Dude, where's my cabinets

We survived the move thanks to some extra special and much needed help. We might have actually been moving all night had it not been for them!

And, we still have no kitchen.

Things are really starting to move now over the last week so I wanted to share some pictures. Here is where we were on Sunday:

And when I got home from a quick work trip today, here is what I found:

No doors, no counters, no appliances...but its a start! Hoping tomorrow brings even more!

The un-glamorous part of the kitchen renovation

If you walked into our kitchen today, you probably would say that no work had been done for about a week. This is the ugly part of the kitchen renovation: re-wiring, running a water line under the floor, re-routing the gas line so that I can have a gas stove (yay!).

As of yesterday, all of these really boring parts passed inspection, which I think means (maybe?) they can start doing the fun stuff! Drywall...appliance installation...cabinets....

Oh, and did I mention we're moving TOMORROW! The floors were re-stained last Sunday, so we're ready to go. Yes, I will be without a kitchen, but I'm assured that my coffee pot will make coffee just fine plugged into the bathroom.

Stay tuned for moving pictures this weekend!

I love our painters

Paint seemed like a crazy thing to invest in for the house, but I so happy we did! It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint on the trim, doorways, doors, and walls will do for a house. We're using Benjamin Moore "Ben" paint (mom, go ahead and start singing the song...). They have so many colors to pick from but we got some great advice from our local National Lumber in Newton.

Here are a couple of shots of the parts that are more finished. First up, the master bedroom.

I LOVE this color! It looks a little darker/browner in this picture than it is in person. Its really a warm, sage green color. I have never really lived in houses that had much color on the wall but it definitely makes it feel like its our house! Next up: Skip's office.

Skip was dead set on a red color (tuscon red), and it looks pretty great. He weasled his way into the office with my beloved stained glass window...but its a great little room. The red background in the cabinets really brought out the lovely jigsaw in the edges, so we asked our carpenter what he could do about just cutting it straight. He said he'd throw it on our tab, ha. Finally, the hallway.

I also love this color (wood ash!). It is very light so it makes the hall feel very open and bright. And tell me you can't see those doors sparkle in the background...they are so shiny!

We are 8 days from the move...I guess I better start packing!

Kitchen nightmare!

We knew this day would come, and here it is! The kitchen is gone! We stopped by one afternoon and all of the white and blue laminate was finally gone. Our carpenter noticed some questionable things (like a notable lack of drywall in places) by so far, so good.

Here is a better shot of Skip in the kitchen, still looks pretty rough though!

All of the cabinets have arrived and are waiting patiently to be put together in our living room.

We got a very quick taste of one cabinet in the wall... this will be our pantry when it has a door!

It's tough to see the color, but its a really nice medium dark wood. I can't wait to see more of them!

Stay tuned for a post on our painting progress! Good news...we're almost done!

The wait continues...

The order is in, and now we wait. Appliances have arrived, but we have no cabinets yet. My contractor tells me we have 2 more weeks until they arrive, but in the meantime I'm really hoping I'll have some gutted kitchen pictures to share with you next week! To tide you over, here is a picture of Skip about to tear into the boxes with our appliances (gas range, counter-depth refrigerator, and microwave).

While we wait, we've worked on some other small tasks around the house. Skip dug a drain hole in the backyard (which is now a hole with some water in it). He also climbed up on the roof (against my wishes!) to fix a flood light in the backyard.

Unfortunately, it promptly stopped working again once he was safely on the ground. Add it to the list of things for the electrician to look at!

We also started looking for paint colors last weekend, and I think we've settled on a few. I won't spoil all the fun yet, but we did try out quite a few samples.

Aunt Laura and Uncle Tino are coming up this weekend to survey our "wall" situation (a Tino specialty). I hope the snow doesn't cover it up too much, particularly because I'm loving the look of these little flowers that are popping up all over the garden.

Until next time!

The Kitchen

It's been a cold, quiet week on Lombard Street, until today. We had one of our final detail meetings with our contractor who will be helping us renovate the kitchen.

I know, its hard to pick out your favorite part..the blue counters (believe me, they're way more attractive in this picture than they are in person), the weird hammer-head shape they have on the end of the counter, the white vinyl cabinets (unfortunately you don't have the pleasure of seeing how dirty they really are)....

This is the major project we have planned for the house, and hopefully we'll start with ordering the cabinets early next week. I think we're pretty settled on the Trevant cabinet from Armstrong in Mocha:

Ours are a little different as the drawer has the same detail as the door (the cut-out rectangle in the middle) but you get the idea. Tomorrow we're off to look at Granite samples. I did some preview shopping and have grown kind of attached to this one:

Its mostly grey with some brown tones mixed in. Hard to tell on a computer screen but we'll see what Skip thinks tomorrow in person!

We'll get our full plan from the contractor early in the week so stay tuned...

Welcome home

It's official, we're homeowners. Yikes!

We closed on our first house last week, and we're now in the middle of a seemingly endless cycle of contractors, cable companies, alarm installations, painters.... welcome to my new office: a folding table and chair in my empty living room. This is where I wait during the convenient 8-5 window (thanks Verizon) to have --insert service here--installed.

Someone suggested (thanks Gramma B!) that I should keep track of all the progress on the house and share it with you. First-time homeowner; now also first-time blogger.