekends in September and the first in October, and even have an interview of sorts tonight for a consulting position. On the horizon is our planned trip to New Zealand to visit Evan and see some of the wonders there. Each and all of these things will be more enjoyable once we know we have gotten the remodeling work done.

Then there are the bathrooms to consider....