09 October 2007

a week's worth of progress...

the contractor cleaned up and cleared out early last week. framing and drywall complete, and the house ready for my projects. new floors. kitchen cabinet-hanging. painting. trim work. seemingly endless projects - but it beats the heck out of the seemingly endless mess that we'd been living in for 6 weeks...

the floor project began last sunday. i opted to install new wood floors over the existing hardwoods for a couple reasons. 1) the existing hardwoods are nearly a hundred years old and worse for the wear - and in half the house are covered in a layer of tar used to glue down yet another wood floor. and 2) the deal i got on the new hardwoods was just barely more than the cost to refinish the existing floors - with about 5% of the mess...

so sunday, monday, wednesday and thursday nights were floor installation. thankfully and graciously, my brother jeff was there each of those nights to help - which made the work go more quickly and much less painfully. by the end of the evening thursday, we'd managed to complete the floors in the kitchen, living room and dining room. i've still got another half of the house to do, but the renewed availability of those rooms to once again live in has been emotionally uplifting...

1.living_dining_progress
progress photos taken from the living room towards the dining room and kitchen

on friday and saturday (again, with jeff's help), the kitchen cabinets went in. i'd never installed cabinets, and was actually surpised by the ease of the process. that is, until you're forced to deal with 95-year old brick walls and sloped floors. it took us several tries to master the connection of the cabinets to the brick exterior wall and - with some sometimes-substantial shimming - the cabinets are all in place...

7.kitchen_cabs_left 8.kitchen_cabs_right
kitchen cabinets in place

finally, on sunday my uncle came to build a template for my countertops. this uncle runs a home remodelling business, and in partnership with a friend just started a concrete countertop company. as one of his first projects, i'm getting a great deal on a concrete countertop - which will go great with the design character of the kitchen. the countertop will take a couple weeks to fabricate, but i can finally see the end to this kitchen-less existence that we've been living with for nearly 2 months now...

and all that happened in the course of a week. at some point on saturday afternoon i realized that between work on the house and work on, well, work - i hadn't taken time to stop during that week. but seeing everything come together, and finally having the chance to do things with my own hands, has been so rewarding that i don't want to stop. except i know that i'll have to slow down a bit... my body and the rest of my life can't possibly keep up with this pace.

next steps: choosing paint colors, finishing the floors, and trim work.

2 comments:

Carrie said...

So you're keeping the faux painting on the fireplace?? How 'bout that be a "next"!

It's looking great- I'll come see it soon...probably next weekend. I owe you painting, right?

chris said...

you're right - that fireplace is definitely somewhere on the next list. i'm thinking tiling (although i have another more artsy idea)...

and yes - you do owe me painting :)