Articles with kitchen

A week of DIY renovation

So as I mentioned before our contractors had told us previously that they planned on taking a vacation week, which would be this week. No, they did not inform us at the outset. But they were quite clever in presenting it: “so we will be taking a vacation third week of july, and we thought that you guys could use that time to assemble the kitchen cabinets.”

yep, they are totally on to us – even though we are only doing less than 10% of the actual work, we are struggling to keep up.… Read the rest

Construction Day 14-15

Good morning people.
It’s Wednesday, and VIB is moving fast ahead and framing is up!
If you look the right way, you can almost see the kitchen slowly forming in the distance… )
So many little parts left to do, but the pace is steady..

The water will be entirely disconnected this week, so timing works out.
Kirill is going to be our nachal’nik for the week, with proper documentation of the progress and creating presence!… Read the rest

Construction Day 13

Well here we are, another day, a few more signs of progress:

no that toilet there is not hooked up. its just there, along with a sink, to determine the final placement for the door (currently leaning against the frame).

I know its looking a little tight. But! the sink will be higher up. and consider these powder baths:

 

Source: savoringsimplicity, centsational girl;

And we also got some additional framing around our french doors

and finally, an obligatory tools shot, just for fun:

… Read the rest

Construction Day 10 – renovation part II start

Phase II is full steam ahead – no more wall!

Ok so when I came home I was actually kind of scared to use that part of the house, fearing an immediate collapse of some sort. But we are all good, my fears can sometimes be irrational. I did know that that wall was not load bearing – but still, I waited until Sergey got home to confirm that it was ok.… Read the rest

State of the VIB

While we wait for Construction Day 8 – D-day, otherwise known as door install day (promised tomorrow), I thought I would do another post on our living situation here. I already posted about our kitchen set up, which works just as well as day 1, though we are probably getting additional exercise going up and down stairs to the second floor bathroom any time we need water for cooking or washing produce/dishes.… Read the rest

Construction Day 5

Still under construction. still boarded up.a bit sturdier now, since it will be a few more days until the door goes in, because apparently the brick mortar needs time to dry. so it looks like we are behind schedule a few days. oh well.

but we are making progress:

the house ‘eyebrows’ are still there, you see VIB is winking at you/us. But only for another day or so, these are on their way out…

… Read the rest

Construction Day 4

The door has arrived. Or rather Sergey and our builder picked it up and delivered it home, since the warehouse wasn’t ready for delivery for several more days.

But before we can get to the good part, it must get a little uglier. And so we are all boarded up.

It took just about an hour to remove our door and window in the kitchen,

Along won’t our security bars. These things always made me feel safer – we are in the city after all- but the look would not be becoming on a beautiful French door.… Read the rest

Construction Day 2

Ok so construction day 2 did not bring us any surprises (unlike day 1) — though can’t say the same for our contractors. According to them, the second floor joists were not nearly the piece of cake like the first floor joists. In part because of the shoddy job that was done in patching them up before, and in part I imagine it’s much more difficult fit the beams into place than dropping the into place.… Read the rest