Mom's kitchen looks a lot different

Yesterday, the painters came to finish up the exterior trim. The day was dry for the most part. It was interesting to see the inventive ways they had to reach those hard-to-reach areas.

This painter has a paintbrush attached to a long pole so he can paint the faschia board (hope that's the right term) that's high above the garage roof.

And then today the rains descended as Steve and Jake did more work on Mom's kitchen. They took out her upper cabinets (and the soffit). They turned the base cabinets 90 degrees to snug up against the wall, took out the old, faulty stove and installed a new double convection oven smooth-top range. The got the range hooked up so Mom was only without a stove for a couple of hours. They'll patch the ceiling and put the upper cabinets back in above the base cabinets (probably tomorrow).

Look at how much more open it looks.

 They also worked on the baseboards and trim.

The trim work is almost complete.

We can count what needs to be done on one hand--it's so exciting! 

Quinn, Taryn, Tanner & I have found that we spend more time there; it's like we're easing ourself into living there. Or it could be that we're just putting off packing!

We discovered that we can't keep our home phone number when we move. I think I'm sadder about that then leaving our home! We've had that same phone number for 24+ years. If we wanted to have separate lines we could keep it--but we're trying to cut costs and a separate line (especially in this day of cell phones) doesn't make sense.

Mom's Kitchen is Next

Today, they started deconstructing the penninsula in Mom's kitchen. Wow! With the cabinets gone, it looks very open. With the soffit out and the base cabinets and wall cabinets turned 45 degrees, it will be really open. Mom has already said that when the dining table is moved back into the completed dining room she will probably put in the table leaves and leave them in just to fill the large space! Oh, what a difference expanding out 6 feet makes (and removing a half wall).

 

Taking out the range hood. 

 Removing the tile backsplash.

 See how open it looks?

They built the counter base for the downstairs bathroom.

It's getting closer...

this and that and a video

I found some photos on Mom's camera that she had taken and I hadn't uploaded in a timely fashion, so I'm including all of them together.

Here is the crew that sided the two dormers. This good weather is only a memory now as it's been raining cats & dogs for almost a week. The gray skies have descended.

Painting the family room walls. These two walls are the only ones that are not white.

 Putting in the laminate flooring.

 The real doors are installed--gone are the construction doors. This door matches Mom's front door. It's the new back door.

 Here's another view of it from the back hallway.

 This is the side door. It is on the garden side of the addition.

Laying the floor in the kitchen & dining room. The carpet is the next flooring to be installed (I think it's done last--after installing lights & finishing baseboards/trims).

 They had this neat little chopsaw to cut the laminate flooring. It was easily portable and the blade is much sharper. The flooring guys said that laminate is so hard you would go through a lot of $40 blades in a regular chopsaw. Just fyi...

 Here is Chad, the cabinet installer, working on the kitchen. He also installed cupboards in the downstairs closet and closets in the upstairs guest rooms.

 Here's the finished kitchen cupboards. Next step in the kitchen? Appliances and countertops installed.

Quinn likes the color of the cabinets, and he also likes the trim color and style (sorry if I said this already).

 Shots taken looking from the living/dining area of the addition.

We went to IKEA for the 4th (or 5th) time to return the product leftover from the cabinets. The guy at the return desk was great--there was a lot of product left over (yay!), and he had to ring up and figure out our refund (after our initial discount when we bought them) one-by-one and by hand. He was very patient and pleasant through the whole experience and the refund was wonderful. 

Now there are beautiful kitchen cabinets all installed!

Here's a video of one of our favorite features of this kitchen (and Tanner playing the flute in the background!):

...self-closing drawers and doors! We've all been playing with them!

Towel surplus

If you saw these towels, how many people would you say lived in this house?

And this is only a week's worth of towels! (My towels are not even hanging here). Hard to believe these are only towels used by three people! You can see why I locked up or hid most of our towels when all the kids lived here.

it's starting to come together

Steve said they should be done in TWO weeks! Wow!

The vinyl floors are in in the bathrooms and they started on the laminate flooring. They were able to lay it in the hallway and family room. When the kitchen cabinets are finished, they'll come back and finish the rest of the laminate. The carpet will be the last flooring to be installed.

(blurry pic--but shows laminate installation)

The appliances arrived--a range, two dishwashers, a dryer, a range hood, and wall oven.

The plumber is finishing up adding the plumbing fixtures.

Taryn likes the progress upstairs.

Window trim upstairs. The high windows are sheetrocked wrapped--I love the simpleness of that.

Showerhead is tall enough for any height.

Lights are waiting to be installed. Funny story--I had created a planning sheet listing all the lights Mom needed for the addition. We found a good, basic light at Home Depot and I ordered it online (could get a discount deal). I knew she needed 16 lights of the same style and searched and ordered the lights to be picked up (couldn't be shipped) at several locations. We drove up to Vancouver (almost to Camas) to pick up the bulk of the lights (11 boxes). They filled Mom's car to the brim. When we got home I realized that the lights came in a two pack--I had ordered DOUBLE the amount of lights she needed. Luckily it was quite easy to return/cancel the orders for the rest of the lights. 

Here is one of two tankless water heaters that will be installed.

Installing the doors to the laundry closet.

Finishing up some of the plumbing details.

Here is Chad, the IKEA-certified cabinet installer. He was so great and did a wonderful job. More cabinet errors sent Mom and I back to IKEA for a third time to get the correct cabinets. IKEA called on our way home (we were already in Milwaukie) to tell us we had left our cabinet folder there! So Taryn and I went back a fourth time. We'll have to go one more time to return leftover cabinet pieces.

The beautiful wall oven installed.

Here's the farmhouse sink. Yummy!