Kitchen Remodel

I'm getting lots of requests to post pictures of the kitchen remodel, so I'm going to attempt a few now. Right now we're awaiting the installation of our quartz countertops, and we still have to install the pendant and undercabinet lights. Meanwhile, Jason has laid almost 1000 pieces of tile in the entire upstairs common areas - a combo of 18" x 18", 12" x 12" and 6" x 6" tiles. The kitchen was done over a month ago since it needed to be done in order for the cabinets to be installed. But now we have to grout the other areas. No small task. Poor Jason is stuck with the brunt of the work since I hurt my knee and can only do limited time kneeling on hard tile flooring. But, I digress.

First, some "before" pictures of the kitchen. It was very closed in, and also house a large laundry closet where the washer/dryer resided (I now have a laundry area in the basement with a large section of the base cabinets and countertop we repurposed from the old kitchen):

You can see in the second picture that there is a wall adjacent to the brick hearth in the living room. These pictures were taken prior to our purchase of the house in 2006. We have since taken that wall out and opened up the entire area in order to create a more open floorplan. Here are some pictures of the demolition:

The installation of the cabinets:

Of course, I'm saving the best for last - no more pictures until it is nearer to completion with lighting and installed appliances!!

Lessons on inspection deceipt

Well, we learned a lesson in avoiding installation of a new septic system. If you plan to add a room to your home that will not initially or immediately be used as a bedroom, be sure to make it look like something other than a bedroom! We moved into our new office a week and a half ago. While we intend to use the second room we built as a guest bedroom, we had told the inspector way back when that it would NOT be a bedroom, but more of an office/rec room that would be supplemental to the actual office. We did this because he told us that there may be implications in adding a 4th bedroom to the house. Well, we didn't realize those implications involved determining if the septic system was approved for a 4 bedroom house. Likely not, since the house was built in 1976 as a 1400 SF 3 BR rancher. So, being a kind man, the inspector has decided to overlook the bed frame we had in the room, and told us to make sure it resembled an office when he returned to re do the final inspection. So, we will not put the closet doors on, and we will put office shelving and a file cabinet in there; we have a desk and a TV stand rather than a bed in the room. So, take our advice, and be sure to know what the type of room you're uilding might do to your existing utility capacities!!

Looking To Move In

It has been just over a year (1 year and 6 days, to be exact) since we broke ground on our new addition. Since my husband and I (but mostly my husband) have done 80% of the work, it has taken much longer than we initially projected. Travel, work, socializing and the like seems to squeeze in between stages of construction and renovation. Oh, and inspections. We are fortunate to know people in the world of HVAC, plumbing and electric, so having those parts covered were big money savers. My husband did almost all the plumbing himself; his father is an electrical engineer and did all of our wiring; a good friend of ours owns an HVAC company who did most of our heating and A/C work (although he and my husband did a lot of the busy work themselves after hours). Knowing all of these people in the industry also led us to great contacts for other parts of the job - the 20% we contracted out (drywall finisher, carpenters (who framed the addition after the slabs were poured), and siding contractors). So, had it not been for us doing most of the work, we would have paid LOTS more and it would have been done probably last fall. But I am fine with how it has turned out. We made a lot of design changes along the way, as well as some mistakes. I can't wait to post the final outcome.