Day 6 #kitchenrenovation

Most of the action took place in the Laundry Nook yesterday.  Below is the laundry sink faucet (sorry for the pretty bad picture...the lighting just wasn't working for me last night for some reason...guess it's better to shot during the day especially in a dark basement? #stillaphotographernewbie).  To say I'm in LOVE is an understatement.  The faucet is actually meant for  a claw foot tub but I REALLY, REALLY (like really) wanted a wall mounted faucet and the opportunity arose to use it in the laundry nook, so I snatched it up and the rest is history (I will do a post on this faucet and the kitchen faucet at some point).   This was one of the crisises I referred to in a previous post that was alleviated thanks to Mike.  The faucet was originally too short to use with the sink (oops!  the Hasty Hornes strike again!) but the plumber was able to use extenders to make the faucet's spout reach out further.   Phew!  Otherwise there would have been a lot of tears shed (and surprisingly not from Jim!) and a late night Lowe's run to find a faucet I probably wouldn't have loved nearly as much.

Below you can see the sink, sink base cabinet and the new washer/dryer water hook up.  I owe you a post on the laundry sink the laundry base cabinet as well.  #toomuchtotalkaboutnotenoughhoursintheday!

This is the light in the laundry nook that will soon be replaced with that chicken wire beauty.  As you can see it's an old ugly light with a piece of rope hanging to turn it on and off.  A light switch will have to be installed.  Let's hope that doesn't cost too much to do...GULP!

The new hot and cold water "pipes" for the washer on the ceiling.  We have big plans to paint the beams and walls at a later date.

Remember that yellow wire and the cloth covered wire that were randomly hanging from the ceiling the day before?  Well now it's been replaced with a junction box and a pipe was moved...No more scary wires!

Another new junction box.  We think this is for the teppanyaki grill we will be installing in the peninsula.

Moving up the kitchen, more wires and outlets were added and that big honking radiator was removed.  A toe kick radiator will be installed in replace of this.

Are you sick of all this plumbing and electricity talk yet?  I know, I know...bear with us...more exciting things are yet to come!



Day 5 #kitchenrenovation

Plumbing and electrical rough in day!  Who knew I would become so excited about electricity and plumbing???  Below is the new plumbing for the sink and the garbage disposal.  Buh-bye slow and crude infested elbows...hello shiny, new, straight shot pipe (see...told you I was crazy about plumbing!)  There was a minor crisis created by a certain someone who will remain nameless (coughjimcough) thinking that we would not be able to have a garbage disposal due to the deepness of the farmhouse sink.  Basically, the risk that you run when having a farmhouse sink is that due to how deep it is (10"+ vs. a standard sink of about 6") the piping may be too high to have a garbage disposal connected to it.  Luckily, they sell shorter garbage disposals that can accommodate a farmhouse sink and our piping is low enough.  Phew!  Crisis averted!  Now we just have to buy a garbage disposal that we weren't planning on buying....death by a thousand cuts.

Here you can see all the new brightly colored wire that will become plugs and outlets.  No more cloth covered wires and gas light fixtures!  Woohoo! Hello 21st century electrical!

The two new recessed (or pot as some refer to them as) lights in the old hallway.  I have to say I wasn't really prepared to do the lighting design and didn't really think about it...again another reason I'm glad we got a general contractor who was able to help us out in this area.  The old fixture that was here is going at the top of the basement stairs and will replace the boob light (real term) that is there now.

This is being shot from the inside of the pantry.  You can see the new plywood wall that is going up where the old doorway used to be.  We moved the pantry doorway for two reasons.  One being so we could fit in a peninsula and the second is now we can actually have normal depth cabinets in the pantry as opposed to the pretty useless 9" depth cabinets that were there.  Let me tell you not a lot of food boxes fit in a 9" depth cabinet. 

The fireplace hole was bricked in!  The new bricks match the old ones pretty well.  I love it and can't wait to slap some white paint on it.  The other hole will be bricked up as well.

The Laundry nook!!!!  It's really starting to take shape...so exciting!  The plumbing for the laundry sink and the washer and dryer were installed.  We still aren't sure of the set up in this area yet...are we going to stack the washer/dryer?  Put them side by side with a counter over them?  Real life problems we have to deal with here people.  Stress!

Better shot of the plumbing.  I will do a post on the laundry sink cabinet at a later date.

This a semi-random picture but Jim and I both were like what the heck is this random wire hanging from the basement ceiling but we think it is the electricity for the dishwasher.  You can see the old cloth wire here as well.

That wraps up day 5.  Not as exciting as tear walls down kinda excitement but still fun nonetheless.

Day 4 #kitchenrenovation

Yesterday, the pantry was demoed as seen in the picture below.  The black and white tiled floors, the cabinets and and the counter were removed.  We're going to try and craig's list the cabinets, oven and microwave/vent and refrigerator.  If you know of anyone who is interested inany of these things, please let me know.

Here's a good shot of the new pantry doorway.

This is the water shut off and valves for the old washer/dryer.  Mike will likely cap these pipes and drywall over them.  This is will be a big open wall...not sure how we'll fill it up...art work?  hang things like broom, etc?  Hang our pots here?  Leave blank?  Ahhh the possibilities!

Another interesting thing Mike discovered during the demo was the live electrical wires that were just hanging out behind our walls...kinda scary that things like this were lurking behind walls while we were none the wiser. It makes me very grateful we have someone like Mike who is making sure things are done correctly. The live wire that was just duck taped is the green wire directly to the left of the window with the black tape on the end.  There were a couple others just like this throughout the kitchen.

The old/new closet is really starting to take shape.  I love how tall it is.  It would be cool if we use that box on the top of the closet as an open shelf with a basket in it....hmmmm I wonder if that's possible......my wheels are turning...and Jim is shuddering....

 Until tomorrow!

Let's talk...knobs and pulls.

Just like lights are the jewelry for the ceiling, knobs and pulls are like jewelry for the cabinets and what girl doesn't love jewelry??  So it should come as no surprise that I had a blast picking them out.

I toyed with the idea of putting aged brass knobs/pulls (not to be confused with the shiny brass circa 1980) as it is making a come back in the design world.  But Jim wasn't feeling them really and quite frankly I was scared to make a such a huge commitment like that in the kitchen.  So we went with my next love...oil rubbed bronze (or ORB as the kewl kids call it).  I was pretty particular about the shape of the knobs and pulls...I'm always on the look out for something unique (or as Jim says...I always like to make things more difficult/complicated than they need to be!).  That leads to exhaustive searches and usually ends up I find something that doesn't work for numerous reasons but I get my heart set on it and Jim then has to find a way to make it work.

My past go-to for hardware was Anthropologie...love everything there but when you're looking at $6-$12/knob and a whole lotta cabinets to work with, things add up quickly.  I was perusing Home Depot one night and saw some knobs that I loved so I went on the  website the next day and found a plethora of knobs and pulls that were gorgeous and unique.

For the kitchen, we went with the Liberty Hardware Fusilli large football knobs.

And these pulls  are from Libery Hardware Martha Stewart Line (basically I love everything Martha touches).

For the apothecary drawers, I wanted a label pull that was reminiscent of the old library card catalog's hardware.  I found these  from a new-to-me website call House of Antique Hardware.

Moving on to the pantry, I knew I wanted to use the antique aged brass in here since it would in a much smaller dose.  I really loved the look of these  pulls as they reminded me of the label pulls above.

And these for the drawers.  I saw something similar at Restoration Hardware but for almost double the price!  I don't think so!  I love the large backplate on them and the ceramic knob.  Very rustic, which I think will compliment the chicken wire cabinets.



Finally for the laundry nook sink cabinet, I was able to use my much loved latch  (I really, really, REALLY wanted to use these in the kitchen but we weren't getting the right type of cabinets that these latches could work on....but I think we can get away with using this on the sink cabinet). 

So that's it for the knobs and pulls lil chat session.  Till next time....



Let's talk....ovens.

Baking central is.about.to.go.down....

I've always loved houses with double wall ovens.  Originally we were thinking that was what we wanted in the oooooh three + years we've been talkin' and dreamin' about a new kitchen.  Perhaps we're losing our self proclaimed moniker of "Hasty Hornes" since it's taken us that long to get going on updating the kitchen?  No?  Not yet?  OK.

During our months and months of appliance research (going to multiple appliance stores and Jim researching on the world wide web and buying a years subscription to Consumer Reports) we decided that the direction we wanted to go with was to get one gas oven and one electric convection oven. Another reason we decided to go with the single vs. double ovens is we didn't want to lose the counter space since we don't have a lot to begin with.  Save the counter tops!!

Confession time, I heart Sarah Richardson BIG time.  On the season where she renovated a farm house she went to Sears and bought the Kenmore Pro line.  So we decided to check out Sears and that's where we were saw the Kenmore Pro single wall oven.  It had to have the professional handle that I had became obsessed with.

Did you know Sears has an online outlet where you can purchase floor models or scratch and dents?  No?  Well neither did I till Jim found it.  Low and behold they had the single Kenmore Pro wall oven for over half off the store price!  I quickly bought it and two weeks later our oven was delivered.  I love the dial temperature, the professional handle, the fact that it's a convection oven...basically I love everything about it.

Now that we have a convection oven (a baker's dream oven since you can have a cookie sheet on every rack and each sheet will cook the cookies perfectly since the heat is constantly being circulated through out the oven) I want to create a baking center where all cookie sheets and cake pans and sugar and flour...basically anything and everything baking, will be housed.  I'm thinking in the corner right next to the oven.  Organization is the name of the game come  time to set things up in the kitchen...let's see if it actually happens! 

Day 3 #kitchenrenovation

Have I mentioned I love the demo phase?!  Every night coming home is so exciting to see what else has been done that day.

Today, Mike took down the rest of the hallway wall and put in the LVL beam.  The kitchen already looks soooo much bigger!  New kitchen here we come!

He also framed out the old/new closet.  The new closet will be about 16" deep.  Not sure what we'll put in there but thinking trash/recycling and maybe some fun stripes painted in there or a stencil?  For the closet door we're thinking of painting the outside of the door with chalkboard and magnetic paint

This is looking towards the old "hallway".  The beam is the LVL that Mike put in since that wall was a load bearing wall.  On the right is the framing of the new closet.  On the left you can see the new door opening to the pantry.

 

Here is the new closet.  You can see it's not terribly deep but we're thankful for any storage space we can squeeze out.  You can see a close up of the chimney here.  These are 8" bricks which apparently aren't made anymore so you can tell the chimney is original to this old house of ours. #iloveoldhousesjimdoesnot

 

This is a close up of the new pantry entrance.  To the left will be the peninsula.  Turns out we will have to get a new pantry door due to the LVL beam that was installed.  We were hoping to salvage the one we had (and save some $) but the doorway has to be narrower than the old opening. So we are thinking of making it look like a barn door.  We also decided to switch the direction the back door will open.  Currently it opens to the left but Mike suggested switching it so it opens to the right.  He also suggested getting a new door.  So we're in the process of finding a new one.  I want a dutch door but Jim isn't sold on the idea.  Either way we know we want a  door with glass in it so we can capture the light coming in from the mudroom.

 And one more just for fun!  Ahhhhh it's such a big difference already!

Until Monday....

Day 2 #kitchenrenovation

Day 2 and the demo continues.  

Mike removed the tile and plaster wall...no insulation was there.  No wonder why we were always freezing! 

The frame around the chimney is gone.  We gained at least another 4 inches on two sides.  Great news!  (can you see the back of the dining room paneling?  kinda cool)

Jim loves to photo bomb.  Tsk tsk Jim!  This is looking towards what used to be the refrigerator wall.  Mike has almost completely opened up that wall.  The beams have to stay there until Mike puts an LVL beam in or else the whole house will fall down and Oreo and Tiger wouldn't like that very much!  Meow!

Looking towards what was the closet...there's some electrical outlets we never knew existed.  #photobombedAGAIN

Home to the new closet.

I thought this was a cool picture.  You can see a diamond patterned wood floor beneath the dust.  That must have been a beauty back in the day.  The sink and cabinets were hiding this.  I just love the demo phase to see what once was.  It's fun dreaming up what the house used to look like.

Another type of flooring was discovered...hardwoods.  And do you see that weird metal contraption with two holes in it in the upper right hand corner?  Apparently this used to be a blender that was built into the counter and you put your glass container in one of those holes and blended away.  This was in the cabinet next to the dishwasher and the whole time Jim and I just assumed it was for the dishwasher somehow.  #whoknew?

Buh bye tile and plaster wall!  Another thing that I love about the demo phase is finding out things that were done incorrectly...like our sink for example was never vented (don't ask me why a sink needs to be vented) but thankfully it's an easy fix since there is an existing pipe there.  I don't want to end up like someone on Property Brother's.

So how are we doing without a kitchen so far?  The first night we made do with what we had and cooked ourselves a nice (albeit slightly dub) dinner.   I washed dishes in the bathroom sink.  It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The second night we took advantage of the fact Sammy was vacationing up in NH at Meme's house and met up after work.  We checked out the free Thursday nights at the ICA and as well as two new restaurants/bars.  So overall, so far so good but it's too early to tell...ask again in 4 weeks....

And I'll leave you with this parting shot of Oreo...do you think she misses Sammy?  #whilethedogsawaythecatswillplay

Let's talk lights

Much to Jim's chagrin (you'll notice I use this phrase a lot) I have plans to change out every light in the house.  Who doesn't love a blingy chandie or a country kitsch pendant??  It's like jewelry for the ceiling.

I was sooooooooo excited to pick out lights for the kitchen, pantry, laundry nook and wine closet (oh why yes we are renovating in the basement, too...do I like to make things more complex/harder than they need to be???  Why yes, yes I do :)  Again, much to Jim's chagrin (there's that phrase again!)

I set what I thought was reasonable budget for six lights but I came under budget.  #waytogome  (although Jim would like to offer another opinion that my budget was a some what made up number but I will disagree with that till the death)

Below is the pendant that will hang above the peninsula.  There will be two of them.  Jim picked out the color (nice job Jim!).  They are from the Young House Love line from Shades of Light .  I love this line for so many reasons...affordable, on trend, good amount of options, etc.  #iheartyounghouselove

Above the sink, will hang this beauty from Pottery Barn (the light we actually got is no longer being carried by Pottery Barn but the one in the link is pretty close).  I got it on major sale #score  

Moving on to the Pantry.  Since we're going for a more country kitsch look in here (think chicken wire cabinets and burlap) I thought this light from restoration hardware kids fit the bill.  I got it on one of the many 20% off sales they have.

Now for the wine closet, we knew what we wanted but we were constricted with what we could get due to the location of the light (right above the doorway).  We both loved the industrial cage lights and I think the light we got was exactly what we wanted.  We think we can just put this on the existing fixture.  Fingers crossed it works out!

The last light is for the laundry nook (not really a room as it will be a small section/nook in the basement...aka only walls on three sides).  The look for this nook is country/shabby chic.  My friend sent me this light and once I laid my eyes on this beaut, it was love at first sight.  Love me some chicken wire.

So that wraps it up for lighting....until I find my next victim to replace...bahahaha

Day 1 #kitchenrenovation

Welp, after MUCH anticipation and many, many months of preparation...D-Day has FINALLY come!  As I was leaving for work this morning the truck that was delivering the dumpster had it's engine purring ready to park it on our driveway for the next gosh-knows-how-many-weeks.  Jim met Mike (our general contractor) and was able to witness the start of the kitchen demolition (so jealous!!!).  As you can WELL imagine I was sooo anxious to get home to see what had been done....

Enough with the anticipation...as I'm sure you're all on pins and needles waiting (ha!) Here is what we have on Day 1.

Looking into the kitchen from the "hallway"

Looking towards the "hallway".  You can see the chimney.

Close up of the chimney...White brick???  Say what???  I'm pysched...Jim's crushed it's not red brick...white paint here we come!!!

Jim's clearly excited about the demo phase!

Towards the backyard...where the sink used to be.  Notice the wall of tiles on top of the wall of plaster.  These tiles were hiding BEHIND the cabinets.  #helloextraspace

Looking towards Lady Land. 

Hole in the chimney was where the microwave was vented to.  The mason is going to reface this.

Pantry just started seeing some demo action.

One more shot for good measure

Looking into that crazy shaped/useless closet

Until tomorrow.....