Our 3 day kitchen face-lift

Back in November, I wrote about our work-in-progress kitchen and the gradual transformation over the past 8 years. I am very happy to report substantially more progress recently occurred. Here is a quick reminder what our kitchen looked like weeks ago.
On Wednesday night (Dec 1st), we began prepping for the install of the much dreamed about new quartz counter-tops. We had to empty out all of the lower cabinets and drawers. This is where I have to shamefully admit to finding a lot of things I had totally forgotten were there. {I am a closet hoarder and should probably be seeking treatment when I have more time.} On Thursday night, Steve had help from one of his good buddies to actually remove the old laminate counter-tops and disconnect the sink/faucet. Nothing looked stranger than seeing our topless cabinets.
Near 10:00 AM Friday morning, the magic began. Two guys from Granite Unlimited out of Fargo pulled up in a big truck and began moving in three large pieces of quartz. Those guys definitely ate their Wheaties because the largest piece was nearly 400 lbs! I was so very impressed with their speed and professionalism. Within two hours, they had installed, caulked, put in the sink & used a really slick hydraulic marble press to create a virtually invisible seam.

Buh-bye, pink speckled, chipped laminate with sharp corners...

Hello, beautiful, smooth, warm colored quartz... love the rounded edges!! No more stabbing myself in the hip every time I walk around the peninsula. Friday night, Steve (a.k.a The Plumber) installed the fabulous new faucet and connected all of the sink, disposal, dishwasher stuff. The stainless steel, under-mount sink totally rocks.

Saturday morning, Steve & I were ready to go with putting in the tile back-splash. Although, we have never worked with mosaic glass tile before, we have done two smaller tile jobs on our entry way and in our downstairs bathroom, so we had all kinds of confidence. We tried out a new product called SimpleMat, which is a tile setting mat and takes the place of using thin-set. It applied like contact paper and was really handy to use. Figuring out how to get started with placing the tile was kinda trixie because they are offset. The challenge was we had to start with cutting. First Steve tried a wet-saw, but the mosaics were too floppy and didn't cut straight. Then he tried a 4 inch circular saw with a carbide blade, but that chipped the glass tile. The winner ended up being the hand tile cutter, which scores and then snaps the tile... slow, but steady. Once a cutting solution was determined, we started with tiling. With the SimpleMat, you just place the tiles and press firmly. After an hour or so, we got into a rhythm and made great progress. We just skipped making all the tiny cuts around the outlets and the window.

By the end of day 1, we were feeling great about the project and proud of the progress we had made. All of the full-sized tile were placed and only 1 run to Home Depot to get one more 12x12 tile. We ended the day by treating ourselves to a fun family night out with the Hubert family.

Unfortunately, day 2 came with a few more challenges and took us much longer than expected. We got started after church: Two more trips to Home Depot to get the right grout {thanks, Lance for that save}; cutting lots of tiny little tiles to fit around the windows and all the outlets; mixing up grout, applying grout, running out of grout, mixing up more grout, etc. FYI... grouting tiny mosaic tiles is tedious. It took 6 hours to complete all the cuts and grouting and another 2 hrs to buff, buff & buff some more. When that was done, Steve worked on bumping out the outlets with spacers, which ended up being more frustrating and caused another trip to Home Depot. He added stainless steel plate covers that look really sharp.

By 10:30 PM, on Sunday night... our kitchen face-lift was complete...

We are in love with our kitchen. Here is the after...The counter-top, the sink, the faucet, the tile back-splash... all came together. I don't know which of the 4 items I love the most. Now I am busy running around like a lunatic, meticulously wiping out the sink, all stray crumbs and clearing away every random bit of counter-top clutter just so it stays looking this good. I'm sure that will wear off in a few more days, right? Otherwise, Steve will probably be seeking medication for me.

A work-in-progress.

Our kitchen has been a work-in-progress ever since we moved into this house 8 years ago. Back in the Fall of 2002, we only tackled "must-do" items. Those items included replacing the broken dishwasher and stove. Our budget restricted our ability to get the desired stainless steel appliances, instead, we went for functionality, and chose to match the existing almond colored fridge. Later in 2006, our almond colored fridge crapped out on us, so we replaced that with a stainless steel fridge, which means we have been in a continual state of mismatched appliances.

So other than appliances, nothing new happened in the kitchen for several years. Don't get me wrong, there was still a strong desire to make improvements, but those desires & wishes just didn't take priority over the other items "must-do" home improvement priorities.
Eventually, in the Fall of 2007, the lighting was upgraded in the kitchen. Three new pendent lights were installed over the peninsula by my handy hubby and my ever-helpful-younger-brother, Russ. The light above the sink and the center light were also replaced. Everything had a brushed nickel finish. However, the original wallpaper and dark cabinets really overwhelmed & overshadowed the beautiful new lighting.
So, we continued to work on the cosmetic aspects of our kitchen in the fall of 2007, including removing all the wallpaper and painting the walls in Toasted Wheat.
The girls were recruited to help with these tasks as well. By Christmas of 2007, Steve & I tackled the time consuming process of repainting all of the cabinets as well as the cabinet hardware. Steve also added some crown moulding to the top of the cabinetry, which made them look completely new.
So this is where we are today with our kitchen. It has basically been the same for the past three years, with the exception of having to replace a broken microwave with a beautiful stainless steel one. Oh, I almost forgot... a year and 1/2 ago, the window was replaced as well. That was a must-do project since the sill was rotted. After three years, we are getting prepared to make more changes to our work-in-progress kitchen.
Our next step is to replace the scratched, cracked, {ugly} cream.with.pink.speckles laminate with quartz. We agreed on this style, which is called Cascade Pebble from Relianz. We won't get an official install date until the computerized measurements are taken next Tuesday. In the plan, we will have an under-mount stainless-steel sink with a brushed nickel finish faucet put in.
Once the new counter-tops are professionally installed {hopefully by mid December}, we are going to put in this mosaic glass tile as a back splash.
Here is what they look like together. Still need to make a decision on what color of grout to use. Leaning toward cream, which is the color of the cabinets, but maybe tan? Not sure yet.
Steve has signed up to demolition the existing counter-top and to do the plumbing work for the new sink and faucet. We will be able to jointly work on the back splash project with a goal of having it complete by Christmas. Rest assured, our kitchen will continue to be a work-in-progress as we dream about replacing the laminate flooring with real wood flooring as well as having a gas-stainless steel stove and dishwasher. All in good time.

Fifteen minute make-over

Here is a quick little home-improvement project. All you need is a very, very grungy stool (or chair), a screwdriver, a stapler and upholstery fabric... oh, and an extra set of helpful hands and you have a 15 minute make-over!

We have had these stools in our kitchen for 8 years and they have been recovered once, so we have the routine down.
Step one: Remove the grungy stool seat.
Step two: Cut the upholstery fabric with about a 3 to 4 in margin around the seat.

Step three: Tightly stretch the fabric while you have your extra helper staple it down. I recommend stapling 3-4 inches down on a side, then move to the opposite side and do the same. Repeat with the remaining sides working opposite sides as this will stabilize the fabric for you. Slightly gather and stretch the corners and secure with staples. Keep the staples close together, with no more than 1/2 inch in-between the staples.

Step four: Trim the excess fabric away from the staples, so that it looks neat and tidy.

Step five: Reattach the seats to the stool.

Step six: Admire your 15 minute make-over and tell the kids they CAN'T WIPE OFF THEIR HANDS ON THE SEAT EVER, EVER AGAIN and must use their napkins FROM.NOW.ON!
Repeat steps 1-6 as necessary.

Many thanks to my extra set of helping hands {Steve} because I truly cannot make that stinking stapler gun work AT.ALL. Of course, I heard about this fabulous invention called an electronic staple gun from my wizard, genius BFF. Hummm...maybe I could make that work? On second thought... I'll just beg the Hubs to run our crazy hard staple gun in a couple years, when the stools are all grungy again.

Good enough.

Since it had taken 2 days to get the first 4 windows in, we figured it would take another 2 days to get the last half done (I'm good at math). This morning the window crew showed up at 7:15 AM and started in on the 4 remaining windows. This time there were three in the crew instead of just two. Needless to say, things went much faster today. Not only did they get the rest of the windows in today, but they got 6 of the 8 windows are completely trimmed out in the interior.

I am just so happy to have all the window treatments off the floor/furniture and back to treating the windows!! In case you forgot what our living room looked like before, please follow this link.

Here is a look at the oak transition piece that we will need to get stained sometime in the near future.

OK, things are not 100%, but compared to what things looked like at the end of the work day yesterday, this is a huge improvement! The trim on the kitchen and bathroom windows aren't done. Apparently, special trim has to be ordered and hopefully that will be in by next Tuesday.
The bedroom windows are white in the interior and don't have the faux wood thing going on. I think it makes them look brighter.
The truth of the matter is that the faux wood cost more, so we opted to do all white where we could.
The shutters on one of the windows in the front and three in the back of the house still need to get put back on. Guess there was a problem with not having enough of the little button things that cover the screws.

Tasks remaining:

1. Two windows need interior trim
2. Four windows need to have shutters re-installed
3. All windows need transition strips stained

But honestly, things are good enough for me.

A huge mess.

I knew this day was coming. We have been planning to replace the windows in our house for the past 4 years. So, after years of procrastinating, reviewing, getting quotes, hemming and hawing, we finally put-our-money-where-our-mouth-was and purchased new windows for our house. Yesterday, we got a call that our windows were ready to be installed. Tuesday morning, Cullen's started in on the project of replacing all of our main-floor wooden windows (8 total) with vinyl clad windows.
They cut out the existing window after they remove the exterior siding. The original interior trim stays in place.
Then, they slide in the new window, shim & attach it, put in new insulation stuff and then put the exterior siding back in place.
The interior will have a transition strip installed that we will have to stain to finish everything up. The windows in the living room and kitchen have a faux wood finish, which is not an exact match, but does look complimentary. The windows in the bathroom and bedrooms will be all white.

Right now we are in the "mess stage". People, we are deep into the mess stage! Window coverings strewn willy-nilly. Complete upheaval.
My problem is that we were told that this would be a two day project. Based on the fact that only 1/2 of the windows are installed at the end of day two, it is definitely going to be at least a four day project. Question... if installing windows is what you do for a living, wouldn't you be better at estimating the time that it will take to complete the task? Apparently not.

Luckily, the weather has been incredible and since we are just into our first few days of above 60 degree weather in MN, we have no bugs to contend with. This is especially important because we have gaping holes in our house.

Hopefully, I will be able to report on the completed project soon. For now, this is what my living room looks like and my blood pressure is on the rise.
Please, please, let it be over soon!