McBerkoBlog

Bill took today off work, and blew my mind. When I left this morning, the stove was in the entryway. I came home to find our stove in place and working. While I was playing with all the knobs and seeing how high a quick boil gas flame goes (answer: pretty darn high), I noticed a strange noise. It was the dishwasher. A running dishwasher!! Do you understand how fabulous that is?! It has been 6 months since I've heard that noise. And that meant... water is on throughout the kitchen. We have a sink! In the kitchen! A big one! Unlike the little pedestal sink in the downstairs bath, it's big enough to wash dishes in. Of course, screw washing dishes by hand - we have a working dishwasher! Woohoo! If that all wasn't enough, Bill also installed the under- and over-cabinet LED light strips. Nice!! We still have plenty to do here, including installing the tile backsplash, adding baseboards, and trimming out the doors. Cabinet installer also has a few tasks - filling that hole next to...

When we first started designing the kitchen, we figured carrera countertops had too high a risk of staining (especially with us), granite would be too shiny and new looking for our 100-yr old house, but soapstone would be out of reach. Surprisingly, it wasn't much more expensive than granite. Going to the stone yard to pick out our slabs was fun, but made me VERY glad we were not selecting granite. A pro and con of soapstone is that there were only a few types to choose from. It would have taken forever to choose one granite out of hundreds, but one of four soapstone slabs is a much easier choice. Fortunately, we found one that was exactly what I was hoping for - charcoal, no green, nice white veining, perfect leathery texture. Love it! Once installed, step 2 - figuring out how to treat them. Apparently soapstone won't stain, but will darken with use. To keep them from aging unevenly and to get the darker color we wanted, you can rub mineral oil into the countertops. We'd h...

Granted, I'm a bit late on the post, but to record some history, I'll backtrack. Bill and I took a week off work in mid-Sept to finish up a few key projects before the cabinets were professionally installed. The pale yellow beadboard ceiling took 2.5 days to install, way more than we thought. The many recessed lights are great when working in the kitchen, except when cutting beadboard to fit around each. We went through 3 or 4 different yellows for the ceiling before we were happy. We were smart enough to paint it on the ground, at least. The wall color was just as bad - this is gray #3. The tile, a honed carrera marble, took the rest of the week to install. We realized late that the tile company was 60 sq ft short on our tile delivery, but thankfully, the laundry room could wait. At least we finished the floor before our cabinet install deadline. It was close, since our pattern meant that Bill had to cut every single tile for the accent pieces. Props to him for spending 3 days...

Ruth walked into these rooms when we got home today and said, "Wow! Pretty walls." So true, Ruth! Here's the current state of the kitchen. The old wall is gone, and new wall blocks off laundry room (french doors not yet installed). Fridge will go on the left where the sink used to be, and new sink will be located under the window on the right. Ceiling will have beadboard instead of drywall. Pre-insulation, same area: Looking the other direction. Stove will be in the center of this wall. City building inspector said, "Yup, that's insulation." By the end of the week, the drywallers will be 100% done. We can then start priming, hooking up lights and outlets, and moving on to floor tile. Cabinets get installed on 9/19!

Dining room with walls, looking toward living room: Looking toward kitchen and new back door:

I really, REALLY love having walls!

Did your husband rip a hole in your house today? No? Pretty crazy stuff. It was time to get rid of the two old windows in this spot, so the siding came down, windows came out. Fortunately, the new framing went in, topped with plywood and then plastic, minutes before it started to rain. Note that we have floors again!! While it was nice and bright in the room with a gigantic hole in the wall, I will definitely appreciate having the extra upper cabinet space.

The bath's taking shape, and just in time - plumbers start tomorrow. They'll be replacing all the pipes that supply water to our house from the street. The rusty cast iron pipes that bring water from the meter to the back of the house are also being replaced. They'll move the laundry to the first floor, move the kitchen sink and fridge water supply, and rough-in the new bathroom. Bill finished the framing work upstairs in preparation. New water closet is on back left - this side of the wall is also where the showerhead will be. The near left in this picture shows the bench at the back of the shower. The vanity will be placed where the chair and box fan are located: Another view of shower & toilet area: Facing the new tub from our closet: View walking into the room from our bedroom: Many thanks to Patty and Steve for helping us flip this 350 lb tub. When it arrived Wednesday, we had movers get it upstairs and flip it so we could install the feet. I'm pretty sure Bill...

White inset maple cabinets with chrome hardware, carrera marble tile on the floor with gray limestone accents, light gray walls, pale yellow ceiling, darker yellow on the pantry cabinet and accents.

I don't think you can really appreciate floors until you don't have them. Bill finished installing the subfloor in the upstairs bath this week. This weekend, it's out with the final layer of kitchen floor so we could level the former porch joists. We'd hoped to get the subfloor down too, but alas, no such luck. Many thanks to Steve for keeping Ruth occupied for a few hours today while we worked! On the plus side, not having a floor means that from our dining room, I can literally see if the laundry is done in the basement. That's not teenage vernacular "literally", as in, "I will literally die of embarrassment if Britney shows that picture to Jaden!". When there's no floor, I can stand upstairs and see the washing machine. You have to find positives where you can when remodeling. :)

Our kitchen ceiling was 8 ft, unlike the rest of the first floor (minus drop acoustic panels). When we took it down, we discovered why. The entire room had a false ceiling built below the real one. Not supporting anything, not needed for any reason, just a lower ceiling. ??? Here's a pic looking up from the kitchen, at the fake ceiling, real joists, and bottom of the 2nd floor: Here's what it looks like now. Removing the 2nd floor really brightens up the 1st! Can't say I recommend it though. I will feel much more comfortable navigating from our bedroom to our closet once the subfloor is complete and actually attached. Creeping gingerly over the few pieces of plywood resting on joists, carefully avoiding the big holes in the floor - not an adventure I need each morning.

Bill, Dad, and Eric finished framing the wider openings today. The wall is gone between the main kitchen and where the fridge used to be, so it's now just one large (~10.5' x ~18') space. Before and after pics of that wall: Side note: The reason the new header looks slanted above is because it is. This entire room was originally a porch, so both the floor and ceiling are sloped as would be appropriate for a porch. Sadly, that is not appropriate for a kitchen, so the next project is leveling. Between the kitchen and dining room, we widened the small doorway to just over 5', to match the opening between the living and dining rooms. Before and after of that wall, looking into the kitchen: Props to Eric, who ripped one of these studs out with his bare hands (no joke!).

When we removed the wall in the pantry behind the row of cabinets, we found siding. Dirty, filthy siding covered with bird poop. Gross, perhaps, but I like to think of it as free architectural interest. It took a lot of bleach and several hours of scrubbing, but it finally looks OK. Here's a mid-cleaning pic: The walls around the fridge were also covered with siding, but we removed everything except this wall in the new laundry room.

Pre-demo, Ruth really liked to sit on this window ledge. Really liked it. While we cooked dinner, she'd hang out here. While we'd get her breakfast or our coffee ready, she'd sit here. She'd even eat snacks here. Perfect size for her, with a great view of neighbors' dogs playing in their backyards. Then, we did this to her seat: The next day, Ruth really wanted to sit in her special seat to eat her breakfast. Result:

Three wasp nests Four socks A few termite-ravaged studs Many, many bird nests An old tube of caulk One pair of yellowed, decades old boxers (or bloomers?) Scary wiring surrounded by scorched insulation Outdoor siding (on the inside) Boards spattered with bird poop (also on the inside!) One petrified rat

Pre-demo, pre-tornado, we started with this. Cabinets that are soft from years of moisture. Stove with 2 working burners. Three layers of kitchen floor (parquet over tile over wood). Several layers of wall. Windows that don't quite separate the inside from the outside. More on the interesting things we found in the walls soon. For now, let's focus on the starting point: Back wall: Sink will move under this window, dishwasher to the right. Ceilings throughout will go up a foot (pending structural engineer and plumbers signing off on that plan). Wall to the right: Stove will move between these two existing windows, with a wall-mounted hood over the stove. The windows themselves will be closed off - the weird placing otherwise blocks off a lot of upper cabinet storage space. Looking toward the dining room, this doorway will be widened quite a bit, to about 5 feet. No more wall cabinets here. On the other side of the room, the fridge will move to the space where the sink and dishwa...

A few accessories to add, but this remodel is done! Shower glass finally got installed this week, the last major component. I think this is the biggest change of any of the rooms so far. First and foremost, the layout works so much better - the old tub/shower placement blocked a ton of light and left very little room between the tub, sink, and toilet. It's much brighter with the new recessed and above sink lighting. The higher ceiling makes it feel much larger too, as does the glass around the shower. No more fake tiles on the wall and fake wood on the floor. Our new-but-vintage-look bath turned out just as we'd hoped! Before, enter the bath, walk directly into the tub: After, smaller shower, new sink location, and higher ceiling open up this tiny (5' x 9') bathroom. Before, fake tiles on the wall (big plastic sheets, really) and outlets above the medicine cabinet, not exactly convenient: After, lots of towel hooks, shelves for decoration (a few of which are still missi...

OK tipsters!! Need opinions here or at FB. You can see the ceiling height here (though no crown installed yet) in relation to the artwork. Keep or no? Too big? Too... tropical? Non-vintage?? Orange as an accent color will be dropped in a few other places throughout the bath, so we wanted to find some art with the orange. This wall will have some black shelves with accessories. Decided to do a big row of hooks (4 double hooks) so there's plenty of towel hanging space when we have visitors, plus it brings some color into this very white (for me) room.

Progress continues slowly but more surely now that we've starting putting in some hours after Ruth goes to sleep. Steve and Patty babysat one day (thanks, guys!!) while we started the shower tile, and that eventually got finished after several evening sessions. Grout is finally done now too. Final cleaning, fixture hookup, and caulking, and we can call the shower glass people. Bill finished all the beadboard and other trim, and it's all painted. This weekend, hopefully we'll get some small tasks finished (like caulk and paint touch-ups), and install the toilet and possibly a sink. Excellent timing, Home Depot, on your bath sale featuring cheap dual-flush toilets!