Renovation - June 20

The 2nd coat of polyurethane was applied to the floor at the end of last week. There has been a delay in the arrival of the new refrigerator. I am hoping it will come on Monday. I believe the countertops will be installed on Tuesday. But in the meantime, I will show you a few of the things that are yet to be installed.

The kitchen sink is a beautiful 16 gauge stainless steel sink by Julien. It will have a door on the side wall of the sink to store sponges and things out of sight. That was big selling point, plus it is a really heavy weight stainless with a beautiful finish. I fell in love with it when I saw it. We got a one-bowl rectangular sink with pretty sharp corners - a contemporary look.

The ovens are all Miele Masterchef. We will have a double oven, a microwave, and a steam oven.
The cooktop is the 30 inch Miele induction cooktop which will be located in the island. We will have a hood over the cooktop.

And I just ordered a mirror for the bathroom from West Elm. It is not really contemporary, but it has an interesting look to it. I think it has dark brown trim, so I might have to paint it to go with the black cabinet, but I will wait and see when I get it.

Renovation - June 14-15

This week the electrician was here to do the rest of the outlets and ceiling lights and to install the ovens. The carpenter put all of the trim on the walls, installed the pocket door in the bathroom, the transom window above the ovens, and the pulls on the cabinet doors. We had an issue with the refrigerator doors. We had purchased an electrolux refrigerator and the doors protruded much more than desired so that when they opened they were hitting the cabinetry. We decided to get a different refrigerator to solve all of the problems, and we bought a Miele built-in instead. We have to wait until the end of this week for it to be delivered. But now the cabinet above the refrigerator is useless because the Miele refrigerator is a lot taller. There will be a decorative panel above the refrigerator instead of a cabinet.

Renovation - June 7-9

The kitchen is really coming together this week with the installation of the cabinetry. It is now possible to envision the layout and get a feel for how much walking space there is around the island. It is much more spacious than in the old kitchen. I couldn't even open my refrigerator door all the way without it hitting the island! Now I can open the refrigerator door and still have room for people to walk by!
Here are some pictures.

Renovation - June 1 - 4

This was the week for the hardwood floors to be installed/repaired/sanded and the first coat of polyurethane applied. This was all done by Wednesday afternoon. The odor was pretty bad Wednesday night, and we opened up all of the windows. There is now hardwood in the dining room and bathroom in addition to the already existing kitchen and family room floors.

This morning, Nutmeg delivered all of the cabinets so they are here when they begin installation on Monday. I LOVE them! Most of the cabinets are black with horizontal grain with the exception of the oven cabinets and around the refrigerator. I chose Benjamin Moore Split Pea for those cabinets. I thought they would break up the blackness and also provide a pop of color. They really look nice next to the black. Also, the top cabinets on the pantry wall have brushed aluminum frames with frosted glass inset. So the only black in the kitchen is below the countertop.

Here are a few pictures!

Renovation - May 28 - 31

The sheetrock was finished and the ceilings were textured on Thursday. On Friday, we could start painting. That was our job for Memorial Day Weekend. I went to Booma's Paint store and bought paint on Thursday.

The prep work took a while. The baseboard heater in the the bathroom had become rusted over the last 22 years since we built the house. I took it apart and sanded it. Then I spray painted the part that was attached to the wall. It looked so nice, I decided to do the ones in the dining room and family room too. The kids helped wash the dirty trim around the windows. We took down the pictures from the walls in the family room and spackled the holes. I also noticed the wall in the bathroom needed to be fixed. The old vanity cabinet was higher than the new one we will be getting and there was a ridge on the wall where the old one had been. So I spackled quite a bit and sanded until it was smooth.
On Saturday, the painting began. Annie painted the windows in the dining room and Kerry painted the trim in the family room. Vance and I attacked the ceilings. Adam was mulching the yard. We ran out of ceiling paint and sent Adam to the paint store. I started trimming the dining room area. By evening, the dining room was done.
On Sunday I skipped church to get a head start on trimming the rest of the rooms. Vance only rolls. I trim. It took a long time. By dinner time, we were almost done the kitchen and family room, but the 2 gallons of paint I had bought were not enough. A few walls in the family room need another coat! We went out to dinner. When we came back, I trimmed the bathroom. By 10:30 PM, the bathroom was rolled and done.
Today is Memorial Day. I am hoping Booma's is open so we can officially finish. But here are pictures of the rooms with paint (ignore the tremendous mess!)


This is the wall color I chose for the dining room. It is Benjamin Moore Fennel Seed. It was chosen to match the seats on the dining room chairs we picked out.







The aqua color on the side wall is a color I picked out from my area rug. This wall will be covered in shelves and hidden by decorative sliding screens, but when it is opened, the aqua accent color will show.







This is the color for the kitchen and family room. It is lighter than the dining room. It is Benjamin Moore Straw.












And this is my bathroom color. Benjamin Moore Ladybug Red. I was told at the paint store that this is the color used by the Red Sox to paint Fenway Park. It also matches the red leather of my dining room chairs and the red in my area rug. I was a little hesitant to choose it, but with a little encouragement from family and friends (and Jonathan), I went with it. I am very happy with the result.


This picture looks brighter than it actually is in person because of the bright flash. It is actually more like the picture above (the paint can). Now I just have to put my Red Sox decals on the wall and it will be perfect!

Renovation - May 24 - 27

Ok, so I spent an hour on the phone with my sister in Alaska and we looked at pendant lights simultaneously online and found a colorful pendant light we both liked. Then the next day, I showed Adam and he didn't really like it. After looking at the HGTV online site, I decided not to get a colorful light. I decided to get something simple and plain. I still haven't ordered anything yet, but I am leaning toward the plain frosted pyramid light (the clear whitish one).

This week, the kitchen was sheetrocked and taped and is in the process of being plastered.
The picture below is looking toward the garage door. There will be a transom window above the ovens to allow light into the mudroom area. Behind that wall is the area for coats and the entrance to the bathroom.
Also, I have included a picture of the barstools we have bought. We got the one in black.

Renovation - May 19 - 21

Two weeks have passed since this whole thing began. The electrician will be finishing up tomorrow morning. The carpenters fixed up the siding around the new windows and put the insulation back into the walls. The guy who does the sheetrock will be coming on Monday.

Meanwhile, I went to the lighting store today. I am posting pictures of the fixtures that I am thinking of. I haven't bought anything yet, but I will make up my mind soon. The pictures of the hanging light over the table is made in VT (yeah) by Hubbardton Forge. It is wrought iron, but with a contemporary flair. There are 5 lights that can be adjusted to be angled out sideways or straight in a row. I would probably get the amber swirl art glass for the shades. Since my table is dark, I think this would balance nicely with it. Also, did you know my father used to have his own wrought iron business when he was younger.

The pendants will be hanging over the bar area in the kitchen. I am torn between the green and gold pendant and the iris flute-shaped pendant which has many colors in it (red, purple, gold, blue, and I think green). All of these colors are in my rug in the dining room. I don't know if the green and gold one would be too limited since it only has 2 colors, even though the green looks to be an exact match to the green in my oven cabinets. And it is brighter too.

Renovation - May 17 & 18

The electrician has been busy situating the cans in the ceiling for lighting. We will be using LED lights in the cans because of their energy efficiency. We also talked about where we want outlets and switches for lighting.

Renovation - May 14 - 16

Last Friday the microlam support beam was put in so the wall between the old dining room and the kitchen could be removed. Today, Monday, it was very busy. The electrician started his part of the job. The plumber was here to work on the heating and air conditioning vents. And the carpenters installed the supports in the ceiling for the sliding Shoji-like screen doors which will hide my large storage closet in the dining room. They also put up the wall between the kitchen and the coat room, framing the spot for the transom window above the ovens. And, last but not least, they installed the framework for the pocket door to the bathroom.

I thought you would like to see how we are functioning without a kitchen, so I have included pictures of our foyer and living room. I made a real dinner tonight - eye round roast (cooked in the micro/convection oven), snap peas (steamed in the rice cooker), and mashed potatoes (made in the microwave with hot water and potato flakes). We ate on the screened in porch. The dinner got rave reviews, not necessarily because it was so good, but because it was a real dinner! The kids are loving the clean-up routine after dinner - just throw the paper plates, cups, and plastic utensils in the garbage!