Forbo Flooring US - Marmoleum Click
This is the Marmoleum flooring we installed in the kitchen.

Okay, so I said that we’d put up pictures of the kitchen renovation so far - and here they are. We were thrilled to learn, last week, that the tile guy will be coming January 3-6. Then, we will have even more photos and be VERY near completion.

We began the renovation of the kitchen in August 2005, the same week we moved into our ranch. We thought the kitchen would be done in October. Ha! Obviously, we were dreaming.

Here is the kitchen the day we moved in:

Here is a picture of the kitchen floor. The past owners had ripped out a wall (that we decided to put back) and removed cabinetry in the process. I guess they thought having two kinds of flooring was alright - but we thought it had to go!



This is the door between the dining room and kitchen. When one of our friends came to the house, the door was closed, and he opened it while saying, “Is this a closet?” Right then we knew the door would be no more! Well, at least I knew, Eric was hesitant to remove the door. We decided to go for a small arched doorway to mirror the large arch between the living room and dining room.


We began by ripping out cabinets and removing appliances.

Eric is very good at cleaning up at the end of each workday (I am not.)


What is the idea behind soffits? I just don’t get it. Eric began the demolition by ripping out the soffits.


We quickly realized all the walls had to go and Eric would be learning how to wire a kitchen.


We bought some insulation for the walls from our local green store, Your Green Home. It’s cotton.


Because the wiring took seven weeks, and Eric was completely wiped out, we decided to hire someone to do the drywall. Besides, we weren’t sure we wanted to begin our adventures in drywall by starting on the kitchen with the breakfast nook and its interesting angles.



When the drywall was done, Eric began work on the subfloor. I think he might have used 500 screws.



Installing the cabinets was a huge step! Finally everything was coming together. We chose Hickory pre-fab cabinetry from Home Depot, and the flooring is Marmoleum Click (we’ve learned that Marmoleum Click is actually linoleum - similar to what was used in the 50’s, but what most people think of as linoleum today is actually vinyl).




And, our new arch - which we love! It helps to make a small kitchen charming.


We’ll add more pictures next week, when the tiling is done. Hooray!!

ModWalls
This is the online mosaic tile site where we purchased our glass tiles, which are to be installed the first week of January. Pictures coming soon!

So, today we are actually taking a break from home improvement. This could be a first - for an entire day off work. However, I must admit I am using this new web page as a procrastination tool, because I HATE painting trim. The window trim especially. Although we love the trim, the art deco grooves really make it difficult.

Tonight it’s a Mexican Christmas with friends, and then back home. Tomorrow I will continue with the trim. I’ll also take a picture of the trim, since it’s one of our favorite architectural details in the house.

This morning we went to some friends for Christmas Eve Breakfast, and then returned to the never-ending-saga that is our kitchen.

I began today by sanding the window above the sink. I want it to be white - not high-gloss peach. It was a warm 53 degrees here, and that meant I could even open the window to paint the bottom sash. I also started painting the windows in the breakfast nook. I’m just painting right on the glass without taping because I read in a magazine that taping isn’t worth it, especially when we have all this old paint that has dried on the window. So, I’ll be spending time scraping when all is done. It was very important to us to salvage the trim, so it’s going to take some time and reconstruction. I feel like a sculptor when working on this project.

Eric spent the day working with the end panels on the Mills pride cabinetry. We weren’t able to get the floor completely level, so ordered some scribe molding for the bottoms - but Mills Pride screwed up and sent us the wrong thing, a toe kick. So I’m going to have to take it back and stare at the gaps under the end panels for a few weeks. How annoying.