Days 61-62: Kitchen remodel

The kitchen is open for business. We had a big welcoming dinner Saturday night with the Robinwoods. Main course: Curried lamb popsicles, inspired by our favorite restaurant, Vij's in the other Vancouver.


Jack gave it all his stamp of approval.


Erik took our picture as I helped Amy melt some chocolate chips for dessert. Later, after our friends had gone home and everything was cleaned up, I came back downstairs and realized Amy had been sitting in the nook for more than half an hour just gazing around the room, taking it all in. She's happy. Which makes me happy.


We did dinner in tonight. Grilled shrimp pasta and a nice salad. I'll leave any further descriptions of the food to Amy on her blog.



The guys are back tomorrow to do a few final things. Soon, even the Port-a-Potty will be gone from the driveway.

Days 58-60

For all intents and purposes, it's done. Everything is hooked up. The appliances are all in their proper places. Faucet is installed.

The floor, which was resealed today, is curing for 24 hours. We can walk on it in socks tonight and in shoes by tomorrow afternoon.

They'll be back next week to do a few minor things -- some trim pieces, maybe adjusting a few drawers. Meanwhile, we're moving all the dishes and food back in tomorrow, doing some touch-up painting and having dinner at home tomorrow night.

Cheers

R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut

So it goes. Sadly, so it goes. He was my all-time favorite.

" 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.' "
- Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007

Day 57: Kitchen remodel

Lots of progress today. All the appliances are in, which means the living room is clear again. The section of the backsplash by the fridge went up, too. That leaves just a little piece that will go over the sink.


All the lights are up.



Knobs and pulls are in as well. Plus, the furnace is fixed, meaning it won't be 58 degrees inside when we wake up in the morning like it was today.

Tomorrow, we should get the duct work under the stovetop, the trim pieces where the floor meets the baseboard and some other odds and ends. Then faucet and a thorough cleaning Thursday, floor finishing and re-sealing Thursday and Friday. And, if we're lucky, moving back in Saturday.

Sunday dinner, anyone?

Day 56: Kitchen remodel

Good news: The cooktop is now in place, as is the microwave. Also, the plywood that blocked the dining room door for the last two months is gone, so you can walk room to room uninterrupted now. Minus the new fridge still sitting smack in the middle of the living room.



Bad news: Electrical and plumbing still aren't done, a whole lot of other minor work remains for tomorrow ahead of Wednesday's scheduled cleaning. Also, somehow the furnace has been knocked out during the time the new gas line was run to the island. Luckily, it's not all that cold, so the house is tolerable.

Not that I'm getting edgy about Saturday's hoped-for move-in. No, nothing like that at all.

Faith in travel, II

The New York Times has a great story and photos up today (Sunday in the print edition) on Fez, one of our favorite cities from the trip we took about six months ago to Morocco.

It includes this passage:

Fez seems to have stopped marking time several centuries ago (cellphones and occasional soccer jerseys aside). And like the water clock, this mazelike city of minarets, shrouded figures and forgotten passages can seem impossible to decipher — yet tinged with a deep enchantment.

“It’s a mysterious place,” said Abdelfettah Seffar, a craftsman and cultural entrepreneur, as he stood on the roof of a beautiful but dilapidated 18th-century Moorish estate that he is restoring into a vast guesthouse and arts center. “It’s even a mystical place.”

Mysterious and mystical, indeed. Our friend and fellow traveler Jim Torson opened his show of Morocco-inspired paintings last night in Vancouver. It captures about as much of that essence I imagine is possible to do on canvas. (If you're a Vancooterite, or even live just across the river, it's worth a trip to Northbank to check it out. And for those who may have seen his Springbox show in the Pearl last month, I have to say, this one is even better. Many more pieces of his work.)

Nice to catch up with many of our friends from the trip, drink a lot of mint tea, nibble some of Fatna's real Moroccan cookies and do a wee bit of drumming. (Hope there will be more of that as the weather improves.) But the best part, in my book, was seeing so many people pour through the gallery over the course of the night and find connections to that stunning and magical place half a world away, all through the beauty of a Jim's art and Abdul's generosity in putting the trip together in the first place.

Faith in travel

A year ago this week - La Semana Santa, or Holy Week, as it's known here - we were backpacking through Mexico. And a year ago last night - Good Friday - we stood mesmerized among the throngs lining Alcala Street in Oaxaca following the Procession of Silence.

Here's how it looked then:



Makes me wonder how it went last night, in the aftermath of all the unrest that city has seen in the past six months or so. How it looked passing this church, Santo Domingo, which was has been damaged since we were there.

Hope it was as special as last year. Hope some other lucky travelers stumbled into it unknowingly. Hope the pageantry and passion of the place are still creating such wonderful memories.

Day 53: Kitchen remodel

No pics from Friday, but the sink was fully installed (previously it just sat in the hole), the disposal was hooked up and some other minor stuff got done.

Monday and Tuesday should be a blur of activity -- rest of electric, plumbing, cabinetry tweaks, appliance installs and so on before the big cleaning sweep on Wednesday. Then Thursday and Friday are scheduled for floor work -- final patching and staining, followed by two coats of a finish.

This time next week, we hope, to be having breakfast in our kitchen for the first time in a couple of months.

Day 52: Kitchen remodel

Most of the lights are up, as is the grout on the backsplash and the glass doors at the top of the cabinets. Body of the oven went in as well. Rest of the appliances now sit - where else? - smack in the middle of our living room.



Tomorrow, electrical wraps up and plumbing begins.

Day 51: Kitchen remodel

Backsplash is up. Grout goes in and all electrical wraps up tomorrow.

Day 50: Kitchen remodel

Sink and countertops - though still very dusty - are in.


The sink is big and roomy.


Backsplash goes in tomorrow.

Day 49: Kitchen remodel

OK, I've gone back and recounted the days, including the weekends this time around. Although at first I was just counting contractor work days, it's now clear the more important count is D.M.S., or days minus sink. So rather than being Day 38, this is actually Day 49.

Not that anyone in this house is counting.

Nothing today. Counters tomorrow. Pictures soon. After the counters go down, things really should start rolling through quickly to the finish line.

Day 37: Kitchen remodel

Nada.

Day 36: Kitchen remodel

No change. Waiting for countertops, which go in early next week. Meanwhile, Amy is really ready for it all to be done, as you can read here.

Day 35: Kitchen remodel

No change today.

Day 34: Kitchen remodel

No change the past few days. But they were back today doing some trim work. In particular, the new back door is trimmed out (though still not painted) to match the old, original doors elsewhere throughout the house.

Day 31: Kitchen remodel

No visible change today. Counter templates started, we think. Those are supposed to be installed in 10 days or so.

Day 30: Kitchen remodel

No new pictures today. But the island is now turned the right way, the new windows are installed and the backdoor is in.

Day 29: Kitchen remodel

Not only do we have cabinets, but now we have them in (almost) all the right places rather than a pile in the floor.


The island went in backward. They'll be back tomorrow to flip it so that the bookcase for all of Amy's cookbooks faces the nook. The stove will go in the middle of the island.

Those are trim pieces jutting across the picture, but that opening in the back is where the fridge will go. And it will actually have water running to it.

And the opening here, to the right below the window, is where the dishwasher -- yes, we're FINALLY getting a dishwasher -- will go.

They're also installing the new back door tomorrow in the mudroom. And, if everything stays on schedule, they'll be done three weeks from today.

Day 28: Kitchen remodel

Cabinets -- and lots of them. They're everywhere. Installation should wrap up tomorrow.

Days 22-27: Kitchen remodel

Painting is done, minus some touch-ups, I'd imagine, when everything wraps up.


Wiley is happy to be able to walk around in his kitchen again. And the floor, even after sweeping, is filthy.



Refinished fir on the left. Raw 100-year-old fir on the right. Guess where the original cabinets were? Funny thing is, when we bought the place three-plus years ago and had the linoleum ripped out, the entire floor looked worse than the section on the right.


And this is where one of the floor registers had to be moved to accommodate the new cabinets. Those new inlays will be stained to look similar to the existing stuff.

Cabinet installation starts tomorrow morning! Preliminary countertop work should begin Thursday.

Day 21: Kitchen remodel

The contractors are gone and the week - when we aren't at work - is ours to finish painting. Might post again next weekend, when painting is done and just before cabinets go in.

Day 20: Kitchen remodel

Paint's up, along with wood filler in all the not-quite-perfect spots on baseboards, windowsills and door frames.


Years after moving in, here we are back in the first room we tackled.


This is Amy's "I LOVE PRIMER" face.


Not to mention Wiley, who was thinking, "Damnit, ANOTHER house project?!?


We went with green again, but something darker than we had before. Wanted it to still compliment the purple in the nook.


It's a lot of green now, but there's a whole lot of white cabinets to come.

Day 19: Kitchen remodel

Knocking the drywall dust off and sanding the oh-so-rough baseboards leaves me one dirty dude. Maybe this is what I'll look like when I start going gray.

Days 16-18: Kitchen remodel

Mud... takes... a ... long... time... to... dry... in... a... house... with ... 100-year-old... and... wildly... uneven... walls.

Painting starts this weekend.

Day 15: Kitchen remodel

Mud's up and the walls and ceiling are starting to look like they should.



It's all filthy, and fans are blowing everywhere to help dry the mud sooner so we can get on to painting.

Day 14: Kitchen remodel

Nailing inspection down, taping and mudding under way.

Amy's birthday

To celebrate Amy's birthday, we hit the road Saturday morning for wine country, a secluded hilltop bed-and-breakfast and an escape from the mayhem that is our house lately.

A leisurely drive down involved a few stops for wine tastings along the way before reaching Youngberg Hill.


The view from outside our room this morning, on the wraparound porch overlooking one of the vineyards as the fog burns off.



The birthday girl, as we strolled around the grounds after breakfast.


The pond, from which a brigade of frogs serenaded us all night long. It felt - and sounded - secluded and peaceful and perfect. And they have great wines on site, too. (Which I blame for not seeing the lunar eclipse last night.) Plus, I'm a sucker for staying anywhere that has a remote-controlled fireplace in the bedroom.

All in all, it was a great way to clear our heads from all the chaos around us lately. We got back early this afternoon, picked Wiley up from the boarder, did a little yard work and then had a tasty birthday dinner with the gang at a fun Mexican restaurant Amy likes in Northeast. The weekend was a nice reminder that even when things seem most crazy, we're lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country, to have such a fun, good group of friends and to simply have each other.

As our buddy Erik said once or twice tonight, "Feliz!"

At last, a first

Six or so years after moving to town, and a few months after finally moving - at least temporarily - to working days - I made it to what's known as First Thursday. It's an art-gallery walk in the downtown area that has been so successful various other Thursday night art walks have sprung up elsewhere in town.

Quentin and I met up after work (Amy was at the restaurant late) and headed to Springbox, where a friend, Jim Torson, is showing. Amy and I met Jim and his wife, Sally, on our trip to Morocco. Jim's an artist, and he's created a beautiful collection of paintings from scenes and memories of his travels. In addition to seeing Jim again, I got to catch up with a few of our other Morocco traveling companions.

The show is well worth a look. For me, it brings back lots of wonderful memories of our trip. For others, it's a striking glimpse of what makes Morocco and its people so special. We just might have to find a way to get one of Jim's pieces for our house.

He's showing at Springbox throughout March. After that, his show comes to North Bank, on Vancouver's version of First Thursday in April.

Days 12-13: Kitchen remodel

The end of last week was a little crazy. So to make up for lost posts, here goes:

Good news. Deconstruction is done. Now we're on to putting the room back together. First up, drywall.


And, below, the ceiling with some of the many holes where lights will someday go.


Tomorrow should be the nailing inspection, then on to taping and mudding. Next weekend, if all stays on schedule, we should be painting.