Kitchen Nightmares: Somerville Edition

When I posted last Monday, I really expected that we would not have tile for a few weeks and that it would be a while before I had pictures of the truly completed kitchen to post.  Then we met with Matt from Payneless Flooring, who had an opening this past Thursday.  He and his crew worked all day Thursday and Friday, and then half the day Saturday, to install our complex tile design.  Now the kitchen is really finished and looking exactly as we envisioned it so many months ago.

Fact is, Anne and I had no idea how difficult our tile would be to install.  It’s handmade tile, all irregular, and it’s thick clay mixed with little stone mosaic tiles which happen to be much thinner than the clay.  There’s the big design above the stove, with all its intricacies, and the field tile/stone layout, which required clipping corners from most of the basic 4×4 field tiles.  I was home on Thursday and got a sense of how much effort they had to put in to make the design look right.

After so many weeks without a kitchen, worrying about how every detail would turn out, it was great that this final bit went so well.  The guys from Payneless did an incredible job, and Matt refused to raise the price despite the job running about a day longer than planned.

Here’s how it all turned out:

Main wall with design above stove

Framed tile design above stove

Desk area

Sink corner

Whole main wall

And that’s it!  That’s how we wanted the kitchen to look.  We’re so happy with the result - tile, cabinetry, counter tops, appliances - everything ended up exactly as we wanted it.  Although… Anne’s not too happy with the paint color on the walls… that might get changed.

We did tile the dry bar too, though because the exact design for the dry bar changed so late in the process, we didn’t have enough tile to cover the whole back of the cabinet.  So it’s a bit incomplete while we wait for the last bit of tile to arrive:

Partially-complete dry bar tile

More of these stone tiles should arrive next week, at which point they’ll be cemented to the wall and grouted.  And then we’ll really be done…

after, design, dry bar, tile

Today - February 23 - exactly 12 weeks to the day after demolition, the chief building inspector for Somerville came by and signed off on the kitchen project.  I happened to be home waiting for a delivery and I can tell you that the “final inspection” consists of about 120 seconds of glancing around the room, followed by a signature on the building permit, and that’s it.  It does mean that we can take the ‘S’ placard out of the front window and consider the project officially complete.

Except, of course, for the tile.  If you’ve read the blog all along you may remember all of the issues that we had with tile, first choosing it, then finding an installer at an acceptable price.  We ended up taking the tile backsplash out of the original project, but we did go ahead and order the tile that we had chosen, just so we would have it when we found someone to install it.  That’s the delivery that I was waiting for today - coincidentally it arrived precisely on the last day of the “renovation” part of the project.

And, we actually have a meeting with a tile installer tomorrow.  If all goes well, we’ll be scheduling installation on that ASAP.  Then the kitchen will truly be done the way we envisioned it back in August.  Yes, we’ve been at this since August.  June if you count the initial search for a designer.

Below are some photos taken tonight, after all the little details were completed and we’d been using the kitchen for a couple of weeks.  Nothing too different from the last set.  At some point I’ll put together some direct before/after comparisons from different angles and post them here or in Picasa.

Thanks everyone for reading and for all of your interest in our little project.  I’ll probably post one or two more times when the tile is done and maybe some before/after pictures.

Main wall

Second wall

Main wall other way

Back corner with pantry cabinet and window seat

Coffee central

Sink corner

Prized sleeping spot

Populated dry bar cabinet

Open dry bar with lighting

after, commentary, inspections

After 10 epic weeks without a kitchen, we finally got to move our stuff back in this past weekend.  The floor was refinished on Friday and the whole room got a cleaning on Saturday afternoon, after which Anne and I went into an unpacking frenzy.  By Sunday night we were ready for our first meal at home!  But there are still a few final details to finish up…

It’s been over a week since I posted so I’ll fill in the gaps.  Despite protective efforts, the kitchen floor looked pretty bad by the end.  George had planned to have it buffed and coated with polyurethane after all of the major construction was done.  Friday night the fumes were awful so we were happy to get out of the house for an amazing dinner at Salts.  Of course, Clyde managed to run briefly into the kitchen while the finish was still wet, so now we have startled kitty streaks right inside the doorway.  Tomorrow there will be another coat, hopefully fewer kitty streaks, and some fresh fumes.

Shiny floor

The dry bar has glass shelves, wood-and-glass doors, and LED lighting.  It’s looking pretty good but still needs a few last details, like stoppers to keep the doors from folding into the cabinet.

Dry bar cabinet with doors and shelves

LED light strips inside dry bar cabinet

A cleaning crew spent two hours on Saturday vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing every surface in the kitchen.  By 5pm we were able to pull boxes from the basement and start putting stuff away.  By 10pm we were exhausted.

Sunday it was time to remove the thick layer of construction dust from all of the glassware in the dining room.  By mid-afternoon we were slouched in the living room watching High School Musical 2 on ABC Family.  But then… it was time for the first meal: Trader Joe’s carne asada, rice, refried beans, and tortillas.  Not as gourmet as some of Anne’s past creations, but most of those didn’t follow two days of lifting and cleaning.

Yay!

Still, there are some things left: the vent to outside, some crown molding, details on the dry bar, a mountain of trash in the back yard.  Plus we’ve got a new project.  Our hot water heater has decided to die a slow and leaky death while we wrap up the kitchen work.  Anyone know anything about on-demand water heaters?

after, carne asada, dry bar, floor, trim

It was exactly two months ago today that the old kitchen was dismantled and carted away.  Our expectation was six to eight weeks, so we’re not horribly behind schedule.  But there was definitely some hope that by Super Bowl Sunday, we’d have our new kitchen all to ourselves.

I put a ton of pictures from the whole project up on Picasa if anyone’s interested in seeing more:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jacksteadman/KitchenTwoMonthAlbum

It’s looking pretty close to done, with the first coat of finish paint going up on Friday and the last couple of cabinets being bolted in on Thursday.  Still, there’s a decent list of small details still to come along with a couple of not-so-insignificant details like an upgrade to our electrical service and installation of the vent cap on the outside of the house.

First coat of paint

Pantry with molding and window seat

Ruskin’s already enjoying the new window seat.  I think he spent about 12 hours there today.

Ruskin's new favorite spot

Tomorrow we expect another coat of paint and maybe some more detail work to be completed.  Later in the week the floors will be buffed and re-finished.  More pictures in the next few days…

cats, commentary, paint

In the waning days of this project, I have to admit that it’s harder to get excited about blogging every night, or even every other night.  There are just so many little details that progress isn’t that dramatic day-to-day.  I look forward to finally posting some before and after comparisons once we’re completely finished.  For now, just a few updates.

The dry bar’s getting all trimmed after being wired for electricity the other day.

Dry bar trim making it look more like a built-in

Soon there will doors and lighting, and then paint, and then shelving.  Removing the old trim as well as part of the chair rail and baseboards has exposed some really ancient plaster.  Nasty stuff.

The last electrical work in the kitchen was finished.  A couple more under-cabinet fixtures, plus dishwasher and oven hookup.  The blower fan is in place but still not hooked up to the vent.

Anne and I went over to the office building where our company is moving this weekend.  It looks nice, but it also looks like there’s still a ton to do before we can move in and start working.  I feel the same way about the kitchen.  Both projects should be done by the end of the week, but it’s hard to see how that will happen.  Oh well, that’s for the professionals to figure out.

Tonight we ate at The Independent in Union Square.  It’s one place that’s never crowded, to the point that we sometimes wonder how they stay in business.  But the food is great, and the beer list is extensive.  At least you know you can always get a table.

dry bar, electrical, lighting, trim