I’ve been negligent about posting further pictures from Greece (hence the grape reference). I will post Crete pictures soon.
I did place an order for draperies this weekend. I needed to replace the homemade tab curtains & Walmart special curtain rods. We really needed to update them to match the new kitchen. They will be fine in Brian’s bachelor pad.
Here’s the fabric I chose:
I saw this already made up in the store and immediately liked it. The background is taupe which I had already as tab curtains. I liked the red accent and the leaf motif. The red is a little brighter than it looks in the photo. I think the fluorescent store lights make it look different.
I did take one panel home to check it out before making the big order. Everyone liked it so I went back and signed on the bottom line.
The new drapes will be pinch-pleated on a new rod. They will open & close smoothly which will be nice. We will now have matching dining & living room window coverings.
As usual I picked something that was not on sale and did not offer a discount of any kind. I debated whether I should pay full price or not. I have never bought custom drapes and probably won’t need to for a very long time. I decided to go ahead with it.
So much for not spending a bunch this month…
The granite, sink and tap were installed last week. They look amazing. We wanted a clean, modern look and we got just that. Whew…
I’m happy with the selections we made. They all seem to fit in well with the cupboards and appliances. The tap profile is similar to the cabinet handles which mimic the appliance handles. I don’t think we consciously did that but kind of nice that it all worked out.
The granite has many colours to it. It isn’t a solid speckled shade but does have a lot of variations in it. It is called Bianco Antico (White Antique). It has various shades of white, gray, a little brown here and there and tiny specks of siver. It goes so well with our dark cabinets.
The granite is shiny and doesn’t show the dirt. I love that. It also means I’ve knocked our reading glasses onto the floor a couple of times because they disappear on the surface. Note to self: get reading glasses that do not match our granite!!!
We picked a large single tub instead of the double ones. We put just about everything in the dishwasher so the sink is used for large pots, pans and casserole dishes. They never fit well into the double sinks. So far the large single one is working out perfectly for us. I love the fact that it is undermounted. It is so much easier to keep clean.
The tap is great. It has a spray nozzle that turns off automatically when you turn the water off. The nozzle pulls out so you can spray around the sink. We still don’t have much hot water though. That needs to be fixed.
I’m finally finding most things on the first try. This kitchen layout is so different than what we’ve had in the past. I typically open 2 or 3 drawers before I find what I’m looking for.
Time to rearrange things so that I can find what I want first try. Everyone else will have to do the hunting now!
With all that’s been going on in the kitchen I haven’t written yet about our new solar heating for the pool.
We now have panels on our house roof that connect to our pool pump. An automatic sensor opens & closes the valves to control the water temperature. As soon as the water on the roof is hot enough it pumps it to the pool. It then shuts down automatically if the roof water is cooler than needed or the pool reaches the desired temperature.
We don’t have the electric hookup yet but we are able to run it by using an extension cord. Dave plugged it in when the sun came out. Within minutes the water coming out was hot. The pool was at 79F and the water from the heater was 110F. Within a few hours the pool heated up to 83F!
I love the fact that we don’t pay to heat the water. The system itself was expensive but it will pay for itself in no time.
Now if we can just have some decent summer weather. I hope to test it out when I get back from Greece.
The granite guy came and measured the counter tops. That means we should have granite installed in 2 weeks. Maybe by the time I get back from Greece they will be done?
The granite we picked is called Bianco Antico. Here’s a picture of it. I think it is lighter than it looks in the picture. It should go well with our dark cabinets. All the design people think it’s a perfect match. We’ll see.
Joe is back. He has the cut down cabinets, the glass door and the crown moulding. He gets to work installing everything.
He gets the base cabinets installed. He gets the kick plate on the island finished. It looks perfect. He gets a bit of the crown moulding done.
There is so much to do though. He won’t finish today.
The last coat went on yesterday. The floors are still too sticky today. It’s so humid out that they just aren’t drying fast.
We turn the air conditioning on and that seems to help but we won’t be moving anything back.
I’m off to get new blinds for the patio door. We can’t use our old curtains (nor do we want to) because the cabinet doors bump into the hardware.
There is so much detail to finish. It will take a while before this is really all done.
The guy’s are back to finish the installation. I doubt they’ll get it done today.
They work on the island kick and make some wonderful suggestions to make it look it’s best.
The crown moulding they sent is wrong. It has the profile we want but they ordered one that sits on top of cabinets instead of mounts to the side of it. Joe says they can cut them back at the warehouse. I’m surprised by the number of problems we are encountering with this.
So they don’t finish today. There is just too much to do and pieces to be remade so they’ll be back on Monday.
I had really hoped they would be done today since the granite guy is coming to measure. Now we have to reschedule him and we can’t put the kitchen back in place.
The floor guy comes to give the floor it’s last coat and polish. No walking on it for at least 24 hours.
I can’t wait for this to be over.
The kitchen cabinets are being installed today! I’m working from home to be available for any issues that might arise and because I can’t wait to see how it all looks.
Joe & Joe Jr. (yes his son) are here to do the installation. They are very nice and meticulous. I leave them for a while as they measure and mark and measure.
It doesn’t take long before a problem occurs. The cabinet over the refrigerator is too wide. It’s a 36″ cabinet when it should be a 33″ one. We look at the drawings and he tells us that a 36″ was ordered. He’ll cut the cabinet down but we’ll need new doors.
Then they put the island in place. They call me up to see how it all fits.
Something is wrong. It’s too tight around the island. There isn’t enough space. I was sure I had more room around than that.
I start measuring with them. Then I point to the base cabinets along the wall. These are supposed to be 18″ in depth not 24″. There’s the 6″ that makes this too tight.
After a few phone calls they agree to take the cabinets back and have them cut down to 18″.
We finally agree on the island placement and they put those in place.
By the end of the day he has all the upper cabinets installed. One glass door is missing and one regular door is missing. We don’t know why, they just were not delivered.
He plans to finish tomorrow.
Hmmm, seems like a lot of work left to be done to me?
Got the word today that our kitchen cabinets will be delivered tomorrow and installed on Thursday. Whew! That will be a big relief.
On Friday the floor guy will come back and do the finishing coat and polish the floors.
I’ll be able to start moving the kitchen back on Saturday. We still have a couple of weeks before we get our granite counters though so it’s not a finished product by any means.
Hopefully we can get a sink working in the meantime.
That’s right. We don’t have kitchen cabinets. They were to be installed last week. We are still living with our “Garage Kitchen”.
Dave phoned quite a few times and finally was able to talk to the man in charge. The president of the company phoned him and explained the situation.
Our cabinets are stained dark brown. These types of stain take time to dry and with the humid weather they have taken longer than usual. The company also has an unusually large number of requests for dark cabinets (the current fad). This has put them behind. Theyhave been working overtime but there is only so much they can do given the humidity.
He reassured us that the cabinets are being done in order and we are not being bumped out by others. The new estimate is to have them in on Friday the 18th.
The granite counters take 2 weeks after that. I won’t have a finished kitchen for my once a year dinner party with some friends. I also won’t be here when they install the counters since I’ll be in Greece.
I just want it to be over…
