Things they are a' changin

Things are a'changin here at CMR Phase II:  Kitchen-new.  I can thankfully report that our major dust storms are over!!  Demolition = CHECK.  Drywall = CHECK.  Most of the shrapnel vacuumed up = CHECK.  Subfloor poured = CHECK.  So now we wait for the good stuff and some of that is already happening!!

 

Primer completed and chicken wire awaits the concrete....

 

Underneath all this pretty "ply board" is our subfloor!!  It's level, I've got my 95" ceiling height and it's looking GOOD!

Sorry for the "over exposure" but in a sunny day it's virtually impossible to get a good quick photo in this direction.  It's a problem of too many windows.  A problem I am LOVING to live especially on those foggy SF days.  But here, both doors are open to the atrium so you can see what a large opening it is!

The while ply-board and the white walls make everything look a little larger than life, yes?  But soon, very soon, we're going to have loads of color in there.

So, that's the way things looked this morning at 8:30 when I took the last pictures and headed out to a meeting. It was all quiet on the front. No construction crew. Nothing. I returned from my meeting at exactly 10:00 and looky here!! A WINDOW!!! A Big Beautiful WINDOW!!! Gone is my boarded up hole in the wall. Amazing.

Isn't she a beaut???

This week is going to be a BIG one.  Cabinets are to be delivered and set, stainless steel back splash will be installed.  The sink (which I need to track down) will be set.  And then next week we're on to tiling the floor and cutting the stone for the counter tops.  Foreman Luke still promises that I will be cooking my Christmas dinner in the kitchen-new (of course for those of you in the know - - you understand that we make reservations for Christmas), but still, I will be cooking Christmas pancakes there and pouring loads of champagne.

George the Elder and I picked out some preliminary colors yesterday.  I think we're both happy where we're headed, but we still need to wait for the cabinets to get a final bead on what we want to do.  We really loved our "atmospheric" of kitchen-old - - and I think we've decided to go in a similar direction with kitchen-new assuming that the new-atmospheric substitute compliments the blue of the cabinets.  We won't know until they're in.  We're going to go with two colors in the kitchen (how bold are we?).   One on the stairway walls and another less bold color on the small areas near the cabinets.  Or at least that's the plan.  Who knows??  But, kudos to our guy at "house of color" for using his little color matching gizmo to get really excellent matches of the colors we were looking for.

So, onward to the really exciting parts.  The pretty parts.  The let's really see what kitchen-new is going to look like parts.  Fun, fun, fun!!

We Got Wall

Wiring takes time.  I found that out in week four.  Turns out that dry wall also takes time.  A whole week's worth of time - - and compact car sized dehumidifiers and big fans that make noise in the middle of the night and which make the plastic doors crinkle relentlessly All. Night. Long.  And then there's the dust.  Lots of dust.  Copious amounts of dust.  Haboob size clouds of white powdery dust. Insidious minuscule fragments of chalky hell that get on the bottom of every shoe in the house leaving ghostly footprints all over the place.

Much to my delight, on day three of dry walling they put up additional plastic over all the doors windows in kitchen-new.  This did help to control the Haboob slightly, but it effectively eliminated our "short-cut" through the kitchen.  Therefore, for the past week and a little we have been forced to go outside to get to whatever level of the house you are not in.  This was similar to week 1, so while we had had to do it before, it wasn't any more fun than it was before either.  Luckily, we've had some dandy weather, so there were only one or two wet nights when having to go outside fell in to the "this sucks" category.

I've been told that this is the worst week of remodeling when you are still living your house.  It's the middle of the project, the bloom is 100% off the rose called "exciting new project", you're tired of trying to be creative while making meals in a microwave, the non-stop pounding and hammering and sawing and sanding are on your very last frayed nerve. And now everything is covered in white dust.  Hip Hip Hurrah.  It's a damn dance party in week 6!!!

Ghostly looking railings being protected by plastic.

View from the top of the hallway stairs - - No more raw wood, just lots and lots of white walls.  Oh and many little blue plastic boxes that only hint at the snake's nest of wire behind the pretty white walls.

I think that the actual window will look much better than the large plywood they've got going here now. 

The ceiling required two solid days of work.  The dry wall went up after the ceiling was leveled .  Then the dry wall was partially taken down when foreman Luke and Dan felt it wasn't "level enough."  Since you can get a really good view of the kitchen ceiling from a horizontal view point from the top of the hallway stairs - it's critical that they get it "right" and as far as I can tell - - we now have the most level of all level ceilings!

The blending of the new drywall with the "old" walls that didn't really have to come down for the remodel. 

The stove nook looks more nook-y now that it's got a ceiling above it.   Lots of action behind that wall - electrical and gas and the vents from the very complex hot water radiant heating system - - 

Will get some photos of the remainder of week 6 tomorrow and Friday.  The walls are being primed, the mortar will get put down over the sub floor and the kitchen will be ready to receive all the pretty parts that come next.  Cabinets are on time for delivery next week and our new window is being delivered on Monday!  Week 7 is going to be VERY exciting!!

The last decision looming in the not too distant future is paint color.  This one may not be pretty as George the Elder and I are in two entirely different camps on this.  Oh, and those camps are located in two different states.  May the best man win (that'd be me) hahahah.

Belated Progress Report

Best laid plans and all that...  These photos have been sitting in my "draft" box for more than a week and every day I say, "I'm going to post them" and then things get in the way - - construction folks with questions, kids having to do things that require my attention or my car, oh and then there was (still is) this pesky problem with a little kidney stone.  Who knew a little 6mm piece of somethin-somethin could be so disruptive.  I told George the elder that the last time I felt pain like that they actually handed me a tiny human as a reward.  This time, I got nothin 'cept the promise of more pain to come.  Nice.

But, the show goes on here with the CMR Phase II.  These photos are from the week before last.  And things are a happening....

Sub floor is removed to access the radiant heat and to run new electrical what not to new places.  Much caution was used as poking a hole in one of those orange tubes is a "very bad thing" - - that's hot water running through them and they are what heat the house.

The rough opening for the new GIANT kitchen window is cut out.  That's one big damn hole!!  This photo shows that the old fridge was still waiting for it's new owner (one of our chinese plumbers) to come and get it.  A couple days after this was taken they arrived to get it.  It was in the evening during the final game of the world series, so I paid no attention as to how they got this bad boy out of the back yard. 

New canister lights (a SF code requirement) are lined up and the boxes installed.  Luckily Dan is very very tall.   He is handy to have around for ceiling work when you don't have a ladder!

Another view of the electrical stuff that will shortly be covered up by dry wall and disappeared.  It's really quick amazing how many wires it takes to power up a kitchen.

A view from the doorway to the atrium looking in at my window size from the inside.  It's gonna be a bee-you-T!!!

Onward to week 4.....