Flooring & Cabinet Installation Day 2

Now the kitchen feels like it's starting to come together!

When we ended up short on the flooring, Mike started searching online.  We tried a salvaging place  that was about an hour from our house, but they wanted a lot of money per square foot and it would take over a week to get it to us.  Mike found a bunch of boards being sold online and it was just 2 towns away, so he rented a truck and ran over to get them.

You can tell the difference now, but the contractor & floor guy said once they are sanded and stained you won't be able to tell.

We had been prepared to switch the flooring in the butler's pantry to the same tile that we used at the back door entryway, but we ended up with enough wood to continue the wood flooring in there too!

I forgot to mention before, but we had to transfer the 80+ boxes of cabinets from the barn into the old kitchen... it took us a good 4 hours!  It definitely put the kitchen out of use (we just had a narrow pathway to the fridge!)

From next to the window of the old kitchen

From the Dining Room doorway

The cabinet installation guys were great.  They got right to work and all went smoothly.

View from the new dining room doorway

View from the back door

We are still dealing with the fridge cabinetry on the left side of that photo.  The rest of the cabinetry on the far wall can't go in until after the countertops get installed.

I love the big farmhouse sink!

This is the nook between the dining room and butler's pantry

The countertop templates were done the next day.  You can see the square sample of black granite on the cabinet to the left.  I'll have a countertop post soon!

Cabinet Installation Started!

After the flooring debacle, the contractor did arrive early to meet with the cabinet installation guys- who where having no part of the plywood fix (Mike & I were relieved that they weren't pleased with the "fix" either, and the contractor would have to get the flooring done immediately).

Cabinet installation was scheduled to take place on Tuesday & Wednesday, and then they come back after the countertops are installed to do the cabinetry that sits on top for around the stove.

The new plan they worked out was that the cabinet guys would be putting in the cabinetry where the floor WAS complete.  Then our contractor would get the floor done himself that afternoon.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the day on Tuesday...

Nook between the dining room (to left) and
butlers pantry (to right)

Bank of cabinets next to the fridge

More aggravation... The cabinet around the fridge was the wrong size.  They stick out too far, and defeat the whole purpose of the recessed fridge.  The floor plans showed the recessed area, however we didn't notice the top was framed out to match the rest of the walls.  We either had to buy a new cabinet with 12 inch depth, adjust this cabinet (saw off the back?), or adjust the wall behind the cabinet.  Since the cabinet was already assembled, we were not able to exchange/return it (grrr... this is the trouble with both of us working while the renovation is going on!)

As the contractor was racing to get the floor done, he wasn't as careful about the placement of the boards... and ran out.  Luckily, he had just enough to get done the area needed for the cabinetry to finish being installed the next morning.

Laundry Room- Painting Complete

Hopping over to the new laundry room... we decided to start painting before they brought up the washer, dryer and installed the sink.  Easier to do it now than have to get behind those as they are hooked up!

We chose gray- the same as our bedroom ("Wet Pavement").  

From the hall doorway

Reverse

Here it is with the plastic off the floor...

The tiles need another wipe down to clear the grout film

The trim still needs to be installed, as well as the heating. The light fixture, washer, dryer & sink are all ready to go- just waiting on electrician & plumber.  We purchased a white wood shelf to hang above the washer & dryer.  I've got a box of items that I'm all ready to decorate it with!

Kitchen Flooring- getting installed!

The flooring guy had arrived and squared up all the boards on October 17th.  They set up on the second floor of the barn and there was sawdust flying out the window!  (All of this going on as we had my son's 7th birthday party going on out in the field).

He was supposed to then come back to install later in the week. He didn't show up- which wouldn't have been a major issue except that our contractor had given us the date of Oct. 27th to schedule the cabinet installation, and the countertops were getting templated on Oct 29th.  So everything was dependent upon these floors being in.

After several stressful, agrevating phone calls back & forth with our contractor, he promised his floor guy would be there on Monday and get it done.

They showed up and were working all morning.  I left to go pick up the kids and came back to see their van exiting the other end of the driveway.

Inside the kitchen, I peeked in and saw they had four rows completed... which looked great, but was less than half the kitchen!

I thought perhaps they were taking a late lunch, but then noticed all of their stuff wrapped up nicely in the far corner.  We called the contractor and he followed up with them and found out they had wrapped for the day.  WHAT?

There was heated discussion with the contractor about how the cabinets guys were coming at 7 am in the morning.  The contractor came over that night and he laid plywood where the cabinets were to go, to bring them to height.  We weren't thrilled with this solution, but the contractor said he'd be there first thing in the morning to discuss with the cabinet guys.

This was, by far, the worst day of the project so far.

On the bright side (because I have to find something to smile about, or I'll go crazy!)...
I do LOVE how the old boards are looking!  This is the little nook between the butler's pantry & the dining room...

Kitchen Flooring

The kitchen flooring was the one thing that we had decided back in 2013... we wanted to use original floor boards that were up in the attic.  We've been storing them in the barn all this time, and now they were ready to bring them into the house!

We were excited to lay them all out to get a feel for it...

It was like a puzzle matching boards of the same width.  We love how wide they are- the thinnest is 5 inches, and they go up to 13 inches.

A little foreshadowing... It looked like we'll have just enough (not including the butler's pantry), as long as they use some of the less "nice" boards under the cabinetry.