Tiles and Stove and Fridge, Oh My!

It has been a while. But, really, how many pix of drywall mud drying do you really need?

It took about 3 weeks total, but the drywall is done. There has been a fair amount of touch-up work including about a half-dozen junction boxes and outlets that were “plastered over.” Fortunately, L was his normal prescient self and had photographed locations of most of the electrical wiring and plumbing locations. Me, I photograph the fun stuff. He does something USEFUL. I am growing much fonder of the recessed ceiling panel in Dining Room and am almost convinced that, when painted, will actually look like a design feature, instead of a plumbing fix.

A small thing that I am immensely grateful for:

Over the holiday weekend, L installed them on 3 of the 4 stair runs. Navigating down the stairs was really tough without something to hang onto. This has made things so much easier.

We talked to the cabinet guy and clarified what we wanted. It turns out that cherry is photosensitive and it will get darker over time. He gave us a piece to use when sampling countertop materials.

So many of the pix online of craftsman kitchen remodels show dark countertops but I didn't think I wanted that. This was my early favorite:

It's called Tea Leaf and there are definite green spots in it, but then I saw a pix of a model kitchen with it and it read as more gray. Here's another one:

This is Amarillo Palmira, and I like the fact that the cabinet color is pulled in, but the cabinet color will change over time. This cherry wood is from about 3 years ago.

The darker ones I didn't care for at first, but I'm beginning to reconsider. If the countertop and cabinets contrast each other, you can see them both. Otherwise, they kind of melt into each other.

I still don't like the one on the left, too gray. The other one, Mountain Mist, is growing on me.

Someone at work said, as long as you don't get something that you hate hate hate, you won't even look at the color after a couple weeks. Which is probably true.

Next on the agenda – get the floors leveled. There are some real elevation changes, due to piecemeal assembly or fill-in where there used to be walls, some expected settling (the house *IS*87 years old), a few remaining holes open to basement and some very definite sloping in the Dining Room. The expectation is that all the mishmash of old and recent bits will be removed, floor will be shimmed or leveled and we will place new subfloor. We need to remove what’s there because we don’t have clearance with the existing doors if we just “paper over” the problems. The hardwoods will (eventually) go over that. The final batch of hardwoods could be the last major construction item.

The appliances (induction range and French door fridge) that we purchased a couple months ago, are due to be delivered this afternoon. L has purchased the sink for powder room; we are re-using the existing recessed medicine cabinet. A new toilet and door are stock items at Lowe’s.

We need to make some color decisions SOON. The bathroom will have about a 3-foot high “wainscoting” of white subway tile, with some decorative tiles as a border. This allows us to use up our leftovers from Master Bath. We haven’t decided on the decorative tiles yet. We looked at some last weekend, gorgeous Celtic knotwork pieces, about 3x8 inches each - but it would have been over $300 for 16 linear feet, and prob 6 weeks until delivery.

We just got back from Pratt & Larson and, surprisingly, didn't really find anything there that worked either, unless we wanted to wait anywhere from 4-10 weeks. If we have to wait that long, we might as well get something we really want (see above).

We did pick up the new bathroom FLOOR tiles.

L wants the powder room done ASAP. I just want it ALL done. Period.