The Drywall in the Kitchen is Up! (most of it)

Ok, so here's a quick update on what's been happening with our kitchen.  The drywall has gone up and has been mudded and sanded everywhere except for the sink wall.  Insulation was put in too.  Even the can lights are all installed and the ceiling was also mudded and sanded.

We wanted to keep the sink intack as long as possible so we could still wash some dishes but we finally took that hideous beast out of there the other day.  See ya never, ugly yellow sink.

We are figuring out who will install our floor tile at the moment.  While that's being decided on we will finish up drywalling the sink area, then primer and paint everything.

The majority of the old floor tiles have been removed, but there are still quite a few to go.  Once the new floor is in, cabinets can start moving in!!!

If anyone has an experienced tile guy they feel strongly about referring us to, please let us know.

We settled on the this cool wood design gray tile.  It should end up looking really good and wasn't much more than the stone style tile we first were considering.

 

Thanks for checking in!

No More Slab holes in the the Kitchen

So the Grand Canyon in our kitchen...

...has been filled.  The giganitc drain pipe is neatly in the wall now, along with its friends, hot and cold.  The electrical has been run and the old pipes were insulated properly so the cement was poured.  Now the only thing sticking out of the ground is our electricity for the island.  Exciting!
 

Before

After

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Before

After

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Before

After

Last Cabinet Standing

Last night Brian took out all the lower cabinets.... except for the sink.

All the Pipes are OUT and the Island Electrical is IN!

So over this past week Brian capped the hot and cold water pipes that were still sticking out of the ground from where the washing machine used to be.

 It is really exciting seeing no more pipes or barriers sticking up in the middle of the room!

Island Electrical
Today Brian did some more jack hammering to add an electrical box for our island.  He was worried this would be a lot of extra work but he powered through it just in one afternoon.  He also ran the conduit for the electrical and placed the box.

Fancy!

Faucets, Knobs, and Floors... Let's Decide

For about a week now I have been browsing online which faucet to choose.  There are so many options.  I had a few reqirements:
     1.  Must have a pull down sprayer.  I didn't want an extra hole on the counter top.  Also I would think when wet hands put back a counter mounted sprayer, that's another chance for water to pool.
     2.  Must have one lever for hot and cold.
     3.  Preferably include a soap dispenser
     4.  A sweeper spray would be an absolute bonus.  Who doesn't wanna have a power-wash blaster setting?!

I finally came across this one, the Kohler Bellera:

Here's a video of it's neat-o-ness.

It met all my criteria and will look so great with our farm house sink!  I typed in its name onto houzz.com and discovered lots of other people who actually chose this same faucet with their farm house sink.

We had changed the pulls in our old kitchen about a year or two ago because the original ones were just so gross.  So luckily, these pulls I think will function great in our new kitchen too.  The knobs will be on all the upper door style cabinets.

 For all the drawers I really like these cup style pulls.  Brian isn't a huge fan, but he said it's my call.  What do you think?  It's a tough call between either the half circle or the more flat shape.

As you may have read before, we were deciding between two slate looking floor tiles.  One was dark gray and the other a lighter gray.  Today I went to the slab yard where our counter top is being stored to take both floor samples and make a final decision.

I decided I really prefer the dark over the light next to our granite.  However, I still was curious to find a wood looking tile as an alternative.  At the slab store, they also sell floor tile and had a really great gray wood tile.  I really loved it a lot when I set it next to our slab!  The color is the same as the dark slate tile I chose, but with the wood look.  Hmmmmmmm.... better make up our minds on this one pretty quick.

The slab is outside right now so the sun made the shade of the tile and granite a little off, but you get the idea.  What do you think?

Some Less Exciting, but Important Details

Brian installed the plumbing for the refrigerator water supply.  Here is that exciting addition.  We've never had water to our refrigerator before.

One of our friends came over this weekend who is an electrician and started the majority of the electrical work.  All of the outlets are in and the wha-cha-ma-call-its (that's the technical term) to run power to under cabinet outlets once the cabinets are actually up.

Also the gas line was installed for the new location of the oven.

We are getting closer and closer to getting the walls back up!

Out Goes the Huge Drain Pipe

So removing this huge drain pipe is the most intense part of our kitchen project.  Our house is on a slab which means, bring out the jack hammer!

Brian spent about two and a half days breaking up all the concrete to get this sucker out.

All Gone!

 Once there was enough access to the pipe, Brian and his dad rerouted it into the wall.  The vent for the drain went up the wall and out the attic and through the roof's old vent hole.

The replacement pipe needed to be wrapped and set properly.  After that, the ultimate test was having the new water supply blasted directly into the pipe to check for leaks.  We ran the water for quite awhile and there was no way a back up was going to happen with how excellent the flow was going.  No leaks of course either.  Success!

 Bye Pipe :)

The Wall That Ruined The Room

Bye Bye stupid wall!  You won't be missed!  Today Brian took down the wall where the washer and dryer were located.

It took us six years to figure out that we just were going to have to deal with moving some plumbing in the slab because THIS WALL SUCKS.  As any of you who have been to our house know, it was right in the center of the kitchen blocking any possible good flow of a functional floor plan.

It's so exciting to see it gone and, WOW!  THE KITCHEN IS HUGE!!!

This has definitely been one of the happiest moments in the remodel for us so far.  I can't explain how much we despised this wall!  hahaha

I actually took this picture zoomed in from the living room.

 

This is the view now from the living room.  

 

Here's a reminder of before

Bye Bye Water Heater and Old Pantry

One of the biggest obsticals for our kitchen was to get the water heater outside.  The refrigerator and new pantry cabinets will be taking their places.

Brian, his dad, and our friend Nick spent the majority of a Saturday moving the water heater outside and finishing up the necessary plumbing.

The ancient pantry had these weird triangle shelves inside that were not even level.  Things fell out all the time.  I can't tell you how many bottles of Gringo Bandito hot sauce lost their lives on these useless things.  Some pretty groovy contact paper lined them as well.

The kitchen already seems so huge with this wall, pantry and water heater gone. 

Here's is the home of the new water heater.  We wanted the cabinet to be as small as possible because, let's face it, this thing is ugly.  So Brian is going to make a little addition piece on the bottom front for the temperature knob.  That's the only part that protruded out of the smallest cabinet we could make work.  After the kitchen is finished we plan to paint the exterior of the house.  This lovely cabinet will hopefully look less awful once it and the house have a new paint job.  At least it's not ugly-ing up the kitchen anymore!