Cabinets and other delightful things!

What a week of progress!  Merlin arrived at 7 Monday morning and flashed up a quick coat of wengai.



The magician at work.

 Then, a bit later that morning, the muscle from Kitchen Technician showed up with the cabinets.

By and by we had a lot of cabinets sitting around. 

At a civilized hour, master installer Bill arrived, and over the course of the week he installed all of the cabinets.  Yahoo!



Bill's drill.

Bill has a very clever device for putting and holding the upper cabinets in place:  left and right sides raise independently, and it also moves right/left and front/back.



Is this gorgeous or what?  The uppers are maple, the lowers alder.

Meanwhile, Duncan got all of the floorboard and quarter-round cut, with the former installed and the latter sitting in place so that it can be painted and then nailed in. 

And Zeke designed and built doors for the new washer/dryer closet.

Not painted yet, obviously, but Merlin did come by and paint the inside of the closet.  The W/D are scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday.  Will be nice having in-house laundry!

The countertop is also scheduled for Wednesday.  It could possibly work out that by next Friday we have those ever-popular kitchen luxuries known as the sink and the stove.  Heck, maybe we'll even move the fridge out of the dining room, and the dishwasher out of the living room.  Won't recognize the place!

We're still struggling with decisions about the tile for the backsplash, some of the lights, and knobs.  Ah, to have such challenges!

Surging forward

Some real progress this week on several fronts.

Merlin and assistant get 'er done.

What the sun tunnels look like from the outside.

Moira and I sketched a plan for the bookshelves with masking tape.

Zeke's version looks even better than the masking tape.

The plan is for Merlin to be here at o'dark thirty tomorrow (Monday) morning to put on the first coat of paint.  A bit later in the morning, the cabinets are to beging to arrive.  Getting them installed will take most of the week.  We hope to have countertops by the beginning of next week.  Then the final plumbing and electrical work can get going -- and those shouldn't take too long.  So hoping to be able to cook in the kitchen in two weeks.

Paul Fudge restores our floors

In one of the smoother parts of the reno so far, Paul Fudge restored our fir floors.  He came when he said he would, did what he said he would do in the time he said it would take, and charged what he had said he would charge.  In short, a hero.

There had been no fir flooring where the walls were.  Also, years ago I took up the multiple layers of flooring that had been installed in the old kitchen, but of course I hadn't done that for the parts of the floor that were under cabinets and I also didn't take up the layers of flooring from the pantry.  So the floors were a mess.

Paul started by taking up almost all of the existing flooring, leaving only a narrow hallway of floorboards running from the old back door to the dining room doorway.  He cut off and discarded all of the bits with old flooring on them and any that were damaged.

Then, mixing our old fir with fir of a similiar vintage, cut, and amount of wear, he re-laid the tongue-and-groove fir.  The device he's using above knocks the pieces together then fires long thin brads that nail them together.

I was struck by the rambunctiousness of the sanding paper.

I suspect this sander has quite a few miles under its belt.

Viola!  The floors look terrific. 

Zeke then carefully wrapped the entire floor in brown paper, as though for shipping parcel post.

The taping/mudding/sanding are also done, as is the exterior trim, and Merlin the painter and an assistant are expected at o'dark thirty tomorrow morning (Monday 12 Sept) to start the painting.  If all goes as currently planned, the cabinets will start arriving a week from tomorrow.