Out With The Old and In With The Not Quite As Old

There are moments in life when you have to ask yourself, "Whose idea was this, anyway?" We are into the 2nd week of our actual remodeling project. It is very fortunate that everyone who lives here has a very high tolerance for mess and chaos. It is also fortunate that we have a really great contractor and crew or else I would have had to open a vein or two by now. Here is the plan.
1) Insulate attic and walls with blown in insulation (as we don't have a scrap of insulation anywhere except in the garage walls--go figure.)
2) Install new gutters with Leaf Guard system so we don't have to climb up on the ladder and risk breaking our necks several times a year
3) Gut kitchen, move sink and put a door there, build new wall, move oven, stove and vent hood, put washer and dryer in, put in new cabinets and recessed lighting, put in toe-kick heater. (Jim and I will tile the countertops and backsplashes ourselves.)
4) Tear down wall between basement and garage, put in a new bathroom (bust through basement concrete to get to city sewer line), new little kitchen, frame walls, take out garage door and put in exterior door and window, replace 3 basement windows, prep floor for ceramic tile (Jim and I will do the ceramic floor tiles.


These are pictures of our front room and our addition jammed full of stuff so the guys can work in the kitchen and addition. Of course, anything that I desperately needed during the seven weeks we were living like this would be in the center of one of these piles.



I came home from my conference to find the kitchen partially gutted. It was very exciting to see our plans start to take shape. I only had a second or two of the "Uh-oh. Is this a bad idea?" feeling.






They put up the studs for the wall they were filling in between the addition and the kitchen where the sink would be moved to.


This is the future location of the stacked washer and dryer. We'll keep the broomcloset to the side and put a large built in cabinet (bought from ReConstruction) on the other side to serve as a pantry.


Our old sink was so large, we couldn't find an affordable new cabinet or a used one that would fit. So we went to IKEA and bought one there. Our carpenter, Edison, modified it slightly to make it work.








I went with the Brazilian granite tiles, dark green with black spots in them and used black unsanded grout in the joints. One of the guys laid the plywood surface and we countersunk the screws and then I laid the tiles. I'd like to say they were perfectly flat, but I'd be lying. However, it's not too noticeable. I put plain white field tiles from Home Depot on the walls and used an antique white grout.

When the mosaic arrived, we had the guys help us put it up. One of them showed us a neat trick using a rolling pin to go across the surface to make sure the contact was good between the tiles and the wall.


We liked the mosaic so much, we decided to order another one from the same supplier and put it as a backsplash on the opposite wall over the stovetop. I ordered the high powered range hood online from a supplier in CA for $500.



I took two old stools I had in the basement and spray painted them expresso brown. I kept the decoupaged kitty masks and put a couple of spray coats of poly-crylic to seal them. The kids use them to sit and eat breakfast and snacks at the counter by the window.

Our guy estimated 3 weeks or until the money ran out. We're working on a time and materials contract and I pay him each week come Monday morning. They really do lovely work and are willing to work with all the used items I buy from construction salvage places. The 16 maple cabinets with soild wood doors with the GE built-in stove and microwave were $2000. The solid wood pantry cabinet was $75. The drop-in GE Profile Cooktop was $300. The marble vanity with sink and faucet for the bathroom was $100. The stainless steel sink with faucet for the basement kitchen was $45. The framed interior door was $45. The solid wood exterior door with a little window was $60. The vinyl clad sliding window (48 x 50) was $103. I found a maple appliance garage with a rollup door for $20. We're re-using our sink and faucet in the kitchen because I love them both. However, we couldn't find an affordable sink base to match our cabinets so we went to Ikea and bought a sink base for $159 and the guys put it together. Originally, we were going to build a long shelf over the garden window for cookbooks, but I finally decided to keep that area open and put a bookshelf in the nook under the window. I got the bookshelf for $15 at the Goodwill.

I had to go to Home Depot for some other things because I didn't have time to wait for them to show up in the salvage places or on Craigslist.com. I got a 48" fiberglass shower stall for $329. I wanted to tile a showerstall, but I just don't think I'll have the time and I don't want to clean grout lines. I bought a paper towel holder,pot rack, spice rack, utensil holder on sale at 75% off for $103--they all mount on the wall. The lighting fixture for the bathroom vanity was not on sale and cost $99. We already have a mirror for above the sink. We bought a heavy duty, super flushing toilet for $144.

I went to Lowe's and ordered the granite tile for the countertops. It's green and black and from Brazil. A big splurge at $10 a tile and I needed 60. On e-bay I found a wonderful marble mosaic of swans on a pond with two waterlilies (39 x 31) to go over the kitchen sink. It was $309 including shipping. I spent a lot of time trying to find just the right backsplash tile and it was no easy task. I'd been searching the internet for 2" glass tiles that would fit our budget. No luck. We were leaning towards a 2" stone tile from Home Depot, but at $10 a square foot, it's no bargain. We need 66 square feet total. In the end, I went with the field tiles that cost about 17 cents each. I like them because they are low maintenance and look Scandanavian to me. We spent the money we saved on the mosaics.

I'd prefer to buy used or find it free in the trash, but sometimes time and necessity dictates otherwise. The workers were here until the end of August, about 7-8 weeks total. We still have a few little things to finish up. Once school started back, I ran out of time and energy to finish the little stuff. So I'm hoping to get to it as the weekends allow.