Some bumps in the road, and kitchen progress!

Over the last few weeks, there have been a few unfortunate "surprises" that seem to make themselves known once the home renovation process has begun, and especially during the deconstruction of existing features. It seems the more pieces of a home that you take apart and remove (with the intention of putting back together) the more unpleasant "surprises" you find! More about that later.

First, let's take a look at the exterior improvements. The porch roof and soffit have been rebuilt and the boxy posts have been replaced with the historical smaller, round ones salvaged from the house that was demolished next door.

Also, after a hundred years of exposure to the elements, the mortar in the brick foundation was so soft and porous that it easily crumbled, so the entire foundation was parged with a cement coating to protect the structural integrity of the house.

When we purchased the house, someone had begun to renovate the kitchen, and they installed new cabinets and tile flooring. I had planned to replace the cabinets but hoped to be able to salvage the ceramic tile floor, which looked new and was a nice neutral color. I had hoped to save some bucks and labor and just keep the flooring as is.

However, with the planned demolition of a wall to open up the living room to the kitchen (see the wall with doorway in the photo below), as well as reroute the plumbing during the kitchen layout redesign, we ran into one of my aforementioned "renovation surprises," and unfortunately, it was a major one.

Here is a photo of the wall, or rather, what used to be the wall separating the kitchen from the living room. Goodbye tiny doorway, hello open space!

At this point, everything was going smoothly, and then...dun dun dun...the major hiccup. Once the plumbers attempted to reroute plumbing from one wall to the other (I wanted the kitchen sink to be located underneath the only window in the kitchen), they realized they needed to tear out a section of the kitchen floor. Once they  tore up the section of the kitchen floor, they realized most of the joists underneath the house essentially rested on the dirt below, with no crawl space at all. That meant that many of the joists had rotten, soft spots, which needed to be repaired before hundreds of pounds of cabinetry and granite were installed on top of them. Otherwise, the weight of the materials could have caused major settling in the floor, and could even cause the installed granite to crack. So, the entire kitchen and adjoining bathroom floor needed to be pulled up and replaced. It was a mess!

The bad news was that the surprise developments put us over our ideal budget and added a few weeks to our projected completion timeline.

The good news is, the house is now structurally sound and the floor is properly insulated, so that should help with energy efficiency. And, we have new tile!

Last week, the cabinets were installed, and the granite arrived. Here it is arriving on the truck...exciting!

I chose Giallo Ornamental granite to complement the warm chocolate tones of the cabinetry--here's a close-up of the stone.

And, here are the cabinets, along with a bit of exposed brick behind them, where an original fireplace used to be. (I'm still weighing what to do with that bit of brick detail...I'm thinking an under-cabinet wine glass rack might be a nice way to utilize that architectural detail without making it seem a bit out of place along the wall. I also think a piece of ornamental iron placed atop the brick might be cool. Or I could just leave it alone. Any other ideas? Please share!)

Everything AND the kitchen sink.

 Here you can see how open the kitchen is to the living room...remember that pesky, light-limiting wall? Now, where the wall used to be, there will be an L-shaped breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the living room. In this photo, the granite slab of the bar top has yet to be installed on the raised bar wall, so you'll just have to use your imagination. : )

So there you have it! Things are moving along, a bit slower than planned, but moving along all the same. Stainless steel appliances were delivered a couple of days ago, and the kitchen is being trimmed out, so I should have some updated photos in the near future.

We have also added a new bathroom upstairs, as well as closets and a new balcony. The contractors are beginning to paint the interior today, and the hardwood floors will be refinished this week. I know you're eager to see the rest of the house, so I promise to update soon!