Hey,
Well this is my part of the site and I will begin with some putting up the DVD collection. Hope you will enjoy it.
Picture section
Im plemented a nw picture viewer that will give quite a few more options Press here to take a look.
Enjoy all the pictures.
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Well here is the result of the 2006 Birthday/House warming/Xmass party enjoy
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Kitchen Blog
The Kitchen project has started and I will try to keep you all up to date so here is the first few days of the project but lets start out with what is was before.....
6 November 2006
Now here is day one it was a bit scary since it went fast all of my wall is gone and my main cabinets and only the island remains
7 November 2006
Well it is continuing we have discovered that there is a pipe that we didn't expect (it was hidden between two walls) so we will have to adjust the plans basically back to the original ones were we were going to have a column and hide the pipe in there. The first appliance arrived today well it wasn't a appliance but the free TV that came with the refrigerator.
Today is also the day the cabinets arrive and with the appliances that are going out and the boxes I have stored and the cabinets it is going to be very full in my little garage.
Now downstairs was done a few weeks ago and is a bit busy now with all the stuff from upstairs but still looks pretty good. Take a look I really like the maple floors they ended up better then expected.
Now we are having discussion on what we are going to be doing with the tubes we found and how we are going to change the design to make it fit we will keep you informed on what it will be.
Well Hours late 33 boxes arrived and as expected my little garage is too small to fit all of it and we needed to move the larger boxes upstairs and it all went ok until the last box the Lazy Susan ... the box didn't fit in the front door so we had to take it out of the box and not it didn't fit up the stairs. We tried but no change. After talking to Jm he said he could get it upstairs but for now to just leave it in the hallway and there is were it now is. Day 2 is at an end and and I have an old kitchen that is gone and a new one that is split between my living room, my hallway and my Garage ....
an
8 November 2006
Well it is day three and we are slowing down well with the destruction of my house at least. The new kitchen is still in different places and will be there for a while. The electric installation has started and we had so move some of the lights. We came to an agreement on what we are going to do with the pipe and we are going to try to create a half metal tube and place it against the cabinets with a half table on top instead of the full 36" round table. Bonnie will be trying to get some prices on what is needed. It was also time to pay the piper again you know redoing your house is expensive and at this moment it looks like not such a good Idea but it should get better from now on.
10 November 06
Well we are a few days further and we are learning more about this house (thing that were never connected. piping that make no sense and nails in pipes) But things will be fine... I hope. They have been working on the pluming and the electrics and it starts making sense... The first new thing that is working is the recess lightning .....
20 November 06
it has been quite for a while for more then one reason. The work has mostly been electric and plubimng but also I had a very bad week... do not ask (well some of you know) but one of the rhings that happened I broke my camera :( So I had to get a new one .... A nice present for my birthday from Angela. So I now have new pictures. The flooring for has started on the main level so it is starting to look better, but it turns out you have to put it down from front to back and not from left to right (like downstairs) and I am not happy about that. The place is still a mess but it should start looking better now well it better be it is 2 days before turkey day and not kitchen. So not like last year were I had 10+ people over for the bird. But Bonnie and Michael were nice enough to invite us for dinner (at his sisters place, I wonder if she knows) and I just got an invitation form Tim too so we should be ok.
Ok back to the kitchen the pipe is gone and we went to putting it in the wall and are trying to get a price for a small pillar and still have half a circle for the cocktail table we liked the idea. But we still do not have a price and it has been almost 2 weeks..... good think we didn't wait for it to be made because then we would be way behind.
23 November
Ok it is after the thanksgiving and my "luck" is continuing. I have been having a bad two weeks now. The floor are in but it was a pain. They started late and worked late.. so on day two they didn't start until 4PM ... but ok the floor is in but no wood left (well I think they just took it but hey I payed for it so it is mine) and they broke the lamp above my dining table. So now I have to find a new one for that and get it installed. Today was the day for the delivery of my fridge and guess what they could not get it up the stairs so what to do now ... lets hope Jim will get one of his creative ideas and get it in.... maybe we need a scissor lift for lift it up the deck (yep I now know what that is, I studied up) . But thus isn;t good if we can't get the fridge up I am stuck with a big hole in my kitchen !!!!
I have some more pictured but have not downloaded them to this computer so I will have to do that later.
27 November
Well my luck is continuing today we started the instalation of the kicthen and Jim and his team made quite a bit of progress and it now starts looking like a kicthen. But when I came home I was wondering what the 9" cabinets looked like but I could not find them. Then we noticed that there were none of the black cabinets... hmm turns out the whole island is missing so now we have a bigger problem.
Jim worked with Lowes about the fridge and his is convinced that it will fit in the staircase it should now come tomorrow. I also went back to Lowes and order a wooded dual tier cutterly drawer. I hope it will come in time otherwise I will have a little project. These are the pictures you mssed from day 16 and today
28 November
Well the Lowes people are here and they are sure then can get it up now so lets hope. We have a new problem Jim was under the assumption that the oven was going to be Gas and it isn't so now we have a problem since there is no 220V there and we have to run it to from downstairs but we already have to floors in so this is going to be fun again. We are now at 2 weeks and 3 days of bad luck so lets see how long it will continue but as soon as it turns I better start playing the lottery :)
Ok Finally some good news. The fridge is upstairs it took 3 men and quite some time and a banged up wall but it is upstairs. Now maybe my luck is turning since my neighbor is having the outside of his house done and I got a price to have the basic stuff done and it is not that bad so I am having the work done tomorrow and he is getting me a price for the full bay window.
I am changing the picture structure so now you can click on the picture and it will go to the pictures of that date ... enjoy
November 29
Well the bad luck continues the contractor that I found to replaced the pipes and fix the roof also found that my cutters plate is loose and it has to be taken out. Atleast his pricing is reasonable and he can do it tomorrow. Initially it didn't look like Jim made much progress but he worked late and got a number of cabinets in enough to stack all the other ones on there. My island is still missing.
November 30
Well today they start finishing the floors and as you can see they have started but when we got home my complete upstairs was blocked and we couldn't really get arround there anymore. Appearently they were goin to be using oil based paint instead of water based but Bonnie caught that before they started.
When we got home my bay window was painted but my cutter wasn't repaired and the wood wasn't replaced either I do not know what was is going on. The island is still missing.
December 4,
Well I just went through 4 days of finishing the main level floor and it looks better then it started out with but it is quite different from what downstairs but I thought that was what it supposed to be, but what do I know it is supposed to be a lot closer to the downstairs floor then it is now and Bonnie insistented that it is being redone... So here we go I will have to move out for the next 4 days because it is going to be a mess. Just when I thought that we were starting to do better. I will make some pictures later and add them to this site. In the meantime the kitchen is progressing and the rest of the appliances have arrived and tomorrow part of granite is being measured. We still hope we will complete somewhere around the 15th but I am getting tired of all these disappointments.
December 7
Ok I found a away to get the pictures on here without having my cable. I moved in with Eric for a few days since they are completely redoing my floor again so here is the way the floor was.
This was a finished floor and below this is how the floor is with only the paint on it and no finish yet.
As you can see the floor is a lot more even and the color is a lot closer to the floor downstairs. I thought the floor guys were doing a good job and that this was the color it should have been on there but it turns out that the designer still had the sample and that they never matched the floor up with the sample and they just picked some color. I was very disappointed and a bit lied too. I am glad Jm and Bonnie corrected it and hope all goes well now. Today I need to pick out tile samples. Oh yeah It seems everybody has problems with there processes because I received a call on tuesday that my barstools were not going to be available until February and I canceled the order but then today I got the same call again to say that they are not available nut I already canceled my order !!!!
December 9
Well it has been a few days since we have been home, we stayed 3 days at Eric's house and a night in Old Town Alexandria because of the XMass party and today Saturday the floor was supposed to be done. Well on my way home I got a call that the floor was still wet (it was drying slower ???) but when I got home it turned out they were still putting on another coat on. So that days was lost again.
December 10
Finally the floors are done and we can move our furniture down and start getting organized. It is now looking like a home again. But I do not have much time left to get my upstairs empty so we will have to see. It took some time to get the XMass tree up since this was going to be our first one.
December 11
Jim made progress on the kitchen an basically all our cabinets (they ones we have are in) and the kitchen is starting to look like something. My fridge is back in the house, oh yes during the refinishing the fridge was moved outside and it was there for almost a week. During the evening I plumber of the floor people came to put the the toilets and the sinks back in. And guess what one of the sinks was broken so now I have to get a new one.
December 12
Paul came by to do the last few things on the main level floor and we settle the bill deducting the sink out of it so I went and got a new sink. Well I want to get a nice one but there is a 30 day lead time and I want to have one in for XMass so I got a cheaper one and I will upgrade later. Also my cutely drawer came in and that was a surprise it is a complete drawer and not just an inlay but finally some luck is seems to have the same locking system so I can just change the front and put it in.
December 13
Well we had no progress for 2 days because we were waiting for the island to arrive. And it came today but not in the way you would have expected it. Bonnie and Eric went to pick it up because it was not going to be delivered for another 5 days. Now we learned what kind of tricks these shipping companies are using. They are required to deliver within 5 days of recieval and if they do not they do not they do not get paid. And since they didn't have a truck available to just delayed the recieval. If we had known this we could have had the island sooner. Bonnie also dropped of the hardware and the pillar take a look. Tomorrow we need to make some progress with the island going in and the carpet being installed. It is getting close but we should make it.
December 14
Finally we have a island and look how pretty we also have a new 220V circuit to the oven and the carpet went in so we finished three big items today and guess what nothing broke or went wrong so maybe my luck has turned is it time to play the lottery now ??
December 18
Today the granit (well phase 1) went in and in the afternoon I recieved a email from Bonnie that the granit was cracked so there goes my luck .... but they were joking, I should have known since whe didn't call and just send me a email so nothing has gone wrong yet. Although I have problems contacting the plumber they should have installed the sink. Looks like we might even make it before Xmass but it is going to be a busy few days.
December 22
Well today everything should have been finished and guess what it was not no water, no gas and no oven well that is not going well but the glass is in and my stair way is back to normal. Also the guy from the flooring company canceled on me so I still do not have a sink in my half bath.
December 23 The day before my party !!!
Today we needed to make progress and we did the sink got installed and all my appliances are working now Jim was here until late and as usually he did a great job. The scary thing now was that even I worked on the kitchen. Finished the resses lights painted wall plates and installed whatever I could install so Jim could focus on the important things. Well ay 7:30 at night were done with everything that was important and the rest can wait until after the party. I will put pictures on later.
December 24 B-Day
Well it has been a long 4 days (well 49 days) but after a lot of cleaning and decorating I was somewhat ready. I think the party was a big success and even I enjoyed it even do I was very tired but I must have gotten a second and thirth win because I lasted until 3:30 Xmass day. Everybody loved my new place an I even got an offer on my house that would pretty much get me my money back but would not compensate for all the horror I have been writing about in this blob they would have to come back with a much better offer to make it worth my while. You can see the pictures of the party here.