Articles with kitchen

Construction days 74-75

I was very happy with Thursday/ Friday progress.

Exhibit A: Plaster walls. Its actually hard to see the difference in pictures, but the base coat went on Thursday and top coat was all done on Friday. There is a big difference to the touch though – base coat is kind of grayish and is pretty rough and almost sticky —

The top coat is white and smooth.

Overall I am very happy with the job they did skimming the plaster and so happy that we decided to stick with the original decision to go with plaster on all walls which are redone (the rest of the house mostly has plaster walls save for a few places that will be redone eventually).… Read the rest

Construction Days 68-73: Vacation edition

Sergey and I took a week long vacation – wednesday to wednesday – but the work continued while we were gone. I thought it worked out pretty well actually – anytime there was a question the contractors would text with a quick picture and we would follow up when we had time. We were still  a bit nervous coming home, but this made us happy:

A couple of notes here: the dishwasher still needs a front panel – it will match the rest of the cabinets.… Read the rest

The Otto Renovation – Ikea edition

So I have been hoarding these pictures thinking I would do one big post about the ‘otto’ renovation (get it? say it out loud!) But I am not the most patient person it the world, plus I have enough of these for at least several installments. So, here we go :)

Otto really enjoys scaling things, so the pile of Ikea cabinets was his idea of perfect kitchen. His mediation pose says it all – no need to adjust anything here, i am quite pleasedthankyoumovealong.… Read the rest

Construction days: 66-67

A quick note with a few minor but important details. First up the tile. The reason its not done yet? well apparently, our historically correct, unglazed tile floors did not take too well to grout. As in it refused to come off once dry. Typically the grout is supposed to be spread liberally and then excess wiped off. Well I am sure our contractors were not pleased when they realized this wasn’t correct.… Read the rest

Construction days: 58-65

I guess the tile floor is another one of those super time consuming projects? A week and a half in of work (not by us, by the contractors) the kitchen floor is nearly complete. I really love the tiles and the dark grout, which together have come out looking quite nicely.

Here’s last 8 work days, or so – first up, Mr Otto enjoying the new tiles (actually this is his look for can I please go outside now?!)… Read the rest

Kitchen furniture pieces

A little update on our cabinets and island piece. Past weekend, we had some help from our friend Zach (thank you!) which was essential to putting together our Ikea pantry unit, since Sergey’s only got one useful hand as of two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, I played around with various finishes for our kitchen island counter top. I don’t think that we will be using it as a butcher block. I prefer using cutting boards for ease of clean up, and plus the joists are probably pine, which is a soft wood that wouldn’t take that well to constant cutting and chopping.… Read the rest

How to: Reclaimed Wood Counter (part I)

When we took the house apart, our friends had suggested that we keep the old wood joists for all sorts of salvage projects. Such as a table.Or a kitchen island top. Brilliant, thank you friends! Reclaimed wood has become rather fashionable as of late, which gives me a bit of a pause in using it on such a focal piece in the kitchen. Reclaimed wood is definitely a trend, and maybe even a fad, that won’t stay.… Read the rest

Construction Days 53-57

Its been very hectic around here, and not necessarily VIB related. Though the house always adds another layer to whatever else you have going on. Anywho, its been five working days since our last construction update, and what have we got to show for it? That’s what:

the beginnings of our finished tile floors! but before we get to this point, this also took place:

yes, the entire kitchen as well as half bath will have heated floors.… Read the rest

Seeing White

There’s been am awful lot of white around here. And it’s come to stay. There is  a lot of different variation of the type of white though, so I am hoping the various textures will layer nicely.

Exhibit A – tin ceiling (yes, I am still working on it, with occasional help from others). These have been stripped, primed with a rustoleum primer for metal with a rust inhibitor and finally painted.… Read the rest

Building Blocks for Adults – Ikea Kitchen

We have been plugging away at putting together our 18 building blocks of fun, i.e. our Ikea kitchen cabinets. (More on why we chose Ikea here). And by we I mean Sergey and friends. And by fun I mean until it starts being a total pain and is fun no longer (a fair share of time). Here’s Kirill -he’s actually been an all around super helper:

And Chris and Tricia dropped by Sunday:

And our dear friend Peter, just off the plane from London where he spent the last two years.… Read the rest