And then there was PLUMBING!

The plumber came today and hooked up the kitchen sink:
A close-up on the faucet:
And on the garbage disposal (which isn't hooked up electrically yet):Wednesday they install the rest of the cabinets. The big question: will everything *really* be done by the first of the year? :)

Corian Countertops--IN!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's not a full kitchen yet, but Mom's got her countertops in time for Christmas. The installers came and put in the Corian today. With little exception, the installation went great!

In addition, the replacement upper corner cabinet was delivered, and the countertop installers were able to lift it up, and make sure that it fit (it does).

Photos:the bar from the living room:
the bar from the kitchen:
And finally, a close-up of the corian and the awesome integrated sink that I covet:
With any luck, the plumber will get everything hooked up, and the upper cabinets will go in smoothly, too, and Mom will have a full, functional kitchen by the first of the year.

The bar is in!

The rest of the base cabinets (namely, the bar) were put in today, and the shelves and drawers were put in. Mom can even start putting food away in the drawers!
the bar from the kitchen side:And from the living room side:



They're coming to measure for the Corian on December 3rd, with a tentative install date of December 16th. After that, it's just the plumber and installation of the top cabinets.

It's all coming together!

Some cabinets installed

The installers came this morning to cut the floor and begin installing the cabinets. By the time they left, they had all but the bar base cabinets in:Now, as for the bar...

Felipe was supposed to make the opening 48" wide. It was 48" wide--at the top of the opening. The bottom was only a little more than 47". So he had to come back to fix the opening. Fingers crossed, it'll all work when the installers come back on Wednesday.

Coming soon--a working kitchen!

Where to begin?

The cabinet installer came last week to check out all the cabinets for damage (there was none--just one trim piece that had a dark spot, so that'll be re-ordered). When he saw the bamboo flooring, he asked if it was the click-together "floating" flooring, or if it was nail-down or glue-down. Apparently, the floating flooring (which is what we had put in) cannot be used under cabinets. Because it expands and contracts, the cabinets can put pressure on the floor, causing it to buckle in the middle OR the floor can put pressure on the cabinets, causing the Corian countertops to crack.

Blame could be placed all over the place, really. Felipe should have read the instructions before installing the floor (yes, it IS written in the instructions that you cannot install it under cabinets). The kitchen salesmen should have known about this and informed us (since we bought the cabinets AND the flooring at Home Depot and actually brought a sample of the click-together bamboo over to the cabinets to match colors). The cabinet measurer--who returned to check measurements AFTER the floor was installed--should have questioned us on the floor. We should have researched the flooring before having it installed. At any rate, we did not know. And not only will this have to be fixed, but if we'd simply had Home Depot install the flooring to begin with, we could have either gotten the cheaper nail-down or even had them install this flooring (correctly) for less than Felipe charged!

HOWEVER, Home Depot is going to come tomorrow, cut out the footprints for the cabinets, and then begin the installation of the base cabinets. More money, but not insanely more money (easy for me to say when it's not *my* money, right?). Fingers crossed that they don't find anything else wrong!

We did some piddly touch-up stuff this weekend. G. took off the trim around the front door so I could sand off the paint (there was a white line that would have showed between the wood door and wood trim). Then I touched up the green all around the door frame, Mom stained the trim that I'd sanded, and G. put up the new wooden trim that Mom had stained and varnished. I think it looks really nice!

G. installed the weatherstrip at the bottom of the door, too:

We did the same with the kitchen door (sanding, staining and varnishing, installing trim):And finally, the last pictures of the kitchen after we cleared out everything but the appliances, and before they start the cabinet installation:

The cabinets arrived!

Today the cabinets were delivered. Right now Mom's dining room is full of them (all in boxes):
We were able to peek at them because the biggest one (the corner unit) didn't fit through the door in the box, so it had to be taken out:The heater vent was also moved this past week (since the new cabinets will cover the old location. The vent will be routed out the bottom of the cabinet:

I finally installed the curtain tie-backs:
So Mom can get some daylight into the living room. I still want to stitch the panels together so they don't separate when being opened or closed (there are four panels on the big window).
We put together one of the barstools I'd bought back in July, only to find out that 30" height is WAY too high! So we exchanged them for the 25" ones. Here's what they look like:
Mom bought an outdoor thermometer, so we hung that up:
We hung up the first of any of Mom's "decorative" wall stuff--her retirement clock:
I moved the toilet paper holder from the vanity to the wall:
And we moved the desk into Mom's office:G. attached longer strings to all the pull-lights in the basement:Then G. installed Mom's new garage door opener:
And he cleaned the garage:

Windows

This weekend G. installed the last three windows (now all but the huge front window are new).

I did the touch-up painting on Saturday and this morning I caulked the inside of those three, plus the three in Mom's room.

Now Felipe just has to do the outsides of those remaining three windows. I posted the "after" pictures here, but didn't get to take a "before" picture. This afternoon I did that:


Beautiful new windows with yucky, rotting wooden window frames.

Window trim

Today Felipe put aluminum trim on the outside of the windows that G. installed. They look awesome!

Whole window:

Close-up:

And she's moved in

Mom spent her first night in the new house on October 30. She's spent every night there since, and today we moved essentially the rest of her belongings over. She is obviously still eating at our house (and visiting a lot ;)) because her kitchen's not done, but every day she's unpacking and arranging more stuff next door.

G. put up three new lights. One in the dining room:
One in the living room (yeah, same light, but different locations!):
And one over the sink in the kitchen:
We put up the bamboo shades in Mom's room:
Got a file cabinet for in the office:
And installed the shelving unit in the bathtub:We installed a towel rack, towel ring, and toilet paper holder, and Mom also bought towels and a bathroom rug.I caulked the inside of four of the windows (living room, dining room and kitchen):
and we moved furniture to where it fits best:In addition, a lot of "stuff" was cleaned up so you can actually see the kitchen floor! Still lots of little things to do, but it's getting there. :)