Long Silence

We've been working, believe me. I just haven't been posting. But I'm going to. Now.

We've had a hole in our ceiling for ages. Now we got some new can lights put up there. They really fill the space with a lot more light than a chandelier would, and they're more generalized, so we aren't obligated to have a table in one spot. We're also not obligated to have a table there at all if we don't want one, which is nice.

We also got a new light over the entry to the garage, which is really nice. Before, we had no way of coming in through the garage and getting some light in the main area of the house without going around the stairs to the kitchen lights. Now there's a 3-way switch so we can turn on the lights from the garage door area, or from the kitchen area. So perfect!

My dad and I pulled the counter and cabinet from here to make room for the new cabinets. That was a pretty tough job, actually.

Another view. This is our "During" photo. The floor has been removed in the kitchen, so we're down to bare subfloor, the cabinet has been moved so we can put the new ones in. Everything is ready to roll toward the next step.

This is tile installation, which isn't actually the next step. The next step was setting the cabinets. Actually, the next step was having the wrong cabinets ordered for us, then having the guy who made the error take them to his house, sand them and re-stain them to match. He actually did a pretty good job, and it was much faster than re-ordering, so we were able to stay on schedule. Once we got those back to the house, our contractor installed them, then we got the tile started. Instead of doing cement backerboard like we've seen in the past, they did some wire mesh and a skim coat of mortar. This dries and hardens to the floors and gives the tile a firm backing, but is thinner so you don't get as big a depth change as you would doing backerboard under. I don't understand all of it, but there you go.

So, the tile. It's in!

Woot! This is last night, with all the tile set, but without grout. he came back today and did the grout and it looks fantastic.

Absolutely perfect. It's going to be such a nice kitchen floor. It's nice big tiles, with thin, dark grout so it'll be easy to care for. It's also porcelain again, so they're really durable.

We love the color, too. It's got a little something to it, but isn't overpowering. With the white baseboard, I'm thinking it'll all look amazing.

We also did a small tile "landing pad" inside the front door so wet shoes don't hit hardwood first thing when you come inside. I really like the look of this, too.

Okay, that's about it for now. I think I have more pictures but I'll have to peel them off my camera when I get home. Thanks for reading!

No real pictures

Unfortunately, the stuff we've been working on hasn't been great for taking pictures. I've spent hours crammed into the attic, running Cat5 and COAX cables into each bedroom. That part is done now, which is cool. But it looked mostly like this the whole time:

Whee!

Sometimes it looked like this:

Also whee!

See what I mean? Not super exciting. But it's done, which is awesome.

We're now finishing up a few more things, but I don't think any of them will take too long. My mom is caulking the rest of the baseboard, and then she'll do the woodwork touch-up paint (which she always does beautifully). Thresholds are all we really have left after that, and we finally have them in our hot little hands. Turns out they were the right ones the whole time, they just look unlike any 4-in-1 wood floor transition kits any of us had ever seen. So now we have them and we'll be figuring out how to deal with them. That should be a pretty picture-heavy post, once we actually get into it a bit.

We're also starting to think seriously about the main floor now. Our cabinets arrived today and we're working out the schedule to get them installed. My dad and I have to tear out the existing countertop and flooring to get ready for the new stuff, so that should be fun. It'll be a big job, for sure, but hopefully one we can manage.

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!