We’ve had a very busy few days and the kitchen progress shows it!  Thursday night Ryan and I stayed up late sanding both the kitchen and diningroom.  Friday night we vacuumed the ceilings/walls then started priming – getting the ceilings primed and 1 wall.

Saturday morning Ryan and his dad started with a ceiling paint coat, then finished priming all the walls.  Once the ceiling was dry they got the second coat on and we got all the paint stuff cleaned up.  We won’t paint walls until later on (we haven’t even picked a color yet.

The first cabinets to go in were the 2 small diningroom cabinets – these were initially going to be part of our island so they are the Bali Blue color but we decided to make the island smaller (larger walkways between island and cabinets) – and these 2 cabinets work wonderfully as a buffet in the diningroom.  We may build some shelves above or make a matching cabinet with glass doors or something down the road to make it even more hutch like but for now it is wonderful as a place to put our china – lots of storage!

Diningroom cabinets

These will have a matching counter top so it will really make it tie in with the kitchen perfectly.

Next up was the kitchen base cabinets – starting with the corner.  Saturday they dry fit the first few cabinets and got an idea of level but waited to install them.

Sunday installation started in earnest and the stove/oven side wall was first.  Next was the sink and dishwasher.  We have an end panel on the side of the dishwasher that still has to get installed – we’ll do that Monday or Tuesday night since the counter folks come Wednesday to stencil.

Next up was the island.  This took a few steps, we had to put them in place, then move them to cut out a hole for the return that will go under the cabinet.  Also we had to drill and run wires up from the basement for the outlet that will go in the cabinet/island.  Finally some 2x4s were anchored to the floor so the cabinets could be attached to something.

Island cabinets (also a view of the sink dishwasher).

The rest of the L part of the cabinets

There is still plenty to do – we have 3 upper cabinets to install, 1 small shelf unit on the end then the 2 pantry cabinets that flank the fridge.  Those things all don’t have to happen before counter stenciling though so they will happen in the next couple of weeks.

Obviously we also have to install appliances and plumbing.  Plenty to do but the main rush is done!  Counters take 2 weeks so getting them stenciled was a huge priority.  We can’t do the sink or stove top until counters are in!  Should be in the week before xmas and our plumber (ryan’s cousin) promises he can come over and do our finish plumbing before xmas!  So far we’re on track.  Now we just need ryan’s back to hold out.  It’s been tough and he still has 3 weeks before surgery 🙁

The kitchen progress continues even on a ‘holiday weekend’.  Ryan and his dad finished hanging the sheetrock in the diningroom on Saturday!  I got the kitchen taped and some more spackling done on both Saturday and Sunday.

Dad surprised us and came over today to help continue the spackling – which makes our goal of finishing it this week much more manageable!

Progress this afternoon after dad’s help

Hard to get a good view of the diningroom but ceiling and corners are taped

I’ll spend time each night after the girls are in bed spackling and our goal is at the latest to sand on Friday night (bonus if we can get to it thur night).  Then we have to prime everything, then paint the ceiling.  The painting will be on Saturday for sure.  Sunday we’ll install cabinets!

That means we can get the counters stenciled.  After that while we wait for counters to be made/installed I can get some electrical done, maybe painting – we have to pick a color still.  The diningroom won’t get too much more once it’s primed and the ceiling is painted – so we can move the table back in there and free up space in the office which means we can move toys out of the livingroom into the office.  That frees up space in the livingroom for … a xmas tree!  Tis the season!

Well it was a very long week for Ryan – and a long weekend for me as I took Friday off to do electrical which of course took time on the weekend too as we did it in phases.

First we moved the ‘kitchen’ out to our hallway (luckily we have a very large hallway) – technically speaking this is quite a spacious galley kitchen – if I had a good sink it’d be nothing to complain about at all.  Unfortunately the bathroom sink is TINY and the faucet small and old so it makes a huge mess.  But we are managing and using lots of paper plates to reduce dishes quite a bit.

Temporary kitchen – even our huge fridge/freezer fits and I wired the stove out here so I have that too!

Once the kitchen was empty they took up the old floor and put down a new subfloor – it’s so much sturdier now and looks great!

New subfloor in the kitchen

While the guys built the new knee wall and the walls around the chimney we focused electrical work on the main kitchen wall as a priority (before sheetrock was delivered friday afternoon and would block this wall).

Main kitchen counter wall

Knee wall – i didn’t get a picture of the new walls until after sheetrocking started

Friday we also got all the lighting in the kitchen installed and wired.  Saturday Ryan got the ceiling in the kitchen sheetrocked himself – impressive.  I got a bunch of the diningroom electrical started – I couldn’t finish until Sunday morning because I needed daylight (short days are killer!).  But we got the recessed lights in the diningroom installed Saturday night and wired up.  So Sunday morning I just had to connect the old to the new wiring in there and then Ryan was able to sheetrock the diningroom ceiling.

These pictures are from last night so this is the progress of a 1 week renovation – i’m really impressed!

Outside of the pantry closet the kitchen sheetrock is mostly done!

That venting for the hood will be covered behind cabinetry eventually. It was also the best we could do for venting with as few bends as possible.

Diningroom is almost done sheetrocking as well. The knee wall needs to be sheetrocked on the back side and the archways both need sheetrock

We’ll do some sheetrocking 2 evenings this week after the girls are in bed.  Then we have the break for the holiday and next weekend hopefully we can get some major progress on taping and spackling.  We’d like to get cabinets installed the weekend of Dec 2/3rd so we have to tape/spackle/sand/prime (and paint ceiling at very least) first.  Then cabinets installed.  Once cabinets are in and counters stenciled we can finish any other spackling/sanding/priming/painting in the diningroom and the front area of the kitchen/pantry areas while we wait for counters.  We’re hoping for counters to be installed early the week before xmas giving us time that week to get final plumbing done and cabinet knobs on.

I ordered the lighting last night – 3 drop down pendants over the peninsula, 1 small drop down over the island and a chandelier for the diningroom.  I also ordered our faucet so I think purchase wise we are done except for picking out knobs for the cabinets!  It’s good to be prepared and we have all the appliances and cabinets on standby!