Rehabber’s Rehab

Our countertops were installed today.  We now have SURFACES.  Places on which to put things.  A covering that keeps the dirt out of the drawers.  And the sinks are installed.  We have to get the plumber back to get running water to them, but in terms of appearances, we are starting to get there.

The bathroom and kitchen look like what they’re supposed to be now, and I know that we are so close to utilizing them for their actual purpose.  In a few days I can (or Thor can) wash dishes in the dishwasher and not the tub.  The countertops in addition to the microwave that Thor and Matt installed last weekend are turning the room into a usable space. The microwave was a bit more trouble than we thought it would be because the electrician put the plug a little too high and at first we thought a part was missing.  All the worry was for nothing and eventually it went in.  This increased our quality of life also because we were able to move the old microwave out of the office and are able to start to use that space for its true purpose.

I think I am most pleased with the bathroom.  It is a remnant that we choose in the middle of a snowstorm on a Friday afternoon.  All of the slabs of granite were frozen together and it took 6 guys to pull them apart so that we could look at this piece.  It looks awsome with cabinets and the slate we already have in there.  There was definitely a moment of worry when we chose it because we didn’t have any samples with us to make sure it matched, so I was doubly thrilled to see how good it looked.

The kitchen is thrilling too.  We were finally able to settle the debate over whether the countertops were black or not.  They are not.  They are green with black, gold, and white flecks.  After this weekend it will work like how it’s supposed to too.  As I type, Thor is in the kitchen installing the tambour (appliance garage) in the kitchen corner.

In the past months things have been happening that have lifted my spirits and made my life better.  The shower is wonderful, and I love looking at the tile I painstakingly cleaned off for hours.  I don’t think anyone else will ever enjoy that bath as much as I do.  Then I wander into the kitchen where I have CABINETS with stuff in them.  Tuesday night was spent joyfully, finally unwrapping our wedding presents and getting to put everything in its proper place.  We just kept everything stored in their boxes waiting for the day we would have a place to put it all in.  It was like Christmas all over again.

In honor of this wonderful progress, we finally updated our Projects sidebar.  The backyard got an extra percent because one of the horrible pine bushes we were going to take down fell on its own under all of the snow this winter.  We argued about the rest of them, Thor wanted to represent everything as a little more done, but I say that he doesn’t factor in the details enough.  I am afraid this is a sign that they will never get done because they don’t “count”.

It is freezing cold here in Chi-town, so Thor spent the evening trying to insulate the attic a little more.  I am huddled under a mound of blankets as I write this because it is 59 degrees in our house.  Our ancient heater just can’t seem to keep up with the -11 degree temperatures outside.  We just hope it makes it through the winter and gives us a little more breathing room before having to buy another big ticket item.  The new windows are doing great, though, at helping to keep the cold out.  The main chinks in our armor are the uninsulated area where the new back door is supposed to go, the entryway to the basement, and the attic door.  I do think this will help me win the argument about tiling the sunroom with a heated floor.  The floor right now is enough to freeze your toes off.  We will see.

Today we went to pick out our granite.  We had done some shopping around, armed with a couple of quote we went to see the folks that my “aunt” had recommended.  “Aunt” because I was told by our family friend to tell them I was her niece in order to get the fabricator to give us a deal.  It certainly worked, and we are very happy with our choices.

At the fabricator’s we were able to get a deal on a remnant they had left over from another kitchen.  It’s a beautiful piece, one they call “exotic” due to its irregular streaking, and they made a point of telling us as a slab it was very expensive.  After looking at a few samples, we had a vague idea of what we were interested in, and went armed with names to the wholesaler to pick out our slabs.

Some granites look very different on the slabs, so we got to go and pick out which specific slab of the type we wanted for them to make our counter tops out of.  We are looking for the more standard grade, these are usually more consistent and have less variability in the colors between them, but again and again we picked out mid to high grade pieces.

Finally we found one that we liked and was in our price range, called “Verde Butterfly”.  There are several verdes, but we liked this one because it had lighter flecks and gold flecks, and overall wasn’t as dark.  They are coming to measure on Tuesday, and hopefully 3 weeks from now we will have new counter tops.

This holiday season was filled with fun and sadness, and between the two, and the house, I am worn out. However, we have started to turn a corner. It had seemed like everything that had happened until now was progressively making my life worse and worse. Everything was dirty all of the time, the dust had spiraled completely out of control. We lost electricity in half of the house, there was no shower, the only toilet was in the stinky make-shirt bathroom in the basement. To top it all off, it was cold. Really, really, cold. all of the insulation had been removed from the back of the house in re-doing the sunroom, and it was making winter in Chicago pretty unbearable.

So we retreated to my mom’s for a month, but now we’re back.  The cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom are in, the floors look awsome, and there is consistent electricity, including overhead lighting in the living room (a rarity in Oak Park), and now, we finally have the refrigerator actually in the kitchen.

This past weekend was spent on a few miscellaneous projects.  We got the the window trim all put back up, in the dining room and main bedroom and it looks great.  The new continuous window sil blends in beautifully with the rest of the original trim.  Matt and Thor also got the refridgerator put into it’s built-in cabinet.  And it works, too.  Probably the biggest task was getting the giant bathroom linen closet cabinet in.  A good 2 hours was spent with Thor and Matt locked in the bathroom as they tried to lift the cabinet in and maneuver it into place with about a 2 in area of wiggle room.  They got it in, and trimmed out.  We just need to finish drywalling in the top area around it.  Meanwhile I worked on stripping the door to the basement in hopes that putting that back up will help keep the house warm.  We will get there.

Its Christmas time and the family is in town, what else is there to do but work.

Our cabinets arrived December 23 filling the garage with boxes big and small. Liz and I came back from Indiana the day after Christmas because I was on call and Liz had to work. If work was slow and I didn’t have get called in I would be able to help Matt and Dad install the cabinets.

I spent Friday doing a massive cleanup project, reclaiming our home from the dust for the living. I did laundry for the first time in our new house with our new washer and dryer that arrived a couple of weeks earlier. I mopped three times and still could not see the rich red of our living room floors, but the dust was slowly disappearing. I’m sure your socks and feet will still get dirty walking around the house, but at least now its not being tracked from one room to the next. After cleaning, Liz came home and grouted some holes in the bath tub tile and I painted the ceiling and kitchen walls white so that we could install cabinets without having to later paint the area. I survived the day without being called in to work.

Early Saturday (7AM), Dad and Matt arrived from Indiana and we started installing the cabinets. Its always slow going at first as you need to establish the high point of the kitchen floor so that all the other cabinets can be set level by shimming them up to that highest point. But the Martin boys were firing on all cylinders and managed to get all the base cabinets in and some of the wall cabinets including the difficult built in refrigerator cabinet before break time.

Our Aunt Lynne and Owen were still in town and Liz’s birthday was the next day so we decided to have our traditional family dinner with Liz’s family at a popular gourmet Mexican restaurant in Oak Park- the New Rebozo. We had a lot of fun with the two families, Uncle Bruce visiting from Texas and a fair amount of Margharita’s. You could tell Liz had a lot of fun with everybody she loves together.

The third day started a little bit later and I knew that I just would not be lucky enough to not get called in for a third day straight to work, but Dad and I got to putting together the wall cabinets having learned a lesson that we could attach a manageble bank of wall cabinets together on the floor and then hang them together on the wall. This proved helpful and allowed us to move on to the bathroom cabinets pretty quickly.

When Matt arrived we threw up the last of the wall cabinets and then brought in the monstrous 8ft high bathroom built in cabinet through a complex manuever via the front door. I finally got called in to work just as we were sitting down to a late lunch. When I got back I helped Dad and Matt muscle in the built-in in a tight fit in the bathroom and admired there completed work in the kitchen.