Tile one on

Evan has been busy tiling in the kitchen, in anticipation of the electrician returning to finish our outlets. He finished tiling this weekend, when I proudly snapped this photo:

The tile is rather rustic in style, which suits the house. I must add, we did not buy the tile at Lowe's, as we are still disgruntled with the store.

Evan has since also finished the grout though still has to seal the tile. The electrician returned today to do the outlets -- photos coming soon...

One more week until we are scheduled to have countertops....

Good to be green

On Saturday, it rained and rained. A downpour for half the day. When it cleared up in the afternoon, the garden was looking better. Here's the same old patch that I keep taking photos of... spinach in the center; thyme to the left; turnips on the far left. The beets are largely hidden by the broccoli raab on the right; marigolds are in the background:

Here's a closeup of the spinach -- looking good enough to eat!

Here's something cool ... I planted cilantro near the beans in spring but it went to seed before I could even use any of it. The seed has come up and I now have dozens of cilantro seedlings:

The following is a photo from Sunday, when we spent a few hours (yes...) doing cleanup. Pulled up the tomatoes and stored the stakes that had been supporting them, and Evan roto-tilled that plot. Weeded the patch where the pumpkins had been. Pulled up the remains of the bean plants, and here's that cleaned-up patch.

Notice what I'm calling "basil gone wild" in the back center of the photo. I didn't pull it up, but that crazy bush (around two feet by two feet, mostly flowers) probably met its maker last night, as we had our first frost. The little row of greens poking up, in the middle, is garlic. The frothy greens on the far right are asparagus.

Burnout

To those of you that have full time jobs and a toddler but still manage to get work done on the house, I salute you. Cuz, man, I gotta tell you, I ran outta steam this week. The arrival of fall, the lack of morning sun, and this seemingly endless project all coalesced into a heavy funk this week, and it takes all the effort I have to even think about tiling, spackling, or painting at the end of the day. Tired, tired, tired.

So, in lieu of any real progress pictures, I’ll give you an update on where we stand.

Cabinets
All the cabinets have been installed, but there was a problem with the crown molding and we needed to order a different style. Once that arrives, the cabinets should be done. I’m pleased with how they look. We went with 42” cherry cabinets, and the height makes the room look taller.

Countertop
We ended up selecting a moss green Corian for our countertop. The company came and fabricated a template last week, and the installation has been scheduled for November 5.

Plumbing
Once the counter is in, we'll have the plumber come back to run new water supply lines, new drain line, and hook up the dishwasher and the faucet. The sink is integrated in the counter, so we don't have to worry about sink installation.

Electrical
The kitchen has been completely rewired, but we’re still waiting for everything to be hooked up. That’s partially because I want the electrician to finish everything in one shot, and to make things easy I want to tile the backsplash before he installs the switches and outlets.

Appliances
Appliances are here, but they're not doing us much good. The only two things we're using to cook right now are the old beat-up gas grill and our small microwave. Regardless, here’s the list of our new appliances:

- KitchenAid wall convection oven
- KitchenAid dishwasher
- GE Profile microwave
- GE Profile five-burner gas range
- JennAir chimney vent hood

I assembled our chimney vent hood and was ready to hang it, but then realized the electrical has to be hooked up before it can be hung. The sucker is heavy! Also, since we're moving from an electric range to a gas range, we'll need to have a propane tank and line installed. No natural gas around here.

Tiling
We chose some 4” x 4” rough, tumbled marble and some slate that we’ll intermix to make the backsplash. I’m about 25% done at this point, and I plan to tackle the rest this weekend. Hopefully my measurements are right so that the counter top fits nicely underneath the bottom row of tile. Once the tile work is finished, I’ll need to apply a sealer.

Floor
The floor – a slate-looking laminate manufactured by DuPont – has been ordered and should arrive within a week. We went with laminate for a number of reasons: budget, ease of installation, and durability. If I had an unlimited budget, I probably would’ve gone with tile and radiant heat. Hopefully this won’t end up looking chintzy.

With any luck, we’ll have this all wrapped up by Thanksgiving. Cross your fingers.

Under the leaves

Like, a month ago, I took a photo of the broccoli raab and beets. They were tiny little seedlings.

Now look at them! As of yesterday. Broccoli raab on the left, beets on the right.

Due to our lack of kitchen / appliances, we can't eat any of this good stuff. Well, yes, we now have appliances, but we're still working on getting them hooked up. I've been cooking some veggies in the microwave, but I don't think that will do justice to anything I'm currently growing (the green beans are pretty much kaput)... So in the meantime, I have to be content with looking at them ... and giving some away... and hoping a small sampling will last until when we do get some of our kitchen up and running again.

The beets, up close:

We grew beets in our first garden, last year. But this is my first time growing turnips. I plan on roasting them. This photo of our turnips makes me want to crawl under the turnip leaves, and tuck myself away from the hot October sun:

It's been dry and warmer than is normal. But yes, even though a small portion of the garden is flourishing, it really is fall. Here's one view from the garden ... The colors aren't Photoshopped; everything seems a little washed out from the lack of rain.

Low, Low, Lowes

So, I had this whole scathing post drafted, ripping Lowe's to shreds for their lousy kitchen planning services, poor customer service, etc., etc., so on and so forth. But then I got home. Hot diggity!

Am I still annoyed with Lowe's? Yup. They screwed up a whole host of things, including lost or unordered appliances, incorrect cabinets, and missing trim. But our installer--even as he silently cursed Lowe's under his breath--managed to piece things together and pull together the beginnings of a complete kitchen. Look! Do you see?! It's a dishwasher! Oh, heavenly hunk o' stainless steel!

Oh, goodness, when I get my hands on that oven, there's no telling what will happen.

Soon, I’ll be braising meats, making a big pot of duck confit, baking scones for breakfast, and then sipping a glass of wine while listening to the lovely hum of our dishwasher.

It can't come soon enough.

Kitchen continuation

We've been so busy with the kitchen renovation that there's been no time to reflect on our progress.

Since Evan's last posting, he removed the sink and the rest of the wall behind the sink. Then he started putting up insulation.

The insulation part of the project seemed to go pretty smoothly. Next, he and his father put up drywall. This took around three whole days, and isn't even quite done yet -- we still need to do some more spackling and taping of the seams where the pieces come together.

They started with the ceiling, and to do that portion of it, they rented a lift. It was more complicated (slow-going) than the walls because they had to cut out holes for the rececessed lighting. Of course it was a lot more intricate than this; I can't really do it justice. Anyway, the process of fastening the drywall to create our new ceiling was impressive to observe.

As of tonight, after many grueling hours, all the ceiling and the walls are up -- or at least the parts we need for when the contractor arrives to install the cabinets on Thursday. I think they still need to do part of the hallway, but that can happen this winter. I am very proud of the job Evan (and his dad) did!!

The weather has been unseasonably hot (80s) and the garden is doing well. While they were working on the kitchen, I spent some time tending to it. We have some awesome things growing there, like beets and turnips and broccoli raab... just no way to cook any of it. Yet.