The Kitchen Project

One of the things we quickly learned when starting on this project is that the major dealers of design, fixtures, cabinets, etc. are not located near the city center, like we are. We find ourselves putting a lot of miles on our cars going to towns we knew existed, but had never really driven to. These include Woburn (pronounced Woo-burn for those who don’t know), North Andover and North Reading, and parts of Dorchester. Technically, Dorchester is part of Boston, but it’s a lot further from downtown than we are, and if you don’t know the roads, it’s hard to navigate. Plus, off ramps and on ramps don’t always come in pairs, so we find ourselves searching for the way home.

Sometimes, we’ve been lucky, seeing a sign that points us in the right direction, but Boston isn’t known for its good signage. More often, we play “Road Rally” with a driver and navigator, pouring over very detailed maps in search of the easiest route. We did have an “A ha!” moment when traveling in Woburn, where we able to connect the dots between two worlds we did know because the city is bordered by two big highways.

Our tiles aren’t an in-stock item, so we’ll be off to the Expo again to look at them with our paint book and figure out which direction we should go with that. We’ve got lots of paint stores in Somerville. What’s that say about our part of the world?

Yes, Senator Ted Stephens (R-AK) made that phrase famous when describing the wondrous medium upon which you, dear reader, are currently partaking of this bloggery. What few may know, is that tubes have been used for communication for a long time. Our house has a collection of “Speaking Tubes” which ran from both the front and back doors to a place in the kitchen, already long gone when we moved in. We uncovered the tubes when we tore up the walls and ceiling.

They’re just simple metal pipes running around, and I guess your guest would yell through them like a simple intercom system. The upstairs unit even has a button to release the back door and let people in.

We had a small hiccough last week when the electrical inspector said that per Somerville code, our many ceiling lights need to be insulated with firebreaks to protect the second floor from an electrical fire. Somerville is one of two cities in the commonwealth with this requirement, and the company that makes the firebreaks has a backlog, so Billy and John made their own out of sheetrock on Friday morning. Somerville has many two-family homes that transitioned from the single-owner landlord model to multi-owner condos this decade, which I imagine led to this change. It’s either in recognition of the competing interests of the first and second floor or a small roadblock to discourage condoization. Who knows. The real estate market is doing a good job on the second count.

This morning, out came the insulation and the drywall. Greg stayed behind this morning to photograph the insulation for the inspection. An impressive amount had been put up by the time I left for work; photos are sure to follow.

Greg and I go to Home Depot tonight to pick out molding for the windows and door frame.

It’s going to hit the 90s today and I have closed all of the windows and shades. This is the one bright side of Somerville law requiring all windows facing on construction dumpsters to be boarded up with plywood in case of fire. Our front rooms are half cave and it’s keeping yesterday’s cold air in.

I’m up and down stairs doing laundry all morning while Greg enjoys his college reunion in the Berkshires.

Update: Greg, I just remembered. I’ll water the plants.

When we say we’re knocking down interior walls, people ask us if we’re opening up to the dining room, or at least installing a pass-through. Here’s why we can’t.

Our dining room is on the other side of this wall. There’s a chimney, which you wouldn’t know from outside the wall, because we don’t have a fireplace. The open space next to it backs up to a large built-in china cabinet that is common to Somerville homes of this time. It would be a sin to lose it, and an interior corner is a bad place to knock open.

We’re using this wall for the refrigerator, some cabinets, and a countertop staging area. Perhaps it’s the drinks area for a party.