First half of August

I’m forced to take a break from working on the house we live in because the people in the President St rental moved out. That place desperately needs a new kitchen so that’s the top priority here. It’s also a good time to redo the roof since it’s getting old. The kitchen is basically 10x10 so it’s hard to get good pictures of.

Unfortunately there was a huge accident when the company delivering roofing material to the house did not follow instructions and put the materials on top of the roof instead of on the ground. This caused the roof to collapse and put everything at a complete standstill over there.

Before that happened I was moving along pretty well with stripping the nasty old paint from one of the doors. I think it's cypress along with the rest of the trim.

Second half of July

If I had to pick one thing that I’ve missed the most it would probably be this. It's been ages since we had a working kitchen sink.

The dishwasher has a panel so now the cabinets are complete.

Along with the ceiling…

The wife’s family came by to visit. While they were here I put up the wallpaper in the entry hall and formal living room, then the baseboards. This room has never looked better but there’s still more to come.

First half of July

The ceiling is here! This is the sort of thing that you paint before installing it or you risk making a huge mess.

But wait, there’s more!

I’m also working on putting in the cooktop vent. I had to build a support structure to attach the thing to, and protect adjacent cabinets from being scratched up. This was easier said than done. It’s way too hot to put in the ductwork in the attic so I’ll do that this fall when it’s cooler.

The kitchen project started a year ago by the way. I can't do a before/after yet because I'm not finished but these shots are from the same angle as the pictures I took before the project.

Once the ceiling was painted it was time to start putting it in. It required a lot of careful measuring and moving each of the recessed lights slightly to make them line up perfectly. Errors would be obvious here. I installed it with only a little help. Every bit as fun as it sounds…

Countertops came in while I was still putting up the ceiling. Yet another thing we’ve gone without forever now.

While all that was going on the new wall oven and combi-steam oven arrived and on top of that, the gas guy came by and extended the line into the kitchen so we now have a cooktop.

I was able to somehow lift the smaller of the two ovens into the cabinet but the other one weighs 100lbs more than I do and it required a bit of help.

Finally at the middle of the month, the rest of the countertops arrived. This period was one of the hugest ones of the entire project.

Second half of June

Cabinet Day!!!

On the second day they finished it all up.

Now it’s my turn to do a few things. Undercabinet lighting and toe kick lighting. The wiring and LED strips are integrated into a cavity in the cabinets, and the transformers are hidden up above the ovens.

In the meantime life is starting to return to normal. While we’re waiting on countertops to come in I hooked up the dishwasher to a drain so we finally have one again for the first time in ages now.