I'm on the Road to Somewhere

One of the unfortunate realities of living in Rockport is working in Corpus Christi. The living here is great, the working is nonexistent, so I have had to settle for working down the road in another fishing village, Corpus Christi.

Thirty miles one way, every work day, both ways, thirty miles, in a car, by myself, every day to work, driving.

Thirty miles.



Windshield is cracked and the sourgum is done.

Cotton is up.

Bridge rusts.

Back Splash

Well, the last 2 days of our "vacation" were pretty grueling. They were LONG, we didn't stop for meals until really late, and things did not go Taylor's way. But, we're getting close. Here's Taylor cutting tile on the wet saw that my sister, Millie, and her husband, Kevin, bought when Taylor tiled their bathroom in San Antonio. It sure is nice to have our own saw.


It took both of us working pretty quickly to put in the back splash tile. Here's me putting in the next-to-last piece.

Here's Taylor putting in one of the final pieces on the wall at the sink.


It's not a very good shot and there are still holes where electrical outlets are hanging out, but this is the biggest wall of tile. We still have to grout everything.


Taylor spent the last day trying to install the sink and the dishwasher. The dishwasher wasn't such a big deal, but the sink is quite large and did not want to fit and then clip into its hole. Taylor had to do a lot of problem-solving and creative wood working to get it in. Then, there were the problems with plumbing parts not fitting properly. One part was defective, and he needed different extension pieces, but of course, we didn't find that out until the stores were closed. Here Taylor is working on the dishwasher.


Now he's fighting with the sink, which, by the way, is a granite (silgranite) sink. Taylor calls it plastic, and we've argued over and over about it because it's 80% natural granite stone that has been chemically polymerized with resin. 20% resin does not make it plastic!!! Granite sinks are highly resistant to chipping, scratching, and staining. They can also withstand really high temperatures. They're also not cheap, so again, where he gets off calling it plastic?!

Here's Bucky taking a break from following us around and getting all anxious when there are loud sounds like power tools and frustrated humans yelling.

Here's Taylor sweating pipe with the propane torch. Too bad the flash from the camera wipes out the cool blue flame blowing almost into the wall. Taylor is working on the backside of the kitchen where we have a closet in the extra bedroom. He's had to do a lot of plumbing work from this location, which has been convenient for him, but we've been without our second closet for several months now. Can't wait to put it back in order. Here he's doing the last of the plumbing, so the closet wall will get closed up soon.


Today I finally bought the correct plumbing piece for him so after we went to dinner to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary which we both almost forgot, he came home and finished the plumbing. Here I'm finally getting to wash dishes in the new sink. Yipee!

Taylor took a picture of one of his hand-made tiles. He made several with a variety of textures in them. This was one of my favorites but there was only one with this design, so even though it was a bit warped, I put it in this prominent place anyway. It looks pretty cool against the glass mosaics, but we haven't cleaned off all the mastic or grouted yet.


So here's what we have left to do... install the edging on the counter tops, put the trim, toe kicks and space fillers onto the cabinets, tile the small counter top near the stove, and finish out the pass-through wall and counter when we convert the garage into the living room. We will do most of this finishing work on the evenings during the weeks because this weekend we start on the garage. FUN!

Counter Tops

On our first day off, we were all ready to do the counter tops when we realized that we had several things to do before we got carried away with the fun stuff. First we had to finish parts of the floor cabinets. However, the main thing was building up the counters so that the rather large tile edge pieces would not cover up the drawer and door openings to the cabinets. This means that we have higher than average counters, but the edge pieces are quite nice, so it was worth the extra work. Here is Taylor working on adding more wood to the tops.


Taylor has injured his right shoulder and has shooting pain down his arm, which means that he should be going to physical therapy and NOT using his arm, but there is no injury recovery scheduled into the dreaded list. I am trying to do all the heavy lifting and other things that strain his shoulder. Here I'm putting in screws in a hard-to-reach area. It means that I get to work some power tools. Taylor doesn't share his toys very well, but now he has to.


All of our animals are terribly neglected these days. They aren't getting all the love and attention they are used to because we work through the evening. Here is Eunie, our male cat, trying to climb up the back of Taylor's legs to get his attention. This is a new behavior for Eunie, so we know he's getting desperate.

This morning Taylor put in the backer board. He thinks he's bad 'cause it's all going so smoothly now.

Here I am laying out the tile pattern on the floor. It will go on the wall at the sink.


It took 2 and half days to finally get to install tiles, but when all the preparation was done, it took Taylor only about 3 hours to lay all the tiles for the main counter. He's really pleased with my choice of granite tiles because they butt right up to each other and there will hardly be any grout between them. Tomorrow we will do the back-splash.


One last photo of Taylor being crazy. He's filing a rough edge on a tile piece but pretending it's a violin.

Exciting Installations

It's time for the new cabinets to go where the ugly ones used to be.

Obviously this is a posed shot since IKEA cabinets aren't installed using a hammer!
How embarrassing.

Take that back, this guy should be embarrassed!

OK. He's too cute.
Notice the new ceiling fan. One of my "favorite" things about the old kitchen was the lighting variety. There was a white ceiling fan, a spot light fixture with 3 lights, and a wood and rusted metal chandelier-style fixture. Now, there are 5 recessed lights and the ceiling fan. The next photo shows the pendant lights that hang down over the pass-through counter top areas. There will be a total of 6 of those.

(Can't wait to have things neat again!)


Here Taylor is laying one of the final pieces of flooring.
None of the old kitchen is visible any more!!

It's time once again to build more cabinets. Notice the glass cabinet on the wall. I am forcing myself to wait until construction is finished before installing the glass shelves, although,
you see I am risking a few plates in the plate rack.


IKEA cabinets install very quickly. The open cabinet above Taylor's head will hold the convection microwave which I have yet to find.

That brings us up-to-date. We are taking off several days this week to try to finish the kitchen. Can't wait to blog the rest of it!

And MORE Demolition

The old bottom cabinets are finally coming out.
All I can say about this photo is, "like father, like daughter" - Cleo and Taylor
put their best side forward.

Boy am I glad to see this ugly stuff go!

And talk about ugly stuff. One big benefit to this work has been all the new electrical wiring Taylor has installed. There was some pretty worn and badly installed wiring in this house.


The highlight of my birthday in May was going to the local tile store, C-Side Decorating, to pick out the counter top and back splash materials. But, I forgot that all those wonderful materials could not be installed on wood paneling. Oops! Had to add another step - tear out old paneling and install sheet rock.

Man! That was hard work!!

Taylor has become so good at installing sheet rock that the extra work didn't mess up the "dreaded list." Behind him you can see the rest of that load bearing wall where we will put a pass-through into the new living room.

Custom Vent Hood

While the over-the-range microwaves are great if you need to save on space, I really wanted a strong, quality vent hood. However, the traditional ones are boring looking and the fancy one's are too pricey, so I talked Taylor into creating a custom cabinet around our new vent hood. It took a lot of talking to convince him that this was a good idea. Once I got him on-board, he came up with the design and had it built in no time!
Here Taylor is on the roof cutting the new hole for the vent.

Here he is looking through the hole and you can see the framework for his cabinet.


(Notice that he's smiling in all these photos, but you know it hasn't been all giggles and grins! I'm leaving out all the angst!)

Now he's adding bead board for the cabinet finish. We will do something interesting with tile or metal on the front.

More Demolition

Finally, the old cabinets are coming out!!


As you can imagine, Taylor tried to salvage as much of the wood as possible. Storing all the salvaged material from the kitchen is a bit of a challenge.


Here's Taylor about to take a break with 2 of his favorite snacks - jalapeno chips & a giant jar of pickles.

Installation

Here you can see the first cabinets going in. One will have the new prep sink.


Now Bucky is helping Taylor prepare the IKEA butcher block counter top for installation. (Don't worry, Mom, this was the only time he was allowed on the counter, and it's been sanded and sealed many times since then.)


My other big job has been keeping us fed. On the weekend day that we have off together, we enjoy 3 hot meals. We have been able to use the kitchen during the whole process because the stove was moved to the new side, and we added the additional sink. For some reason, the challenge of cooking in a kitchen under construction has caused me to make some really good meals. For example, I made crab cakes for the first time the other day - go figure!?
In this photo you can also see the new laundry room walls and the new supports for the load bearing wall that became a large opening.

Construction

Here is Taylor building the new walls. We had some discussions (somewhat heated ones) about where to put up the walls. In the end, it all depended on the ceiling joists and existing walls. We didn't gain as much space for the kitchen as I had hoped, but the new walls are well-built. Turns out this was Taylor's first time to frame-out walls all by himself. As with most of his projects, it will take a mighty powerful hurricane to cause any damage to his work.


As a last minute idea, we decided to cover the old popcorn ceiling. Our first attempt was to use 4x8 paneling. Too bad we don't have a video of us trying to get that first piece up, it would be pretty entertaining. Paneling didn't work, so we used pine planks, and Taylor got a new tool out of the experience - a power nailer. The planks went up easily enough but need quite a bit of work to make them look smooth.


As always, I have the painting job. Taylor wasn't too sure about the navy blue, but the dark color really makes the white kitchen cabinets pop, as they say in the design world.


One of the easiest and most gratifying jobs was installing the wood laminate flooring over the hideous green vinyl. Buckaroo, our rat terrier, is standing by ready to lend a paw.

Rip-Out Begins

We started on the "eat-in" side of the kitchen. The plan was to move the stove to this side of the kitchen and add a prep sink, cabinets, and lots of electrical plugs. Once the sheet rock was removed, Taylor began to run wiring, and in this photo you can already see 2 new boxes. That wall with no insulation goes to the laundry/cat room. That wall will be demolished and the room reconfigured so we can gain some extra space in the kitchen.


Taylor is about to climb back into the attic to do some electrical work. He's smiling now because it's February. He doesn't smile now that it's June!


One of my jobs was to assemble the cabinets. We decided to purchase IKEA kitchen cabinets. I got a recommendation from my Uncle Dean and Aunt Katie who had just remodeled with IKEA, and Dean did his mom's house a couple years ago with IKEA. Using IKEA meant that we could afford more cabinets with nicer features than we would've been able to purchase using traditional cabinets. For example, we have 3 corner cabinets with lazy susans and a pull-out pantry cabinet. We purchased from the store in Round Rock which is in a short driving distance from my sister's Millie's house. While it's almost a 4 hour trip to IKEA from our house, we get to visit our nephew, Paul and niece, Anslee which is always a great excuse to go to Austin.