Sunday, April 28, 2013

Kitchen Unconfidential

What's been cookin at the Caponi's lately? Not a whole lot,  we've been without a kitchen for the past 28 days. No stove, no sink, no dishwasher, refrigerator in the garage. The room formerly known as the kitchen has been a big open hole in the house that Lil has claimed as her personal getaway (from whom? No kitchen makes for a moody mommy and daddy is scary in general but more so with power tools and sledge hammers in hand). 

This post has a lot of pictures, I want full record of this mess so that when it's all said and done, I won't cry over spilled (coconut) milk because at least I'll have a floor to spill it on.

First necessary step in a kitchen reno: relocate the relocatable items preferably far from the renovation area. In our case we didn't have much choice, the family room was most convenient and a big piece of tarp acts as an effective divider between chaos and, well, slightly less chaos.
kitchen pro tem
mood stabilizers
bookshelf = pantry


Then you start tearing everything apart!!
First thing chucked was the wall between the kitchen and dining, which at one time looked like this:


but after this:



looked like this:


 Then the floors and plaster and wood paneling were out:


Kirk & Mike

Graeme and Aiden come for back up
He laughs so he won't cry



I wasnt just the project photographer, people. I assisted with demo, carrying waste out, and extracting about 27,428 nails out of the wood. I might be exaggerating, only a little though. This is a Mike thing, he insisted all nails be removed so they can be properly separated and recycled. He has made over $100 recycling, which has offset the dumping costs so kudos to him (and to me, I grin and bear)



As I am reviewing these pictures it's hard to miss Graeme being a goofball. He is just a mini-Mikey afterall:




Brother-in-law Kirk has been a pivotal player during this renovation. His expertise and willingness to help has guiding the entire process and we are eternally grateful! He engineered and installed new joist support spans and blocking for the floor. Countless hours have been spent, band aids administered, and poker games missed (gasp!) as he worked through many days and nights to provide a stable subfloor for our home.



THANKS KIRK!!!!
Now get back under the floor, we've got some plumbing lines to run!

SO.
This is where we're at today:

Future mudroom ,and hall

Mudroom. The side entry door will be relocated to where this window is. Cabinets and washer/dryer will line the wall at right.

Kitchen - sink will be under window


Kitchen - range wall

next I'll tell you about my experience with Ikea, where our cabinets are coming from. 


SO

EXCITED!!!!!!!!




Saturday, April 20, 2013

Razing the roof : Let's get some lipstick on this pig!

As an interior designer I have tendencies towards ignoring the exterior. ESPECIALLY when it comes throwing some major coin at it. Enter Mike and his all too practical approach to our project. He decided that before we make any further attempts to spruce up the inside we needed to prevent the outside elements from destroying everything. I know, hope does not spring eternal in the Caponi mindset. FINE, we'll get a new roof - but it's going to scream 'major design forces at work inside'. 
We decided on a standing seam metal roof for a number of reasons: 
A of all: it looks really good
and 
2: it has a 30 year warranty and is super duper sturdy
For those reasons  among others it was spendy! But our MO for this house is 'quality first' - we're not interested in doing things over and over and over again. The next roof going on this house will be paid for by future chumps who pry this house from my cold dead hands.

To remind you, this is the jewel of Sherwood Forest as it existed:
BEFORE


And during installation:
DURING
drumrollllllll.........


AFTER

The color is dark bronze - which is a really dark, cool toned brown. You may notice that the sparkly new roof exasperates the ugliness of the rest of the house. Future exterior improvements are planned and include: painting the brick an off-white (a la Nana's house), new windows & front door (including a proper landing), replacing the cedar shakes with something the woodpeckers will ignore, and major landscaping.
 We also took care of the A-frame, it's ready for the next tree to fall on it:



BEFORE



AFTER







Now that thats over with, back to the inside. 

KITCHEN: BEFORE


 Let's just say we're gonna have enough firewood to last the life of the new roof.