The kitchen is complete!

At least mostly complete . . . here's a partial view:

I wish I'd picked a darker gray for the walls. Coming sometime in the future: stainless steel between the oven and the microwave, and tile backsplash between lower and upper cabinets.

Design decision: Leave adobe bricks exposed?

The entire house, both interior and exterior walls, is built from double-wide large adobe bricks.

An adobe brick is simply dried mud. If you drop it from as low as two or three feet to a solid surface, chances are good the brick will shatter into dust and smaller chunks of dried mud. It's shocking that these old houses are made from this material, yet this house has been standing for over 150 years.

As I gutted the place during the remodel I uncovered many brick walls. Initially I thought I'd leave a few exposed, but since adobe bricks are so fragile (and dirty) I covered them all back up except for a section of wall in the kitchen. I like the different look, texture, and feel of the exposed brick versus just more drywall or plaster. Yet the wall needs work--part of it needs to be rebuilt and mortar repairs are needed throughout. Also, if you leave adobe exposed it must be treated with a chemical or resin to create a harder surface and prevent deterioration of the exposed mud bricks.

Another reason I have for leaning toward leaving the wall exposed is it serves as a "truth wall." In straw-bale constructed homes (straw is a highly energy efficient material for construction) it's a common practice to leave a truth window so people can see the material inside of a wall. Since my whole house is built from these adobe bricks it's cool to actually see some of them.

The end of the exposed brick wall in the kitchen has looked like it was about to collapse for the past six weeks or so. I was afraid to touch it. It's a load bearing wall and I didn't want to create some sort of collapse, even though the section of concern was clearly bearing no weight.

Last night my friend Bob suggested wood shims and an extra brick where one was missing. Like magic the wall looked a little more complete and stable. More work needs to be done and in the end I may just skim the wall with plaster since these bricks are so unstable, but with this temporary fix I feel comfortable leaving it alone for a while.

After the shim repair:

Before:

Granite countertops installed!

Today provided one of those extremely rewarding moments of a home renovation. The cabinets, finally secure, level, and attached to the walls, were ready. The free granite my friend Leon found for me in November had been cut and prepared. The installers arrived and in about an hour they had the new counters installed. The cost was the cost of the prep and installation ($600) which seems pretty inexpensive for solid granite counters. They mounted the sink under the counter, which I didn't even think of asking for but love.

I can't stop staring at these new counters! It's the kind of finishing material that really makes a place.

If you live near Salt Lake City and have a need for granite (they also do window sills, table tops, etc.) call Harry of Distinctive Marble and Granite at 801.750.5720. These guys are great.

Next to refrigerator:

Close-up of sink:

During install:

Prepped for install:

A windowsill transformed (for surprisingly little money).

These aren't the best photos, but the guys from Distinctive Marble and Granite did a great job of adding a classy windowsill to my kitchen window. Love it!

Before:

After:

Close-up (truer to actual colors, the wall is a light grey, not pink, red, or green as it appears in any of these photos):

About that Ikea kitchen . . .

Last Saturday I had three generous and talented friends help me begin the installation of my Ikea kitchen. We made a lot of progress.

Much remains to be done.

On Sunday, two other friends helped me raise the upper cabinets. Since then, despite significant effort, I've felt over my head and have accomplished little. I have a new helper arriving tomorrow to see if we can move this project forward.

Here's what it looked like at the end of last Saturday, and what it still looks like now. There are MANY hundreds of parts remaining to put together to finish this job.

The whole process is overwhelming and I am beyond my skill zone and stretching point. Hopefully there will be some progress tomorrow.

Kitchen.

January 10:

January 23:

The new laundry takes shape.

This laundry room was nothing more than a porch that was dark and cold and barely used by the previous owners. They had the laundry in the kitchen and used this room for storage. I finished installing the insulation this morning:

Drywall hung by late afternoon:

January 25 update:

This 150+ year house never had any insulation in the walls. Most of what we added was the fancy blow-in type. The only regular fiberglass insulation used is in this room.

The part of the job I really, really didn't want to have to do . . .

but you have to fix a leaky roof. My patch didn't work so the whole section of roof was replaced.

Job almost finished by end of day . . . did it really cost THAT much for this one day job?

On the left is the old "back porch" and new laundry room. Also in this photo, the old roofing material on the ground . . .

A new opening!

It was Saturday November 5, the first weekend after buying my new house. I was tearing out the old kitchen and pantry. My friend Phil came by and pointed out that I should open up the space, including losing a bedroom and moving a planned second bathroom.

The design change was a great idea and once that idea was planted I wanted to do it. Little did I know, little did any of us know, that that change would set off a chain of events that would prolong the renovation and change my planned November 30 move-in date by almost 40 days and counting.

IPS, my contractor, has been doing outstanding work. We are, I hope, in the final stretch. As of today, the rough carpentry and plumbing are finished. The rough electrical work is also almost finished--and hopefully will be by the scheduled inspection this coming Monday.

Today we removed the final two by fours, old enough that they are actually two inches by four inches. This created an opening between the enlarged kitchen and the former bedroom which will become a dining room/living area off of the kitchen--a great room.

A lot's happened in the past two months. The removal of the final two by fours today almost felt like a revelation. It was amazing what had to happen prior to taking them out.

Here's the new opening, Phil's design change:

A new floor in the hall and kitchen!

Jake on New Year's Day in Salt Lake City.

Removing layers and layers of paint

I managed to capture some beautiful images after two days of experimenting with sandpaper, chemicals, and a heat gun.

Hanging out at Elise's

A wonderful Christmas with Elise, John, the dogs, and the horses. I also played cribbage for the first time.

Sita posing after being groomed.

Joey, ready for his close-up. He and I go way back.

Sita dances.

Elise feeding carrots.

Little Buster Brown.

A hall is reborn!

Joists were installed today in the hallway.

Shawn at work.


Shawn and John inspecting the joists.


The view of the new hall from the original bathroom, looking into the master bedroom.

15 days on

After a bit of a delay, work is underway again at my new house.

Insane ductwork connects to the furnace:


A wall collapse damaged the connection to the furnace flu. A new duct was installed today to keep the carbon monoxide in the flu.


A new footer is poured for the hallway floor to have some support. For almost a month it's been a big hole in the middle of the house with dirt flooring.

Demo phase, out with a bang.

Self portrait from midnight last night. The demo phase is 95% done on the remodel. I seem to have saved the dirtiest, nastiest job for last. This is saying something because the whole process has been pretty dirty. I'd just finished removing the pre-1953 kitchen ceiling which has loose insulation called rock wool. It's apparently not as dangerous as asbestos to breathe, but it's probably close. I did wear a mask. I was in reality much dirtier than this photo shows.

Full views of kitchen post-demo.

Hello from Salt Lake City.

Double click on any image for larger version.

Before (and during) the demolition.

Kitchen installed after December 1953 (likely). Found newspaper with that date in the ceiling.