Well, the train finally arrived in toledo and we are crawling to Chitown. Now we are stopped due to freight construction. Might not make our connection in chitown. Last check, our 9:30 arrival was at 1:45 and that was before we were stopped for freight. Our connection is 2:15...,

DB= dear brother

Cal- I have another sewing machine and base if you need more practice! I think it needs to come apart to do it right.

MG- how about a meet-up. CF was going to swing through Michigan sometime this summer. You are in the closest foreign city south if Detroit - a good trivia question

Schick - great job - a bit hard to see on the phone.

Yeah, we just started moving again, albeit about 15-20 mph.

Maybe we should have ridden our bikes to Chitown

Demolition Day again around here. The laundry room closet is gone. Soon to be replaced by cabinets, a counter (butcher block maybe?) and open shelving above. The new floor for the sewing/guest room is being delivered tomorrow.

Yeah Christine! Most of us have been there, done that!

Amtrak held the Empire Builder so on our way to Whitefish. Enjoying some hummus, almonds and vino until dinner.

a2g - sounds heavenly!

Christine - looks like fun...sort of.

Applied for my passport. Woo! It was easy.

Switched sprinkler guy to Friday.

Kitchen/HD GC stopped by and did...nothing. He was only stopping by, evidently, because he thought his level was here and he needed it for another job. It wasn't. He told me yesterday he'd cap off all the water openings at the angle stops so that whether we got the sink first or fridge first, we were covered. He must have forgot that. ::roll eyes:: I thought that was WHY he was coming by. I was out running errands a few towns over when his wife called. I had MIL meet him here. She called me while he was here, but he pretty much blew in and out without even letting me ask her to ask him anything. He said he'd call tonight during my window of opportunity before work. (yeah, right).

Didn't make it to school, but I did do my big return to REI (I pulled out two things last minute...I still have a few days to decide on them.) I ordered an ottoman for the living room since I'm keeping the old one in my dressing room. It'll be delivered tomorrow. I got a SimpleHuman rechargeable (USB) soap dispenser. Since DH didn't want one in the counter, I figured it was okay to splurge on this. And of course, I had 20% off. I also didn't make it to HD.

I got a call from DHL that they have a shipment for me. I asked the weight and number of packages. 2 packages, 261#. I think it's another one of the short cabinets for under the window. I told the KD I didn't need another one, but she said I paid for it, I should have it. I'm thinking that either we'll wrap some kitchens storage into DH's office, or we've talked about getting some kind of a sideboard/buffet/hutch for the DR. After hearing a few people on here do it, I thought maybe we'll build one with cabinets. This could start it, but it's such an odd size. The other thing I thought is we could put it in the breezeway, just at the entrance to the kitchen. It's covered, but it does flood every 10 years or so. Maybe put it on some kind of raised pedestal of some kind? Dunno. I'm just hoping they send one with ROTS so I can move them over to the existing cabinet. I'm waiting to put a follow up order in until I see what's in this thing. I was told this would be in 7/31. Glad we didn't wait. Anyway, it'll be here tomorrow.

Terri, hope things are smooth as can be being back at work.

Demo is done and... Design change time again. The soffit is structural. Who ever heard of that? I will go over my pictures again... I may be able to design a header and column so I can remove it below the upper cabinets but it will be a challenge.

I also brought a door home with me so I can play with citristrip. That'll be fun at least.

Here's how it looks now. There are so many holes and ways things can get in its not even funny. I will seal all that up and try to find a way to insulate the walls. The new work you can see appears to be dated 1986.

I also saw a bit of the original wall color and flooring. I may try and borrow from it with the new color scheme.

Well Christine, if you must know......
. .
. .
. .

No. Lol. No skirt, heels or pearls. Nor perfectly applied lipstick, no carefully coiffed hair.
And I can't mix the Big Guys drinks the way he likes them.
Sometimes an apron if I'm still in good clothes and cooking something greasy or messy.
But I was a stay at home mom for 13 years full time plus another 4 part time. My husband provided the dough. I took care of everything else. So it's a habit hard to break. He also commutes 3 hours a day. And this time of year add coaching football in our Youth Football League. He comes in the door at 8:15pm, he left the house at 5:30am.
I like to know what my family is eating too, so baking and cooking does that. My boys are very aware of the "spoiling" they get. They love to "show" off and share their homemade foods. For the last 7 plus years I have been providing half a PBJ(homemade strawberry freezer jam) to my middle sons buddy. He swaps half his sandwich to him for a gummy fruit package. Lol I've even offered to make S his own sandwich, but #2 likes to "swap". Omg..I just realized this is the last year of that. :( they are seniors!

So anyway...I stopped by mom's watered the veg and strawberries a bit and picked up the paint card for that bit of paint I have to have ACE make up.
Came home and sliced up several pounds Bottom Round and turned it all into Mongolian Beef.
Oh I got my first local organic food box from this Farm I've been eyeing for a few years. It had this little melon in it. Snow Leopard or tiger something. White with bits of green stripes and white flesh Sweet like honeydew with a tiny bit of muskiness.

So again no house stuff. It's probably all going to be weekends now.

Shicksal, what does your mate do while you work on all this? Are you all on your own? Did you say no more inlaws? ;)
Is the flooring you uncovered a soap stone colored tile or laminate? And was the wall chips golden, "real" butter yellow? Oh and that hot water tank would not wash my dinner dishes, lol..

Christine, I do hope you find the phone soon! Bag of rice for a week. ;)

Cal, you have been ticking off your personal to do list, good job! Are you going to paint your front door that turquoise blue you have there?

a2, Bike ride started yet? Or still on the train?

Christina, What will be going in that space?

Not a lot... There was food available when I returned home at least. That was a nice surprise. I work alone. No in laws... I can handle about a day before I've had enough. The flooring is a black and white checker pattern linoleum set on a diagonal. The black parts at least have sort of a stone look. The original wall color is the brown shade behind the tan flakes. I like the flooring at least, and might borrow from these old ideas for the new kitchen.

I've put together a couple of ideas for the soffit... I may be able to redistribute the load to structure that is inside the wall. It's a really odd repair to what I think was termite damage discovered long ago.

Citristrip is doing its thing on the door overnight. I used it on one side and removed the nasty mess it turned the top 3-4 layers of paint into before applying more. On the other side I scraped. The 1st-2nd layer of paint did not bond well so it scrapes off in large, thick sheets easily. I should have scraped the citristrip side first too before trying it.

Lol, food available is good.

We often work alone on our own projects. He never does as I would. (Which means he does it wrong.) rofl I usually put him on a task. This new furniture building skill he's honing is expensive but I don't try to help, just give him the idea and he runs with it.

I thought after this last visit maybe you said...go visit when ever you want, just don't bring them back here.......EVER...

Ooh on the diagonal, that would be cool. Now that you say that, And I look back I see it. I thought the "tan" was just smoke stained sheet rock.

She can come back but really, REALLY needs to resist the urge to redo or paint things here. It always turns out a disaster. Anti-help.

I worked on the layout some more but can't make the base cabinets work out with the soffit in place unless the dishwasher disappears or everything gets completely redone again. It's easier for me to reframe the area around the soffit because I have the space above the upper cabinets to work with.

Because I always post pictures of nasty, grimy things, here's the door last night with everyone's favorite stripper applied. It would be more fun if they used colors besides layer after layer of army uniform tan.

Shicksal, isn't it amazing? It really makes stripping almost fun, don't you think? You are so right, though. It's fascinating to watch different colors come through. Do you think your people got a sale on the paint, or worked for the government and always took home the extra?
You're using the plastic trick, aren't you?

I'll be heading up to the Winter Wonderland in later this month. Anyone near the E. Lansing area, or a middle point who wants to do a meet up, LMK! :) But we need to take this private, since I know there are people are there stalking, who just want my stuff. All my beautiful, half-built, half-finished, reuse center stuff. Or so they tell me on TV.

Teri, just how nice. I can't imagine such luxury as having not only someone, but a mom who cooks and takes care like you. My mom did for a while, when I was young. But she got over it and went back to work, despite my dad's vehement, indignant objections. My mom couldn't really deal well with a 1-stop light town, where my dad grew up and knew E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. Who could blame her after growing up in the Detroit area?

Another hot one...

Aside from the previous owner for about 18 years, the place was a rental for a long time. At least from when he bought it back to 50 years ago according to a curious neighbor who lived in this house in the '60s. It was a very bad neighborhood and I think a lot of the original wood and whatnot that's left is there by virtue of neglect. They probably chose tan for the same reason we do today - it's a neutral color and they used an enamel that was tough and durable. Luckily it looks like they forgot to sand it between coats early on so the outer stuff peels off in pieces about as thick as cardstock. I could see the original coat of paint left behind being something applied when the place was 15 or 20 years old as a way to freshen the place up and get the dark, dreary wood out of there.

Today I'm using nature as my plastic trick. The humidity is extremely high and I left the door out in a shaded area. It seemed to work ok in areas where I let it sit for a day while the thing was still indoors in the a/c so maybe it will work even better outside where it's warmer and more humid.

Winter Wonderland sounds awesome! It's humid and gross around here.

Yes, it's hot and gross here in MD, too, but as much as it disgusts me to admit it, I'd take this over snow any darned day.

Shicksal, the plastic has another purpose. You are probably experiencing this to a degree. When the paint bubbles up in ribbons, the Citristrip is no longer against the piece, i.e. the old paint. Pressing the plastic into it keeps the product against the paint, letting it eat through more layers. It also keeps it from drying out so fast.

Plus, it is a good way to reuse all those stupid plastic grocery store bags. Oh - but make certain the printing isn't pressed into the Citristrip. I've learned it makes a great transfer medium after I branded a door with a bright red WaWa logo.

I'm not sure if what's on the front door was THE color or not. There are about 8 of them around various parts of my house. It's either Deep Lagoon or Tropical Lagoon. We're going with Tropical Lagoon (Dunn Edwards paint, the finisher's choice).
{{gwi:1931622}}

Our original thought was base of house med/dark/sage-y? green:
{{gwi:1931623}}

Then I started working more towards gray-green:
{{gwi:1931624}}

And it all fell apart when we tried to decide what to do with the accent colors. DH and I disagreed, and the kitchen was hitting full speed, so we decided to wait.

Looking at these, having not looked in a while, I definitely like the white eves. The house has always been light body, darker accent on wooden part near the top and eves. I want to flip it to be different (and eves matching fascia). Or, part for effect and part for cost savings, I'm thinking maybe do the wood at the top the same as the base to highlight the angle of the roof rather than the multiple materials. I guess I never mocked one up with light wood at the top. Maybe I'll do that today. (And don't laugh at my horrible skills with the SW color visualizer).

ETA: And while I'm at it, two other sources of contention re: the look of the front of the house are the planters and the walk.

Curved walk is original I'm sure and the planters curve to match the walk. I want something like this:

by

but with the rectangles staggered. But then I run into an issue with the curve in the planter. My solution? Rip out the planters. I think it would look better without them. DH thinks we should have them plastered and maybe capped with something. And I think if I did that I could have them just demo that corner and re-build it not curved. Or the other solution is to bring the 'porch' flooring out to the edge of that curve, which would probably be more cost-effective.

Thoughts welcome. Not doing any of that soon, but those are the dominos of decisions that hold us back on that stuff.

This post was edited by cal_quail on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 10:32

I'm confused as to why you need to rip out the sidewalk and/or planters. In the photo, the part at the door, between the planters is square/rectangle. Why not begin a staggered rectangle sidewalk right after than initial porch-ish piece?

If the planters are original, leave them. Nothing's worse than looking at a house and saying, "mmm. Something's missing." Here in DC, there are different era neighborhoods. There's an area north of Georgetown that has wonderful 20-30s attached homes with the covered porches. Many of the wanna-bes took the porches off to try to recreate the 1800s Georgetown row house look.

There is no foolin' the eye, though, when the other 20 homes still have their porch.

An extreme example, but I think you get my point. Plastering and capping is yet another architectural era. You're doing a lot to preserve a great MCM home. IMHO, I hope you don't fuss-it-up with stuff that's not appropriate to the era's style. Again, IMHO as an idiot gardener, your landscaping could provide the transition from curved to angular that you're looking for.

Now. About me.
I found my phone
Walking in the yard, trying to decide where to plant some of the sun-proven Japanese Maples, I stepped right up to it. I walk that way all the time, so I'm convinced the yard fairies are screwing with me. The good news is ...

It WORKS
so I Bluetoothed all my pics to my computer. Stupid thing is so old I can't email them, but I can Bluetoothe 'em!

OK. Now I should pot some of the hosta I ordered. They've come, all beautiful and healthy. Yeah!~

We spent two days on the road, picking up my son Bryan from his summer job. He worked for 9 weeks at a Boy Scout canoe base, taking 6 different crews out into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and Quetico Provincial Park. It's his second summer in the north woods and he loves it.

It's 365 miles from home, so DH, DS1 and I drove out Monday afternoon and stayed overnight. When we dropped Bryan off in May, we went out and back in one day, which was brutal. Staying over gave us time to stop at Bryan's favorite place to eat, at a resort/cafe. The burgers were fantastic, and the view was delightful. Bryan is playing naturalist in the photo, telling us the difference between red pine, white pine, and jack pine. We watched a pair of bald eagles fly over the lake.

I love his sun-bleached hair!

annkh that looks so wonderful. No nature-type travel this summer at all with the kitchen. In laws have a cabin with a view like that that's even somewhat close and we just never get there. We have to make plans for a weekend after things calm down with the kitchen.

CEF - WOO! Phone!

To me, I feel like our house is a sorta-kinda-MC. Meaning it's on the early end while this particular individual was trying to lean that way, it's not all the way there. And to me, the planters are not MC. That's why I'd lean to taking them out. They're all cracked. They've been texture coated as the house was. But it's missing a bunch on the planters.

Since we're waiting, and will likely not paint the planters when we paint the house, as we did last time, we've got time to gather pics.

I highlighted the curved part of the planter in the pic below. There's the square pattern stamped concrete in the darker color by the door, then it drops down and there's the random stamped concrete in the lighter color (also lots of cracks in that walk way). I was thinking if I wanted to do the concrete rectangle walkway, I could have someone move that transition out from where the squares are to the front edge of the planter. Then I could leave the curve in the planter and have rectangles in front of it.

You can see the discoloration where water pools just at that transition. Our house has nearly flooded twice in the 14 years we've been here. Garage did flood. Water in through the garage door and out through the side door. The driveway to the garage and breezeway becomes a big river. I bought sandbags after the first time, but didn't get them out in time the second time.

And...the floor guys have been here about an hour and a half. :D

And I'm doing school work. Scanning stuff, so fairly mindless stuff in the back of the house. Good task for today.

Lots of scouts and Amish on the train.

Scouts are from Wisconsin and Germany. Amish have been from all over but most on this train are from Michigan.

We are stuffed and skipping lunch today as we cruise through ND into Montana. Train is only running 2.5 hours late so far. Of course 30 minutes was because they held the train for us (and others)

Lots of blue herons , Sandhills cranes, some deer and of course cows and horses. Also lots of ducks but not sure of the variety.

I did manage to sleep on the upper bunk last night - not much wiggle room for an active sleeper.

Ann- I think we passed your "hood" earlier today We haven't seen any bald eagles yet - but pretty cool.

Wish the train had wireless so I could use my ipad instead of the phone.

Omg! Christine..I just knew it...
We have those faires/gremlins here too.

a2, chug a chuga choo choooo. ;)

Shicksal, your mind just keeps going back and redoing things. It'll settle in on perfection soon. I've seen proof of it.

CalQ, I love the curved walk and was trying to figure out why the planters were so rectangular, but they were trying to mimic the roof lines and substatial chimney I guess? The planters don't read curved. I like the color of your main house "proposed" but the darker more sagey greens needs a deeper door color. I love the turquoise but think it pops to much in that last photo.

Ann, what a lovely view to lunch by and great company too!

Okay, gotta head back to work..

A2Gemini, my DD took that train the opposite direction several years ago in midwinter -- she was on a car that had a door stuck open with snow blowing in! When she arrived in Toledo around 2 am, the guy working the baggage car didn't offload most of the luggage for that stop. He kept insisting that there was no more luggage for Toledo, but in the face of an angry mob threatening to storm the car to see for ourselves, he relented and double checked. Lo and behold, he found everyone's bags!

CEF, thanks for the tip -- I will look for that product -- it was my old standbys of hydrogen peroxide and nature's miracle that failed. Maybe because I was impatient and didn't let the H2O2 dry fully before applying the NM.

Re-attached the front door trim finally. Dried some tomatoes and made peach-jalapeno relish. It is not so hot here, only in the low 80's -- I like it. I just took a break to have a drink and look in on the Tour of Utah cycling race.

Yesterday I hauled home a section of curved railing, the attached pickets, and some long boards from a Victorian porch that had been demolished. I'm thinking that I might somehow be able to use this with my cedar lattice to make an attractive trellis for between our houses.

Next I am going to spread mulch and again spray the Canadian thistle. Boy that stuff is stubborn!

Terri- I saved two cabinets when we redid the kitchen and those are going where the closet use to be. They're lowers and I'll have open shelving above. I saved a couple of uppers too and they're on the opposite wall over the washer and dryer.

The other project we have going is replacing the worn out wall to wall in the sewing/guest room. The flooring arrived today. It was about 100 degrees out and about to rain so the guys put it in the garage, even though technically they're supposed to leave it outside. Chose Pergo for the combination of budget, we liked the look of it and it's been durable in the homes of people we know. I got 7 of the 19 boxes into the house before I ran out of steam.

This post was edited by Christina222 on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 19:53

@ Terri - that's what I did today... More plans and going back and forth.

I met with the plumber today. This is going to be expensive, I'm afraid. But... It needs to be done. The vertical drain behind the soffit has *one* pinhole that's visible. I guess cast iron only has a 95 year lifespan. A large section needs to be replaced. The rest of the rough in is fairly straightforward. The quote I am getting factors in me cutting a 4' hole in the subfloor since the crawlspace is tight. I'm OK with that.

The timeline looks like about 2-2.5 weeks. Since plumbing will keep me from closing walls below countertop level, and along the soffit cother all the way to the ceiling this presents a challenge. I will get about where I can get in the kitchen, then do other things like paint the rest of the place and trim trees. Once they wrap up it's game on.

The soffit ended up being non load bearing after careful inspection of how it was made and tearing out all drywall. I still don't like how a joist is supported and will strengthen it tomorrow.

Citristrip is tied with my other method of removing paint. It took the paint down to The sort of butter colored layer that I mistook for tan. It makes a sticky mess on the ground though.

Raee
We were on the capital limited yesterday but now on the empire builder which is still crawling behind a freight train. We are pushing 5 hours behind schedule.

As I told DH - we are traveling so just sit back and enjoy the show.

DH watches all of the cycling races as well. I usually catch sections of the races.

It's 5:19 and tile guys are still working. I am not complaining. They can stay as long as they like.

I got my replacements of damaged/missing/back ordered pieces. I forgot one piece of base molding was back ordered. Glad I didn't order more! Got some door and drawer fronts as expected. Got the toe kick for the pantry that we no longer need. And got two cabinets. One expected, but not necc. wanted, and one out of the blue. Expected:short cab for under counter. Crunch on back of original. Told KD they were fixing it, she insisted on getting a new one. Unexpected one is a wall cab that flanks range. The nomenclature days it's one with a spice rack, but in the case of the other cab, there's prob not a door. Don't want to open it now. Had to open short bae one to see if it's got ROTS, and it doesn't. I think we try to put something g together with them in DH's office (behind kitchen/fridge).

CalQ, good plan using them! How's the floor looking? When are you washer and dryer coming, this weekend?

a2, you were just 3 hours behind..lol...

Shicksal, so you don't do major plumbing, here I thought you did it all! ~wink~

So Christine, My big accomplishment of the day..Dinner.. Well it's in the oven. Sausage stuffed shells topped with Pepperoni and cheese. #3 made sure on his way out the door to help at Midget (9-10 yr olds) football practice that it was still on tap. I assured him it would be waiting for him and Dad upon arrival. ;)

I am sitting in my rock "garden" out front in the evening sun. It feels good after 7 hours in an office. Very pleasant temp, slight PNW breeze. Speaking of PNW, anyone seen Doug?

They left about 8:30pm. Finish floors tomorrow. Counters Friday. Fridge and range Saturday. W/D/DW/Speed Oven Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

I'm going to work in the yard as much as I can tomorrow while it's nice. Then hope to do some indoor stuff in the afternoon (cleaning or school stuff). And I invited us over to the inlaws for dinner tomorrow. "Want to go out to dinner tomorrow night or want to have us over?" I'll bring laundry too. :D

Lookin good!

I got a window installed today!! After almost 9 months of looking at plywood, it looks wonderful. Can't wait until the morning to actually see what my countertops really look like!

That looks fabulous! I love the window to the counter and it makes your counters look great! Looks like a nice view as well.

Mags, I've pinned you. :) That is egggg-zactly what I'm planning to do! Great to see it looking so beautiful. I hope this morning brings you WOWs!

cal_quail? Oh, pretty. What a nice, smooth floor! Any ... lippage? LOL. Not with what we learn here, right!?

@Mags438 - It's looking great in there with the window!

@cal_quail - it's crazy how fast things are going at your place. You could be done 5 times over in the amount of time it's taking me to do only one.

@ terri. Everything but cast iron. I can do regular kitchen/bathroom sink drains and basic relocation of toilet lines, but not adding one from new. Especially while trying to tie in to cast iron plumbing. Water supply lines are easy for me. I'm basically paying for the drain work and having them do the water supply too in order to make it worthwhile on their end. It also frees up my time to paint walls, scrape popcorn and do whatever else in the meantime.

I'm about at a stopping point in the kitchen. This afternoon I'm doing just a bit of framing and more than a bit of cleanup. I'll go ahead and take out the drywall straight to the ceiling and do some electrical work. I lucked out though - I already have all of the circuits that are needed relatively near where they need to be, in the right size.

I haven't done anything. Just laundry and dinner. Not much to do anyway really until I have some more money. I really need to get motivated to clean up the furnace room. The weather is perfect so I'm mostly sitting outside doing nothing. I could be weeding, but I don't like weeding. LOL

Schicksal, the table saw that is there is all rusty and it's I think home-made in a big wooden table. I have a friend who might take it and fix it up for himself if I can get it out of there. I think I'll buy some Ikea drawer bases to put in there for storage once I get that out of there. I can get a pre-made laminate counter top at Lowe's or HD whenever I'm ready to do that. I need somewhere to store off season sporting gear.

Your rental is moving along! The plumbing will allow you some extra time to sort out the floor plan.

Ann, what a nice place!

CEF, Yay for the phone! Isn't it crazy when you lose/misplace something and you walk by all the time and it's not there and suddenly it is!!

Cal, your kitchen is really coming along! I like the gray green exterior. There's a house not far from me that used to be white and now it's a dark blue/gray. OMG!! It looks SO much better. The side is still white. LOL No advice on the planters. My exterior is garbage! LOL. I've been focusing on the inside because that's where we live. ;)

A2, I think the delays would drive me crazy! We have soccer in Northville this weekend and I'm trying to sort out if I-96 is closed East and West. I heard it is and I can't make sense of the MDOT website. I've got calls in but I'm dependent on my GPS to go there (not to certain places, but there for sure) and I don't know what to do if it's closed going West or whatever direction away from Detroit is. LOL I can't wait to see pics of your trip!

Mags! Your window looks great! The handle looks pretty easy to access too.

I can't remember what else is going on with everyone, sorry!

Well the floor plan is settled now and I could order cabinets but... there's the whole height of the uppers thing. 56" uppers are about $500 more. Ceilings are high in here. I need to have a look and measure things to see how it would look. It is a rental but it's become a rather expensive area and if it gets someone in here a month faster now, or 10 years from now, it's paid for itself several times over.

Between the kitchen, roof, and plumbing this will be an expensive transition from one person to the next. They're all things that will not have to be addressed again for a long time at least.

Yep, do it right once schicksal.

Speaking of which...I could ask advice on the plumbing forum or general population of kitchens but...

The water line to the icemaker. Obviously it was ripped out in demo, but NO ONE pointed out that I better have a plan to get one put in. I did think to make sure that the angle stops have the right openings for the DW and fridge, and they do. But it's one more thing that:
a) I wasn't planning on having to pay someone to do, I figured it was in with the plumbing part from the HD GC, but it's not since I'm not getting the fridge at HD OR I figured they'd do it as part of the fridge install, which they won't
b) The timing of getting it done...I could have done it almost any time in the past two weeks, but it was only recently brought to my attention that I need it done. It would have been much easier to have done it before cabinets were installed, particularly with my 33x36 susan. So it now has to be done before Saturday when (fingers crossed) we're getting the fridge. And I couldn't have anyone here T/W/Th because of floor work (except I now know I could have had someone here Tues.

So, should I just do it? Seems simple enough:
-Drill 1/2" holes in all the cabinets necessary to feed the tube through.
-Cap the faucet side of the cold water (5/8" brass cap with plumbers tape).
-Connect the tube (use plumbers tape).
---it's the connection to the fridge part I'm unsure about. But I imagine they a shut off something that snaps on.

I need about 10 or 11 ft plus room to pull out fridge. I'd rather get something where the ends are on it, which there's a 20' braided stainless which comes with 1/4" compression ends. The alternatives are copper or PVC 'kits' that come with everything but you have to attach the ends. That sounds like trouble to me.

My other question would be, is it fine for it to just lay in the bottom corner/edge of the cabinets (susan and trash pull out + 3" filler)? I'm sure there are some little U things to hold it in place. If it was done earlier in the process, it could have run in the base of the cabinet behind the toe kick, but I'd think it'd be too hard to feed it through there now.

The spec says it needs to be at virtually ground level on the right side of the fridge surround. So I'd be running it along the floor of the fridge surround. The power outlet is just above that. I'm assuming that's just fine.

The quote I've got for it is about $300 and there's still a question of whether it can be wiggled in time-wise. And I can not see either of the two big guys maneuvering in the susan cabinet as well as I could.

Do I do it? Do I attempt it? Is that being penny-wise and pound-foolish? Is it frustration and reno-fatigue making me think I'm the best person for the job?

Love that window Mags! I wish mine went down to the counter like that.

I would plan on the icemaker line being wherever the spec says it needs to be, but that's hearsay from others who have plumbed Subzeros and mentioned that they were a bit particular as to where the line runs.

I would avoid the vampire tap variety at all cost, but to me it sounds like you already have a location in the cold line under the sink to use to run to the icemaker anyway. It would be simple/safe enough to run PEX over to the fridge and then use some clamps to ensure that the line is secure. Then a shutoff valve can be installed wherever appropriate in the refrigerator area. It was a bit of a challenge to find one that works with PEX. I had to order online and it looked like this.

Here is a link that might be useful: PEX Icemaker Valve

The guy from the local appliance store where we bought the fridge and range was just here. Talked through the icemaker line situation with him. He says you want the shut off to NOT be behind the sink on a SZ because it's not something you just roll out if there's a leak. You want the shut off accessible, so it'd be best under the sink right after the connection to the angle stop. He also said you can't run the stainless type through cabinets. I didn't mention PEX. He said it has to be copper through the cabinets. This is the quote from our other GC:
"From the existing cold water angle stop, purchase and install braided ice maker line from the angle stop to the new refrigerator location, to include a brass shut off valve behind the refrigerator it will be necessary to cut holes in the side of the new cabinets to run the line due to the fact the line was not run prior to the new cabinets being installed."

So he sounds like he's planning braided stainless and was planning the shutoff behind fridge. I'll let him know it has to be at other end if I have him do it.

Appliance guy also said don't worry if it's not hooked up before install. They WILL drill one hole through endpanel and trash cabinet and leave the line there. They will temporarily hook it up to a line attached to outlet at angle stop to verify it works properly, then unattach it and leave the hose in the trash cabinet. to then be connected to whatever gets run through the cabinets.

AND when I confirmed the Miele install for next Wednesday, I asked if they cut the cabinet front...and no. Bad assumption on my part. So I need alt GC to do that too. Ugh.

I know it's coming together. But ugh.

I did text back and forth with granite guy. We're on for tomorrow, 10am. He said best not to have faucet hooked up for 24 hours, so I'll try to get that set up for Saturday if I can. At this point, if it has to be next week with MIL here, I'll survive. I guess.

Watch out, she might lose everyone's tools :p

Their Icemaker plans sound OK. I'd it were me I would place the shutoff in the cabinet next to the fridge and do a PEX run to get it there but there are a lot of ways to accomplish this.

It feels like 100 degrees at the moment and the kitchen I am working on is on a west-facing wall that has no insulation. I am going to chill out at home before going over there to work. Maybe the weather will cool slightly.

This post was edited by schicksal on Thu, Aug 7, 14 at 20:53

Mags- lovely window!

Mum- I96 is closed from I275 to telegraph road (m24 also known as the 2 by 4). Take i94 to Livonia. Livonia is still recovering from the soccer official who was killed by a soccer player about to get a red card. Very sad that an adult recreations player would sucker punch the ref and not stop to see what he did. He was arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder.
Don't worry - Livonia is very safe and the perp was from Dearborn.

Train arrived at 3 AM - about 4.5-5 hours late. We had a nice nap in our roomette and are now in whitefish.

Signing off for 2-3 weeks. I hope I can survive without DTs!

See you on the rebound

Have a fun trip!

Today's progress is all behind the scenes. I wrapped up the framing for the former soffit area, decided on 30" uppers because 36" would look funny with the crown molding on the doorways, cleaned up and scraped a lot of paint. I underestimated the total number of layers. I counted 11 of them!

Boy someone went crazy in there with white paint on wood like at my house! Thankfully I don't have all those nice thick moldings around the doors, just boring thin builder grade.
Are you going to use Citristrip on that too?

All my water shut offs to fridges water have always been off the cold water line under the sink.
Copper line at mom's with a couple of coils worth of extra behind the fridge. White braided (looks like see thru garden hose) at this house.

Beautiful window and location!

No work here really...heating hodge podge of fridge contents for dinner. Watered the rose garden, deck pots and baby fruit trees. Worked on the stupid Music Festival.

What you see is me + scraper. I am going to try scraping what I can then using the heat gun to get the rest. It seems like the best option because regardless of what I do to get the last layers off I will have to sand the wood smooth. At least this way the chunks of paint that go on the floor from heat will not be sticky like they are with chemicals.

Yesterday we had a couple bits of drama. The range opening was found to be a tad small (fixed this morning) and I was unsure the speed oven would fit. We switched from microwave to speed oven and I never checked the specs beyond 24"w. This morning I talked to the install manager for the store we bought it and I think it'll work. But I can't think about that right now. The HD GC is going to have to cut the cabinet now because it's the only way he's going to get electrical into the speed oven cavity. His fault for waiting until after we had counters.

Sprinkler guy came this morning and fixed up a few different areas. Went for parts and will be back to change up some heads.

Granite is coming along...

DH just said he thinks I can/should do the icemaker line. They only had the 'vampire' shut off valves at Lowe's. I called a local plumbing supply place and the guy sounded like I was loony asking for a shut off for the icemaker line. I said I didn't want the self tapping one. He said I could use a ball valve or angle stop. If I can get out of here with enough time to go check it out, I will. It's 1pm now, they're open til 5. Not sure how long the granite will take.

Oh, wow.
Your granite really ties your paint and cabinets together. At least as my monitor resolves it!
Just beautiful.
You must be so excited!

Last night I mowed the lawn.

Today I moved some bricks someone had filled a dip in my lawn with. (huh?) Seems they'd become a Black Widow condominium/nursery. Never seen so many. Filled the dip with wood chips, which will pack down and grass will eventually seed there.

I mulched around some free standing trees.
Moved the hoses to water different beds.
Cut out more junk trees and vines.
Cut out more trees and vines.
Put slate squares down in front of what I call my front porch to give me a nicer area when it rains. Did I ever tell you how I made my front porch?
Made plans to move reseeding hosta ('Invincible') and hellebores. Wish it would rain so I could dig them up.

Tonight I might must have a little wine and do nothing.
Again! :)

Oven just beeped..it's ready for the chocolate chip cookies..and Christine I ate some dough just for you. ;)

I have mondo burgers smooshed out for the grill and the fryer has oil heating for fries.

I have big mental lists for this weekend, we'll see where reality settles. Lol

For now, it's just rest from my very busy first week back to work!

Good looking space CalQ, coming together...

Terri, I'm still here. I did not see you query asking where I was until tonight. I just read through the last few days to catch up on everyone's progress. Quite impressive.

I spent my week mostly working. In fact, I will have to work some tomorrow, Saturday. I am also nursing a very sore neck. Don't know what I did to it but after a few days of just being sore last week, on Sunday it went into spasms and only just today can I flex my neck far enough to look at the ceiling or over my shoulder. It's the same pain as a charley horse, only in the neck. The soreness is slowly going away and the spasms have pretty much stopped. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

I did get out to the shop a few times to work on trim. I got the pieces for the bedroom window just about ready to install. I might even get it put in late tomorrow. I got all the doorway frames cut and sanded and ready to finish and about half the baseboard and casing trim is cut to width. I love working in my shop and this week was the first time in a long time doing anything with wood. I've had quite enough of insulation and drywall and wiring and cement and painting to keep me for a while.

Hey Doug, take it easy..the scorcher of a weekend that is predicted, has me thinking I should be getting up early to get as much done as possible before the marine layer lifts?
Well it's nice to be able to work on parts of a project you enjoy.
Hope the neck pain and stiffness leaves quickly.

" I know there are people are there stalking, who just want my stuff. All my beautiful, half-built, half-finished, reuse center stuff. Or so they tell me on TV. "

that'd be me. I need 4 drawers about 26" W. Where will I find them? Don't make me look from room to room!

schicksal - let me know when you are done with your work there. I think all of your skills could be used here... you know what they say - 'use it or lose it'!

cal_quail - the countertops and laundry area look awesome! Great idea to have the countertop double back down at the front too. It's something I've seen personally only on rare occasion.

desertsteph - you reminded me, I've tried guessing when our place will be complete. My estimate was sometime in 2016. :/ Future projects only get smaller as time goes on. Same for the rental I'm working on at the moment. Once the kitchen/bathrooms are complete it becomes more mundane work, continuing to depaint wood as time goes on. Working hard today in the hope of a brighter future.

This weekend I'm going to start on the electrical plan. On walls that will not be opened up I will run wire through schedule 80 PVC. Otherwise I can run as one normally would. If I can wrap up with a mix of installed wire + others that are cut and ready to go in once cabinets arrive I will consider that a success.

No word back from the plumber... I may make holes and start work on the water supply lines on my own, then contact someone else for the drain work. Since the old stuff is cast iron it's something that I am incapable of doing on my own, which really bothers me.

Wow, do you guys *ever* slow down?? I get overwhelmed by just reading all the activity.

Thanks on window; took 3 specialties with me being the go-between, so really pleased with outcome.

I love the new countertops!! Cal, you must run at at least 100 miles/hr. I wish I could hook into what motivates and keeps you going

Schicksal - you'll have a entire place done before I get my teeny kitchen done!

CEF, I thought of you after window installed with the soapstone. We share the same vision. :-)

Despite having a slightly unfinished kitchen, I've moved off to other things. Finishing things seems to be a problem for me. Some siding needs to be replaced on the exterior and need a new porch floor before getting exterior re-painted. Looking at James hardie siding, but not very common here yet. One of the big box stores has a display, but they don't sell it??? So I contacted a few contractors thru hardie site, to see if affordable for us. Of the two that came up for my area, one became despondent after I sent a photo of the area to be resided...guess not big enough job. Contacted 2nd one, I didn't send a photo this time. At least this 2nd one seems more familiar with neighborhood to know housing is mostly stone and brick with very little original (cedar) siding. My goal the last few years - no maintenance anything.

schicksal-do you mean the laminated front? That's pretty much the only way it's done out here. Out west they sell 2cm granite and put it on top of plywood. Usually 5/8, but with frameless, has to be 3/4 to allow doors and drawers to open.

Again, my vision for the kitchen for years was pretty much YOUR kitchen. But I'm very happy with the way this is coming together.

I haven't talked of anything non-kitchen recently. The weather's been a bit cooler than average, which is great to me. I've trimmed, weeded, and staked some. Lots more in the yard that I planned to do this summer, just like there's lots more inside I planned to do, but that's par for the course.

I planned classes early this morning, because I was sure they wouldn't be here for the install before 9. But they said 8-9 and I didn't think anything of it, yet my classes go to 8:30. DH is not happy being 'alone' when they arrive. I put out a request for someone to cover, and we'll see. If it stays the way it is, we'll survive.

ETA: Second class covered. Free to supervise fridge and range delivery/install. :) Will cover for someone tonight.

The HD GC is also coming out today. Or sending someone. Or... Not sure. DH talked to the wife. Don't know if he's planning in doing the sink and or the electrical himself of if he's sending people. Maybe the cabinet guy to finish up? Crazy that I don't know.

This post was edited by cal_quail on Sat, Aug 9, 14 at 8:27