Another Week Down…Two More To Go?

We are in the HOME STRETCH, people! I know Cootiehog has been a bit obsessed with the home addition in the past few weeks (I think that’s just about all I’ve posted about), but we literally only have a few things left to do and we’ll be done! The sad part is that our contractor leaves for vacation on Tuesday and so we’ll have about a week where nothing gets done, but since MOST of the work will be done before he leaves, it’s mostly just waiting on the last pieces to be installed and then the punchlist of things that need to be repaired.

So last time I checked in, the kitchen was being sheetrocked and we were hoping to have the flooring installed soon. Let’s look and see what happened this past week, shall we?

The sheetrock got painted and made a world of difference! It was fun to come home from work each day and find something had visibly changed – signs of obvious progress.

Once the sheetrock was primed, I began to panic about the paint color we had chosen for the walls. I wasn’t sure if we had picked a good yellow tone – would is clash with the yellow in the foyer? With the dark tan of the adjoining TV room? I came home and found my fears allayed – it was a BEAUTIFUL color we chose! I think I squealed when I walked in the kitchen that night!

Then it was time for the floors – we had bought the flooring a few weeks before, and I once again began to panic. Did I order enough? I really only allowed for 5% overage (all articles online recommend 10% at a minimum to compensate for waste). Ours was a limited stock product, so if we ran out, chances were VERY HIGH that we wouldn’t be able to get more of the flooring. So with every cut of a plank, I knew the contractor was coming that much closer to running out. Fortunately, we had just enough – and I mean that literally. We had the equivalent of ONE PLANK LEFT when he was done. Phew!

The cabinets had arrived earlier in the week, but our contractor couldn’t install them until the flooring had dried (when the floors were put down our whole house reeked of glue – I made everyone sleep with doors closed so they wouldn’t be breathing in fumes all night). When the cabinets finally started going in, I knew we had made the right choice to go with dark floors – I loved the contrast of the white cabinets, dark floors and yellow walls.

The only major problem we’ve been having this past week is getting in touch with our granite fabricator that we used last year when we put down the original granite countertops. I had left at least 5-6 voicemails and had gotten no response. Denis finally took a drive out there to make sure they were still in business and that did the trick – the owner called the next day and came out to the house on Friday to look at the project. He then came back on Saturday to do the official measurements. He’ll be able to re-use much of our original granite, but did come up on price since we increased the amount of new granite we’ll be putting in. But the good news is that he said he’d be ready to install the new counters this Friday afternoon. WOOT!

The electrician came today while I was at church and installed the new porch light, the ceiling fan in the breakfast area, as well as the undercabinet lighting. Tomorrow our contractor comes back for one more day before a brief vacation to (hopefully) finish the cabinets, install the new sink (which requires some cutting into the adjacent cabinet since it’s a 54″ wide sink) and install the shelving in the pantry.

Then on Tuesday the alarm company comes to add some security to the new space and add it into our system. Friday, as I’ve said, the countertops get installed and on Saturday the sink plumbing will be connected. Once our contractor comes back on Monday it’ll be time to present him with the punchlist that Denis and I have already started of small things that will need to be fixed/changed/adjusted.

What’s crazy is that when we put our kitchen table – with the extension leaf IN – we realized the breakfast nook is huge. We probably could have widened our pantry by at least another 6-10″ and it would still be big enough for the table. However, we’re still planning on putting in banquette seating at some point, so we’re content with the size of it for now.

My hope is that by October 5 we’ll be done, as I plan on scheduling a housecleaner for October 8-9 to come and clean the entire dusty, DUSTY house from top to bottom. By October 10 we should be entirely done and can resume a normal life, enjoying our new kitchen!