Sunshine!

We had solatubes installed yesterday in our kitchen and bathroom. OMG they are awesome! The guy who is working on our bathroom said "there is no excuse to not be clean!" when he saw how brightly lit our shower stall would be without a single light bulb on. My goal was to make the bathroom less cave-like and boy did it work!



























In the kitchen, we have all these fancy can lights - four sets of lights on dimmers to light different work areas - because we chose not to take on the expense and headache of removing the load bearing wall between the kitchen and living room to get more light in there. The lights are wonderful, but we needed to use them all the time. There was honestly not a time of day that we could just leave them off and still see to make food. We have two tubes now in the kitchen and I have not turned on a light yet today, and last night I only turned on the under cabinet lights halfway through dinner prep as it started to get dark outside. What a huge difference!

Happy Holidays! This has been a wonderful week - very busy and fun. I got my new kitchen for Christmas and Hanukkah and so did Peanut! Which one do you like best?

Our countertops were installed on Christmas eve, and our plumbing was completed today - so now we have a fully functional kitchen! I even hooked up the electric on the dishwasher (with a little tutelage). I do love the counters - they are the perfect color and I like how they look with the rest of the room. I've already made blueberry muffins and sugar cookies and we have a turkey in the oven right now. I am really looking forward to making an omelet tomorrow. I know Honey is looking forward to using the dishwasher instead of going down to the laundry room sink to do dishes every night!

We worked on some of the thresholds this week - we finished the transition from the rec room to the gym, and I daresay it is the best one yet. So good, in fact, that I want to go and redo all of the other ones. It really is true that practice makes perfect - you can see where our learning curve is in this house!

I'd like to get to some minor things like outlet covers and painting the baseboards, but I was impressed that we got the tree up and even got a few lights outside before Christmas day. We had to prioritize, and being festive came first. We've even been able to light the Menorah most nights.

We've got a few more big projects planned (a few windows replaced, new gutters, insulating the attic), but those are all being contracted out. So now it is just finish work for us - painting, trim, new closet doors, touch ups, and rearranging the furniture. Honey's mom is here this week and his brother and sister and their family will be here tomorrow. We are getting some work done this week, but I think we are really going to just enjoy the next couple of days of no longer roughing it.

I'm hoping to look just as happy cooking in the new kitchen as Peanut does in hers!

Making Progress

So the floors in the kitchen will be installed tomorrow, and then we can put the appliances and countertops in! We (I really - Honey could care less) have been stressing about counters, but I believe we found a solution today - silestone is an engineered quartz that has some post consumer recycled content, has good ratings for air quality, looks nice, is maintenance free, is not insanely expensive, and is on sale at Home Depot! It's 10% off, with free edging and a free sink - so really that is a good deal. I'm waiting for the guy to call me back so I can run in and buy it. He says if we buy it before December 17th it can be installed before Christmas, which is something I was definitely not hearing about the other products we were considering. So we are totally in. Now we just need under cabinet lights, a disposal, and faucet and we'll be in business!

On the flip side, after all of the rain, we noticed a new wet spot this morning around the dining room light wiring. I was so sure there was not a problem, but now it looks like we have to have a roofer come check it out. It's always something!

Countertop Madness

Finding an environmentally friendly and budget friendly countertop is way harder than I had anticipated! I was looking forward to trying something new, and had my eye on recycled glass counters. I had seen some pricing, but did not factor in installation and boy, was I blown away when I got my first estimate! Enviroglas, which was my first choice was about 5 times more than granite. Icestone was about three times more than the granite. It is really tempting to just go for fresh quarried stone and toss the "being green" thing out the window. So now I am exploring all kinds of options. We had Richlite in our old house which is a paper and resin countertop. We loved it, and have added it to our list of ideas in addition to it's competitors Paperstone and Ecotop. We are also checking out Squak Mountain Stone which I suspect is quite pricey. The woman who invented it still does all of the manufacturing and helps with installations. I think she is a small shop with high levels of service.

I've also been checking out craigslist, and found some silestone that a couple removed from their kitchen. There is enough there to do two of our bathrooms and still have leftovers, but the hard part is finding someone to pick it up, cut and polish it and bring it back to install it. We are working on that, but it doesn't help with the kitchen.

The very last bits of our kitchen cabinets should arrive tomorrow, and we can finally finish the cabinets. We are just waiting for the floor to arrive. So, I really ought to have this countertop thing nailed down by now...but I think we will be enjoying a plywood counter for quite some time.

Just Fun Show and Tell

Here is an example of the craziness we see all over the house. This junction was behind the wall, without a junction box. The microwave was hardwired here. This wouldn't be so scary except the wire was pulled from the outlet that the range was connected to. So two appliances connected to one circuit with completely unsafe fire hazard wiring.












Here is a shot of our calendar on the apartment wall. It is the only way anyone remembers what the plan for each day is and what needs to be followed up on.

Well, this one is a little blurry, but you will note that the plumbing on the right is for the old washer and dryer that were in the kitchen, and the pipes come off of that set up and travel completely around the corner and wall to the sink area. All of the pipes are exposed, every cabinet must have been cut to make this work. The black pipe you see is the vent/drain and the smaller copper pipes at the floor are the hot and cold water lines. This, we did not anticipate - I really thought it was the other way around - the sink

branched off to the washer. Ah, wishful thinking!

Much Less Stinky

Another busy day for us while sweet Peanut got to play. She stayed with her aunts and cousin this afternoon and refused to nap because she was so entranced with the cat. She has a had a busy weekend of fun while mom and dad have worked.

Eco-Jani came today and scrubbed our house all day long! They literally washed the ceilings and walls, windows and doors, and all of the floors. They cleaned the inside of the fireplace! By the time they were done, we could have moved in tonight. We can no longer smell any smoke in the house - it is all fresh and clean. I am telling you, I don't think I have ever had a house so clean. They used all green products too, so it was fine to be there while they cleaned and it smells wonderful! If you need a cleaner try them - http://www.ecojani.com/. They even gave us a bag full of Seventh Generation cleaners. I was absolutely astonished at the job these folks did. We may have to treat ourselves to a regular cleaning service.

Sadly, we had to spray the shrooms with some fungicide this morning. I almost want to post a warning, but I don't want to draw more attention to them... We put some makeshift downspouts on - we have had rivers of water shooting out of the gutters and straight into the foundation walls for weeks now, and not owning the house yet, we could do nothing but cringe. Travis got busy with the crowbar and got all of the tile off the kitchen walls, and most of the drywall gone from the wall between the kitchen and dining room. We can start to see the vision for the kitchen - it is already so much brighter.

Once again, craigslist has come into play today. Our dishwasher was hauled off as well as the kitchen floor. Yes, I said the floor. I started to pull it up and realized it was clic/lock tiles rather than vinyl. After popping a few pieces out pretty easily, the guy came for the dishwasher and I offered the floor as well. He said sure and I just sat back while they pulled it up! We've got quite a few intact tiles that we have put on CL as well. This demo ain't so rough!

the end to one obsession

After what seems like a zillion kitchen plans, we made a discovery yesterday that seems to have brought the IKEA Planner madness to an end. At Sears, we found a beautiful Jenn Air freestanding range that has a gas cook top and electric ovens below! Eureka! In addition, the burner controls are on the top right, so little hands can't reach them, and the larger lower over can cook by convection as well as conventionally. The top oven is the perfect size for everyday cooking. This find has eliminated my obsessive quizzing of everyone - "Range or wall oven and cook top?" and has made the kitchen planning much easier since we have found the goddess of all cooking appliances!

imaginary construction

The hardest thing about remodeling a foreclosure is not owning it yet. We are chomping at the bit to just get in and start doing things, but closing is not until next week. Meanwhile, we continue to meet with contractors and get estimates on all of the work to be done. This morning, we met with an electrician who kindly pointed out several more items that if not fixed are a not to code and b very unsafe. Thanks. The list gets longer, and I see our $ not stretching as far as I'd like... Oh well.

We should be able to start working next Friday afternoon after we close. I say "should" because the gas has still not been turned on in the house yet. There is some difficulty in getting the gas company to send a bill to the listing agent so they can pay it and get reimbursed by the bank. We have yet to check the furnace or any of the gas appliances. So if we haven't got gas flowing, we may have to push back closing. On the flip side, the well has been fixed which we did not expect. Saved us some money that will probably go to the electrician :)

While we wait to get in the house, I obsess about the kitchen. I have drawn up literally hundreds of kitchen plans at this point. I have researched cabinet makers, counter tops, appliances...you name it. In my attempt to go green, I am looking at things I would not have thought of before. I'm trying to find out if a cabinet has particleboard in it and if it does, does it have added formaldehyde? Do the finished have VOC's? Is there an unfinished option? The hard part is that solid wood cabinets are much more expensive of course than the less eco friendly ones. Cabinets seem to be the hardest for me - some of the other materials are easy choices because of their appearance and their "greenness". Recycled glass tiles are gorgeous - it is just a question of how much of the tile is actually recycled. Same with counter tops. Anyway, I could go on (and on and on) about kitchen materials and the benefits of a layout with the oven and cook top separated vs. having a range. Maybe later. I need to go read some of my kitchen remodeling books from the library!