Progress Update: Week 5

So there's good news and bad news.  The good news is that we passed all of our intermediate inspections at the beginning of week 5, so we got the green light to proceed with the project.  The bad news is that we're behind schedule and there's no making up time lost since everything creates a domino effect.

The dry-wall is up!  Even the unexpected soffit looks good.  Let's just hope it lines up with the cabinets and floating shelves!

At any rate, insulation was installed on the exterior walls and around the laundry area (for sound reduction).  Then, the drywall was hung (on July 4 of all days!  I'm sure the GC is paying a pretty penny to the sub-contractor for that to get done over the holiday!)  Actually, I can't believe how fast the drywall went up.  It took less than 4 hours to do everything: the kitchen, the hall, and the two closets.  That's the pace I'd like to see on everything!  The sub returned again Friday and Saturday to mud the seams.

Also in the category of good news: my vertigo and tinnitus are diminishing.  I'm starting to feel more up to doing work around the house, as was the original plan for my summer.  I started scraping paint off the original trim work, which was taken down during the demolition phase.  These beauties are going to get cleaned up and freshened with new paint before going back in!

Scraping and sanding the original trim work on the back deck.

Wall paper for the laundry hall.  What looks like lavender in this photo is actually a metallic silver.  The colors in this wallpaper coordinate with the "Alpaca" paint color that will go in the adjacent kitchen and powder room.

I also indulged myself and ordered the wall paper for the laundry hall.  I originally wanted the same pattern in the black/beige combination because of it's bold punch, but the beige colors in the wall paper were too yellow and clashed with the paint colors in every adjacent room, so I ended up going with the same pattern in a silver and cream combination that works with the paint we've already chosen for the other rooms.  I suppose it will still turn out okay, since the floors and shelves will all be black/brown.

Candice Olson's "Oval and Diamond" wall paper.  I love the "Wow!" factor that this bold geometric pattern brings!

Maybe the black in the wall paper would have been too much on top of the dark floors, but I still love it!

Stupid electrical panel!  Bane of my Kitchen Design!

Now I have a minor design dilemma.  The main electrical panel is located on the back kitchen wall and isn't concealed by any closet or cabinet.  My design to hide this was to install a chalkboard (which I've always wanted in my kitchen anyway) on piano hinges over the electrical panel.

Someone else came up with the same idea to hide the electrical panel!
Photo: http://thehouseisgoingtobegreat.blogspot.com/2012/10/diy-chalkboard-camoflauge.html

Thus, to get to the electrical panel, you would just swing open the chalk board!  However, with the old lath and plaster walls ripped out, the electrical panel is no longer flush with the wall, so the drywall was built out just a bit, creating what looks like an engaged column on the back wall.  This panel is only 19'' wide; not enough for my chalkboard.  I've come up with a plan to build out the panel and trim work, hiding the narrow electrical panel, but it still may not work.

Elevation plan for the wall that butts up next to the electrical panel.  As it turns out, the finished wall is only 117.5'' in length -- a little shorter than we expected.  This is going to be tight!

There's a 2'' filler piece intended for the cabinetry on the adjoining wall, which would help the 2+'' offset of the electrical panel, but the adjoining side wall is 117.5'' and the designed layout is 118.''   Thus, to cover the electrical panel and fit all the cabinets on the adjoining wall, the trade-off might be that the closet cabinet at the end will never open a full 90 degrees.  I could live with 87 degrees, I guess, but how annoying!

View from the kitchen into the back hall / laundry closet.  Both the closet door and door to the bedroom lack enough space on either side of the jamb to re-install the original 6''wide trim.

Also, on the "unexpected surprises" front, now that the dry wall has gone up in the hall we can see that there's not enough clearance on all the door jams to re-install the original trim.  We knew we'd have to get more trim from somewhere, just because we're adding a 5th door to the hall space, but we didn't foresee the original trim being wider than the wall space available on each side of the jamb.  It's not just a matter of door placement either; there isn't enough wall space period.  So now I have to decide:  Do I install some of the original trim where it fits and buy new trim for the rest of the doors?  Or do I reuse the original trim elsewhere and buy all new trim for the hall for the sake of uniformity?  Argh!  I cannot decide!  *Sigh* When will the compromises end?!

Looking forward, week 6 is going to be a jam-packed week for everybody, but this week is critical if we want to avoid re-scheduling the counters to be templated for a third time!  DH and I are going to have our hands full, too, as we are doing all the painting and building the cabinets ourselves.  At this point, the remaining schedule looks like this:

Week 6: Finish dry-wall, install floor, paint walls, build cabinetry
Week 7: Install cabinetry, template the countertops
Week 8: Start trim/crown, finish wood floor in closet, finish laundry, install lighting
Week 9:  Install counters, backsplash, finish trim work, pass final inspections...move back in and Enjoy!

This would still put us a week behind our original deadline.  Here's to hoping this kitchen gets done before the next school year starts!