the install

After a week's delay, the cabinets are finally getting installed! And it's a glorious site. I can't believe they are actually in the kitchen and it makes me feel like things are moving along...that we're not just living with a newly installed floor as our only accomplishment after practically a month.

There was much banging and drilling and other crazy machine like noises that I could not bring myself to look into. As well as some curses of "Oh sh-t! Oh sh-t!" Great. The cabinet installer is cursing over what a masterpiece he has created, right? Right?! When I inquired, he said there were no problems, everything's going well.

And as far as I can see, things seem in order.


Hello, bases. You please me, yes you do.


And hello, uppers. How nice you look up close to the ceiling.


The left side of the kitchen. Sitting pretty.


And the right side of the the kitchen. Hello, lover.

no, just no

Some BX wiring, stuffed behind the baseboard, seems to be causing it to pop out. This is less than attractive.


Ummm....baseboard fail.

the torture

I am currently obsessed with the grout on our floor. Our contractor had used the wrong grout color (Delorean Gray), took it out and replaced it with the Charcoal, the darkest one on the chart. But it seems uneven in its coloring. I don't know whether it's because the old grout is still there and that's what's showing through, or if because the grout just dries unevenly. But it goes from a pretty dark gray to light gray in some spots. Bollocks! It drives me mad. I was down on my hands and knees moaning over this grout! Something that I thought I would never do. Now, after the kitchen is installed, I'm considering using Aqua Mix Grout Colorant to get it a nice, dark and even charcoal color. I see more obsessions in my near future. Carry on.

the wait

The appliances arrived last week. Sitting pretty. Well, not really. They are lined up in the dining nook, awaiting their proper places.


Meanwhile, our door trim is looking a little out of shape. Or, just ripped out.


And this will soon go up. One day.

the delay

Doh! Our first real delay. And it involves the cabinets!! Nooooo....Here I was, for the last three months, living with the deadline of August 23rd in mind. That was the day the cabinets were to arrive. That was the day I kept anxiously telling every worker: Will this be done by then? This has to be done by then! The cabinets are coming, people! THE CABINETS ARE COMING! (Clap your hands for emphasis here.) I mean, I was seriously the Paul Revere of kitchen cabinetry. Until I wasn't.

I found out today that, due to delays because of another job, our cabinets will in fact, NOT be coming on Monday. They will be delivered next Thursday, sit God knows where in our apartment, and be installed next Friday and the following Monday. What?! Horrors. I'll have an entire weekend to freak out with my half installed cabinets.

grout grist

Grout! I shake my fist at you! The first problem to occur was over grout. I had requested "Pewter" and we got "Delorean Gray." The wrong grout went down, and my anxiety went up. Delorean Gray! Who are you and what are you doing in my kitchen? It was showing way too light, not what we had envisioned at all. So, learning that not only does wrong grout not look good, but that right grout can tend to dry lighter, we decided to go one level darker, to "Charcoal," now that we were re-grouting. And now the tile sits, grouted, under paper. A fine place to be indeed.

the floor

The black floor tile in our "before" kitchen was less than glorious to me. It was fine, not bad, just dated, and I couldn't stand the square grid layout.


When we went tile shopping, I knew I wanted dark gray/charcoal colors, slate-like, matte as opposed to shiny, and a large format porcelain tile that would be staggered. We went to Daltile, Nemo Tile, Ann Sacks, Artistic Tile and Cancos Tile, and ended up choosing a throughbody porcelain tile from Ann Sacks called Vault, in 11 x 24.


And thar she blows! The tile guy installed the floor on Friday, with grout to come on Monday.


Come to mommy.




No one allowed!

the demo

It has begun. And our former galley kitchen is now emptied out, making it feel like the tiniest little box. I'm surprised by how much smaller it feels now.


Our contractor was apparently quite excited by what resided underneath the tiles: good, strong, smooth concrete.


I came home one day, was greeted by this huge trench in the wall, and flipped.


Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!! What is this, why is this, look at how deep this is, are we allowed to be doing this?! I freaked. We had decided to rewire the kitchen, which meant the baseboards in the dining area were taken off, a channel was cut into the wall for BX wiring, three holes in the ceiling were made to snake the wiring through, and a good portion of the wall was opened up to allow for a new electrical panel. It was horrendous looking.


Go away, go away, go away! So much for our striped hallway project that we labored over meticulously one weekend.


While we're at it, can we have two living room sconces? Why, yes you can. We'll just drill from the kitchen side of the wall into the living room. Easy enough.


Except for the fact that no one realized the kitchen wall ended before the living room wall, so the sconce on the far left side was left stranded. A cute little trench was dug out to reach it. We're coming! No worries! (Um, big mess in the living room.)


My pretty, you will soon be placed. (A Thomas O'Brien sconce, but in Hand-rubbed antiqued brass instead.)

the workaround

You always hear the horror stories of renovations: the dust, the delays, the budgets blown...but I thought, really, how bad can it be? Living in the apartment without a kitchen for few weeks? Is that really the end of the world? No way. We'll just move everything into the living room and work around it. But, um, it's the mother of all work arounds. Plastic has become my new best friend. As has painter's tape.


Our friendly little fridge chugs away next to our entertainment center in the living room. And you know, it's quite convenient. Who have I become?


And the wine decanter, Kitchen Aid stand mixer, pasta pot and juicer have taken shelter in ... the bedroom. Gross.