My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 10

Back from New York and it's early morning on day 15. The week that I was gone saw the hanging of the cabinets and some drywall and paint work.

The counter tops were supposed to be in by now, but they were back ordered. The new installation date for counter tops is this Friday.

The cabinets look good. Since I never saw a sample of the cabinetry, or drawings of what they would be, I have a few things that need to be changed. The detail on some of the larger drawers is missing. They are currently plain fronted and will need to be changed out to match the style of the cabinets. I also have issues with the range hood. The detail on the hood is very narrow trim and that will need to be redone to match the cabinets as well. The cabinets are to be Shaker style and that look should have been used throughout.

I know it seems odd that I was never shown plans for the kitchen. This is my fourth total kitchen remodel in the past eight years, and I am used to seeing at least a foot print of the cabinets. But having your contractor also be your next door neighbor can add a twist to the situation. I am not only trying to have the best kitchen possible, I also need to have a good relationship with my next door neighbor. So sometimes I don't question things when I should.

An interesting fact is that when you install additional lighting, especially under cabinet lighting, every flaw in the drywall under the lights is fully exposed! I had hoped to have all drywall work completed before installing the cabinets to keep dust at bay. But now we are going to have to do a good bit of rework of the 40+ year old drywall. So that will happen over the next couple of days.

All in all, being out of town last week didn't affect the kitchen remodel. In fact, it was a great week to be gone as not too much happened...and that would have made me a bit anxious.

As a final note, I decided that I can't live on Pizza X and going out to dinner, so I have set up a make shift kitchen in the basement laundry room. Last night I grilled tuna steaks on the outdoor grill and had a fabulous salad with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. I can't say how good it was to eat my own food again, even if it was prepared in the laundry room.

My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 9

9:21 on day 8 of the remodel. I spent a good part of Easter Sunday removing wallpaper from the kitchen. I found out that this kitchen was a very unattractive shade of blue before being covered in a Navajo print wall paper. Both poor choices from this person's standpoint.

But the wall is now ready for Tom the painter to mud, sand and paint, so it should look beautiful. We're going to use Sycamore Green from Restoration Hardware as the wall color. I use this color a lot because it works in so many different kinds of spaces. And it should work beautifully with the cabinetry and counter tops.

Already this morning my kitchen smells like hazelnut coffee, the morning drink of choice for my contractor Brent. The electricians are back and doing the final wiring. We are installing under cabinet lighting in addition to new inset lights in the soffit. I've learned that the most beautiful kitchen only look good with average lighting. Hopefully we've planned the lighting well enough to really make the space pop.

Crazy as it sounds to me, we are heading to NYC for the week while they continue the work. I have a friend coming in each evening and taking photos of each day's progress to email to me. Hopefully the work will all go smoothly.

Dinner last night...Pizza X again. The Pesto Mambo pizza is really great with pesto, broccoli, black olives and feta. Charlie has a pizza with at least four kinds of dead pig spread all over the top. He said it was delicious.

My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 8

Happy Easter! Whether Easter is a part of your faith, it's still a lovely celebratory day. It's 8:50 on the morning of day 7. Things are slowing down a little in the kitchen. The only real event of the day was that Tom Griffin, my painter, came in and primed the new wall.

Unfortunately, while he was here he noticed that the wall above the old counter tops was actually painted wallpaper. Because we are not going to put over-the-counter cabinets on one of the old walls, Tom is going to have to pull down the wall paper. Then it's skim, wait to dry, sand and possibly another round of skim, wait to dry and sand.

The worst part of this is the delay that it may cause. I am not sure why our contractor did not mention this issue. Surely while he was pulling down the cabinets he must have noticed the difference in the walls. I'm just glad the Tom found the issue before the cabinets were installed. I definitely don't want dry wall dust in my new cabinets!

So, on Easter Day, Tom is coming over to start the work. I am actually going to spend a little time this morning trying to remove the wall paper in hopes of saving time. Cabinets are supposed to be installed on Monday and I don't think the walls will be in order then. And of course, the cabinets have to be in before they do the final measurements for the counter tops.

But the good news is that I am super excited about the new appliances that are on their way. Above is a photo of the new fridge. It's a Dacor Epicure 36 inch Built-in Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.

Dinner last night? Pizza again from Pizza X.

My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 7

9:46 on day six. Yesterday saw one of the biggest changes in that the cabinetry was removed. You'll see in the photo that the cabinet for the former sink was left in place. I think that this to give support for the plumbing. (?)

The cabinetry came out in good shape, so we are donating it to the Bloomington Catholic Charity Workers who are rebuilding a house whose kitchen had to be disposed of because of mold. I'm glad to see that they'll go to good use. It makes me feel like this remodel is a bit on the green side, not just creating waste for the sake of cosmetics.

This morning my painter, Tom Griffin, is heading over to the house to do the first coat of primer on the new drywall. Charlie has headed off to Bloomington Hardware to pick up the paint since I am heading into a meeting.

Dinner last night was another trip to Truffles. It seemed a shame to spend a Friday night at home with a box of pizza.

My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 6

It's 7:45 on day five. Yesterday was another smooth day, though not too much happened. It's all about the drywall now. Yesterday they came in and sanded and re coated. So the rest of the day was spent waiting for it to dry.

Today they are supposed to remove the rest of the cabinetry. I did spend a lot of time yesterday clearing out the rest of the cabinets. It was odd, but once they were totally emptied out and I had removed the hardware (to use later) I felt compelled to clean the counter tops. They were covered in drywall dust, but somehow I felt that they needed a little attention on the last day that they would be in service. Weird, huh?

Above is a photo of the new faucet that we are getting. It is the Allora Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet from Delta. It's a cool combination of modern and simple clean lines. You can check it out at http://www.deltafaucet.com/kitchen/details/989-DST.html. The head is also the sprayer and it's magnetized so it retracts itself with speed and agility.

It was Pizza X for dinner last night. I already feel the need to get green vegetables back into my diet.

My Bloomington Kitchen Remodel...page 5

Thanks to the success of the Get Involved Bloomington Expo last night, I'm having a late monring today. This photo was taken late last night when I got home.

I have to say that day four of construction seems to have gone smoothly. The drywall was hung, taped and spackled. The electrician did put in the additional outlet for the microwave that I'll have inside the cabinetry.

I also saw a bill for delivery of insulation. A former owner of the house had blown in large amounts of insulation that fell out during the removal of the drywall of the soffit. That area has now been re insulated.

These guys are doing a super job of leaving the site clean at the end of the day. Thanks!

Today they are doing the first round of drywall sanding. I think that this will take two days because I was told that my painter could prime the new drywall on Friday. Once the drywall is completed, the dirty part of the job should be over.

And finally, last night at 6 pm, I was able to complete my new appliance order. Timing wise, the built in fridge needs to be here by next Friday, so it's cutting it a bit close. The salesman at Clark Appliances had emailed my order form to the wrong email address which is why the order was delayed by two days.

I'm really excited about the appliances. The last kitchen remodel that I did, in New York, I chose just one step above builder grade. They were stainless and good quality, but nothing special (with the exception of the dishwasher). This time I am going all out with Dacor appliances. They'll cost me about $6,000 more than with my lasts remodel, but this level of appliance should easily increase the value of the house. So I'm looking at the extra expense as an investment.

It's a beautiful day outside today. Enjoy!