BEFORE

Fully stocked kitchen….

DURING

MOUSE POOP

GUTTED

LIGHTS

FLOORS

PAINT

BOTTOM CABINETS

UPPER CABINETS

DOORS AND DRAWERS

STOLEN MUG DISPLAY

MEASURING

SINKHOLE CUTTING

CORNER

BUTCHER BLOCK

REFRIGERATOR

COFFEE (AND WHISKEY) CORNER

There’s a tree in our backyard bearing this fruit/nut/mutant.  The first person who can tell us what it is will receive a prize (made from this delicacy).

Blank Slate

It was incredibly liberating getting rid of all the old crap but a lot of time was spent agonizing over the new layout, type of cabinets, color, appliances, the list goes on!

The countertop was one of those things.  We looked around at our various options as settled on doing butcher block.

Beech butcher block

We chose it for two reasons: 1. We liked the look and 2. It was the cheapest most affordable option.  Their biggest downside is that they are bit high maintenance….which brought us to our next big decision- how are we going to protect and seal them?

Originally I wanted to use a waterproof sealant to protect the wood because it requires the least amount of upkeep.  But the more I read about it, the more disconcerting it sounded to rub chemicals all over a surface that we’d be preparing food on.

So we decided to use mineral oil and beeswax.  To start we need to saturate the wood complete with mineral oil and so that it will repel other liquids that hit the surface.  After the initial period, we’ll continue to oil the counters about once a month (or so I’ve read).

Miss Chelsea getting her rub on

She coulda been a hand model

Stay tuned to see how they look installed in the kitchen.

We started in the kitchen and dining room so that we could install the kitchen as soon as we finished.  We are looking at cooler colors because the kitchen cabinets we selected have a slight pinkish hue to them so we wanted something that doesn’t highlight that. After houzzing for hours, here are the paint colors we were debating between:

I know….pretty extreme choices.

If we chose Grey Owl or Moonshine, would you be able to tell the difference?  I know I couldn’t!  I’ll leave you on the edge of your seat for a little while longer because first there was prep.

A little bubbly foam to make the drywall look like textured plaster:

Au revoir ironing board

I also take it back.  I don’t mind the paint so much…it’s the primer that gets everywhere.

Get those corners

First Coat

Second Coat

Still reading? What you’re looking at is Moonshine at 75%.

I’m blinded by the beauty

We decided to put down an engineered wood to compliment Enrique’s masterpieces in the other rooms.

Arturo arrived!  I stayed home from work this day to supervise stalk and send continuous updates to Kerem.  Arturo thought I was crazy.

Arturo doing work

Because of the plywood subfloor we have to have a bit of a step between the kitchen and the living room:

watch your step, mind the gap

Arturo did a fabulous job so we can start installing the kitchen next and when he was done he left us a lovely note:

FACT

Before:

Beautiful fluorescent light overhead….really brings the room together.

While it really suits the room in it’s current state.  It was just too classy for us and time for a change.  There’s also a lovely light coming down the wall between the windows which had to go.

Holes were cut:

Drill baby drill!

Diagonal beam! Makes stud finding easy and perplexing at the same time.

Ironing boards were ripped out:

RIP

And here they are:

The lovely Naomi showcasing the new lights

There are zero outlets in the bathroom so they screwed an adapter into the light fixture. Classy.

Also, that window does not open and there is no ceiling fan.  Let’s just hope these guys used scented candles .

HOLE

Ceiling Fan in the bathroom

It was so quiet we weren’t sure it was working.  It looked like the fan was spinning so we did a little test….

Major sucking power

The dust pan just stayed up there!

Light and fan switch

Outlet box #1

Switches!

It may seem small but these outlets and fan are glorious.  Next up will be the kitchen photos.

Here’s a reminder of what the floors looked like before:

The floors were so bad that trash was growing out of them

Meet Enrique.  He came, he saw, he conquered.

He moonlights as a ghostbuster

Enrique buffed and sanded and stained the living room, bedrooms, and hallway.

We discovered that the bedrooms are the original fir floors of the house and the living room is oak with a walnut trim.

Living room with walnut trim all sanded down

Bedroom sans yellow paint and dog pee scents

Enrique advised us not to stain the fir floors the bruising in the wood will make the stain too unpredictable.  But in the living room we went with a coffee stain.  And they turned out beautiful:

Seriously. What is that?

I suspected that there was some sort of wood flooring below and in about 10 minutes the floor looked like this:

So they’re not perfect and were once painted mustard yellow but overall the hallway floor is in really good shape. Theeeeeen Dre showed up, and all hell broke loose. Dre convinced me that there’s probably more of that floor below the multiple layers of kitchen floor.

So clean

I really hate the step up into the kitchen and it would be nice to have all natural hardwood throughout the house. So we started tearing out the plywood in a corner of the room, just to see what might be below.

If you look closely, below one layer of vinyl, one layer of paper, one layer of plywood, one layer of linoleum, one more layer of paper, another layer of linoleum, and a final layer of paper, you can see the lines of the fir floors continuing into the kitchen. Mind. Blown.

Inviting Dre over was the best idea ever. Dre whipped out a skill-saw from his “survival” kit in his trunk (wtf?) and we began cutting up the plywood, starting in the middle and working our way outwards. This plywood was a major pain to rip out, it was nailed, glued, rotten, stinky, and everything else in between. At this point Gulliver (who was happily napping in his truck outside while watching this on youtube) was forced to help as well. We were about 70% finished when THIS HAPPENED.

Gulliver looking up from the garage.

That’s right folks, a hole. Not just any hole, a 4 foot by 6 foot hole in the corner of the dining area, large enough that Gulliver suggests a fire-pole to get to the garage. At that point we were all pretty defeated and decide to call it a night. Inviting Dre over was the worst idea ever.