Where's the coffee pot?

[soup]

Had a really bad sleepless night, and finally dropped out about 6 this morning.

A little after 10 a.m., deep in a much-needed 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I woke up to the sounds of hammering, reciprocating saws, the screech of crowbars, heavy crashes and the tinkle of tiles breaking as they hit the floor. Apparently I slept through the emptying of cupboards onto the (newly displaced into the living room) dining room table and sideboard, and the relocating of the refrigerator into the dining area and the stove, dishwasher and trash compactor out onto the back deck.

I walk out into complete chaos (as opposed to the normal chaos), stand there stunned for a minute, and the only thing I can think to say is, "Where's the coffee pot?".

Suppose his finally calling the cabinet people yesterday to order replacements (lifetime warranty - delaminated and yellowed horribly since installed ten years ago) could have been a clue. But we've lived with it so long, I'd stopped complaining, and just accepted they look like crap.

Or, our 'make-do' sheet of linoleum needing replaced AGAIN, this time torn up by our son's oh-so-smart dog while figuring out how to get to the dog goodies kept under the sink, could point to laying a more permanent flooring. But the huge stack of painstakingly removed, rescued, culled, and freshly planed white oak flooring from a house he remodelled has sat in the bedroom for maybe a year now - waiting to 'some day' replace the nasty old no-finish left stained and impossible to clean hardwood in the living room, hallway, and dining area, with enough left over to redo the kitchen floor, too. But another cheap sheet of make-do linoleum takes very little time to replace and is only about 20$.

Maybe his recently asking if I just want different tile on the counters and backsplash should have been a hint. But we've had boxes and boxes of tile stacked, and added to after various jobs over the years, in the storage shed forever. A second 'but' is we're still discussing the possibility of going granite since his granite guy 'owes him' enough for business sent in his direction that it'd be about 1/2 the normal price.

Guess the fact that the building permits for an upcoming job are stuck somewhere in the system and he's got no work for a week or so until they're signed off could have indicated our own house would get some badly needed attention. But, it's Thursday, he's been home all week and we're sitting on the bottom side of broke right now.

About 4 hours in and I have no kitchen except for the wall cabinets. The new doors for them and the base cabinets (which are out on the deck keeping the appliances company) were shipped yesterday and will be here in 3-5 days. The subflooring is coming up now since the sill board supporting the back wall of the house and some of the joists? need replaced. There's a gaping hole where most of the floor used to be.

The good news is, I found the coffe maker. But now that I'm caffeinated, don't know whether to cheer or cry. That answer will come in a few days, I suppose.

If 'the best-laid plans oft go awry', hope the least-laid ones turn out well.

[politicat]

1. Oh, soup... BTDTGtTS.

My house is all over boxes, but I'm making headway and I can find the guest bed. Do you want to crash out of that madhouse and let him go at it?

If not, shall I send some chocolate chip cookies?

[soup]

2. LOL, thank you.

:hi: Cookies! Did I hear cookies? If I'd known there'd be cookies, I'd have torn it up myself. :D

Third day in, and it's going pretty well.

New sill board is in and bolted down to the foundation along the back of the house (what a job That was!) - all new pressure-treated joists and subflooring in the kitchen. The nasty, tired, no-finish left wood floor in the dining area torn out - what's salvageable is being saved and run through the planer to reuse - and an area of the subflooring along the outer wall in there cut out and replaced (old termite damage).

Some plumbing's been reworked for our ice/water dispenser in the fridge, and for the dishwasher.

Somewhere in the course of things, he discovered why two of the plugins didn't work in the dining area, and now they do. (woo hoo!) and he's wiring in a security light for the backyard. (double woo-hoo! No more grabbing a feeble flashlight in the middle of the night to go out and get the dogs away from a cornered oppossum and back into the house.)

One of our sons came over today to watch football and help start pounding down the hardwood. It's going to be gorgeous.

Just hope that he doesn't run out of steam or time before it's finished (btdT and got the whole outfit) :(
and that our poor fur-babies get over the trauma of living in utter chaos and confusion. They're going to have to stay at our son's house during the finishing stage later this week.

Thank you for the offer of the guest bed, but somebody's gotta be here to supervise. DH's decorating tastes run toward space-age high-gloss flamboyance, while I'm more beachy-cottage serenity inclined.

All around boxes? - don't know which is worse, moving or remodelling. Sounds like we both could use some quality time with a batch of fresh from the oven cookies.

:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

3. PICTURES!!!! I want pictures! how exciting and exasperating! n/t

[soup]

4. Be careful what you ask for. Heeeere's Chaos...

I don't have any 'before' pics. Didn't know we were starting this huge project, so didn't know I'd want or need them.

That said, this is pretty much what I woke up to one the first day, and the reason I just stood half-asleep, dumbfounded and speechless. Didn't know if I was dreaming or what. As I said in the o.p., the only thing that came out of my mouth was a befuddled "Where's the coffee pot?".

Day 1

complete chaos - what looks like a weird 'center island' is a piece of sawed-off countertop resting on what was one of the base cabinets


standing in the dining area scanning from missing dishwasher, a huge pile of 'stuff' on the breakfast bar, 1/2 a sink cabinet, and missing trash compacter on the left


to part of the back wall


to the other end of the back wall with a missing stove in the corner and an empty spot where the fridge used to be on the right


The cabinets were originally a white laminate. They had chipped, cracked, and peeled and some had yellowed to the point where I was in the process of just taking it all off - figuring it couldn't have looked any worse.

>>>Turned out 'lifetime warranty' really means 'lifetime warranty'. A huge shipping crate arrived yesterday containing most of the replacements. We should get the rest today or tomorrow.<<<

By the end of day one, there was pretty much nothing left. The back deck is piled high with tarp covered power tools, cabinets and appliances. The living room - I laugh hysterically even calling it that - is barely a walk path. In the midst of it all, at the end of the breakfast bar is my tiny spot of sanity - the coffee pot.

Day 2

The joists and sill board were removed and replaced. That's my husband's assistant standing down in the crawl space in what used to be the kitchen. The box in the background is my huge laundry bin drawer. It's an integral part of our linen storage unit and pulls out into the hallway where the washer and dryer are. We'd designed a 'dead corner' in the kitchen for it. Tiny house, no wasted space.


new sill board and joists going into the dining area. That's the side of the pantry hanging out over nothing. Yes, it's purple. I'm an old lady and if I want a purple kitchen, I'll have a purple kitchen, so don't give me grief. :P Note the 'lovely' blind on the back door. Our dogs customize them regularly.


the dining area - the light you can see along the bottom of the wall is daylight. Big can of worms. The siding on the back of the house was removed to brace up and square the wall, which was shifting and settling because the sill board was so rotted. So, naturally the corner seam of the sheetrock tore, and the walls will need repaired. (They needed repainted anyway.)


We having fun now!!!

Day 3

The rest of the new joists go down in the kitchen.


and the subflooring goes down


Day 4

Our deranged constantly underfoot border collie. Hard to get a pic of her, let alone a good one. She's a perpetual motion machine.


floor boards going down in the kitchen




and dining area


Day 5

Monday. DH got stuck going in circles in the permit office most of the day, so it was pretty quiet around here.

Day 6

The rest of the flooring is pounded down, sanded, sanded, and sanded, then vacuumed and washed with mineral spirits.


The first coat of varnish goes on. We decided on a clear coat rather than staining the floor first, to keep the variations in color. We're using a satin varnish so the floor won't 'scream' at us.


First coat finished. It is freaking flat-out gorgeous already.


Day 7 - Today

Lightly sanded, cleaned, and second coat of varnish put down. When it's tack-dry later today, he'll third coat it. Then tomorrow, we can start putting the kitchen back together and get ready to shove everything that's piled in the living room over into the kitchen and dining area, so we can redo the floor in the living room and hallway.

Then, or somewhere in the mix, comes new countertops - tile again or butcherblock - decided to stick with something that's timeless (and affordable).... and wall repair and painting
and
and
and

and so it goes.

If anything extraordinary takes place between here and there, I'll post more pics. Otherwise, expect a 'brazillian' after photos.

[NMDemDist2]

5. awesome! it looks great already and wow! a true "lifetime guarantee"

whodda thunk such a thing?

and I think a purple kitchen is wonderful! hell, mine is gray and pink LOL

[soup]

6. It's so clean

and together

:)
and pretty

(excuse me a moment)

:(
and there's walls
:cry:
and your cabinets are beautiful
:cry:
and there's no shop tools in sight
:cry:
and the dishwasher is where it's supposed to be
:cry:
and a sink
:cry:

:(
~sniffle~

Ok, I'm done.
:)

I Like the grey and pink together. And the grey is really good with the cabinets. Good choice. The tile floor (saw the pic in your thread below on painting the kitchen) works well with all of it.

Hope I don't regret going with wood. We're past the growing kids with skateboards and roller blades in the house. So, what the heck. Might have to get socks for the dogs, though. :crazy:

Thanks for sharing your kitchen. It's so nice to see a bit of sanity.

FWIW If anyone says anything detrimental about your pink countertops, just call on the woman with purple walls. I've got your back.
:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

7. awww, it'll be OK, don't cry! really ! you'll love it! and thanks for your

kind words. I finally found some curtains that work with the shades too (have i mentioned I love thrift stores? I found two cafe panels and made 6 toppers)

[soup]

9. They're Perfect!

The room needed a bit of boldness (this is according to the woman with the purple kitchen - lol), and between your toppers and the picture on the wall seen in another photo, There it is! It's just lovely.

A lighter colored material would have made the room too pastel and 'sweet', and a solid, rather than a print, would have been 'blocky'. You've got a good eye. Do you carry color bits with you, or do you carry them in your head, and just 'know' when you've found the right thing?

Sorry it took so long to respond to your post. We're running out of time here. My husband has to go back to work tomorrow, so we're racing with the clock. We fiddled a bit with the idea of putting the kitchen back together then working on the rest of the floors, but...

knowing how these things go -
1. if we put the kitchen back together and waited on doing the rest of the floor, who knows when it would get done and
2. the floors take a huge block of time, something he rarely has

So, we covered the beautiful new floor in the kitchen and dining area with sheets of cardboard, shoved, piled and stacked everything over into that area, and have been tearing up more flooring, pulling nails and planing. At this point, it's 'Name a body part, and if we have one, it hurts'.

No pics right now - it's just more of the same - noise, dust, dirt, sawdust, chaos and destruction.

It rained yesterday, so we set up the planer in the middle of what might be the living room, and ran the floorboards we'd torn up through - three passes - holy monotony - didn't finish until almost 10 last night. I now have a much greater respect for cashiers.

Sadly had to throw away quite a bit of it. Apparently, there was a cat (or ten) who must have used the floor as a bathroom sometime in the house's life. Must have seeped down between the boards and lurked there awaiting a revival. Yuk. What a stench when the top layer was removed. Run for it! It's Alive!

Today, we begin the process of putting the floor back together. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. We've lived with the horrid nasty old floors for so long, seeing what they can be is pure joy. So, I'm trying to hold onto how nice it's finally going to be when it's done. But, getting there is starting to take its toll. We're definitely a case study in how to do it the hard way.

Rattle, rattle, rattle - I do run on, don't I? Thanks for sticking with me through this and providing the glimpses into normalcy. Is normalcy a word? It looks weird, but is now officially a word if it wasn't before, because it fits. Your pics provide a welcome moment of calmness in the midst of this chaos.

[NMDemDist2]

12. drat I had heard a way to tackle those old pet odors but i've forgotten

cat stink is the worst though, so just as well. What a horrible job though x(

and good choice to just keep on the floor, it's terrible when you get half done and then let it sit for months (been there, done that) and they are so beautiful from what you've done so far!

as for my "eye" i knew i needed a small stripe pattern to keep the eye going "up" since we have removed the ceiling fan and the shelves above the windows and liked how the space "lifted" from those changes.

I have gone to several honest to God, retail fabric stores looking for a nice small pattern stripe with would work with the colors. hours and hours of moving dusty bolts of fabric and NOTHING!!!

this particular find was just serendipitous, I "knew" the minute I saw the panels they'd work. I had gone in search of light fixtures that day LOL

I do carry the paint chip card from the kitchen (which I did check against the panels, but I already knew LOL) and a swatch of the fabric i'm using in the bedroom.

so it's a combo of all of the above. as a thrift store person, I know you rarely find what you're looking for on the day to go look, but if you have a list in the back of your mind, you'll usually find something :evilgrin:

[eleny]

8. Thanks for the pics!

Your floors are beautiful. Well worth the wait and hunting for coffeepots and other dilemas. Your getting your dream kitchen from the floor on up!

[soup]

10. Thank you for the encouraging words, eleny.

I'm really needing them right about now. Having a second cup of coffee and hoping my husband will sleep in a bit longer this morning. It's going to be another long day.

If you'd seen what we'd been living with - well, it sure wasn't pretty, to put it mildly.

'Brand new' 50+ year old floors. Solid white and red oak with the natural original beauty of each board shining through the clear coat.

Absolutely worth the exhausting wear and tear on ourselves to get there. Need to keep telling myself that and hold onto your positive words and get my grumbling-groaning self moving.

[eleny]

11. I can understand about renovation

A year and a half ago, we had our bathroom torn out and redone. With a concrete slab, they had to cut into it to install new plumbing. Also, got rid of all our carpeting in the rest of the house and had laminate flooring put down over our slab. Before it could be installed, they had to grind the floor where it was uneven. I'm still finding the concrete dust!

Renovation is it's own kind of hell. But the results are worth it when you get what you want. So far, your kitchen is shaping up to be so beautiful. I wish we could have gotten wood flooring but our ceilings are not 8 ft high. We couldn't spare the head room to put down sub flooring over the concrete. Keep your chin up, girl! I can hardly wait for your final pics!