Friday, February 21, 2014

Putting Back the Living Room Furniture

It was good to be able to put the furniture and the (new) area rug back into the living room. After the kitchen cabinets were installed I figured I could safely uncover the furniture as the dusty part of the renovation had been completed.  We had purchased an 8X10 wool tufted rug at Costco's back in late December, just before the floor refinishing. It had been rolled up and put aside until today when we brought it to the living room.  I will be tweaking the arrangement of the room as the days go by. Would like to put a few pictures on the walls.  We still do not have the buffet back in the room (behind the sofa) and there is still heavy-duty construction paper on the floor leading all the way from the front door to the kitchen.  We will leave that down until the workers are finished bringing in kitchen appliances and the quartz counter top guys bring in the tops. But for now, here is what it looks like:


You can see here how the paint job turned out on the fireplace mantle and hearth. The hearth was especially in need of some freshening up.  The concrete was very stained. I have a new floor lamp on order for behind the chair. The one there just does not give enough light for reading and though the glass shade looks white, it really is quite gold and gives off too much of a 'gold glow' to the room in that corner.
CLICK ON PHOTOS:

Paints used in this room:
Walls: Benjamin Moore. Aura, Finnie Gray (cw-55),  matte/flat.
Window Trim: (Original was honey oak). First coat was Primer -Benjamin Moore STIX, white. Three finish coats, Benjamin Moore, Advance, White Dove (oc-17), satin finish. 
Fireplace: Hearth and Mantle: Painted over plain gray conrete:  Dutch Standard oil base enamel, Defi-Rust, Bronzetone #61562 LV
Fireplace Screen: Metal surround edge: Primed with Kilz white primer. Finished w same paint as hearth and mantle.
Fireplace door grill metal: Spryed, Modern Metals, Design Masters, Metallic Taupe #235.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Quartz Counter Top Templates

It was perfect timing.  Right as the cabinet installers were leaving the driveway, the guys from Tower Industries,LLC of Massillon, OH arrived to make a template for the quartz counter tops. Hopefully by the first week in March we will get a call that it will be installed.  They took my new Blanco Silgranit Sink with them as they said it would aid in the cutting out of the hole in the quartz for the sink to fit.  It will be an under mount sink.

They cut and lay thin pieces of foam board all along the edges, over hanging it about 1.5". He used a hot glue gun to put a few dots of glue to hold it in place, When he was done he pealed off the foam boards and that is what they take back to the shop for a pattern to cut the quartz to size. We have requested the edges be a bullnose finish.




  A small sample of the quartz we selected. We have been looking at tiles for a back splash too.



Kitchen Cabinets (AFTER Installation)

Frease Woodcraft, LLC of Fredericksburg, Ohio, did an excellent job on building these custom made cabinets to update our small galley kitchen.  Waiting now for counter tops, appliance deliveries, under counter lights and tile back splash. Here is what it looked like when they left that day.

This first  photo shows (on my screen anyway) a truer shade of the cabinets.  Other photos make them look a lot lighter.  They are darker like this first photo.
The red streamers were there for the workmen so they wouldn't hit their head on the light.
I am in the process of painting the baseboard and shoe moldings, and painting the register covers.

Kitchen Cabinets (The Installation)

    The day finally arrived! Oh but what a big snow storm there was during the night before.  The big truck from Frease Woodcraft, LLC,  Fredericksburg, OH. arrived at 7:30 AM.  It stopped down at the end of our lane and two of the fellas jumped out of the truck and were hand shoveling the snow.  Paul and I were out there with the snow blower trying to hurry and get some paths for the tires to follow up the lane and in to the lower level of the house where they could park.  Amazing, for all the snow in the morning, by the time they finished at 4:00 PM they left with a dry sidewalk and the roads were all clear as the temperatures were rising to over 40 during the day. Just a soon as they pulled out of the driveway, two men from Tower Industries arrived to make templates for the quartz counter tops.
      So here are some photos of the three men working as a team. Click on any photo to enlarge them.

The scene outside my kitchen window this morning ~~
























































He had to cut out the back of the sink box to fit the pipes through

But the installer put back all the pieces he cut out for the pipes, after pushing back the cabinet against the wall.


They used this long level every step of the installation, making everything perfectly level.



With a miter saw he cut each piece of the crown molding .
(The red streamers are from the light fixture, so they wouldn't hit their head on it)

Tacking up the crown molding.  Beautiful finishing touches.

Here are some of the 'details' I like on these cabinets:
I like the angle of the edges on the end of the peninsula.

The insides of each cabinet are finished beautifully too.  I like the short "spice" shelf in the lower part of the cabinet.  It too is adjustable.

 Here is another adjustable, but longer, 'spice' shelf they put in one of the cabinets.

Read the next blog post:  To take a look at how it looked when they were finished.
Find it in the archives up at the right hand column.