The drywall guys spent about a day and a half installing and patching wallboard in the kitchen and upstairs back room.

On Thursday evening I had to hide in the basement for a while as they finished up. There were drywall guys everywhere with these explosive wallboard screw guns. The cats were glad to see me that day.

We spent a long weekend out of town and returned to a fresh layer of white dust on everything. This is a tough stretch - everything is a mess, and it gets worse by the day. I spent a while vacuuming the sofa just so I could have a clean place to sit.

Mysteriously we got an estimate for the granite already - while R. Bratti wasn't returning Melanie's calls the kitchen cabinet designer got numbers for a Key West Gold installation. Within our granite allowance no less.

They're up to something.

Today the drywall guys are coming to do the kitchen and upstairs back room.

Last night I ran wire for the in-ceiling speakers. My only real contribution to this project. After wrestling with the stepladder for an hour I'm ready to go back to programming and leave the construction work to the pros.

Steve finished the doors for the back room, so we cut him the 20% check for finishing that part of the contract. If he shows up next week in a new BMW there's gonna be trouble.

We have a new glass door to the backyard in the kitchen. Which means we'll be fixing up that concrete pad in short order now that we can't avoid looking at it.

Waiting on that shower pan.

The guys got ahead of themselves yesterday tearing out the leaking shower pan in the master bath.

We had the bathroom renovated seven years ago. I don't know much about installing shower pans, but Steve says it looks like the original crew either cut corners or didn't know how to seal one of these properly. This detour is costing us $2500. The original installers: Metropolitan Bath & Tile.

This kind of leak would soon undo the nice work in the kitchen below.

As a bonus we can see the bathroom through the hall closet plumbing work.

No idea when the electricians will be back to finish up. Seems like there are a lot of 'emergency calls' in Montgomery County these days.

Steve's just about done with the woodworking in the back room. This radiator cover was one of the last items.

Maybe if Baxter would stop snorting sawdust we wouldn't have to take him to the vet like yesterday.

Yesterday was Change Order Day, where we caught up with Steve on all the on-the-fly modifications we've made to the contract as the project's progressed. A couple hundred bucks here, a couple hundred there, extra pocket door, heat shielding around the radiators, Avonite edge materials, etc.

Then the bill for upgrading the basement floor. Our $1600 allowance for vinyl flooring didn't quite cover the NEARLY $5000 IT WILL COST TO INSTALL THE LINOLEUM WE WANT.

Pocket door latches in a choice of finishes (including satin nickel, which should go well with the stainless steel appliances).

Typically you just see polished brass at the hardware stores. Go internet.

We're going to go ahead and install a pocket door leading into the laundry room, and maybe one for the downstairs bathroom as well. The things are infectious.

And that's not paint on the panes of the back room door, it's plastic that protected the glass when the wood was primed.

To keep the old bathroom door from bumping the cooktop peninsula we've had it converted to a pocket (sliding) door. The mechanism's pretty smooth, but the frame needs about three or four inches of wall depth to conceal the door... we can't hide the frame in the existing wall thanks to a(nother) duct feeding that bathroom. We felt strongly enough about the door style to yield a few inches of floorspace inside the main kitchen area.

Since we had to continue the wall all the way to the far end we popped in another pocket door leading to the back room. Though I don't remember specifying painted glass.

The new sublooring that Steve put down is rock-solid and doesn't squeak a bit.

Three pieces of blue tape in 'elephant' configuration means "don't kick the new gas line."

The elctricians finish up tomorrow. We'll end up with three ground-fault circuits in the kitchen, as code requires safety outlets within six feet of any water source (UL-approved appliances come with six-foot cords). When Steve and I explained the various light systems (overhead cans, pendants over the cooktop, under-cabinet, in-cabinet) the electrician stared at me and asked "You work at an airport?" I got the joke but he kept staring at me so I mumbled "No... I don't work at an airport..."
"'Cause it's gonna look like a runway in here all lit up."

If you live the Good Life and would like to remodel your kitchen WELCOME TO OUR WORLD.

Since the main focus of this project was to remove the wall between the kitchen and the unused breakfast room we knew there would have to be a header beam somewhere - you can't pull down a load-bearing wall without shunting the load somewhere. For a while it looked like we'd have a support column intruding into the room a bit... then another cutting into the planned shelving across from the first. Okay, whatever it takes to keep the upstairs bedroom out of the kitchen. But on Monday Steve (Mike takes credit for pointing this out) realized that the original load-bearing wall wasn't really bearing much load - apparently building codes in the 1930s were a little less stringent. The solution could have gotten pretty bad, putting posts through the basement (where doors are now), but in a stroke of genius or desperation Steve decided to try tying into the cinderblock wall that sits along the hall in the basement. He had to go to the county inspectors on Tuesday to ask for clearance, and he got it. And we get to lose the posts inside the drywall - the beam lines up in between the pocket door frames. No columns!

By the time I got home today (Wednesday) the original and temporary wall frames were gone and I got to see the full kitchen space for the first time. I'm getting excited - the space feels great. Of course it will be filled in with cabinets and appliances in a few weeks...

What was:

is:

What was:

is:

I don't have an original photo from this angle (looking across the kitchen toward the back room):