A driveway too small

Now for something completely different. Overcoming entropy is easier said than done when there are teenagers in the home. The backyard landscaping issue has just jumped on to my TO DO list now that the matter of an aging cedar fence has been addressed by John's mastery of the Toyota accelerator peddle. (Next, we'll teach him about the brake peddle.)

We were simply shuffling vehicles on the driveway, and I invited John to back the Camry up close to . . . where the fence used to be. He eased it nicely into place and when I said "Stop", we suddenly realized (too late) that he is afflicted with dislexic feet. All those peddles look alike.

After handily uninstalling the fence post with the rear bumper and simultaneously displacing 16 feet of fencing, John executed the sweetest backward donut you've ever seen on the steeply banked lawn. (He also executed the grandkid's yellow slide with extreme prejudice.)

No one hurt. And one of the two busted fence posts had already been broken by our famous east canyon winds last season, so now it will simly be a matter of replacing two posts instead of just one. And reconstructing the connecting sections of fence. And staining the fence (which it needed anyway).

The best part is that I won't have to do it! All of a sudden John feels an unusual obligation to apply himself to the yard work with extra diligence this summer. He's going to learn how to rebuild a fence. :-)

New Mantel

The mantel is now in place, made from poplar and roughly based on a picture we found in a catalog. Not knowing exactly how it should have been done, we built this one in place afixed solidly to the wall -- it is not coming off without significant demolition. A builder friend later told me they're usually just toe-nailed on. Okay, so we're going to keep it a long time. That was the plan anyway. Cost, including tiles, is just over $200. Comparable commercial mantels are in the $1500 to $2000 range. Big savings and fun to build! And Connie got exactly the look she wanted, which was, of course, the main point of it all.

Ceiling Fan

Family Room In Use

Flame in the fireplace

Fridge Cabinet

Kitchen Tile Closeup

Finished Kitchen

Tiled backsplash has been finished and porcelain handles added.

Ready for a party of 17 for Easter dinner

The family room looks pretty bare right now, as seen from the kitchen. I've been committed to create a built-in entertainment unit in the corner with storage cabinets extending off to the left.

The dishwasher has a couple of great features -- the buttons are all hidden in the top edge of the door where little fingers won't find them, and there is no exposed heating element to melt your plastics if they fall through the basket. Stainless steel interior and nylon baskets that won't rust. (The basket in our last machine was rusting to pieces. Never again.)

Appliances

Connie is very pleased with her new dual-fuel, dual oven range. The top burners are gas, and the two ovens are electric. The small upper oven will get the most use -- preheats in a couple of minutes! Great for sating spontaneous cookie cravings.

Furnished

The sectional couch follows the contour of the carpet edge. Designing the carpet/hardwood layout around the size and shape of a piece of furniture may not have been the best idea, but that's what we did.

Eighth Saturday - Occupancy!

The carpet is down (sorry, no exciting pictures of that milestone) and the kitchen is fully functional, so we moved back in. The tile backsplash is still a week or two out -- there's a waiting list -- but we can live without it a little longer.

Fireplace

The fireplace still lacks the brown marble tiles we picked out (from Costco of all places!) which will be installed at the same time as the kitchen backsplash. The mantle is another job I have to do myself over the next few weeks (when I get my garage shop back). I'm afraid this is the only shot that shows the new carpet.

Dining Room

Although we still need another coat of finish on the floors, we'll be putting the dining furniture back in by the end of the day (with heavy felt pads on table and chair legs!)

One more day should do it.

We're now into the final details and will have the fridge in place in a few minutes.

Counter-to-ceiling Cabinet

The counter-to-ceiling cabinet had to be hung a couple of inches above the base cabinet to allow a space in which to later slip the counter top. Tom returned another day to cover the gap with molding. The edge-banding hadn't been finished yet in this picture.

Island

The island is almost complete. I just have to stain the edge banding on the counter top and follow with three coats of polyurethane. The cabinets themselves were finished with satin lacquer.

Cabinets Installed

Most of the cabinet installation was done today. There was some rework needed on the refrigerator stall, and that will be done on Wednesday.

The counter-top guy just left with the measurements -- he'll be back tomorrow to put the tops on. We opted for oak-banded formica.

Crown Molding

We really liked the creative use of offset crown molding to add interest to the kitchen "skyline." With the ceiling now 12 inches higher than it used to be, we now will have significantly more cupboard space (although we will have to keep a step stool close by to reach some of it.)

SEVENTH SATURDAY -- Cabinets!

The cabinets were delivered this morning. Due to some miscommunication and the cabinet guy being stranded in bad Wyoming weather, the installation is slipping a bit. We have some issues, too, with a couple of things that don't match what was ordered, but Tom, the cabinet guy, said not to worry about it a bit, assuring us all will be right before he is finished. He has a great reputation, so we'll trust him on this.

Have we got enough oak in the room? Maybe. But I really like lots of wood, personally, even though the chief designer and home-meisterette requires the mantle and entertainment built-ins to be painted white.

One Coat of Finish

The first coat of finish has been put on the red oak flooring. The color is a pretty decent match with the existing oak railing.

The stuff dries fast. We could walk on it after five hours and the fumes don't seem too bad.

Our friend Doug Garner dropped by this evening to measure for the carpets, now that the floorspace is clearly defined. The carpet will be installed in about one week.

Now for the cabinets...

Unfinished Oak Floor

The oak floor has been laid and partially sanded. It will get three coats of finish. One before the cabinets go in, and two coats afterward.


In the second shot, you can see the oak floor layout, and, on the right, what remains to be filled in with carpet.

SIXTH SATURDAY - Mostly painted

This is the dining room. After a full day of prep-work on the walls and moldings, and a day of painting, we have a coat of primer on everything (ceiling included), a coat of white on the ceiling and yellow on the walls. It still needs another coat of yellow before we attack the doors and windows with final coats of white paint.

Thankfully, the kitchen area (not shown) needed only ceiling paint, since the walls will be completely covered with cabinets and tiled backsplash.

Lesson learned: My HPLV sprayer does not like primer. Neither do I. It doesn't wash off with water, despite the advice on the label. (A green kitchen scrubbing pad works.) We quickly switched from sprayer to roller for the duration.

Window Detail

Just a close up of the finish work done around the window.

Outside View

Here's the view from outside. The window no longer has the arched top, but that's okay. Note the vent in the middle of the wall for the new fireplace -- no connection to the chimney at all.

Almost ready to paint

Most of the trim around doors and windows has been completed. With a little prep work, we're ready to paint. The stacked wood in this picture is the red oak flooring to be installed on the 27th. It has to acclimatize in the room for a week first.

FIFTH SATURDAY - We have walls again

The wallboard is all up; the mud goes on next. Note that the window is smaller now. It's very echoey in here!

Meanwhile, we're trying to pick out carpet which we'll probably get from Doug Garner, but that will be one of the last things to go in.

Connie and I plan to be painting walls (ourselves -- we're cheap) in about a week.

Doors

The new doors went in today, replacing the sliding glass doors leading out onto the deck. If you look closely, you'll see these have blinds sandwiched between the glass, a feature which we find quite exciting -- no cords, no dusting, no kid-damage. Slick! And it still affords a great westward view of the Great Salt Lake and the sunsets.

THE CONTRACTOR

Here's Roland Trump, our dear friend and contractor. He's the master behind all this quality work. On a sad note, his identical twin brother, Ronald, died this morning of Lou Gehrigs disease, so spirits were a little heavy on the job.

FOURTH SATURDAY - Let the reconstruction begin

Now it is time to start rebuilding. We're ready for doors and windows next, and some sheetrock.

READY TO REBUILD

Here is the kitchen stripped to the 2x4 bones, with the ceiling raised and the hydronic heater removed (where the loose plywood is in the picture.) Now the reconstruction begins.

NEW FIREPLACE

This exciting view shows where the new fireplace is situated. It will vent directly through the wall to the outside, not up a flue into the chimney. It will be a high-efficiency gas fireplace that ignites with the flip of a switch and has lovely dancing flames that look authentic on glowing ceramic logs. The cubby hole to the left of the fireplace and the other flue will house a built-in entertainment unit with the TV, stereo and storage for tapes and DVDs.

WIRES

A boring picture of wires behind the new fireplace. Some members of the family will find this quite exciting, though, because it represents a proper antenna for the basement TV, speaker wire for whole-house music, a telephone connection on the practical side of the room, and broad-band internet connectivity where there was none before. Special thanks go to my friend, Blaine, who loaned me his cool 9-foot segmented drill bit that enabled me to run wires through walls from attic to basement.

FAMILY ROOM WITHOUT FIREPLACE

The old fireplace used to be in the center of this view. It is gone and the framing for the new fireplace just to the right has been done.

Incidently, the ugly ceiling fan light sorta stays. The light part will be removed and tossed, but the fan itself is great and will remain.

POCKET DOOR

If you have ever wondered what a naked pocket door looks like, here you are. The door was jammed for years, but here it has just been replaced with a new one. In case you can't tell, it is shown in the retracted position inside the exposed wall.

Here's an uninteresting view of what was supporting the old kitchen ceiling.

The dropped ceiling finally dropped. I was very glad not to be present when the Roland's guys took that down. It was full of rock-wool insulation, and they were still coughing and hacking hours after the stuff had all been carted out to the dumpster.

At this point, we finally start to get the impression of how open the new kitchen will feel. The lowered ceiling was claustrophobic.

SUNDAY DINNER IN THE TEMPORARY DINING ROOM

Life goes on. Having no kitchen is not an excuse for not having the kids and grandkids over for Sunday dinner. A basement bedroom now serves as our dining room for the duration of the remodeling job. A microwave, toaster, electric skillet, and crockpot -- what else do you need?

End of another long Saturday

Lots of flooring to throw away. The view from the corner of the kitchen.

The big red spot. I don't know if this happened before carpet was added, or afterward with some sunlight-induced reaction between linoleum and pad, but the south-facing window definitely had something to do with it. Maybe an above-ground nuclear test?

Reminiscent of what the dining room looked like a long time ago. (Thankfully, it was before our time. We know there also used to be velvet-patterned wallpaper and an ornate iron chandelier here, both with a Spanish flavor. And don't forget the mirror-tiled wall!)

Exposed 35-year-old linoleum. Lovely.

Happy John is cheerfully hauling out the last of the cabinets at the end of a long day that he enjoyed SO MUCH!

Making headway with the carpets.

Next, the carpets go.
Connie vows never to allow carpet in the dining area again. Even with most of the kids grown up, they tend to bring messy little agents of entropy with them when they come to dinner. (With my luck, the hardwood we're putting in will be seen as an invitation to the little people to throw hammers and chisels on the floor instead of mere applesauce and jello.)

Notice the hydronic baseboard radiator separating kitchen and dining room. We're very pleased to be removing some of them. The room was usually too warm.