The floor went in last week (see the flickr link at right for some photos). The countertops — which were delayed by almost three weeks — are scheduled to go in next Wednesday (May 25th). THEN, we can put in the dishwasher and sink and whatnot. The kitchen will then be at least fully functional.

We had an actual interior designer come by last night for a “color consultation.” Because our home is basically one big room with some bedrooms and bathrooms hung off of it, fixing up the kitchen and dining room sorta made the living room look shabby. So, we’re going to paint and get some new furniture. More details on that to come.

Well, we still have a couple of light fixtures to install, but they won’t be here for another couple of weeks and we probably won’t even put them up until after painting, anyway.

We got appliances this weekend. The fridge is operational. All I had to do was run the water line for the ice and water dispenser. It’s awesome having filtered ice (cubed and crushed) and water in the door. So nice.

The microwave/hood will be professionally installed this week. The sales guy at Lowe’s told The Wife that I’d have “no problem” installing the dishwasher myself. Now, I consider myself decently handy around the house, but I am in no way qualified to install a dishwasher. Hopefully, that will be done this week, too, so we can wash dishes (even if we don’t have a sink).

Pics at the usual place.

The new appliances (fridge, dishwasher, microwave) arrive Saturday. I’ll have pics and comments on those Saturday night or so.

• Tore out our cabinets,
• Tore out our bar and built-in desk (both of which will be replaced),
• Replaced our kitchen window,
• Replaced our sliding glass door in the dining room,
• Moved the laundry closet door (an ancient accordion door) to a different part of the house where a similar but damaged door hung to replace the broken one,
• (mostly) put in some bi-fold doors on the laundry closet, and
• ripped out a wall of paneling that we’re having sheetrocked.

Tomorrow, they’ll finish up the laundry closet doors, replace a chunk of the floor decking that was water damaged (thanks to our leaky but soon-to-be-replaced dishwasher), fine-tune the new sliding glass door and screen door, and rip out our crappy sheet linoleum floor. I think that’s it.

1. ordered our cabinets (Venicia by KraftMaid (Lustra Collection in Capri Honey Maple — you’ll see in the pictures),
2. picked out flooring (Armstrong EXCELON Imperial VCT Tiles in “Little Green Apples”)
3. picked out countertop material (Wilsonart laminate that looks like brushed aluminum)
4. ordered some new light fixtures (don’t have web links for them)
5. bought a new window and sliding glass door (boring Pella vinyl replacement windows)

Tomorrow: the demolition begins. Pictures to follow.

But, in order for us to actually enjoy living here during that time, we need a new kitchen. We love our little mid-century modern abode, but it’s 42 years old and parts of it are showing its age. Since moving in, we’ve remodeled both bathrooms, added central air conditioning, replaced the furnace, added new flooring to all the common living areas, changed some light fixtures, etc. The last big interior thing we want to do is fix the kitchen. And so it began last weekend.

I’ve posted some “before” pictures to my Flickr account, and I’ll be adding construction photos, and “after” photos as the project progresses. It’ll be stressful, but we’ll be SO happy when it’s over. Stand by…