Week 26

More big milestones this week. Getting closer to finishing!

But first, a picture from photojournalist AJ, of Amanda & me painting one of the kitchen walls last week:

Thank you for your contribution, AJ!

After painting all day Sunday last week, Amanda stayed overnight for slumber party fun times (which consisted of us all nodding off at 9:30) and to help with the painting happening on Labor Day. Unbeknownst to us, Pickles also brought home overnight guests that day: fleas. Then, on top of all of us getting chewed up the night before, the salad we ordered in with pizza for lunch on Monday wasn't...quite...right, & we all got belly aches. What a way to thank Amanda for giving up two days of her long weekend!!!

Anyway, back to Week 26. Two big things happened on Friday. First, the countertop was installed:

From another angle:

Inspector Pickles approves:

The counter is made from wood that was previously holding up the house. It makes for a very beautiful surface, with a lot of character. Here's a detail, showing one of the beetle-damaged pieces:

Here's a picture of the same piece of wood, from underneath:

Beautiful...when it's not holding up the house.

We also got a real doorknob and deadbolt on the back door:

Hooray!

Nothing happened on Saturday this week. Instead, the guys came on Sunday to install outlets and switches, and to retile the bathroom (it had not been done to Mr. Bunkport's satisfaction). Unfortunately, it ended up being unexpectedly loud, because they decided to rip everything out & move the tub valve. So now we're back to this:

Sorry neighbors!

Still, there is more good news. They vented the dryer:

Yes, that's right: for the first time in 26 weeks, we have laundry!!

We immediately did a load of stinky, flea-ridden dog bedding:

And then this happened:

Looks like a leaky drain hose. AJ, Mars master plumber, is going to pick up a new one tomorrow. Surely we will have laundry fully up & running by this time next week! It must be true!

Meanwhile, we do have outlets and light switches all complete in the kitchen.

Exciting outlet:

Breathtaking switches:

And the beginning of the outdoor light switches:

Mr. Bunkport & I also went over to a sort of junk yard for recycled building supplies to look for cool fixtures for the bathroom. We found this medicine cabinet for $10:

After Mr. Bunkport left, we moved the big blue chair temporarily in our storage/dining room  back where it belongs, in the sun room. The dining room is almost a dining room again!

It looks oddly under-furnished in there now. 

Pickles doesn't care. And she'll sit in that chair wherever she finds it:

We're both very busy at work right now, so losing our usual Sunday relaxation to construction was rough. But except for staining the counter, the windows, and the door, the kitchen is officially complete! We celebrated with a toast:

And we had our first dinner at the counter. 

Next up: staining the counter, completion of electrical & plumbing work, completion of the retiling, and beginning to move stored stuff out of our offices & back into the garage.

Week 25 (+1 day)

More progress this week. Apologies to our friends who look forward to catching up with the project on Mondays; Labor Day felt like a continuation of Week 25, so I thought I should just post it along with everything else.


Monday

On Monday, the tile floor was sealed:

Well, sort of. I asked about some spots that still looked unsealed, and the head tile setter reported that it hadn't been done properly. He went back & did it himself on Tuesday.

Said tile setter also made great progress on Monday:

We were expecting the tile to stop around 4 feet high, so were surprised that he was apparently planning to go all the way to the ceiling. We talked to Mr. Bunkport's guys on Tuesday morning to find out why. Turns out, the reason was related to their having to build out the walls slightly to meet the tub, to avoid water problems later. They agreed that perhaps the full wall was a little too much, and we ended up with them pulling three rows down to arrive at a height around six feet.

Tuesday

They finished the tile on Tuesday:

If you look closely above the tile (click on the image to blow it up), you can see how the wall bumps out about an inch.

Another detail: they finished the corners with this brushed nickel strip:

Looks great!

Meanwhile, they were hard at work on the kitchen counter & tub front, building a worktable for them in the garage:

Very exciting to see it coming together!

And that afternoon, Pickles had a nap in the sun, in her once favorite/favorite again room:

Wednesday

On Wednesday, another piece of exterior trim appeared:

And more progress on the counter:

They also primed the walls upstairs:

And down:

Thursday

The counter & tub front got one step closer to done:

Friday

On Friday, they added an edge strip to the counter:

And installed the tub piece:

Saturday

Sheet rock guy had to come again on Saturday to do some additional work, including finishing off that bumped-out wall in the bathroom:

They offered to have the painter come again to re-prime on Sunday, but I had actually managed to buy paint and round up very kind & willing friends to help us paint over the long weekend, so I said we'd just do it ourselves, so that we weren't waiting around all morning for the painter to arrive.

Sunday

Amanda joined us Sunday morning, and we hit the ground running, putting a light cream color on the walls in the kitchen and sun room:

And painting some stools generously given to us by our friend Robin:

We painted them the same red as the accent wall that Adrienne has always wanted in the kitchen:

We did another wall on the other side of the room, as well. And Adrienne, disgusted by the grungy freezer door that refused to come clean (and clearly drunk on the color red), did this:

It was a very long day, but we finished! We chose these particular colors to play up the warm light we get in the afternoon. It looks pretty great.

Labor Day

Both Amanda & Susie joined us to do the downstairs on Labor Day. We started with priming the bathroom:

There are no lights in the new room yet, so we used this 1000 watt lamp to light our work. It was like painting next to the sun.

After priming, we put the same cream color on the walls downstairs (same idea: play up the warm afternoon light):

After that, we moved on to the bathroom, painting two walls & the ceiling a bright white:

Meanwhile, the dog was absolutely no help at all:

People still painting:

Dog still sleeping:

After the white, we put a nice blue on two of the walls:

This is the same blue that we put in Adrienne's office, & which was generously given to us by Amanda & Matt.

More painting:

More lounging in the sun:

I didn't take any photos of the finished cream walls, because even though the trim is white, it's too hard to see the contrast in the photos, & I didn't want to bore you. Here is the finished bathroom, though:

Enormous thanks to Amanda & Susie, who gave up their time this weekend to help us get this done!

We were so happy to have finished the painting, and so tired, I didn't think we would get to tackle reassembling the kitchen. But Adrienne soldiered on, and I was so inspired by her fortitude that I followed suit.

I mentioned in Week 23 that most of the stuff that normally lives in the kitchen is currently in the dining room. This is the horror we've been living with:

Here is the dining room after we finished as much as we could (given that there is still some more work to be done by Bunkport & Company):

We have a kitchen again!

Up through this week, one of us has been able to take noise-sensitive Mrs. Pickles out & away to Amanda's & Matt's basement. Unfortunately, Adrienne is back to work & I need to go back to the office this week -- that means that the dog will be here alone & that means, in turn, that Monday-Friday work has to stop. We're both worried about what this means for the timeline, but there's no way around it. Mr. Bunkport doesn't seem overly concerned about it, so we're just hoping for the best.

Up next...at some point: kitchen counter & electrician!

Week 24

This week felt like a slow week, but that's what all the books say -- the finishing stage is excruciating, because it goes very slowly. So I guess, then, that we're doing great!

I was at a conference Sunday through Wednesday, so we're skipping straight ahead to what I found on Thursday.


The upstairs trim is now done:

There are exciting looking measurements and sketches written on the wall where the countertop will go:

And a surface planer arrived that Mr. Bunkport will use to clean up the wood that we're recycling into the countertop & bathroom furniture:

A large framing board was cut out of the threshold of the bathroom door, leaving nothing further to trip over:

And the backer board for the tile backsplash was installed:

I still don't know why the bathroom was mysteriously boarded up last week. I guess whoever they put in there is finally out of timeout.

Friday

A little more exterior trim was added on Friday:

And they began to clean up that recycled wood:

This tiny stack generated two huge trash cans full of saw dust:

Meanwhile, the rose bush is looking very happy:

Saturday

No guys came to work on Saturday, so I took advantage of the calm & space (& industrial-strength wood glue) to use some scrap wood to make a table top & shelf for this old Ikea rolling hanging file caddy:

And Pickles took advantage of the beautiful weather to practice her best junk yard dog impersonation:

Sunday

No work happened on Sunday either, except I measured things to plan for buying paint & mulch. AJ went to perform taiko drumming at a local street festival (& I just wanted an excuse to post this picture of her doing it):

They were fantastic!

Also, I want to add that last night at 3:20am, we had our biggest earthquake since the 1989 one that collapsed the Bay Bridge. I am very happy to say that everything is absolutely fine, thanks to our excellent new framing. Thank you, Mr. Bunkport!

Next up: final patching & priming upstairs & down, finishing the electrical bits, and installing the countertop. We may also do a painting party on labor day weekend...we'll see how close I get to organizing that.