We’re done. We passed the final inspection on Monday and have moved everything in.
We will post pictures in the next few days and then bring this blog to a close.
Total time: about 11 weeks. Not bad, and worth every minute.
The grout has been applied to the tiles, so we are showing you some pictures of the final look. We had a bit of a head scratcher on the color of the grout we’d use, and picked this one because it was light enough without being distracting, and helped tie into the colors of the cabinets, countertop and wall. What do you think?
We stopped home to get a look. That’s a lot of tile. The color is aggressively neutral and the temporary red tabs sure throw off the overall effect. I love the texture of the glass under the light of the hood, and look forward to seeing how it looks when we have under cabinet lights everywhere and there is natural sunlight in the room.
I am happy with them, but we’ve got to decorate that room.
Tonight we buy grout.
The rest of the world calls it Wednesday, but today is the day we’ve been waiting a long while for. Many readers may remember our trips around suburbia to find the tiles we liked, from Oceanside Glasstile. We found them, ordered them, and had them shipped to Boston from California. We picked them up last week, and today the tilers are installing them.
We did have a few issues with the placement of switches and outlets near the edge of counters and/or cabinets. These involved some quick decisions about where the tiles should end: before or after the switch plate. I know we’ll love the look when it’s finished, but it does make me wish we’d had everyone in the room when we started, knowing what we do now.
Pictures coming tonight of the new backsplash!
Where we’ve been:
The week following the installation of the countertop and our first joyous cooked meals, loads of laundry, and washed dishes in the kitchen, we went to Cape Cod for a vacation. Even though we surely know all of our readers, I am too conservative to broadcast over the Internet that our house is going to be empty and free for the taking. Hence the silence.
The following week, our contractor took his vacation, as we waited for the tiles to come in from the West Coast. Michael, the electrician, stopped by to do some work, but we had nothing new and dramatic to report.
This should be the final week of the project, and everyone involved would like it to be so. This morning, the floor people appeared to apply the second and final finish. Our tiler should arrive tomorrow to put up the backsplash, a task of no small concern to me because glass tile can be difficult and there will be cutting of glass tiles and wood trim to make it work. Our outlets and switches need to be installed. Greg has to make a final decision about the cat 5 wire which now links our kitchen to the basement space immediately below it, and not to our cable.
And then that’s it.
They’re here, installing the counter top. You can barely see the seam once it’s all installed. That’s the thing we like about his pattern. The plumber’s still working hard on getting the stove gassed up.
Mark is jealous of me today. (What’s new, right?) I’m working from home this morning because our countertops are being delivered. This will essentially make our kitchen usable. We can finish putting things away and start setting up. The plumber is coming this afternoon to finish the stove, put in the dishwasher, and hook up the sink. We can’t use the sink for 24 hours while we let the adhesive dry/cure, but it’s gonna be one yummy day of pictures, sports fans.
Update: the plumber is here to hook up the stove while waiting for the countertop delivery.
That’s what the timer on our washing machine reads when you set it for a load of cottons. Yikes!
I am accustomed to the 30-minute washes of our old, standard American washing machine. However, I am also accustomed to mammoth quarterly water bills and waiting for the dryer to catch up with the washing machine, load for load, so I can easily live with the change an efficient and small washing machine will bring. I hope we’ll process laundry more frequently, too. Meanwhile, Greg can go shopping for cured meats and dark bread and pretend we’re living in Malmö or Heidelberg and all will be right with the world.
Today we made some significant progress. We got laundry. And water in the fridge, and ice from the ice maker. And a hood. (Mark really likes the hood.) And our pendant light was installed. Picture of the pendant tomorrow. I ran off to Lowe’s to get the few handles I’d forgotten. Counting was never my strong suit; I was three short. I also got some High Efficiency laundry detergent, and we started our first load of laundry. It will take an hour, compared to the 35 minutes we’re used to, but it’ll do the entire thing with a teaspoon of water. Okay, I exaggerate. But it’s a nice efficient front loader. It’s quiet, and it has lots of space-age buttons and adjustments. In the morning, I’ll throw it in the dryer, and we’ll see how that works.
Update: we realized the shipping bolts were not taken off as we though they were when the washer started shaking and walking around. Shipping bolts removed, we probably have to level something, but it’s otherwise pretty good.
Apologies for the title, but I couldn’t resist. This morning, the plumber came and started his work. We thought he’d be coming Thursday, but he came today in the hopes of finishing up on Wednesday afternoon and getting his inspection on Thursday. Today he started with hooking up the water and icemaker in the fridge, and is next going to hook up the radiator and the washer, as well as the stove.
So by tonight, we’ll have ice cubes.
The builders are also installing crown moulding in the hallway outside the kitchen, installing shelving in the pantry closet, and working with the electrician to hook other things up. (Washer/Dryer, please!)