One month later…
Master bedroom sheers (Ikea, 2005)
It’s July 10, 2022: one month after move in to home with a renovation in progress. We made it! Well, almost.
L: living room; R: dining room—moving boxes with as-yet-to-be-constructed kitchen cabinets
Today, CP and K8 have severe head colds, Theo is in soccer camp (St. Joe’s Prep), and Charlotte is on the home renovation payroll due to slow summer work at her foundry (Legacy Atelier). Biggest accomplishment: we’re able to see one another across the dinner table rather than around the incredibly heavy moving boxes that took up residence on said dinner table until July 8, 2022.
By this time next month, everything in the kitchen should be complete with the exception of tiled backsplash. Abcabinetry’s RTA (ready-to-assemble) cabinets are beautiful and solid wood (love the drawers!) but have required much more expertise (and thus time) than those darned lovely, user-friendly IKEA cabinets. The variations in floor height, up to two inches in some areas, has hindered progress as well.
In the past month, CP has been putting the kitchen together, piece by piece:
Sometimes, CP actually whistles–even sings!--while he works. If we had a dollar for every time he cursed during the process, though, we’d be able to buy a fully renovated, really expensive house.
Built support wall for kitchen island bar
Built end unit of kitchen island bar for trash and recycling
Plumbed sink (FBMarketplace)
Plumbed dishwasher (FBMarketplace)
Connected electric to and installed dishwasher
Connected electric to and installed disposal (Big box hardware store)
Put almost all kitchen cabinets together
Installed main counter and island base cabinets and most uppers
Installed double oven, dishwasher, sink, stovetop
Connected stovetop to gas (Restore/Habitat for Humanity)
Cut and installed counter for main counter and island
Installed lights under upper cabinets
Mounted exhaust fan over stove (American Freight)
Installed white board in pantry
Connected and installed LED tape in pantry
While CP was in work boots (not barefoot and happy in the kitchen as pictured above), K8 completed a number of smaller projects:
Painted bathroom walls (Copen Blue, Sherwin Williams)
Installed storage shelves in bathroom
Installed shelves in pantry (ClosetMaid wire shelving)
Unpacked, recycled well-worn moving boxes; repeat; repeat; repeat…
Organized closet / workroom / office
Researched and ordered supplies – kitchen cabinet pulls, window treatments, storage bins, wallpaper, tile …(Target, Overstock, Etsy, Wayfair, Spoonflower)
Returned unnecessary or broken items–paint sprayer, kitchen cabinet pulls that were too small, …
Sold unopened supplies on ebay (like a large tile cutter that’s unnecessary when installing mosaic tiles)
Painted basement risers (Ivory Lace, Sherwin Williams)
Painted exterior of 5-gallon compound and paint buckets for re-use as planters (Satin Peacock Blue and Matte Spanish Moss, Krylon Fusion)
Yes: that’s a rolling library stool from Temple University’s former Paley Library in the lower left corner. Thank you Priya J. for the heads up about the way-before-pandemic library furnishings sale!
Thankfully, Charlotte installed the roman shades in her bedroom as well as the decorative shelves and towel hooks in the bathroom while Theo removed and then installed new treads in the basement stairway and helped his dad install the frameless tub door in the main bath.
Sometimes, it takes a family.
SNAFU
In the early weeks of residence, we ran into a snafu (systems normal all F*d up) with some flooding in the basement after heavy rains. Anton’s Plumbing came to the rescue (again) and discovered that some debris fell into the drain during the concrete upgrade in CP’s basement office. Ugh. Hate it when it turns out that what was supposed to be an improvement cost us in another way.
In the meantime, K8 noticed that a neighbor had a corrugated hose—or whatever you call those 4-6” in diameter plastic, ridged hoses— running from the back of his house to the front and wondered: might this be a way to divert water away from the basement? Turned out that our neighbor had recently revamped his roof and water run off and, no longer needing the hose, gifted the hose to us. Yay! CP modeled his install upon our neighbor’s strategy and water has been successfully diverted away from the foundation of the house. Systems normal again.
Notes to self (K8) for future endeavors::
remember that moving into a new home means an actual, physical move of the household (e.g., contract movers and find boxes earlier)
hire movers who actually read the labels to save unnecessary steps later moving boxes and furniture from one place to another. (For instance: a dresser marked BASEMENT currently remains in an already over-furnished second floor bedroom because no one has the energy to move it)
plan a make-shift kitchen in the dining room while a kitchen is being installed (e.g., set up a smaller dining table, use just four chairs, and install refrigerator, microwave and other small kitchen appliances, shelves and sideboards in the dining room until kitchen complete)
cancel utilities at the rental when a lease expires
change addresses on all accounts
give beloved mail carrier John big $$$ for all he does
take more vitamin C
install a hammock