Coleman Highlands Reno

A couple more shots...

2008-12-15T14:31:00.001-08:00

I see I posted the same picture twice in the previous post, and had forgotten one I intended to post. So here's the one I forgot, showing some more colorful decor in the living room. Also here's a shot of the peace sign wreaths we created for the front porch. The peace sign part doesn't show up much at night, but it looks pretty cool during the day. And finally, a shot of the giant ornaments in a hanging basket on the porch, along with a scene of our snowy neighborhood. So, now you have the complete picture...

Christmas Decor and Party

2008-12-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hi - had our Christmas party last night, which was fun. Food all turned out good, and everyone loved the kitchen. That's of course where everyone was hanging out! Here are pics of the party, and of our holiday decor :-) We went with bright colors this year in the living room, which was fun.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple pictures of our Thanksgiving table. Notice the individual salt cellars at each place, as well as the pattern glass goblets. Very classy if I do say so myself. Food was great too, but our friend who took the picture of the devastated kitchen hasn't sent it to us yet, so I don't have one to post. We will be hosting the UMKC department party at our house this weekend, so I'll get some more decorating pics up after that.

Uncluttered Pictures

2008-11-16T12:20:00.001-08:00

Here are 8 new pictures showing various aspects of the kitchen, this time without all the clutter. The first one below is a pic is of our new dishwasher. We went to Sears and got a JennAir. It had the features and look that we wanted, so that's what we chose. I am running it right now for the first time. So far so good. Also, I've discovered that you can click on any of these pictures if you want to see an enlarged version. Then just click on the back arrow to go back to the blog. Enjoy !

Pictures

2008-11-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

More Pictures

2008-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

The whole mural

2008-11-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a better picture of the mural, followed by some explanatory notes on the detailed pictures. We had our open house yesterday, and everyone ooohed and awwwed at the kitchen, which was fun. The pictures I took that day didn't turn out very well, so I've included this one, which is good of the mural I think, but the kitchen looks a little messy. Rest assured that it looks even better when its neat :-)

Mural finishes

2008-11-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

In response to Liz's comment, I made some notes on various parts of the mural to explain the finishes, which are varied. Here they are...

C'est Fini !

2008-10-30T05:10:00.000-07:00

It's finished ! Gina finished the wall mural about ten days ago, and we have been getting used to everything. We love it ! Have done some cooking and baking (made cookies for book club) as well as just staring at it. I still haven't got everything organized and decorated just the way I want, but will be working on that over the next couple days. We are having a "reveal" for friends to come over and see on Sunday afternoon so I will have to have it whipped in to shape by then. Got out some Fall/Halloween decorations so will work with those.

This picture doesn't really capture the wall, so I will try again and also post some party pics after the weekend. Bye for now !

Details on the mural

2008-10-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some close-ups of the mural wall, showing the colors and textures.

Say goodbye to the dish drawers...

2008-10-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

We're going to return the dishwasher drawers, and I am so sad because they LOOK so cool ! Function is not so great though. First of all, stuff doesn't get dry after the wash cycle, even though it blows a fan for quite a while. Secondly, nothing really fits properly in the drawers. Our dinner dishes didn't fit, and nothing very tall fits. So we are back to square one and will have to go shopping again for a new dishwasher. The installers are coming to get this one next week...

Latest acquisition

2008-10-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

We decided we just couldn't deal with a white dishwasher in our stainless kitchen. Our new Kitchenaid was installed on Thursday. Have only run it once so far, but it seems great. We can run more often/more efficiently by only running one drawer at a time. Plus it is just really cool.

Wall mural update

2008-10-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Great progress on the mural this last week. Here's what it looks like now... Only a few more days and it will be complete !

Kitchen Mural

2008-09-21T16:26:00.001-07:00

Here's the mural as it is developing....
More new posts below.

New wall decor

2008-09-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Took the clock and plate off the wall in the dining area, and replaced it with this bamboo wall installation. Its actually a room divider that we bought at World Market. We didn't put the feet on it, and hung it sideways on the wall. We really love it - great color and texture. We may hang the plate or other things on top of the bamboo, but haven't gotten around to that yet.

TV room arrangement

2008-09-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

We got some new furtniture for the TV room - two new recliners and a couch with chaise. [sold our old recliner loveseats on Craig's list almost immediately after we listed them.] We've futzed around with arrangements in every which way, but this seems to be the only way everything works the way we need it to. Its all pretty comfy and we're happy with the way its turned out. The red cabinet in the corner is also now - Asian style storage for our computers etc. Also moved the big clock from the dining area to above left of the new red cabinet.

Dining area, New light fixture

2008-09-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

The TV/dining area is all painted now, and we really like it. Here are some pics of the dining room wall. THe clock is new; we bought it over the weekend. The white plate we've had for years, and it looks good on the dark wall. Have also included a pic of our new light fixture over the dining table. we're really happy with that look. However, looking at these pictures makes me think the clock and plate don't give quite the dining room feel I had in mind. Will probably move the clock to another wall and find some more arty piece for the dining wall. Always a work in progress....

Kitchen Wall

2008-09-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Progress has been pretty slow on the kitchen wall art project. This is Gina the artist, and Bryan helping her with her drop cloth. Gina is taping off the design here, and there is now some color on the wall. But I'll wait for more progress before more pictures...

TV room paint

2008-09-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

We painted the dining/tv room over the weekend. Chose a dark gray-green, with a light gray trim. It is dark, but we like it. Check it out Liz - its almost black in some lights, like the pic you posted on your blog.
We are still waiting for our new furniture, which is a drag. Just posted our recliners on Craig's list tonight, so hopefully someone will buy those and we can start to put the family and living rooms back together.
More pics coming this weekend - Gina the muralist has started her project, and the cabinet guy is supposed to come tomorrow to finish up. I'll believe it when I see it. Stay tuned...

The big picture

2008-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. I'm standing on a stool in the family room taking the picture to get everything in.
We spent the weekend putting stuff away, organizing, etc. Went to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond on Saturday to get some organizers and stuff. Also bought the bar stools at BBB. It was really fun.
Two things are left to finish in the kitchen - (1) the cabinet company still needs to come back and fix some doors and drawers that aren't quite right. (2) The "back wall" still needs to be painted. We've commissioned a local artist to do an abstract painting on that wall. We met with her over the weekend to finalize design ideas, and we're pretty excited about it. Obviously I'll post pictures to show how that develops.
Guess that's it for now... Not much more to post, but I'm sure there'll be a few more shots to take so stay tuned...

The deck

2008-08-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of the new deck. I stained it earlier this week with an oil-based sealant. It turned out darker than I was picturing - I thought I was getting a clear stain and didn't really realize what it was going to look like till I was about 1/3 done. Too late then, so I just kept going.
The railings are polished copper tubing with rebar inside for strength. It has a clear coat to protect the finish and keep it shiny.
My next plan is to put some pots with flowers, a bistro table and chairs, etc to decorate the space. Right now we're just enjoying the pristine beauty.

Almost finished !

2008-07-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics of how things are looking now. Things are almost complete!

Midwestern Weather

2008-07-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

This is not about the kitchen, but I thought I'd share some midwest weather we had this evening. This is a picture of HAIL STONES from the hailstorm we just had. I included my foot in the picture so you can see how big they are ! And of course it was pouring down rain - a very loud storm with hail hitting the house and the ground. And of course our cars - I got a ding on my hood from a similar storm a couple weeks ago, and I think Diane got a ding on her hood tonight. Bummer !

Countertop Updates

2008-07-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Countertops were installed yesterday as planned. Here the installers are cutting out the opening for one of the sinks. It took about 4 hours to do the complete install. Of course that included a few modifications, like fixing the opening for the cooktop to be actually centered over the drawer stack underneath, instead of two inches to the left. Glad I was there to supervise !

Big sink

2008-07-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is the south wall where our main sink it. Its a big one - 29 inches! Seemed like a good idea when we picked it out of the catalog, and then seemed HUGE when it arrived in its box. Now it seems just right. Both of the sinks we chose are black, and made of a manufactured granite product called "silgranit". We read many rave reviews of this product on the web, so decided to go for it. Cheaper than stainless too. Supposed to be very durable, scratch-resistent, and not show water spots. If we had any plumbing, we could check out that latter claim. Hopefully that will be coming soon.

Grey Expo

2008-07-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the concrete-looking countertop that makes a u-shape on three walls of the kitchen. At the last minute we chose a black cooktop instead of a stainless one, and I really like the contrast. Drawer beneath the cooktop has been taken out as it needs to be modified a bit to close around the cooktop's gas intake valve thing in the very back. Just a small notch out of our beautiful cabinets! At least it won't show.

Island countertop

2008-07-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of the island countertop. Its a zodiaq product, and the pattern is called Black Forest. I know its not a very good shot, but you can refer to an earlier post for a better sample. My other shots were blurry and the countertop is now covered with backsplash tiles so I can't take a new pic. The part of the island shown in the lower left doesn't have its top on it yet. Long story having to do with the need to move the island to put the floor down, and not wanting to move the 1000 pound countertop along with it.
Anyway, you can see the small bar sink, along with a hole drilled for the faucet and one for an instant hot water dispenser. So we don't even have to boil water when we want tea or hot chocolate!

Recent Progress

2008-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of the recent updates: (1) some of the hardware is up, but the cabinet guy needs to come back and finish that up, presumably this week. (2) The microwave/speed cooker (top) and oven (bottom) were installed last week, and look awesome. The fridge will go next to them, assuming it gets here! Now they're saying the 28th. We are not happy, but whe can we do? Just wait. (3) The lights and switches are all in now, so I've included an arty shot of lights and hood. Hood is stainless but still has its white protective coating. (4) and finally, the outside. The siding is all finished now and looks great. I will be priming and painting this week. Its called sweat equity. Ha Ha.
Wednesday the floor and countertops are supposed to be coming in. More pictures after that !

Cabinet color

2008-07-12T15:49:00.001-07:00

I think I may have finally found the right camera setting to show the color of the cabinets. Its sort of a gray brown. Now our challenge is to find a paint color to go on the bits of wall that aren't covered by cabinets. We had been thinking of gray, but can't seem to find one that we're excited about. Perhaps we'll have to reconsider...
A few new posts below. Countertops, sinks, and faucets should be in place next week. We got all appliances except fridge delivered last week, and are waiting on the fridge. Hopefully it won't be long on that...

Inside

2008-07-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

And here's the new door and window from the inside. We've been able to reuse the trim from the previous door and window, which is sort of cool.

Deck

2008-07-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

We added a second level to the deck instead of putting steps per se. Its just covered in plywood now, but will evenually be done in redwood. We also decided on horizontal copper pipe for the railings. And of course you can see the new back door and the newly replaced window.

Pantry details

2008-07-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple pics of the pantry. The top part has adjustable shelves, as does the right side. The left side we designed a pull out system to allow us to see things easier and have better access. We saw something like this at Home Depot, and then worked with the cabinet maker to create something that would fit in our pantry. We're looking forward to putting out stuff away in the new pantry!

Cabinets !

2008-07-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today our cabinets arrived and were installed. Took all day. I stayed home to watch, which was a mixed blessing. Exciting to watch, but I was cringing at times as the installers were beating on the cabinets to get them in place. All went in well. The stain we chose really looks great. These pictures were taken this evening.

I'll try again tomorrow in better light. It still looks pretty piecemeal, but its exciting to see things coming together.

tabula rasa (a blank canvas)

2008-07-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

I know you've been dying to see the progress, but there's not much to photograph. Right now the place is completely empty. Brian was here today finishing up the priming, and put luan down on the floor in preparation for the cabinets. Update is that cabinets are supposed to be installed on Monday, July 7th. New window and door are supposed to be here this week, but things seem to be moving slowly. However, we are very excited in anticipation of progress.

Herb Garden

2008-07-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

Worked like a crazy person in the yard last week. I wanted to get mulch down to try to keep the weeds under control. Also needed to have something looking neat and clean since we are living in a first floor disaster area. So, I mulched the side yard and planted an herb garden. I bought the big pot at an antique store for $30, and I knew it would make a great planter. The wagon wheel I bought at a garage sale a couple years ago. I'm loving the vignette!

Attention to the house

2008-07-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

In a fit of home improvement fever, we decided to have the trim painted on the outside of the house. A crew of young hispanic men descended on our house on Saturday and Sunday and scraped and painted all day. Now it looks very nice - fresh and bright.

Faucets

2008-06-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

These are the faucets we are considering; the one on the left for the main sink and the one on the right for the smaller sink in the island. Whaddya think?

Tile

2008-06-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple shots of the belgian glass tile that will be the backsplash. It is opaque white tile, about 6" x 12". The 5 dollar bill is there for size comparison. The glass is polished, as you can see in the shot with the reflection through our back door. Arty, eh?

Drywall

2008-06-22T17:44:00.001-07:00

Not much new to report. Only progress has been drywalling. The window on the west wall is now gone (compare to shot two pictures down). No more peeking into the neighbor's back yard. Darn !

Now we are waiting for the cabinets. They are supposed to be ready July 3rd. We'll see. Exciting though.

Worse before better

2008-06-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today James and Brian decided they'd have to take all the old drywall off the south wall, and it was pretty uneven in places (that had been hidden behind cabinets). It has to be close to perfectly even, as the new hood will go on this wall, the tile backsplash, and tile behind the hood, so it needs be to perfect. Its the "feature wall", but all this means more money. Oh well.

The brick you see is a chimney. The boiler in the basement vented through the chimney, and the gas hot water heater currently vents into the chimney. The fireplace in the second floor den also used this chimney. If you look carefully, you'll see a place at the upper right of the brick where it looks like an old stovepipe also vented through the chimney.

The south wall is ready to go. The different colored middle section is backerboard for the glass tile backsplash.

We sold our fridge and stove over the weekend, using Craig's list, the on-line classified ads. The first interested buyers who contacted us showed up when they said they would and bought the appliances. The lady who bought the stove lives out in Eudora, and drove in to have a look with her husband. They loaded it into their pick up and off they went. The guy who bought the fridge was a young guy who came with a friend to look. He and his wife and kids are moving to Nebraska, and they bought the fridge to take with them to their new place. Strange, but whatever. Cash is cash.

Floor

2008-06-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today the main project has been the floors. The subfloor was in pretty bad shape, both from the old fire underneath, and from old termite damage. They're not quite finished replacing it all, and pictures show some of the damage as well as the new floor. So, its progress, but what a mess !

Lighting

2008-06-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

I was talking about lighting the other day and thought it might be fun to show the holes in the ceiling for can lights. Looks like a mess now, but will be great when its all put back together.

Cabinets

2008-06-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

Found a pretty good picture of what our cabinets will look like. We chose birch, shaker-style doors. Cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling, and be triimmed with crown molding as in the picture. We are also using the brushed nickel for the drawer pulls and cabinet handles. Drawer pulls will look just like the pciture, but cabinet handles will be handles and not knobs. We will also have glass in some of the upper cabinets.

Countertops

2008-06-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

We've chosen the gray silestone for the countertops going around the walls of the kitchen. It pretty much "reads" like concrete. The island will have a different top, a Dupont Zodiaq product called "Black Forest".

2008-06-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today's activity centered around running new wiring for lights and appliances. We will have under-cabinet lighting, can lights in the ceiling, and probably a set of 3 pendant lights over the island. One of the challenges for James was to find places in the ceiling for can lights without running into beams or joists. Apparently the joists run in different directions on different parts of the ceiling, and in a couple spots there are even diagonal joists. So he had a heck of a time finding an acceptable layout for the lights that would be approximately symmetrical. I think we've come up with a good plan now though. We are supposed to talk to him again in the morning about it. These pictures are bare walls showing the wiring. Very exciting !

New rug for family room

2008-06-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Also bought a new rug for the family room/TV area. Diane found it on line (of course) from a place called 1001 Persian Rugs in New York. The style/pattern is called Viss. Not the best picture here, but hopefully you can get the idea. Its draped over one of our reliners in the living room. We really like it and can hardly wait till we can put the place back together !

Old kitchen gone !

2008-06-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

When we came home on Friday we saw our old countertops out on the patio. Cabinets were nowhere in sight - turns out they are stacked in the garage. Kitchen is completely gutted now. Looks weird. But its progress !

We did a bunch of kitchen errands yesterday. Went to the paint store to look at stains for the cabinets, went to Lowe's and Home Depot to look at sinks and faucets. Looked at several catalogs, and found a cool stainless sink. Will try to post a picture.

Also went to the appliance store to confirm model numbers, etc. We consulted Consumer Reports along with our desire for the coolest stuff, and chose Viking.

Shelter over the door

2008-06-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Things have been happening fairly quickly over the last couple days so I need to catch up. This is a new little overhang built over the new back door, for a little protection from the weather.

It will get shingled like the other roof when it is re-roofed.

2008-06-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's progress...

Before and after in dining area

2008-06-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

I need to remember that things get added to the top of the blog, so my "before" and "after" in the previous post are done in the wrong order. Oh well..

Here we have the dining room window (before) which as been replaced by the new back door (after). The angles aren't quite the same in the pictures, but hopefully you can get the idea. If you look closely at the bottom left of the door, you might be able to see Brian's head and shoulder. He's James's co-worker, and he's working on the decking.

That's about all the progress for now. The basement joists under the kitchen floor have also been replaced, but I haven't been down there to take "after" pictures yet. Probably the least exciting part of the job, so I'm not in a rush to post. But I will for completeness sake. Ok, now I'm rambling....

Inside views: before and after

2008-06-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a before and after view of the inside of the back door. Note in the "after" picture that the small window on the right had been walled over. Oops; we had planned to replace but not lose that window. No problem - James will make it right when the new window comes in.

New view of back of house

2008-06-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

The shake siding is off the house, replaced so far by tar paper. The old back door location has been walled over, and the door has been moved to its new location while we wait for the new door. The framing for the deck is also done, with a temporary floor to protect the real floor until all other work is done.

Post-vacation Update

2008-06-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

Arrived back from our Utah vacation this evening. We had a great week but are happy to be home. The project has started! Details and pictures coming soon !

Allen and James

2008-05-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

This evening we met with Allen and James to go over details about the new plan involving the door and deck. Everything seems in order and work will start next week. As luck would have it, we will be gone next week, but hopefully there will be no problems. Our next task is to start packing up our stuff from the kitchen to get it all out of the way. I am going to try to EDIT as I pack, so all unnecessary stuff will go into the garage sale.

Here's a pic of Allen (left) and James (right) at our dining table.

Outside changes

2008-05-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm hanging out at home, waiting for Allen and James to come over for our meeting. I am getting hooked on this blogging thing. Just uploaded the picture of the house.

This picture is of the back NE corner of the house. Planned changes:

Tear off the ugly shake siding from the back of the house, and replace with clapboard to match the upper half of the house.

Wall over the current back door (now on the right)

Create a new back door where the big window is right now.

Build a deck where the small flower bed is currently. We will lose some big peonies, but it'll be worth it for the deck.

The new door location opens into the dining area. So when we are entertaining in nice weather, we can open the doors to the deck for a great flow. That's the plan anyway...

Background

2008-05-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

We live in a 99-year old house which is an adventure almost every day. There's always something to do. A fair bit of updating has been done, even before we moved in 4 years ago. The floorplan is generally quite open, in contrast to it's original design. But we love it for entertaining.

We've made mostly cosmetic changes, until now. We're in the process of replacing floor joists under the kitchen floor, remodelling the kitchen, moving the back door, adding a small deck outside, and redecorating the family/dining room.

This blog will be a record of the process, and the experience. No work has been started yet, but we've been doing lots of planning, and revising of plans. Tomorrow we meet with the architect/contractor, Allen, and his brother James who will be doing much of the actual work. We're hoping that they'll tell us work can start next week....