Kitchen backsplash

Today I started in on the backsplash in the kitchen which is pretty much the last thing that needs to be done. The tiles are 4"x4" and match very well with the counter and cabinets.
I was backbuttering all the tiles and setting them in place so I could fit them just right. For those that have never tiled, it's basically like buttering a piece of bread except you're using mastic and tile instead of butter and delicious bread.
Here is the right side almost totally finished. Still need to cut tiles for under the cabinet where you can see the white
Here is a closer view of the tiles. I'm going to put some trim there under the window sill.
And a full view of what I got done today. Will do under the cabs and microwave tomorrow then grout on the weekend more than likely. We really like how it's turning out!

2nd floor lighting and floors

Today I installed the fan in the bedroom and a light in the guestroom as well as setup for tiling the backsplash. Figured I'd take this time to show the finished products of the 2nd floor as well. Here is what the master looks like now iwth the new fan and painted trim and walls.
This is the guest room and if you are very observant you will notice that we changed the window shown from two small windows to one big one. It makes a huge difference in the room and from outside.
This is the office and it's painted a nice khaki color. It doesn't show up well here but I really like the way it turned out.
Now, for the floors! I love the way they turned out. Much much lighter and it just feels like it opens up the whole 2nd floor and gives it a much more contemporary feel. We'll do some before vs. after pics later or you can link back to the original posts and see the floors. Huge improvement.
And a quick shot of the 2nd floor landing.

Kitchen sink and hookups plus microwave

Well, today we spent quite a bit of time at the house, surprise, surprise. Susan pretty much spent the whole day painting doors in the basement. I've got a nice action shot of her below.
I ended up putting the sink in place and man was it a bear. Whoever invented the way that sinks attach to countertops should be shot, hung and then quartered. None the less it turned out nice and then I was able to make all the connections under the sink to get the dishwasher and faucet hooked up as well as the drain lines. There's a shot of my handywork below.

The last project of the day was to mount the microwave. Susan went home to start dinner and take care of some schoolwork so this was a solo job. After lining up the template and drilling all the holes in the cabinet it actually went pretty smooth. I would definitely recommend doing this with two people though as balancing the microwave on the stand while fishing the power cord through the cabinet above was interesting to say the least. It turned out great though! Now all the appliances are in the kitchen and all we have left is to do the backsplash and under cabinet lighting...booyah!

Countertops part 2

Today I started in on the other side of the kitchen for the counters. I cut a hole in the counter for the sink on my make-shift work table of the coffe table and microwave.
Cool, it fits!
After the dryfit I installed the faucet while it's out so it is a bit easier.
Also installed the garbage disposal while it was out.
After this I took the sink out and installed the countertop on the other side. Also installed the dishwasher in the bay and it's really starting to look like a finished kitchen! Tomorrow I'll install the sink and hook everything up and do the microwave and start in on the backsplash.

Countertops

Well we are now up to date as far as the pictures that we have taken. Yesterday Dave Sewell came over and helped me cut down a 10' countertop section into the 3 pieces that we need for the kitchen. I still need to put end caps on the other two sections as well as scribe and sand them to fit the wall flush. Also need to go buy the sink so I can make the cut out for that in the counter before we install it. We were able to finish the small counter next to the fridge though and this side of the room is all done except for the backplash! Oh, also didn't mention that we put the baseboards in and I trimmed out the toekicks for the cabinets as well.

Bringing in the fridge

We hauled in the new fridge and man does it look great! We'd been waiting on this day for about 2 weeks so it was pretty exciting to watch it go in....well not so much watch as actually do it. If you can tell from these pics versus the previous ones, I installed some trim beneath the cabinet over the fridge and it really gives it that built-in look. The fridge fit like a glove it's a counter depth unit so it stick out very little. We can't wait to get this thing going!

Cabinet install part 2

Now to the other side of the room. We started with the 8' tall pantry on the right which was quite a bear to move around and shim. This pic below is of us attaching the over the fridge full depth cabinet. This thing is a monster at 36" wide 24" high and 24" deep.
The base cabinet was just sitting there at this point not attached.
Well skip forward a few steps and here you go. We attached the end panel to frame in the fridge and the wall cabinet. I still think the base cabinet was unattached at this point because we had to bring in the fridge before attaching it so we would have room to manuever. I know this sounds stupid because how the heck would we ever get it out, but we could use the back door if we needed, we just didn't feel like hauling a 300lb fridge out the front door, down the steps, around the house, up the deck stairs and into the kitchen through the back door in 30 degree weather.
So here's a good pic of almost finished cab install on this wall. Next we bring in the fridge!

Cabinet install

Finally, time to install the cabinets! Well, Jason came over on Saturday and it turned out we weren't quite ready to start slapping cabinets on walls just yet. He helped me shim the walls to prep for the cabs and also he did a great job of extending the copper piping up into the kitchen from where I had to cut it off to get the old cabinets out. We did get to put one cabinet up which is the important starter cabinet so he got to see a little cab hanging action.

We ended up going with Diamond cabs in a Maple Harvest finish. We absolutely love them! They were a bit more than we had hoped to spend, but they look 10 times better than the cheaper Shenandoah's that we were first going to pick. They really have a rich color and great tone to them.

So after Jason left (without us getting any action pics of him) Susan helped me hang the other 2 wall cabinets and the base cabinet on the left.
Vanna, show us our new cabinets!
Funny enough the smallest cabinet, the one there in the middle, gave us the hardest time. It pissed us off so much we gave it a nickname which I won't relay on this blog since my parents are going to read this :) You can also catch a look at Jason's handy work with the 2 copper pipes sticking through.
Putting in the sink took most of Sunday because I had to cut and reinstall the PVC drain pipe as well as measure and drill holes for all the piping and wiring coming into the cab. After it was in place I installed the fitting for the hot and cold water shutoff and added a little tee off the hot water to supply the dishwasher which you can see down below.
Here's the finished product for this side of the room.

Finished tile floor

After a Thursday night spent grouting until 12:30am here is the final outcome. I had to make sure to get the grout in so I would be ready for Jason to help install the cabinets on a dry floor on Saturday. The grout is still wet in these pictures so it will dry much lighter.

Painting the kitchen

Well, once again the camera somehow didn't take pictures by itself and a lot of work got done and not documented. Oh well, at least it's done. You'll see here that the drywalling has been done as well as some rewiring on this wall. An outlet was added for the over the range microwave and the wires sticking out of the wall are for under cabinet lighting. Now it's time to paint the walls.

Seems the drywall fairy has visited this side of the kitchen as well. And Susan was busy cutting in around the doors and outlets.
Ah ha! There she is!!! I told you she was really working :)

Painting the master bedroom

Well if you don't remember what the master looked like, here it is. These pictures really make the room look good, because this green is nasty. Better paint it!
After Susan did a wonderful job priming the green and rolling most of the room in blue, I sneak in for clean up and the photo op. I really need to get pictures of her doing stuff because she has been working like crazy!
Now doesn't this look better? Also you may notice that there are new windows in the room too. We got those replaced but I didn't get to take any of the after shots yet. Maybe we'll throw some in later, but needless to say it is a HUGE improvement in both looks and performance.

Kitchen floor part 2

After doing the layout we started in on the tile. Once again not documenting it for a while, the floor just seems to lay itself doesn't it?
And like that, we're done with putting in the tile....wish it were that easy.
Here's a view from the door.
And check out the intricate work around the heat register. Thanks, Dale, for the tile saw!!! Next we grout!

Kitchen floor

The first thing we wanted to do was to replace the nasty linoleum in the kitchen with some nice cermaic tile. Well, unfortunately we left the camera at home aka lost it for a day or two so there are no pictures of ripping out the linoleum or laying the backerboard down for tile. But here's the finished product. Now let's get started laying some tile!
On second thought all that undocumented work has made me tired, better take a break. Ok now let's go!
Not so fast my friend!
We need to measure first :) Susan was enjoying her time with the camera here so I was amusing her with some posing.