a peek behind Lark Studio...

Week 3 = Delays

It was all running so smoothly and on schedule.  But week 3 has brought delays to the project.  The entire thing will now run into a 5th week.  Le sigh...one day I'll have my kitchen back...

It is starting to look like a real kitchen though.  The new floor was laid on Tuesday, however Costen's apparently uses separate teams for installation and refinishing.  The refinishing team doesn't come in until next Tuesday.  With 4 days of refinishing it puts us not being able to move into the kitchen until Monday 9/15.

Classic Granite came by on Friday for my counter top installation.  The largest piece had the sink cut-out in the wrong place - so no counter tops yet.  They say they will be back on Monday afternoon or Tuesday first thing for installation of everything.  We'll see...

We ended up having to go pick up the appliances instead of having them delivered.  These boxes are huge! It's going to take me a minute to get use to having full size appliances.  Finding a place to store these for a week will be fun.

I scheduled several painters to come by this week for quotes and only had one show.  Their pricing seems good, but I haven't talked to any references or even seen their work so we'll see.  Hopefully they will work out and be able to get in on Tuesday 9/16 to paint.  New finish date = September 17th!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Week 2 = More work

Week 2 went well.  All the IKEA Akurum cabinet frames are together, the wall cabinets are completely finished with the Adel door fronts, the flooring guys are scheduled and appliance delivery is scheduled.  On Friday, the counter top guy came out to template.  Low and behold my initial measurement was short an entire 16 square feet!  So the good deal I got on the quartz remnant from them is gone.  The piece I had purchased is too small.  The lowest price I could get from them has switched me to granite countertops and the total is now double what I initially thought.  

Week 2 also finds me removing wallpaper from the walls in the former dining room.  I really tried to go with just painting over the walls as they were.  But I hire good craftsman and he said no way.  Now my labor day weekend will be filled with labor.  My painter has also gone MIA.  Anyone with any good recommendations for me here in Richmond?

The project will be going into a 4th week.  I still think thats pretty good with having gutted the kitchen.  Have a good Labor Day weekend folks!  Wish me luck!

You can see all of the day by day photos in my Flickr set here.

Week 1 = Great!

Week 1 of the kitchen remodel went very smoothly and we are on track to get it all done in 3 weeks.   The sub-floor turned out not to be a problem.  Matt realized all of it had to come up anyway to allow for an even surface for the new hardwood going in.  Come to find out that the existing hardwood floor in our house doesn't sit on sub-flooring...

Day 3 was all about the electrical.  The back outside wall of the kitchen was almost 1 inch thicker than it's dining room counterpart, so it had to come down.  This turned out to be good since it made putting all the electrical work in that wall a breeze.  Day 4 brought a hard lesson.  If you ever do a major, or even a minor, remodeling project make sure you express all your wants and needs to your contractor.  I came home to find the chair rail on the dining room wall gone.  Oh well...   

Day 5 was all about putting the skin back on - a new window and sheet rock to cover up most of the holes. Mud coats then cabinets next week!

    

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Day 2 of the kitchen remodel in photos.

Our temporary kitchen set up in the living room.  We didn't purchase a new fridge since our old one is working fine so this is where it's being stored and luckily used.  I highly suggest you do a temporary set-up somewhere in your house (even if you have to borrow a mini fridge to get by).  We are also splurging on paper/plastic cups, plates, and flatware for the next 2 weeks.  No worries - it all can be recycled.

The work area super-sealed to prevent any plaster dust or remnants from the asbestos tile coming up to get into the rest of the house.  Kinda rings of the X-files doesn't it?

My old kitchen all boxed up and ready to go!

Poof - the wall is gone!

The kitchen is soo much bigger with the wall between the two rooms gone.

Bright light everywhere!

A close up of what was above the wall cabinets.  Ha - no ceiling!  That's the insulation in the attic floor that you see.

It's on!

Today was the first day for my kitchen remodeling project (for a bit of the back story you can read this post and follow the links there).  The dumpster isn't being delivered until tomorrow, so today was just a bit of light demo of moldings, trims and the base cabinets.  To no surprise there is some asbestos tile underneath about 3 other layers of stick on tile.  We also found some damage to the sub-floor under the sink.  Hopefully the damage is minimal and wont' turn into a big thing.  Surprises?  Only two at the end of day one.  First, there is no "wall" behind some of the base cabinets.  No plaster, drywall, nothing - just straight to the guts of the house.  The same applies for the wall cabinets.  Matt took out one row and basically we were looking at the insulation in the attic floor.  The second surprise was fun - an old sticker book from a local radio station contest!

This evening I'm planning to finish setting up our temporary kitchen in the living room and go pick out the kitchen paint colors.  Can't wait to see what day 2 holds!

Kitchen shots before:

Kitchen shots at the end of day 1:

Eat fresh

I got a chance to sneak down to the 17th Street Farmer's Market during lunch time today.  Just a few essentials purchased...

Have a great fourth of July holiday everyone! Fix something good and invite me to the cookout!

Self Portrait #1

Self Portrait #1
Originally uploaded by larkstudio

For those who know me well or who regularly read this blog, you know what this is about. A little foot surgery today and yes - it hurts now that the anesthesia has worn off. Don't you love the color coordination going on? I am accepting all sympathies and gifts through the end of the week.

Oh...I miss the weekend

Last Friday, after the worst day at work EVER, I got to go hang out over my friends Andy & Kirsten's house for some good wine, good food and good times all around. We sat around and grilled out in their lovely backyard (it really is an oasis in the city). I supplied the desserts for all from a local bakery.

Mmmm...yummy!

Is it Friday yet?

My favorite pasttime

I've been a little slack about posting my "day in the life" photos lately, but I've picked up my camera and I'm back at it. This is for Thursday June 19, 2007. Both my DH and I have laptops and one of our favorite pasttimes is just sitting around, in our very quiet house, surfing the net. Watching him is also one of my favorite things to do! :)

I'm so a grown up now

There are a few things in life that makes one truly know how grown up you really are. Teaching someone to drive a car is one of them. On Monday I was lucky to see my niece and chat with her for a while. There was much to learn, as I hadn't talked with her for some time. She's got a new phone, she went on a tour of HBCUs over her spring break, and she’s already planning her Sweet 16 party this summer... It's so hard to believe she will be 16 in July! I can remember like yesterday when her Mom told me she was pregnant. Man...time is a wonderful and strange thing sometimes.

So, our conversation of course turned to when she would be getting her license. She's already 15 and 10 months and hasn't even started drivers ed class. Wow. I was totally finishing my drivers ed class when I was that age. After I put her mother to shame for this, of course I had to start some driving lessons for her. My uncle was the one who went out first with me in a car. I think this is something very difficult for parents to do with their kids. But hey, that's why you have aunts and uncles, right?

I was good until she asked of the petals on the floor "so, what's the one in the middle?" Hmmm, this might be interesting. All we were doing was moving the car from the street in front of my house into the driveway. It was a tight turn, but I figured it'd be good "wheel" practice. I tried to encourage my DH to move is car out of the way, but he wanted our niece to have "real world" experience. Stupid Brave man. All in all it went fine. My heart stopped a few times when I instructed her to brake and the accelerator was pushed, but I survived. It took about 10 minutes to dive 20 feet, but seeing her face after she did it was worth it. We are totally going to an empty parking lot next time.