When the granite installer added the final stretch of countertop I discovered that the brand new kitchen wall bowed in the middle.
At first I got pushback: "these old houses never line up straight." There's a drain pipe in the wall. Fine. I pushed back. Get the drywall guys back in here if you have to. This is a brand new wall - it should be straight.
Now it is. Just have to push back a little sometimes.
And so ends the Year of the Kitchen. We still have a few weeks of work left - a little beyond the schedule we'd originally set out, but things are looking good so we'll jusk suck it in for a little while longer.
If we'd gone with the other contractor we'd still be a month away from even starting the demolition.
Work on the upstairs back room has just wrapped up - all it needs is a little carpet. It sure looks a lot better than it did.
They set the bar a few days ago. The new top is made of Avonite, maraschino the color. We fell in love with the little sample square months ago and keyed the basement colors off of that.
Avonite is similar to Corian, manmade and consistent (unlike granite). Thing is you can't use the Corian glue guns to slap the stuff together, you have to use Avonite-specific gear if you want the work guaranteed. What a racket.
We cleared out enough debris in the living room to put up a skinny tree. Trees have gotten expensive (sixty bucks for that?!), but late in the game the tree guys are willing to shave a few bucks off to clear the lot.
I think we have another flying squirrel. Peanut butter has been deployed to the attic.
The tile layout looked simple - a line of diamonds down the middle of the main footpath, one diamond at the foot of the stairs and an intersecting line leading to the laundry room. Simple straight-edge work.
So what's the middle of the footpath? There's the width by the stairs... then the narrower width where the bar butts in... then the drain stack bumpout... the light over the dartboard (who centered that?)... and the centerline of the door leading into the garage. NONE OF THESE CENTERLINES MATCHED.
After scratching my head and shuffling tiles for a half hour I called for backup. Steve recommended splitting the area by the stairwell in half. I think I nudged that measurement an inch to keep the bar section of the hall from getting cramped, plus ease the garage door offset.
I aligned the diamonds perfectly using Steve's laser sight. Catching the laser on the very corners of each tile made for as straight a line as anyone could hope to get.
UNFORTUNATELY THE WALLS AREN'T SET AT 90 DEGREE ANGLES. It's apparently a common problem with old houses, or so I'm told. Looks fine on its own, but when contrasted with another grid the eye tries to resolve the geometry - leading to a queasy, disappointed feeling when the job is done. The baseboards angle off just slightly, but enough to clash subconsciously with the right angle I snapped out with the laser sight. Alas!
It's subtle. It's also way too late now that the tiles are set. If I think about it too much I get depressed. I'm going to try throwing down some things (a mat, a trash can) to break up the lines a bit. Maybe when we carpet the stairs it'll be okay.
Lesson: Snap your lines with care. If you want to lay down a grid make sure you don't live in a rhombus.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
The flooring guys are coming this morning to finish off the basement.
I've marked off the dartboard throw line. Let's revisit the original plans.
There will be some on-the-fly layout today. I'll be working from home this morning.
We have a floor again, this time made of 3 1/4-inch wide Canadian maple.
The guys got started early this morning and were working late when I got home. The time-consuming part is trimming the edge boards to fit around the cabinets and appliances.
There was a lot more variation between the individual boards than we expected, but it's a good quality batch overall. The reddish stain really warms up the room. It doesn't go all the way to the other wall yet, but it will.
I ran by ApplianceLand to pick up the microwave. Big! Heavy! Stainless! Ow!
The day after the countertops were installed one edge caught my eye - it wasn't dead straight. I had to put a yardstick against it to convince myself, but sure enough the line was bowed. Oh well - everything was glued in and I didn't see much hope of the slab going back to the shop. I mentioned it to Steve anyway, as the installers were on the way back to finish up another section.
A diamond saw comes in handy. They re-cut the edge on site and I can look at it again. Though we were lucky we chose a simple round bevel - a more complicated edge pattern would have probably meant a trip back to the warehouse.
Getting there.
The faucets and gas are hooked up.
Last night we got to cook for the first time in almost three months. Everything we pulled out of the dining room was dusty - the ingredients, cutlery, dishes, dishtowel... so what if the first bowl of pasta is a little gritty?
Home stretch.
I saw it pull up in the truck this morning.
The installers spent most of the day lining the stuff up. They attached the sinks and drilled holes for the faucets - the plumber is coming tomorrow to tie everything together. Sinks & stove - it'll be like we're human again.
I saw the counters before Melanie got home. My eye was immediately drawn to the light vein that pops out under the spot where the microwave will go. It's right near the seam where they had to split the counter - the whole job wouldn't fit on one slab - and the seam splits another vein. There are three disjointed artifacts in a critical space and it's taking me a long time to get past that.
I think I know where the coffee maker's going.
Seeing everything bare makes the discolorations leap right out. When you put life stuff around the character marks they blend back into the overall landscape. By the time Melanie saw the counters the marks were minimized and she didn't see anything wrong with them. I think I'm over it.
This is a big day. The seed for this whole project was planted over two years ago when we accompanied friends to a granite warehouse - they were remodeling their kitchen at the time - and all the lovely stone got us thinking. Now we have our own lovely stone.
I hope the guy's okay - I was just fired up to see the stone today.
One of the installers got hurt so the granite's not coming today. Maybe tomorrow, weather permitting.
These pendant lamps we picked up defy photography. None of the pictures I take do the amber shade justice.
The lamp is all metal and glass and it manages to amplify the high-frequency whine of the halogen bulb filament. Depending on how much I tighten the support rods it can sound like a tiny dentist's drill. This could be trouble. I see some independent experiments in acoustic damping coming up.