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…

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

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?

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…

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.

Fire!

So technically, we could store food, cook it, eat a meal, and wash the dishes.  The problem is that neither of us is really interested in moving into a 90% complete kitchen.  There are still cabinet adjustments to be made.  Shelves for the cabinets are still sitting in the dining room.  The dishwasher probably works but isn’t securely mounted under the counter.  We can’t leave anything on the counters, because inevitably a contractor or two will need to push it out of the way.  Plus there’s the issue of dust.  A good amount of it still gets kicked up during the work day, even though most of the sawing is done outside.  It’s just not worth the hassle of trying to use the kitchen as-is, even if home-cooked meals sound really good right now.

The ovens moved into place the other day:

Double oven in its cabinet

As far as I know, we still don’t have adequate electrical service to the house to run these.  Still nice that they aren’t blocking the path from the living room to the kitchen any more.

Some of the under-cabinet lighting is installed:

Fluorescent fixtures under cabinets

A few more small fixtures need to go in, and we definitely need to get warmer tubes.  This is way too white, especially with the stark-white walls (which of course will go away).

George was here today (Saturday!) trying to catch up on door and window trim along with baseboards, light rail, the dry bar, and other details.  I think he’s as anxious to finish the project as we are.  We are really close, and it looks awesome.  Dare I hope that next weekend we’ll be moving our stuff back in?

Insert angelic chorus here

Today it was the electrician’s turn to finish some things off.  Recessed lights got new collars (cats were jealous) and some of the outlets and switches were installed, but most interestingly, the pendant lamp was hung over the sink.  Finally some light in the corner!

Bright spot in the corner

More stuff happened with the cabinets too.  A lot more of the crown molding is in, as you can see on the far-right cabinet in the photo above.  For a better view, here’s a close-up of the upper cabinets above the laptop station (along with the finished-off recessed light):

Finished crown molding and light fixture

Tomorrow more cabinetry work will be done, including hopefully some of the finish work on the dry bar.  Thursday and Friday should be the last days for the electrician, after which all of the appliances should work.  I am pretty excited to have a dishwasher again.

Tonight I really wanted Chinese food, which is just a terrible idea if you have to eat out every night.  We should be focused on healthy options because most take-out is decidedly unhealthy.  But we’re not.  I got General Gau’s Chicken.  When this is all over we’ll have a brand-new kitchen but eat nothing by salads for a month.

Darkened segment of countertop

Darkened top of laptop station

On Friday, the faucet was installed, one of the first really final finishing touches to be done.  It’s stainless steel, like all of the appliances and most of the other decorative accents.

Decorative faucet and matching sprayer

Also on Friday, the insert and part of the blower fan were installed in the vent hood.  It’s not too interesting to look at, so I won’t post any pictures.  It’s yet another appliance to be installed though.  This week it’ll be hooked up to the vent duct, which will also be cut and capped off outside.

A lot of work was done last week on the crown molding around the top of the room.  I’ll post pictures of that when more of it is done, there’s not too much to look at right now.  Most of the finishing boards around the bottom, underneath the lower cabinets, are done as well.

The last thing to report on is the dry bar: the frame that was sitting in the middle of the dining room in my last post has moved into the space and had its countertop installed.

Dry bar frame and countertop

Next steps will include removal of the existing trim, installation of new trim to cover the frame, electrical work to support the wine fridge, lighting, and an internal electrical outlet, and addition of glass doors.  The goal is to use very low-wattage LED lighting in the dry bar; we would have used it more throughout the kitchen, but complications and misunderstandings about what it requires made it impossible.  Specifically, you can’t get LEDs which run on line voltage.  Instead, you need to install large transformers to lower the voltage between the main electrical wiring and the LED fixtures.  The transformers need to be planned for before wiring.  Since we didn’t know that up front, we couldn’t plan ahead.

Work continues tomorrow despite the holiday.  Plumbing work will be completed and finish electrical work will begin.  All of the new wiring will get routed to the panel downstairs, outlets and switches will be installed, and the pendant lamp will be hung.  It’s conceivable that we would have a functional kitchen by the end of the week, but there’s still a lot to do and I’m not getting my hopes up.  Still, we are very close.  It’s hard not to be really impatient.

Corner countertop and sink

Laptop station countertop

Tomorrow the stone people will return to finish drilling faucet holes for the sink, applying the first coat of mineral oil, and installing one last piece of stone behind the cooktop.  After the oil is added, the stone will look much darker than the medium gray color it is now.

Also while we were away, the “light rails” were installed below the upper cabinets.  These are wooden details which go along the bottom edge of the cabinets, both to finish them off and to help hide the under-cabinet lights.

Light rail

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow after the stone has been oiled.

Cabinet and drawer hardware

Same thing on the pantry

However, we did have one setback.  The big wooden enclosure for the vent fan has two doors on the front for access to the blower, but they are not cabinet doors and we didn’t want to have knobs installed on them.  That got lost in communication, so now we have them.

Knobs on non-cabinets

The unfortunate thing about this mistake is that it’s permanent - we can’t just take the knobs off, because there will be holes right in the front of one of the focal points of the room.  I already contacted Kitchen Interiors and we’re going to have the two panels re-made by Plain & Fancy.  Who knows how long that will take, but at least we can fix it.

Also Friday, I went over to the Matrix Stone workshop to go over layout of the template on the slab and decide on edge details for the countertop.  They’re cutting it this weekend and will install it early next week.  That is very exciting!  After the countertop and sink are in, we’re a little bit of plumbing and electrical work away from a functional kitchen.