bears?

from the looks of this mess, you might think i have a severe bear problem in the house. fortunately, that's not exactly true. i have a tiler problem! but that's not true either, really. what am i trying to say? well, the tiles have arrived! and the tilers are making a total mess in my living room.  i guess not everyone can be as tidy as nate. i have been spoiled. but this is good news in the sense that tiles are here and now the project can get back into gear.  

when the tiles arrived, the window frame could be put in. i know, you must be thinking, how are the two related?  well, they are when you have picky people working on your project. they have made sure that the line of the window frame will match up exactly with the line of the tiles.  to do that, you need to have both frame and tiles at hand and do very, very complicated measuring, that takes years to master.  here is the idea, sans grout:

the framing was put in this past week. nicely done by someone named john. a mystery man who showed up, worked and left all without my ever seeing him. i wonder if he really exists. he probably does. nate has started working on another job so now he's doing a kind of ventriloquist act involving other workmen and my kitchen. he can drink a glass of water while he's doing it, too.  here's a bit of john's handy work:

he also took care of getting the toe kicks in place. i love my toe kicks. they go so well with my floor and the great ant highway.  have you ever seen  better toe kicks than these? thank you, john. excellent work!

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the neighbor

a neighbor stopped by to check the progress of my kitchen the other day. she is a realtor and lives and breathes buying and selling. i was so proud of my kitchen, i said "sure, come on in!"

her comments went something like this:

"wow, this is really nice. and you know, it's good you have this pantry here, because the next people who move in could just rip it right out and install a washer/dryer unit..."

rip it out??? install and washer/dryer??? is she kidding? i have yet to install one crumb and she's planning its demise!

"...and it's okay that you have a small dishwasher, because it's easy enough to remove and add a larger one...."

remove that, too?  the plumbing isn't even hooked up!  aagghh!!  

the shock is palpable to everyone I tell. really? people think like that? yes, it's true.  i still can't quite get over it. 

so a word to the wise, choose your comments carefully, please. because nothing is being removed for quite some time....

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progress

well, here we are, safely landed in the month of july. how shall we celebrate our independence? i will freely and independently add to the blog! 

there has been some important progress as we wait for the glass tiles to arrive. here you can see the little dishwasher. kind of cute, no?

and here we have the microwave installed. it's low, which will encourage me not to use it, and could be a good thing. i will join the new slow food movement and perhaps even use my stove. the microwave will look good, though, tucked away among the other cabinets.

the other thing that's impressive is that the tile guy came back and removed the old grout and replaced it with new, improved grout. less gritty, more grouty. i guess certain brands are more problematic than others. i am now safe from the problem brand, which will never be permitted to enter the apartment again. "tek-tile" was very gracious about it and did a great job with the final schmeering of the grout. looks good!

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doors & drawers

what a great surprise!

i came home to find all the doors and drawers had been installed.  a lovely parting shot before i head out to new york tomorrow.  let me share it with you:

north wall, with left side drawers that are crazy wide. imagine opening one drawer and seeing pretty much everything you have to store all at once. that's how big these things feel.  i had originally been wondering how to decide which drawer will hold what. Now, i can have one drawer pretty much hold everything. a great time saver! 

same wall, different view. same crazy big drawers on the left side: 

here we have the south wall. i notice the stove has not been moved back in place. what's wrong? nothing, just kidding. it's in the living room, having a conversation with the fireplace about favorite local hot spots. 

the twinkie  pantry!  what's inside???

oopps, sorry, nothing yet. hope you aren't hungry.

and finally, toe kicks are in the early stages.  wow. there was really a lot done today. not to mention the trim work and pocket door work that he's done. oh, did i just mention that? didn't mean to. that is for another installment....

have a great week! try to stay cool!

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groutchy

today was grout day. it didn't last very long, and i was gone for nearly all of it, but i'm pretty sure it happened. at least, at first glance, i figured it was done. 

(have you noticed the stove was moved out again? i've lost count, but i believe it's up to about a thousand times...)

closer inspection, though, made me think otherwise....

so, based on the lessons of my last entry, and my new found appreciation for asking for however much perfection there is, i will be asking for more of it. whatever they've got. hand it over. 

I have to admit, i see everyone doing all kinds of things, and i'm tempted to dive in and do it myself.  i've already changed my locks and door hinges (barely),  and painted my front closet. but i guess since i've already hired them to do their job, i should just let them do it. what can i say? i'm a joiner. 

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here

things are happening! i'm glad.

this weekend, when no one was looking, i put some of the front panels in, just to see how things are coming along. take a look:

pretty nice, eh? the counter doesn't actually have that religious glow to it, by the way. but could my annonymous omnipotent being be trying to communicate to me through the counter photo? i will have to consider that as a possibility.

i am liking the henrybuilt system.  the door panels slip into place really easily, and the drawers have a special pneumatic type of system so they carefully glide into place during the last inch or two. I'll have a video of it in another installment.

the day was largely spent putting these little side panels in place. another little detail that will ultimately make a big difference. 

and then there is the matter of the counter. now, i love this counter, but there were some little teeny tiny things that bugged me. so the question came up, what degree of perfection should i expect from these installers? and come to think of it, how many degrees of perfection are there? i didn't have the answers but nathan did. so he has asked them for more perfect perfection and you know what? he got it. so some repairs are being made even as i type this! i guess the lesson here is, since we don't know how many degrees of perfection we can expect, we should just try to get as many as we can. the photo shows one area that will need some touching up. 

some new tools arrived for today's events.  i give you table saw:

a pretty basic element, a "must have" in every tool wardrobe. essentially, the little-black-dress of the tool world. 

not sure what we have here. a compound saw, perhaps? it requires its own special stand and believes it can do anything, although we all know it has its limitations. maybe it is a scientologist. 

tomorrow is grout-the-floor day. celebrate appropriately!

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finally

okay, everybody! take a look. the counters are in and i must say they are quite nice. not too thick, not too dark, not too glossy and not too high. just right.  i had no idea concrete could be light in color. it has rice hulls in it, which i guess means it is vegetarian-friendly, as opposed to the omnivorous-friendly counters, which are made out of suede.

here we have the counters modeling with the stove. they are saying, 

"how do we look?" 

fabulous!

the north side, with whack-a-mole re-installed. 

here is a cozy little corner. what shall i put there? maybe my easy-bake oven.

now this is important: the counters must be properly sealed and then maintained. kind of like a pet that i will have to take care of for the rest of my life. but i will be able to leave the counter alone all day without it barking, and i don't have to take it for walks (unless i want to).  so it is really not that bad. 

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