One Aging Geek

Friday, July 07, 2006

Past the point of maximum chaos?

The remodeling is proceeding well. We hit the point of maximum chaos with the entire downstairs down to bare concrete floors and the kitchen and powder room stripped of all fixtures. Plus the tile out and a layer of powdered mortar all over the downstairs. Done:

  • Wine chiller arrived, mail order from the Beverage Factory. It's a little noiser than we'd have preferred, hoping that shoving it into it's cubby when that's done will muffle it.
  • Old cabinets and fixtures removed. This was about the only DIY part of the kitchen redo. I have neither the time nor the talent to do the kind of job I want done. Most of the old cabinets will go up in the garage, some went to a neighbor, one got destroyed in the removal, stripped screw heads were stronger than the cabinet. The sink base sans it's back went to the curb but disappeared before trash pickup as did the kitchen and powder room sinks.
  • Gave old microwave to a friend to replace her even older microwave
  • Electrical changes for wine chiller and for built-ins in the study
  • New cabinets arrived on schedule and are sitting in garage.
  • Old tile in kitchen, breakfast, foyer, and powder room was taken out yesterday.
  • Barstools arrived
  • Washing machine broke. After about 26 years it was time for a replace, not repair.
In progress:
  • New tile is going in. Foyer is done, most of breakfast area, some of kitchen. About half I'd estimate.
  • Bought and returned new sink. The 150lb black porcelain over cast iron looked great but we would have had to fill the base cabinet with bracing to hold it up. We'll go with a black resin sink and black faucet.
  • Much more painting accomplished.
  • Two chairs off being reupholstered
  • New couch arrived, will be delivered next week
  • New dishwasher will be delivered next week.
Still to go:
  • Clean up dust from tile removal (DIY)
  • Finish tile install. Laying, grouting.
  • Kitchen Cabinet install
  • Template build for the granite
  • Granite fabrication (shape etc)
  • Counter install
  • Dishwasher install
  • much more painting (DIY)
  • Study cabinets to assemble and paint (DIY), then build shelves to ceiling (DIY)
  • Old cabinets install in garage (DIY)
Ugh. I wish I hadn't made that last list. It's going to be a busy weekend.