Floored.

There's no grout yet, and the floors of the foyer, dining room, and laundry room are yet to be done to match, but here's the new kitchen floor:


We think the porcelain does a great impression of wood.

Had a great time not being near a computer all day the last two days. We'll see if I repeat the feat tomorrow. Lovely niece and I have been making progress on wedding-related decisions. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's great girly fun we're having here.

Rapid subject shift: Backyard farm report. The three of us split Unintentional Cantaloupe #1 this evening, and it was quite good. UC#2 fell off the vine this morning, looking near-perfect, so it's in the fridge now. (The seeds must've come from last year's compost, because we didn't plant any. And dang if they aren't working out better than they did last year, when we tried to grow them on purpose and the birds kept eating them.)

Splish, (Back)splash

There's no grout yet, but every tile for the backsplash is in place.


Even the ones that will be hidden from view by the microwave and range hood:


Pretty nifty, huh?


Floor tiling begins tomorrow... we're really getting there!

Doors and hardware

We have our cabinet doors back!


And the hardware installed, for the most part:


The hinges have their own story. They were the third set purchased, because the first two sets wouldn't work, for different reasons. Contractor David had to drive all the way to Ft. Worth to find them. Which he did this afternoon.

And, also today, the vinyl disappeared from our floor! Tile work starts tomorrow.


Newly Engaged Niece arrived today, so I'm taking the rest of the week off work; I will divide my time between avoiding becoming an annoyance to the people working on my kitchen, and girl-centric stuff like going to bridal shops and Ikea and Container Store. (Among other things, I have to find a more stylish dog food bin to go in that pretty new kitchen.)

Granite!

The granite countertops were installed today!


We decided to extend the peninsula an extra few inches out into the breakfast area, in case we ever want to put a couple of bar stools there.

We even got matching granite windowsills. (They really tie the room together... just like The Dude's rug.)



As you can see, the backsplash comes next.


Prep work for the tile will probably begin tomorrow. And our kitchen sink will soon be usable.

Our contractor hadn't had anyone use this granite color before (it's a variety of New Caledonia, if I remember correctly). We're pleased with it. The main countertop was installed in three pieces, but you really have to look hard to find the seams. The epoxy, which a co-worker had warned me about, turned out not to smell near as bad as the oil-based paint (so, no more backyard camping necessary).

It's starting to look like a kitchen again. Only not the one we had before. Which is refreshing.

Oh, yeah. The floor's here.

I forgot to take a picture of the tile when it was delivered last week. Installation is supposed to begin on Thursday. Here it is:


No, it's not wood.

Really.

It's porcelain tile.

Neat, huh?

We think so.

Stinky drawers

(I just had to use that phrase as a headline. If you're from the south, that conjures up images other than pull-out storage bins that smell of oil-based paint.)


Bright and shiny drawers made their entrance yesterday; the cabinet doors return on Monday.

This painting phase has been malodorous. Oil-based works best for this particular setting, but dang, the fumes... Yesterday it was so overwhelming that we set up the tent in the backyard and spent the night out there. Today we were able to throw the windows open and do some serious airing-out. It's not gone, but it's definitely past the odor peak.


They also painted the paneling. The walls up top will be the same color ("Toasted Wheat"), but it has to be textured first. Possibly next week.

Granite is scheduled for Tuesday. Backsplash tiling will follow.

Newly Engaged Niece arrives Wednesday night. Thankfully, she's pretty good at adapting to less-than-perfect situations!

Just so you know:

If you have a kitchen, I'm fairly certain it contains more stuff than you realize.

Here's just some of what we've had in our living room for the past week:


Annnd, another angle:


Yes, that's two refrigerators in our living room. We're using the old one until the new one moves to its proper location.

And if you know the layout of the house, you've probably figured out that the tan love seat is blocking access to the foyer and dining room (staging areas for the kitchen work, soon to be ripped up for the tile phase). The dogs have been treating this blockade more as a loose guideline, though, since they can both jump over it.

We've had some progress in the kitchen itself this week. Documentation will follow momentarily in its own separate post.