Day 23

The floor is finished, as promised. There's not much new to see, as the main traffic area is covered in brown paper. Trust me, though, it's gorgeous.

The process is winding down. The plumbing is due next, then the final electrical, the window, and the appliances. Then...done!

Dinner: We went out. We've been going out all week; there's a point at which the hassle is not worth the effort. Besides, we're both tired of leftovers and Crockpot.

Day 22

The flooring guys continued to make great progress, surprising since they only worked from 10 - 3. Jim suggested that the back-breaking, knee-straining nature of the work limits the time they can spend doing it. Anyway, it looks great and they promise to finish up in one more day.

The floor is gorgeous and we're very happy with it. Oddly, though, it does not have the impact that the other two big ticket items--the cabinets and granite--have. It's beautiful but not awe-inspiring. There's no "wow" factor like there was with the other installations, especially the granite. Maybe because a floor is just, well, a floor. It is simply the surface on which we'll move from one place to another. It is the blending element that turns the kitchen, eating area and family room into one big room. And a "blend," by definition, brings two or more elements together but has no specific identity on its own.

Day 21

The flooring guys got a good start--half the family room! Still several days of work ahead, so we don't expect to move back into the room until Friday.


This floor is "engineered" tigerwood. It is a hardwood, not a laminate, but it's built in layers of plywood with the true hardwood layer glued on top. This is supposed to help alleviate any problems with shrinking and expanding because of temperature and humidity fluctuations.

As with any wood floor, it will scratch and dent. According to the product literature, it has an aluminum oxide finish and may be sanded down to the bare hardwood and refinished up to two times. Or it can be "screened," where only the finish is sanded off and re-applied, an infinite number of times. Also according to the literature, scratches and dents may be viewed as giving "character" to the wood floor. Dogs and their toenails are one of the biggest sources of that "character." They even suggest putting booties on the dog's paws. Yeah, right. We just have to accept that with a really big dog, "character" is more likely to happen!

Meanwhile, the rest of the tiles for the backsplash have been installed, and half the grout has been applied. The tiles looked great before, but grouting provides such a finishing touch.

Day 20

Week 5 is and will be the most difficult week so far. This is flooring week. Inconvenience is no longer the word--total disruption is. We moved everything out of the family room, but since the living room is already our "temporary kitchen," there was hardly anywhere to go with it. Lighter things like lamps and stereo components went upstairs. Easy chairs, coffee table and end tables went into the dining room, which left the entryway for the sofa and stereo console.

The carpet came up with a little crowbar and knife action. Then the pad with much vacuuming and scraping. The new 1/4" underlayment covered the old subfloor. It looks nice and clean.

By the end of the day, more progress had been made on the tile backsplash.

It's all exciting, but I'm ready for it all to be over!

Day 19

It was a very busy day in the kitchen!


The granite arrived about 10am. If the granite templating was tedious, the installation was anything but. I watched them mix the epoxy to seal the seam, adding color so it won't be visible against the Blue Pearl.






Then they donned ear, eye, and breathing protection to cut out the area for the cooktop.













The next to last piece they installed was the cap for the aircraft carrier--I mean island. Two guys carried this thing, and told me it weighed about 400 pounds! Good thing the project lead made that island bullet-proof.










Then they "glued" it down--where's that thing going, anyway?











The final look? Absolutely stunning. Having only seen the Blue Pearl on little store samples, it was mind-boggling to see it in these large expanses. Even in my best dreams I couldn't have imagined it was so beautiful.











Meanwhile, the new skinny cabinets arrived, just in time to put in the bottom one before the granite was put over it.







The painting specialist was here to paint the walls. This paint is called "Deer Valley" and the darker taupe he's putting on the range hood is called "Tiki Hut." Whose job is it to come up with these names?

Finally, he and the project lead made a good start on the tile backsplash. The main background tile is called "Durango," and is a natural tumbled stone, meaning it doesn't have any square edges and is pocked and pitted on the surface. The metal-look tiles are also tumbled, and pick up the oil-rubbed bronze of the faucet and door handles, and the darker color of the range hood. We agonized over this design and color theme--looking forward to seeing it come together.

End of week four. There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

Day 18

Some of the details are starting to fall into place. The painting specialist put the first coat of paint on the range hood between the millwork sections. This will have additional layers applied to create a "Venetian" texture effect.







We now have a "real" range hood, not just the decorative cover of one. The project lead installed the actual hood, and hooked it up. It works! At least the lights do; we can't try the blower yet because the vent on the roof is not open.





And yes, we have new "white sand" finished woodwork, ready to go around the window.

To finish up the week: granite!

Day 17

It's one thing to watch people dismantling one's kitchen. It's quite another to watch them cutting a hole in the side of one's house!

This was window-framing day. The new window will be the same width as the old one but higher. The project lead cut out below the old window to the level of the countertop so the granite will extend six inches into the sill. Plus he took out a 2x4 that was beneath the header, thereby extending the opening above where it used to be as well. All to help bring in more natural light.

It will be a regular casement window, not a bow or bay window. We considered those options but the size of the opening was not conducive to them. Extending the height and the six-inch push-out seemed like good alternatives.

This frame on the outside is attached to the house with nine-inch lag bolts and a multitude of L-brackets. It's not going anywhere!

Meanwhile, the issue of the window stain color was resolved as soon as the project lead got here. It will be the color of the cabinets. When I apologized for the time he wasted staining the trim the wrong color (which was his own fault since he didn't look at the design), he just smiled and said, "No problem." I love this guy! Whatever we throw at him, he meets it with an unwaveringly professional, can-do attitude. He may go home at night grinding his teeth and thinking blasphemous thoughts, but to us he always presents a smiling, calm and unruffled exterior.

Now if the new window would just get here...

Day 16

This was a day that didn't have much to do with the kitchen, except in a bad way.



First of all, the job for today was repairing/replacing the doorframe into the entryway where a certain giant dog chewed it up years ago. This seemed like it should be a simple enough job--remove a few moldings and replace them. Not! It involved replacing the entire doorframe, rehanging the door, and staining the new frame and moldings to go around it.

That is when the bad thing showed up. While the project lead was staining the pieces for the new doorframe, I realized he was also staining the trim elements for the new window that goes over the kitchen sink. In the same medium brown color as the rest of the house.


Whoops! The window is supposed to be trimmed and framed in the color of the cabinets. At least I thought so. But he told me they "usually" stain the windows and trim the same as the millwork in the rest of the house. He about had me convinced. But I talked to Jim and we looked at the design drawings and sure enough, the kitchen window is supposed to match the cabinets. Who wants a big brown window in the middle of a bright white wall? We'll see what happens next.

Day 15

The millwork is done on the range hood. With a little stain and textured paint, it will be the focal point of the kitchen.

And we have handles! The oil-rubbed bronze is a fantastic contrast against the cream-colored cabinets, but I didn't realize they would be so big. Not out-of-proportion big, just bigger than I expected. But that's okay--it's a big kitchen (with an aircraft carrier in the middle, no less!).





How about this little gadget? A pull-out receptacle for trash and recyclables. No more trying to stuff a garbage bag under the sink!

Dinner: grilled brats and veggies with a shredded carrot salad.

Ode to the Tray

Fetch and haul, lug and carry:

Vegetables, fruit, meat and gravy;

Bear the mugs, tote the glasses

Not in five, but only two passes.

Save my energy, guard my steps

Table to sink, sink to table

Out to the fridge more times than I'm able

Oh wonderful, functional, laudable tray.

Apples to wash, carrots to scrub

Load them and lift them and carry them out;

There's no more handy or time-saving way

Than the beautiful, valuable, practical tray.

With microwave, Crockpot, and grill,

It's camping in style, almost gourmet.

But I couldn't do it, would not have the will

Without the admirable, estimable, commendable tray!

Day 14

What a difference the crown moldings make. The cabinets were lovely before, but now they have an elegant, finished appearance.

The molding also serves to hide the rope lighting. Yes, you've seen this in Christmas lights displays, but it's also a popular way to add landscape or architectural interest.












This was Jim's idea, to provide an ambient wash over the ceiling from the tops of the cabinets. It creates a warm glow for when task or direct lights are not necessary.



End of week 3--we're halfway there!

Day 13

The trim work for the cabinets has started with a valance over the window. Crown moldings come next.










We also have our under-cabinet lighting installed though not plugged in yet. These are called "puck" lights, for obvious reasons, and they are the task lights that replace the spotlights that were in the overhanging soffits of our old kitchen. These will provide excellent light coverage and are not visible--unless you stand on your head to look under the cabinets, which I did to take this picture!

More addenda. I wonder if they ever have an addendum that reduces the homeowner's cost?

One of them we asked for. It occurred to us that we would want more than one electrical outlet in our aircraft carrier--uh, I mean island, so boom! another $125 was added to our cost.

The second one is more of a surprise, and of course, more costly. When they pulled up the vinyl flooring, they found that the underlayment was glued and stapled to the subfloor and was impossible to take up (see Day 2 post). Nobody foresaw, however, that this underlayment would not be under the carpet in the family room. (How could they not? Carpet is usually installed directly over the subfloor. Not that it matters, as it still would have been an unexpected cost at that point.) The flooring expert came in and determined this. Now there's a 1/4 inch difference in the heights of the family room and kitchen floors. Not good. So we have to install the same underlayment over the entire family room, to the tune of--well, let's just say it's significant. And add a day to the project length.

Sigh. It's only money, right?

Day 12

This was a big milestone--the granite countertop was templated. This sounded like it would be a fascinating and complex procedure, and the guy from the granite yard was here for about two hours. Mostly he just measured and measured, and then measured some more. Then he brought in this odd-shaped box that he set in the center of the room. Attached to it was a light pen which he used to set data points at various corners and edges around the counter area. I watched for a few minutes but it got tedious rather quickly.


Meanwhile, aside from some trim work (and the countertop and "feet"), the island is complete. And what an island! It's huge! Immense! Ginormous! We have an aircraft carrier in our kitchen! What were we thinking? It's interesting though, that the kitchen looks larger with the island than it did without it.




Then it was time for Construction School:

1. Why build the whole island without bringing the electrical up first? (We were a little afraid he'd forgotten that we needed an outlet there...) Answer: Standard procedure--they don't want to bring up the electrical until they know exactly where the pieces of the island are going to be.

2. Our new sink has 3 holes for a faucet but our new faucet is single-handle and only needs one...? (And does the granite templater know we only need one hole drilled out?) Answer: Cast-iron sinks come ready for any faucet configuration--you can't drill a new hole in cast iron after the fact. And with an under-counter installation, the extra holes won't show. And yes, the granite templater knows we only need one hole.

3. Is the contractor aware we need additional cabinet hardware for the new (skinny) cabinets that were ordered recently? Answer: Yes, in fact they're way ahead of us and already have them on hand. 

I suppose there are no stupid questions, and as this is our dime, it's our privilege to second-guess the contractor every step of the way. But I really should have moved out for the duration and come back when it was all done. Then I wouldn't have to notice and worry about all the little details.

Dinner: Arroz con pollo from the Crockpot (basically Spanish Rice with chicken--that's the problem with the Crockpot; everything turns out pretty much the same)

Day 11

“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”

Make of that what you will. Our island is taking shape in the middle of our kitchen. Most cabinets have a base for the toekick recessed about four inches. The project lead created the island's base on-site, with a seven-inch recess. This will make it look more like furniture that is supported by its "legs."



There are four main parts to the island. Three are visible here: a large main cabinet with drawer, a glass-fronted cabinet on the end, and a two-drawer set for giant pots and pans.

Next up: a pair of wine racks on either side.

Day 10

Monday of week three of no kitchen, but we're another step closer. Most of the wall cabinets are installed now and it's beginning to look like a kitchen again!

Dinner: working our way through some of those leftovers.

Day 9

Now things are really happening--the cabinets have arrived! Good thing we have a big garage. What do people do who don't have a garage to keep all these things? What would we have done, say, back in February, when there was a 7-foot pile of snow on the driveway? There would have been nowhere to park our cars.




Not only do we have cabinets, but by the end of the afternoon, the project lead had installed half a dozen of them. By himself. Seemed impossible to me, but he had a "procedure," and they look great.

And I mean, they look great. My nightmares about making the wrong choice and hating them once they got here--all gone. It's a wonderful feeling when your vision starts to take shape right before your eyes.

The cabinets are Medallion's Stockton style, with a White Sand finish over maple. They are very high quality, a bit spendy for our budget, but now I know it was worth it. They are a straight, simple style, but with just a little detail on both ends of the recessed panel. The White Sand gives them a warm, creamy look, with a touch of distressing to bring out the subtle grain of the maple. No more particle board with peeling laminate for this kitchen!

Day 8

The drywall should be done. They sanded and, again, spent about 45 minutes here. It was a busy day for the project lead, however. He had lots of "odds and ends" (his words) to work on.




He painted a primer coat on the new drywall.





He moved the gas line. It still needs to reach the cooktop, but can't go up behind the oven any more as there won't be room. So it now goes up beside it.

He added a skim coat to the rough spots on the floor. Which Promo promptly stepped in, so it's not as smooth as when he did it (sorry the pawprint is not visible in the photo--we tried to smooth it back down...)

Isn't this exciting?

Sausage Spaghetti Pie

This is a long-time favorite of ours. It keeps well for leftovers and freezes nicely.

5 oz. packaged dried spaghetti
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 T margarine or butter, cut up
1 beaten egg
1 cup cream-style cottage cheese, drained
1/8 t pepper
8 oz. bulk pork sausage, Italian sausage, or ground turkey sausage
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 8-oz. can pizza sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozarella cheese (2 oz.)

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again.

For crust, in a medium mixing bowl combine 1 egg, Parmesan cheese, and margarine or butter. Add spaghetti; toss to coat. Press the spaghetti mixture against the bottom and sides of a well-greased 9-inch pie plate to form an even crust.

In a small mixing bowl combine 1 egg, cottage cheese, and pepper. Spread over the spaghetti crust; set aside.

In a large skillet cook the sausage, mushrooms, onion, and green pepper until the meat is brown and vegetables are tender. Drain fat. Stir in pizza sauce. Heat through. Spoon meat mixture over cottage cheese mixture. Cover loosely with foil.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle with mozarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until mozarella cheese melts. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Cut into wedges to serve. Makes 6 main-dish servings.

Source: Cooking for Today: Pasta (Better Homes & Gardens Books, 1993)

Day 6 & 7

They warned us the drywall week would be tedious and we would wonder if anything was getting done. It also seemed suspicious that the drywall guys could do anything in the 45 minutes they were here. But...progress was made, and in fact we have texture on the ceiling again. Amazing they could do that so fast. You might have to enlarge the photo to see it, but it looks like a real ceiling again.

I've been spoiled though--two days with only 45 minutes of noisy strangers in my house!

Dinner: Beef Stew from the Crockpot

Day 5

The range hood is taking shape. More drywall compound, smoothing of rough spots, etc. Not that much visible difference elsewhere.

We accepted the change order for the additional cabinets. Had to--they need to be there, along with the extended countertop and tile backsplash. The company recognizes its culpability for this change, and charged us for the materials only plus took a token amount off the top of the project cost. Not quite what I might have hoped for, but satisfactory.

Mexican-Style Chicken Roll-Ups

The cookbook lists these as "Quick and Easy" which they definitely are not. They taste great, but unless you're pretty good at pounding out chicken breasts, I don't know that I recommend them.

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
4 canned whole green chiles, halved and seeded
3 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, cut into 8 strips
3/4 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1 T chili powder
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 cup skim milk
Cooking spray
4 cups shredded lettuce
1/2 cup commercial picante sauce
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt

Trim excess fat from chicken. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of waxed paper (or plastic wrap); flatten to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin.

Place a green chile half and one strip of cheese in center of each chicken breast half, roll up lengthwise, tucking edges under. Secure with wooden toothpick.

Combine breadcrumbs, chili powder, cumin, salt, and garlic powder. Dip chicken rolls in milk, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture, coating well. Place chicken in a 12 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Place each chicken rool on 1/2 cup shredded lettuce, top with 1 tablespoon picante sauce and 1 1/2 teaspoons yogurt. Serve immediately. Yield: 8 servings

Mexican Rice

Cooking spray
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
2 1/2 cups water
1 t chicken-flavored bouillon granules
1/2 t ground cumin
1/8 t hot sauce
1 cup parboiled rice, uncooked

Coat a medium saucepan with cooking spray and place over medium heat until hot. Add onion and red pepper, saute 5 minutes or until tender.

Add water, bouillon granules, cumin, and hot sauce; bring to a boil, and stir in rice. Cover and reduce heat, simmer 20 minutes or until water is tender and liquid is aborbed. Yield: 8 servings.

Source: Cooking Light 1987 (Oxmoor House)

Day 4

We have a ceiling again! The drywallers spent most of the day putting up the ceiling and covering the new soffit area. Still plenty of little piddly stuff to do--they will be here most of next week.

We also have the base frame for our new range hood. It will need to be drywalled, textured, painted, etc.





The new window was scheduled to be installed but wasn't the right size. Another measuring error...

We have had two addendums so far (addendi?). There is an extra cost for the light over the sink. This was expected because they weren't sure how they would do that until they had fully removed the old soffits. Second, we had requested separating the circuit/switch that will control the under-cabinet lighting and the ambient rope lighting above the cabinets, and there is a small charge for that.

The bigger issue is the "change order" for the two new skinny cabinets to fill out the refrigerator wall (see Days 2 and 3). There was a measuring error somewhere between the site inspection and design phase. Is that a change... or a fix?

Dinner: Sausage Spaghetti Pie (very good leftover!)