Harvest time

I just harvested a big, plump, juicy tomato from my deck:

As you can see, its huge! The tomato plant went into the pot on my deck in early June and took all summer to produce this one tomato. One. Un seul. Solo una.

Let me give you a little perspective:

A farmer I'm not. I know the tomato plant "requires a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight per day" and my deck doesn't provide that during a dry summer. During a wet summer, like we've had, this is what we got. We're going to eat it all tonight. At this rate we will not be self sustaining - ever.

Final Kitchen Photos

It has taken me a long time to take a few final kitchen shots mostly because there's always so much going on in there. Below are a couple of shots at nighttime before we had picked out lighting by the windows and the electrician had made his final visit, and a few from this morning. We are really enjoying our new kitchen - so glad we bumped out and got the extra space!

Visitors and feedback welcome.

Day 49 - Backsplashes & Smiles

I'm smiling the most, behind my camera, as I admire my new kitchen. We're really loving it.

Ate dinner at the island tonight and admired our view out the windows. I've added some basic things to cabinets (aka cupboards) but not too much because still some finishing touches required.

Pictured here are the granite guy, Kevin, from Kennedy Tile & Marble in Jersey City - scared me at first (!) but a very nice guy who does great work with his two assistants - and Anthony who has done the lion's share of our kitchen bump-out, and installation, and coordinated the other trades. His assistant, Jose, has been excellent too.

Not pictured are the two Joes that do plumbing and electric (maybe I can snap a pic of them tomorrow when they connect our sink and cooktop) and the master designer Ron from GPS in Morris Plains.

Day 48 - Countertops

We have countertops! And I like them! They are not in completely because of a slight delay with the backsplashes, which we will have tomorrow between 10 and 11. A few things were dismantled in order to make room for the granite so you'll see some moldings are down, and cardboard is on floor. That cardboard cut-out on the window sill is a template for the exhaust fan over the cooktop.

The dishwasher, microwave and bev fridge went in today too. We just need the plumber to come along tomorrow or Friday to hook up sink and dishwasher and then we're just down to smaller finishes. Yahoo!

We're going to be ready for you Sue! (Sue, a friend from high school, arrives at 4pm on Friday with her girls for the weekend - looking forward to it!)

Man risks life to touch-up siding & save a few bucks

Here's my brave husband staining the new boards on our house. Many of the boards could be reused but a few new ones were needed, and then they needed stain. And because these boards are not within 8 feet of the ground there was NO WAY on earth that yours truly could do the job. The 3rd rung on a ladder is my limit.

He is way up there. My hero. My accountant.

Day 31 - Pulls & Trim

Today, with all the cabinets in place, the handles were installed and trim work began. The island is not permanently attached yet as it will be removed when the flooring is done. I think I'm really liking it. Phew.

I am still speaking to the kitchen designer and the contractor so all is going well! I'm even still talking to Don!

Day 29 - Starting to see a Kitchen

We are starting to see the emergence of a real kitchen. Yesterday the installation of cabinets began. More noise and more dust, but more visually rewarding than previous stages!

Day 28 - Hasty Painting

The spackle guy's son came by late yesterday to do the final sanding on the walls and ceiling, thus wasting another 1 -1/2 days. (They wasted 2 full days last week by not showing up!) Don had taken the day off work yesterday to paint, and couldn't get started until 6pm. He did the cleaning and first coat of primer everywhere, then had to leave for hockey (story of my life), so I did second coats and first coat of final ceiling and wall paints. It was easy since there was no worry about drop cloths or spattering paint.

You can see that the wall paint is a tad bright!!! I am thinking that with cabinets, furniture and art, this sunny color will peak through nicely. Plus the granite has a golden look to it. Some of you may be shocked to see I've chosen a yellow ... not.

As I type this, the workers are banging away installing the cabinets. Exciting! Geez I hope we like this! And so it goes ...

Day 25 - Spackle Guy

Today the spackle guys arrived. While they worked they sang in harmony and whistled. With the acoustics just right in the empty kitchen, it was beautiful! One spackle guy worked on stilts. Here he is doing a little repair job to the living room ceiling where we had speaker wire pulled. He let me take this photo. Smile spackle guy.

Day 21 - Drywall!

Bring on the drywall ... yesterday the drywall was carried in and nailed up in half a day. Our kitchen now looks like a room - a dusty empty room.

Day 20 - Inspection Stage

For the past week we've been in 'inspection mode' for the kitchen reno. Both the electrical and plumbing inspectors came by last week, and tomo we expect the framing and insulation inspection. (Note the lovely insulation in the first photo!)

Since my last post on the kitchen, the action has been mostly with the plumbing and heating. All the electrical is done. The outside is looking more like the rest of the outside of our house, and things are generally a lot neater. We're throwing some speaker wire in there tomorrow too if the sound guy ever shows up!!!

As we understand it, the drywallers will be here this week, then next week the cabinets will be installed ... then flooring, countertop templating, appliances delivered (not necessarily in that order). My photos should start to get a lot more interesting.

Day 12 - Deliveries

There hasn't been much to take pictures of the past couple of days because wiring and plumbing is not very photogenic. Sorry Joe and Joe - Joe the electrician and Joe the plumber, who has lately been bringing his son, Joe. Joe cubed.

Today the cabinets were delivered and they're sitting in our garage. The sliding glass door was delivered and installed!

Making life a bit easier, Joe, the electrician, was able to turn some of our outlets back 'on' so the coffee maker is now plugged in and extension cords are no longer running all over the place to keep the fridge running and my pc working.

But Joe suggested we update our electrical panel because its outdated and other Joe suggested our air conditioner is on its last legs (as he has had to reroute parts of the a/c piping). They both make good points ... ai yi yi.

Day 9 - Let there be Light

Slowly but surely we are making progress. Today the window was added, lots of lighting boxes were installed in the ceiling, and the entrance to the dining room was widened.

See that scaffolding? The framers, as they are called in case you have not dealt with this breed before (I hadn't), stand on this make-shift scaffolding while bees buzz at them and winds come up out of nowhere. Are they crazy!? Probably.

And that piece of drainpipe that is hanging there? Its purpose was only to disguise the freon line from the attic to the air conditioning unit below. It was only pretending to be a drainpipe. Real sneaky. Fooled me ... until this reno. That line now has to be re-routed which will happen down an internal wall. This may come as a shock to my Canadian friends, as most in southern Ontario have had air conditioning forever (that being a shock to my American friends), but many NJ homes do not have a/c, or at least did not originally have a/c (even relatively recently built homes)! And our house is relatively new, having been built in 1983. I was surprised! Fortunately our home has it, added after original construction, and therefore disguised in drainpipes (but not for long).

On to other news: Our son is going to the High School Prom tomo night. The "news" is that his date is Canadian. Yes, somehow he found the only Canadian girl in our town in his grade. She is very nice. Her mom (pronounced mum, not mawm) is from Ottawa and father from North Bay. I'm sure they will have a great time together, eh.

Day 8 - A Little Roof

Another day, another step towards returning to normal life. Only Day 8 and this living out of our living room with a toaster in the bathroom and coffee maker upstairs is getting old. The challenge is the wiring of this house is not logical, so many of our outlets in random places are not working and we have extension cords snaking all over the place to keep our fridge running and our computer/modem/router etc. humming so I can keep working. Really, we're doing fine.

Today, around 2 pm a storm came whipping through here. By 2:30 pm we lost power. With no power to run all the equipment, the guys left before installing the window, but they did build the little roof that covers the window box. The window opening is partially covered by a piece of plywood leaning against the inside to minimize the amount of rain getting in. I took this photo in the rain so as not to lose a single day of this photolog of the progress. Blog dedication.

We didn't get our power back until 8:45 tonight. I've been on the computer ever since. I can't function without it. More news tomo, I'm sure.

Day 7 - New Outside Wall

I spent my day today merrily walking through the campus of University of Delaware with my son,
my two best Maryland friends, Anne & Jody, and their son and daughter respectively.
The six of us had a lot of fun catching up. It was a perfect day!

While I was driving and touring and driving, our kitchen wall was built.
Here's the inside and outside views again.

The window didn't get installed today, but perhaps tomorrow.
This is quite a bit larger than the previous window ... and I'll have a large sill for a few plants.

I had a sleepless night last night. I felt like I was waking up every 10 seconds rethinking every question the electrician asked me, as well as going over work-related details for my current project and then dreamt I was breathing sawdust (which I probably was/am). Ugh. The good thing is that I'm so tired tonight after a bad night, then driving up and down the NJ Turnpike today, I should sleep like a log.
A beautiful, sunny day in Delaware with great friends was just what I needed today.

Goodnight!

Day 6 - Kitchen Expansion

Day 4 & 5 were days of inactivity. Day 6 came on like gang busters with all kinds of people here shutting off our water, cutting the electricity, banging out walls, and creating new spaces.

The wall was removed to begin the 2-foot bump out.
This is a temporary support while the floor is extended out, and the new wall is built.

Here's the kitchen opening from the back. You can see the new floor joists
coming out to meet the existing overhang. They got a lot done in a day.
The window for this new wall was delivered today and may be installed tomorrow.

Day 2 & 3 - Kitchen Demolition

Day 2: Good-bye drywall.

Day 3: Good-bye sub-floor.

Hello insulation.

Day 1 - Kitchen Demolition

A series of photos here show that the demolition has begun on time. The top one was taken late yesterday, and the other 2 today. All our cabinets just a pile of rubble now.

By the way, learned another Canadianism along the way. I was talking to the appliance guy about our cupboards and he asked what part of Canada I was from. Huh? Turns out American's don't say cupboard. Still acclimating!

Kitchen on schedule to start

The demolition of our current kitchen is going to start on May 7 as planned. While I am excited about the outcome, I'm apprehensive about the mess, daily little decisions and being displaced. Maybe it'd be better if I didn't work from home, but it will be good to be easily accessible when issues come up. I know it will come to a happy close and that many before me have weathered home renovations. (Photo is of cabinet sample with granite sample, laying on wood flooring.)

Maybe its my age or just the closeness of my neighborhood, but there seem to be a lot of people dealing with more serious issues than a kitchen renovation - injuries, health, teen angst, aging parents, etc. So I will remind myself to keep things in perspective during this reno process and to laugh rather than cry!

The end of an era

Our current fridge has hosted many photos over its 10-year life as focal point in our kitchen. We bought this one when we first moved to Maryland. I don't think we'll be 'cluttering up' the face of our new fridge when it arrives and is installed, so this is kind of the end of a decorated-fridge era - what you do when your kids are young. Now there is less artwork coming home, unless we count the elaborate doodles in the margins of Bryan's notebooks.

Let me take you on a quick tour of our current fridge. As you can see, many photos have captions, thanks to a birthday gift Carolyn received last year. Clockwise from the top left: B&C posing for an early Christmas card, B&C at the waterfall park in Rocks Spring, MD, Don & I in Maryland house, glare, Eric (so cute), brother Michael (also cute), Lucky (handsome), B in High School hockey game, Dad's 80th birthday with B&C, B&C in another Christmas photo (1st Christmas in NJ), the family at TGIFriday's in Leicester Square celebrating C's 6th birthday, B&C back in Richmond Hill, Carolyn & I just before Barb & Doug's wedding - C was the flower girl, B&C at the Old Mill in Toronto. There is also a doodle of Bryan's and a cartoon about not listening while sports are on TV (NO idea who that would be referring to in our household).

I will miss this fridge with its decor. The end of the cluttered fridge era.