Belated Thanksgiving

The gang descended upon DJ and Greg's place for a little postponed Thanksgiving celebration.  Foregoing the traditional turkey, cranberry sauce and green-bean casserole we instead partook of barbecue Tri-tip steak, Jen's amazing mashed potatoes, and, well, green-bean casserole (Patty's specialty and it was worth the wait). 

Finishing up the kitchen

We knocked one more project off our list this last weekend; the backsplash. We were a bit worried because we bought the marble tiles two months ago and they had been sitting in the back yard since then. Luckily marble is resilient and they cleaned up with no problem, and installation was pretty easy too. The hardest part, like most of the projects we've done, was the beginning. The best idea we had during the project was to screw paint stir sticks to the wall behind the oven to support the tiles while the thin set dried. It worked out great.

The TV. Second time's the charm...

So we had our contractor, Brandon, mount the TV on the wall near the staircase, running all the cables and wires out of sight within the wall. It took him a few hours, and looked like a real pain, but when he was done we loved it. Until we realized that it really didn't work to organize the room that way. And then we decided we needed to put it over the fireplace. Now this is a major undertaking if we wanted to put our cables in the wall. We did want them in the wall. So forward we went. Unluckily (especially for him!) Brandon took a softball in the face not once, but two weeks in a row and was unable to lend his services due to his broken nose, and painfully swollen face, but he was nice enough to come by and give us guidance and a framework for the job. Cordless drill and Sawzall in hand, we turned to routing the cables through the wall and mounting the TV. It's now finished and it was definitely the right decision. It opens up the space, is much more comfortable, and looks pretty good too. Now we need to patch the holes in the drywall, repaint those spots, and we'll be done.

The floor

After much planning and research, we decided on engineered flooring, and after even more research we decided on dark, hand scraped maple. The first step to laying the flooring was tearing out the tile in the entry way. That was not fun. Next we spread a rubbery moisture barrier over the concrete subfloor and allowed it to cure. Finally, we were ready to lay the wood, but we really didn't know where to start. That's where the pros come in. We had a pro installer come in and show us the ropes. Two hours later we were on our own. A week later the floor was in and I had justified my purchase of my new tools.

Creation of a place to eat, Part cinco...

With cabinets, tile, and appliances in it was time for the countertop. We decided on granite and it was a painless process; the template guy came by one day for about 2 hours, and two weeks later, voila, we had countertops!

Creation of a place to eat, Part 4...

Our next project was the Travertine floor. Brandon hooked us up with some chalk lines to get us started, and it was fairly smooth sailing. We logged a lot of time on the Home Depot rented tile saw, though. After the tile was down, in came the appliances.

Creation of a place to eat, Part III...

With the dirty(er) work out of the way, it was time to move on to beautification. The drywall guys came in and knocked that out quickly, and the cabinet guys came in shortly thereafter and the place was starting to look like a kitchen again. Note the new island...

Creation of a place to eat, continued....

We rerouted some plumbing that was previously hidden by the wall, tore a vast majority of the drywall down, rerouted the vents, installed the lights (thank the Lord for Brandon Marks, our contractor!)

Creation of a place to eat

So we tore out the ceiling and one wall, the cabinets, the old tile countertops...

Tearing down the house!

Remodeling

So Jen and I bought our place the 1st of November, and ever since we've been tearing stuff out and remodeling like crazy. It's been busy, but it's been fun. We started by tearing out a wall and replacing it with three beams to open up the kitchen to the living room. Next, we mounted our new TV on the wall and ran the cables behind the sheetrock. Once that was done we remodeled our kitchen; removed the cabinets, appliances and drop-ceiling. We had new cabinets put in, bought all new appliances, put in recessed lighting to replace the flourescent, garage lights, and put in Travertine tile to replace the wonderful linoleum flooring that came with the place. Thankfully, we had our amazing contractor, Brandon, to run things and keep us moving in the right direction. It never could have happened without him. While he was here, he also put in a new mantle, re-routed our HVAC vents, and all just in time for New Year's Eve and two dozen of our closest friends coming over to share it with us! Pics to follow and more projects to come!