Before and After

Here are the Before and After photos of the house.
We absolutely love the final result. Due to the structure of the house in certain areas, we needed to modify the design here and there but the end result works perfectly!
The soapstone countertop is beautiful. Soapstone is a little different and took a little to get used to, but the pros so far outweigh any cons. Others may have other opinions, but hey, it's my kitchen. For example... soapstone is softer than granite. it scratches pretty easily. Most scratches disappear with a touch of mineral oil. Bigger ones can just be sanded away. It may be softer than granite, but it is less porous. That is what sold me on soapstone in the first place. Non-porous means no bacteria hiding in microscopic holes on the surface. It means no stains. So far the following items have not stained the countertop (some experiments were accidental, others not) ; bleach, paint, coffee, wine, berries, glue, vinegar. All without needing to seal the countertop with some nasty chemical sealer.

BEFORE

AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE



AFTER

Decisions

Three choices for the accent color in the kitchen;
1. Armored Steel
2. Greenland
3. Windrock

The main color of the dining area and living room is called Desert Suede.
I'll give you one guess... what was Stuntman's choice for the accent color?

Dreams and Ice Cream

Yesterday, the cabinetmaker and his guys installed most of the doors and the crown moulding. It is now officially my dream kitchen. It would be fine with me as is... but I'm sure that it will be even nicer with the walls smooth and painted and the floors something other than old vinyl or sub-floor.
E1 and I were admiring the kitchen when I said that I must be dreaming. She reminded me that if I was dreaming, everything would be back into the cabinets. Soooooo, I spent a few hours deciding where everything belonged and filling the cabinets.

During our hail storm yesterday, just after all of the workers left, the contractor stopped by with a few quarts of ice cream from Mashti Malone's. He had told us before of their rose water ice cream, so he decided to bring us a gift for Easter. Seriously, what a nice guy. The ice cream was delicious. I had never heard of the place before, but I'm sure that I will be visiting in the future. He brought rose water ice cream and also faloudeh. The two flavors together along with a splash of lemon juice on top was delicious. I think the faloudeh is a sorbet, it doesn't say on the package, and it isn't on their website. It tastes a bit like tapioca pudding.

Stuntman is home. Life is good.

I almost cried a little

Now my kitchen, although it has no running water, is officially nicer than any kitchen that I thought that I would ever have.
The fabricators arrived today with my countertops and they are gorgeous. I am so glad that I didn't listen to everyone... and I mean everyone, when they said "why don't you just get granite?" The soapstone is perfect. I love the feel of it. The top photo is what it looks like dry, and the bottom photo is after a coat of oil. No nasty, toxic sealant needed. Just an occasional coat of food grade mineral oil to bring out the color and hasten the natural darkening of the stone.

The garden is full of tiny sprouts. E3 assisted me with transplanting the baby radishes today. The seeds sprout in clumps and need to be spread out in order to grow, so we did that today with dozens of tiny little radishes. All the while, E3 talking to the little plants, putting them in their "dirt bed" with a "dirt pillow".

Yesterday, E2 spent a couple hours sobbing and missing her daddy. E1 was a wreck the night before he left, but it took a few days for it to hit E2. E3 just thinks that daddy is in his office on the other side of the house half of the time. This is the first time Stuntman has been gone for more than a day since he redeployed and it's breaking his heart to be away from us, even though it's only for two weeks. One down, one to go.

Making progress

A lot of progress has been made on the remodel. Nothing fancy, and it's still a mess, but progress has been made. The engineer came back with a plan, so the guys have been working on the sheer wall (pictured above) and giant bolts that go into the foundation at several (6?) places. These bolts are as tall as I am and they go through the floor and into the foundation. Construction is so much simpler in places that the earth doesn't shake. Earthquakes have never really affected this neighborhood in the past, but there is always a chance. We're much more likely to be in the path of a brush fire. Isn't California great?
Seriously, I love it here... my neighbors are awesome, the weather is amazing, and everything (beach, mountains, desert, Disneyland) is within an hour drive.

You may not be able to tell, my my new dining room is taking shape. What was once a GIANT laundry room, is on its way to become a dining room. The patio door or lights aren't in yet, so it will look a lot less like a cave soon.

My kitchen is about the same, except most of the cabinets are in, including the island. I've always wanted an island. I also found a pot rack on Craigslist, yea!
Countertops should be in place in a few days. That island is big enough to roll out some serious lefse!

My contractor and his crew are amazing! What a wonderful bunch of guys. Last week, I had a truckload of soil delivered for my seriously undernourished garden. Two of the men were awaiting delivery of materials before they began work for the day. When I began the task of bringing wheelbarrows full of dirt into the backyard, they helped. Not only did they help, they did almost all of the work! I'm talking 6 cubic yards of topsoil into the backyard that is on a slight uphill. I was planning to take 2 days to do it myself! They weren't being paid to haul dirt... they just happened to arrive a bit early for the job. They wouldn't take anything for their trouble, but I think they will be by in a couple months for some fresh tomatoes.

Hunting

It seems as though having gaping holes in your home during a remodel may invite unwanted guests.
Stuntman and I were in the kitchen chatting and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something looking at me from an exposed rafter. It saw me and scurried back further into the attic.
Stuntman didn't see it, and thought that maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I was upstairs typing and heard the airsoft rifle on full-auto in the attic. No luck, because the battery is low. It's currently on the charger.
We just heard one of the two large traps go off. Empty.
I think we may borrow one of the neighbor's cats. Maybe the one that caught the rabbit in our backyard yesterday.

Technical Difficulties

Everything is on hold until Tuesday. It seems that our house isn't constructed like originally thought, something about beams in the other direction, nothing major, just a need for re-planning on the architect's part. Soooo, today it's just me , E3 and the dogs at home. It's good to give Roxie a break for a day. I think she was growing tired of sleeping on the sofa and barely raising her head to bark at the workers now and then. She needs more sleep than that and they were disturbing her.
The architect is talking with the city engineer for a new plan approval, something about a sheer wall and earthquake and tie downs, and other things to make sure that my 2 story house doesn't become a ranch-style house if there is any earth-shaking.
I do have my new sink in, I like it... and it shows how it is just a matter of time until it all comes together. My washer/dryer is operational once again. It was out-of-service for 4 days but by the looks of the hampers it must have been out for 4 weeks. My oven is also operational so no more microwavable foods or take-out. We did hit the kids favorite restaurant, Soup Plantation, earlier in the week. We were definitely in need of fresh vegetables and that place is always a huge hit with the kids. They love piling their plate with every vege, and they actually eat most of them! (They know that the more veges they eat, the bigger bowl of soft-serve ice cream they can have at the end)

Before and During

Before

Day 1

Day 2

Now that the plumbing is complete, and the new tankless water heater is in place, the guys began on the kitchen.
I was left with a functioning kitchen over the weekend, but Sunday night I needed to empty every cabinet. I have stacks and stacks of dishes in E3's room. Luckily, the weather has been nice so he hasn't played in his room at all.
The decision about the countertop was the easiest yet. The trip to the slab warehouse was fun. The kids accompanied me... and luckily, they didn't break anything... not even close. Although the girls fought over who got to carry the small sample of soapstone on the way home. They took turns every ten miles.
The "before" picture definitely looks better than the other two photos right now. I can't wait to see the "after".
As you can see in the "before" pic, my cabinets began protesting when they heard about their impending doom. Drawers broke, shelves fell out... it was a conspiracy. Similar to the range's recent protest.
I'll keep you posted...

Checking in

I have started a post more times than I can remember... but I am finally going to finish this one (I've said that before too).
It's been a bit busy around here. In the last few weeks we have gone through two nasty viruses, one stomach, and one cold... and I caught both. Things don't move smoothly when mom gets sick.
We just returned from walking around the neighborhood delivering Girl Scout Cookies. (Butterfly Wife, yours will be in the mail tomorrow). We lucked out and all but one person was home.
It's a beautiful day today. In the 80's I'm guessing.
Stuntman is working his butt off cleaning out two rooms that are in the path of demolition this week. We are doing some house remodeling that involves moving Stuntman's workbench and the laundry room. It also means cleaning the playroom in order to access everything. It's amazing all the crap that can collect in 13+ years.
Next week, I'll need to find a place to put everything in my kitchen while it is remodeled. I can't wait to say goodbye to my pink kitchen tile! I didn't even know they made pink grout.. seriously... who special-orders that?
I don't do well when there are too many choices... it took me two hours to pick out the color of white that I wanted for the cabinets. Many more choices, and my head may explode in the next month. Wish me luck, I'm going to the slab warehouse tomorrow to pick out the countertops. It is very likely that my head WILL explode.
I'm also in the midst of creating a new website for the girl's school. It looks great so far, if I do say so myself. (don't judge by the looks of the blog, I haven't put my best effort in it, sorry)
OK, I must post this now. I need to go back to helping Stuntman before he tries to move the washer and dryer by himself... like he did with the freezer.