The Old Man

Today we picked up all the tile for our backsplash, including all the supplies and a small saw for making cuts. Tomorrow we will start tiling. Today, however, we made a trip to Marine City for a special purchase for the new kitchen.

Well over a year ago, on one of our antiquing jaunts, we spotted this guy in an antique store:

He made us smile…

After we left, we kept thinking about that picture, where we might put it, and how much we loved that enigmatic smile. An old man, enjoying his whiskey and cigar, living in the moment, whatever moment that was, probably a hundred years ago. Something about it just spoke to us, made us smile.

A year later, we visited the same antique store, and there he was, hanging on an old shutter with a couple of old hats and a moth eaten marionette. A paper price tag was stuck to the wavy glass. It had a price, and the obvious words, “very old.” We made a low offer, were refused, and left, feeling that somehow, we were leaving behind a friend.

When mr husband suggested we re-do the kitchen rather than leave Claymire, we started making a list of what would go in the new space, what we wanted it to look and feel like. We chose the cabinets, the countertops, and then, out of the blue, it came to me: the photo of that man drinking whiskey – we HAD to have him in our new kitchen.

So today we picked up our tile, and drove the 40 or so miles north to Marine City, to see if he was still there. He was there, smiling like he was waiting for us to join him in a drink, which we would gladly have done. I grabbed him off that weathered shutter, casually set aside the hats and the marionette. He still bore that price tag, “very old, $78.” We didn’t quibble this time, but got 10% off, anyway.

And here he is, smiling from his spot on the wall of our new kitchen, overlooking the table where the whiskey decanter sits (usually) full.

welcome home

Interlude, with Roses

Taking a break from kitchen stuff for today. Tomorrow our tile will be in, and we will spend the weekend installing our backsplash.

The garden received some much-needed attention, and I took a few pictures of the roses that are blooming, despite the neglect. So here, for your enjoyment, are ROSES!

New Dawn climber

Foxglove and miniature roses

More miniatures, in front of the Alba and knockouts.

Constance Spry, and old garden rose, I think

Easy Elegance? I don’t remember this one’s name. The scent is wonderful.

The is the oldest climber in the garden. I think this is MardiGras.

Tropicana? It smells wonderful and the blooms are almost 5 inches across.

I do love roses! You can see the peonies, they’re about done now.

Rowley loves the garden, too. Look at that – is that a smile?

Chippy is enjoying the weather, too.

Took a Paws For Life rescue kitty for a vet checkup, too.

Himmy the Himalayan is ready for adoption! He will be much cuter when his haircut grows out.

Back to the kitchen this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the flowers.

Countertops & The Home Stretch!

Today is the day – countertops arrive!!!

The magic of stoneworking has transformed this lovely piece of green lapis granite:

the slab-I think this is San Francisco Verde Granite

Into this:

The biggest countertop is in! It looks prettier in “person”

The sink counter, before they cut the hole

we chose a Blanco Diamond silgranite sink, a ridiculously large “super single” with an offset drain that is a perfect fit, considering we have that water meter under the right side of the sink base. While planning all along to undermount the sink, when we saw it in real life, both I and the countertop guy paused for a minute, Hmmmmm…how would this look as a drop in instead?

Is it a sink or a bathtub? You could wash six cats in this!

After a few measurements and consulting with mr husband via the wonders of text messaging and emailing photos from my snazzy new smart phone, we all concurred that, due to the clean square lines of the sink, it would look pretty great as a drop in.

This sink is huge! And look – we’ve already got junk everywhere!

Bonus to this decision-I can get it hooked up a day earlier by my amazing plumber, Paul, since we don’t need to wait for the glue or whatever to “set”, as you do with an undermount sink. I was also assured it would be stronger, which is good, since this thing is the size of a bathtub, and must weigh about a ton when filled with water!

So I picked this faucet:

It’s not bad looking – but doesn’t look good with our sink

And now we don’t like it! So tomorrow there will be an early am trip to Universal Plumbing to see what they have in stock that is more appropriate. I think we need a gooseneck faucet to complement that ginormous sink! (update – we found a new faucet!)

This Delta Trinsic is the one we settled on. It is much more in scale with the sink, and having used it for 24 hours now, I can honestly say I love it!

As for the rest of the kitchen – the crown moulding is completed on the other side, and looks amazing. We still don’t have a replacement light fixture, though, I am assured it is on its way, apparently via camel caravan.

This is what we are trying to get. It’s very similar to the original light, but flush mounted, so the cabinet doors can be opened!

UPDATE: It arrived on Friday, and is in one piece! Yaay!

We are patching and painting here and there, and quite a bit of moulding work remains to be finished. mr husband is making the shoe moulding himself out of hickory, and staining it to match the cabinetry.

We are getting quotes on having the backsplash tile installed. I like tile work, but have never done it on a vertical surface. After visiting a few friends who assured me it was “really easy”, and noticing the glaring mistakes (wavy grout lines, broken tiles…), I really don’t want to risk it. It would be just like me to come this far are ruin the whole kitchen in the end!

Crown Moulding and Progress, at Last!

I’m sure you’ve all been waited with bated breath for a progress update on this crazy kitchen remodel…today, we are getting crown moulding on the cabinet tops.

It’s a big job, since the ceiling isn’t straight, and it is a six inch drop with a 3 inch moulding. The cabinets are level, but that is about all! Luckily, I’ve got these guys from Authentic Restoration Detroit working on it, and they are amazing:

Erich and Milan, whose expert work in getting the crown moulding up. This is Milan, he’s very meticulous! You can see one part of the moulding here, the crown is not up yet.

The cabinets are level; the ceiling drops about an inch and 3/8. It took some finesse to put that moulding up so you don’t notice the angles!

They actually built a plywood-covered “box” to mount the moulding on. It was cut from a fridge panel we ordered with our cabinets, so it would be a perfect match.

You may want to check out their website. Their specialty is restoring the grand old homes of Detroit, maintaining the amazing craftsmanship of the previous two centuries while making the homes liveable, beautiful and unique. Neighborhoods like Palmer Park, Green Acres, Boston-Edison, Arden Park, are filled with gorgeous old home whose craftsmanship is difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate today. (subject for a future blog?)

Erich believes restoring the old work is almost always preferable to ripping it out and putting in new, especially in an old house that was built to withstand the centuries. Woodwork, flooring, light fixtures, door and windows, and even china sinks and tubs are carefully brought back to their original condition. I hope he isn’t too disappointed in Claymire, but seriously, we really had little character to work with here!

Thanks to my wonderful and talented husband, the wiring for undercabinet lights is complete, and he got the screen installed on the pantry wall. I think the stain is a little light (we were trying to match the floor) and maybe we should have matched the cabinets, instead. Oh well, it can age all it wants, now that it is up. It does hide the dryer vent and gasline, while still providing ventilation to the air return.

It’s made of hickory, to match the flooring. Like my collection of vintage cocktail shakers?

I haven’t spent much time outside this week, but at least I get to see the front garden as I come and go. It’s a beautiful day, although it rained this  morning. I am hopefully these peonies will bloom soon.

This is their third year, so they should have enough “energy” to truly bloom. They are covered with large buds.

The countertops were measured today, and we ordered a new sink and faucet and garbage disposal. Also began installing the remaining hardware, which finally came in. Our new ceiling light got here, but the glass was smashed, so we’re waiting on a new one, so we can center the box and install that, and be able to open the cabinet doors, too!

We should have counters by the middle of next week, then we’ll be down to choosing a backsplash tile. I’ll start collecting some samples and see how they look. Maybe I can add a poll and see what readers like.

Kitchen Update; Progress, mistakes, and waiting

Well, we are at the end of the first full week. We have all upper cabinets in place, the plumbing work is done, including the relocating of a gas valve and gasline to the clothes dryer that we forgot about, the additional cabinets are ordered, cabinet hardware is backordered, and we are sitting around waiting for things to happen.

Look, doors!

It wasn’t all that easy. To replace the water valves at the water meter required the city turning off the water, which was made really difficult by the fact that, back in 2003, the city hired a company to replace the sidewalks, and they paved over our shutoff! Our city’s DPW cut a notch in the sidewalk and put in an extension for the shutoff, but it took a while, since they are all on half-staff due to budget cuts. It actually took me four days to get an appointment to even have the water shut off in the first place!

But we got it done, got a new water meter – the old one was leaking – and everything is back in place. Now we are basically waiting on the people who will help us finish the job. mr husband and I decided to do what we do well, and leave the rest to the experts. When we had the “great flood of 2010” the flooring was replaced; we want the same guys to come back and fix it now, where the new cabinets are shorter than the old ones were:

It’s one of only two changes to the layout of the kitchen.

We also hired a craftsman to do our crown moulding. Working at a museum, I get the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people, and one of them was Erich Wasner of Authentic Restoration Detroit, whose company specialized is restoring gorgeous old homes without destroying their character. I met him when he and his wife, Jackie, purchased an old foursquare farmhouse in the town where I work and began a sensitive restoration of the 1918 home. Even though I don’t have an historic, century-old home, Erich and Milan will be installing our crown moulding!!!

We chose these knobs, but could only get six of them so far.

So as we wait on the floor guys, we postpone templating for the countertops, which is actually okay, since I decided to return two of our 12″ bases for ones with 3 drawers, and they had to be special ordered. Also, we had to order a new ceiling light, because we didn’t take into account the fact that the new cabinets are 6″ taller than the old ones, and this happened:

That’s not parallax – you really can’t open those doors without hitting the light!!!

Duh!

So now mr husband is planning to frame in the space above the pantry. There is a furnace air return up there, so he has designed an open-work mission-style screen of hickory to close in the space and give it some character. You may wonder why its open in the first place: when we built the pantry, 12 years ago now, the attic stairs extended further back, and we needed to drop the top of the wall so the stairs could open. A few years ago we replaced the pulldown attic stairs with a smaller unit, moved it forward, and now we don’t need that clearance. It is a little weird to have the attic access in the kitchen, but this was the utility room, if you recall, and we are kind of stuck with it. Just don’t look up!

Today we returned to Public Lumber in Detroit for some hickory to build the screen. While mr husband is fashioning that, I took a “break” to cut the grass and put together a new bench for the front porch.

Its acacia wood with an oil finish. I like the design. Sorry it is so dark, but the sun is quite bright today.

Rowley dog, my constant helper. Doesn’t he look better? He’ll be getting groomed tomorrow. He still smells a little like skunk…

So we are plodding along, installing under-cabinet lighting, washing dishes in a washtub, cooking in the toaster oven. Last night we had dinner at the casino with some friends, and caught this picture from the parking deck:

Detroit skyline. It was a pretty night with a storm coming up.