Progress

It's been a few weeks since I wrote about our home renovations, and many friends, family members, and work colleagues have asked me about the progress with our kitchen and family room. The last time that I blogged about the work, we had finished the first coat of finish on our hardwood floors and had covered up the dulled builder's white and the burnt red on our walls.

Lots has happened, since then, but in other ways, things have slowed as we wait for contractors and we pick at some of the work ourselves.

Work also slowed, a couple of weekends ago, after I fell from a ladder while I was touching up some of my flaws from painting in our first week. I didn't hurt myself, luckily, considering I fell onto the hardwood from about four or five feet up, and was holding a paint brush, trying not to let it hit our new floors.

The electrician has come once, to install new switches and outlets. He couldn't finish the work because our cabinets hadn't been installed, and he needs to add puck lights to some cabinets, pot lights on the ceiling that would run where our counters and future island wouldn't. He'll be back to do that in the next week or so.

Last week, the cabinets and island were put in place, and we started to get excited because we could finally envision the final results. But we have a long way still to go and our schedule has been delayed because of schedule conflicts with some of the contractors.

Here's what's left to be done:

• We've ordered the counter tops but are waiting for them to come and make templates.
• Our sink has been ordered but we're waiting for it to arrive. Once we have it, the plumber can come and install it and our new dishwasher.
• The backsplash tiles haven't been chosen yet. DW and I haven't agreed on a pattern. But we have until the counter is installed to make our choice.
• Our range hood has been ordered but hasn't arrived. Once we have it, the electrician will come to install it, set in the pot lights, and wire the island.
• The dry waller will fix the ceiling and the wall where it was damaged for electrical and when we removed the old backsplash tiles. This will happen after the electrical work is done but before the range hood is installed.
• The tile guy will install whatever tiles we decide to get.
• A gas line will be fed in to where our gas range will go.

So, there's still lots to do, but here's a peek at the progress we've made:

Since I shot these photos, all of the doors have been installed, with all the knobs and handles. Our new microwave oven is in the island but hasn't been hooked up yet. That huge slab of cardboard contained extra backboard for the back of the island, and has since been returned to the store because we didn't need it.

We've also removed the remainder of the exhaust vent because it needs to be moved to where the new stove will go, plus it was too small for a gas stove. DW and I are handling the replacement of that pipe. 

This weekend, we purchased a new sofa for the family room. Our next task is to install the base boards around the family room so that we can move our furniture and TV back in place: I haven't watched network television in more than a month (and it's slowly starting to kill me).

Onward we go...