Does that mean summer is officially over? Can I go back to a semblance of routine for somet time?

If you aren’t following me on Facebook (it’s currently under my own name) then you wouldn’t be aware of what I have been up to all summer. Goodness, it’s been a long one. It all started way back in april or so when my husband and I finally agreed we were renovating our kitchen. After a not so perfect experience with our bathroom renovations back in February 2008, I decided that I would do most of the work. Yep, you read that right, I wear the toolbelt in this household We each have our talents, and mine doesn’t only include Photography!

((*Bear in mind 2 things as you view through this photos, they were taken with our wee point and shoot camera or even *gasp* with my phone. The batteries on the camera died and I took them out to recharge them and have yet to find them through the mess a renovation like this does to a home! So some of these are REALLY really sad looking. But in this case, they get the point across rather well, no?*))

So, June came around, we finally settled on a design through Home Depot’s Kitchen designing team and everything was ordered, to be delivered near the end of July.

Here are Before Pictures. These were taken, ironically enough, the week after our Bathroom renovations were done:

(As you can see, my now 2.5 year old was barely one in this photograph. Awww.)

So, if I wanted to have everything ready for the furniture delivery in late July, I had to start at some point, so demo started in late June. Approx. June 28th.

I ripped out the old cupboards (which THANKFULLY were NOT glued to the wall, just really really well nailed into it) ripped out the old gypsum (on outer AND inner walls) and ripped out the old flooring. By then it was the end of the first week of July.

(you can see what I found underneath some of the cabinets here, ICK! BUT, I did find when these cupboard were made, they aren’t “original” as I’d first though, but date back to early 80’s. So that gave them 10 years less in age!)

(This is exactly what you think. Even with the valves turned closed, it still dripped. These pics were taken to help me buy all the parts to redo the drain piping, but in the basement instead)

Our electricians from Drycore Electric came over and re-wired everything. Although not in our initial plans, it simply made sense to have them come since the walls would be open anyways. Of course, I was then (easily I might add) convinced to also tear down the ceiling. I would now decide to also sound proof the ceiling and put in new ceiling pot lights and decorative pendants/task lighting over the island counter and the sink. Mani & John did some AWESOME work.

While they were doing that, I was busy finishing up a few odds and ends, like adding braces between the studs (so they don’t bend or warp, they ARE holding the second floor up!!) and moving the stove’s fan exhaust to a more convenient location for the new layout. Once they were done and gone, I started laying down the subfloor, as can be seen in these images:

(You can even see where I did some slight ductwork in that last image. It would make it possible to slightly reduce the height of the bulkhead)

I think we are now past mid-July at this point. And here in Quebec, there is a “construction holiday”. Oh yeah, NO joke. Originally, without the electrical work and ceiling remodel, I had planned to be done, drywalled and painted by the weekend prior to this holiday. We were scheduled to receive our furniture the first week of that holiday as the Big Box Stores like HD don’t honor that holiday. (Not that they should either). In any event, easy to see that we were NOT ready to receive them so a quick call to Home Depot and a note should have taken care of that. More on that later.

Then came the drywall contractor (NO, I did NOT do this myself, even if I COULD do it, it would have taken me WAY too much time, seriously!) So I had the fantastic Neil Scott from Hunter Construction come in and drywall and plaster, not to mention share tons of stories from his boat outings with his son to his ancestry from the very first Scott settlers, which would be the original Scotts that came from Scotland no less! With the modifications to the original estimate he gave us, he ended up working much later than originally, but it worked out well for both our schedules. I think plastering was done and dry by early August.

As he was finishing his plastering, he took the time to explain and subsequently actually SHOW me how to lay tile. He lit a fire under my butt and I got it done in a couple days (or rather evenings). Whatcha think?

Once that was layed down, it was painting time, I had a “little” help…

my eldest was just SO enthusiastic, which would explain why she’s looking at me tape down the floor protection with wilting patience! (first weekend of August)

(And little sister looking on with longing, you can see stuff piled and behind the grey frame, that would be the refrigerator, in the dining room…)

Painting all done:

Meanwhile, the furniture arrived, actually, there was the first attempted delivery (apparently no one reads notes anymore) then the actual delivery the first week of August, which was missing quite a few items (everything longer than 5 feet was missing). Mind you, these were “build it yourself” cabinets, all in compact boxes, as we didn’t purchase the extra installation package. Saved a few extra bucks there, but at the expense of massive sweating and, let’s face it, swearing, although mostly under my breath or far FAR away from tiny ears…

I started building the furniture, bit by bit and slowly, the space morphed into this:

Then this:

I also had to cut holes for both cold and hot water as well as for the drain. While I was at it, a friend suggested I have heating come through the kick space of the cabinets to heat our toes while we are in the kitchen. Would sure be nice, there was no other heating in the kitchen itself before.

At some point, I even found the time to research and buy lighting and once they arrived I installed them as well:

And even built a new one for the dining room, all from “scratch”. Well, I did buy the shade ready made Actually, that’s the wrong shade, I bought another, dismantled this one and rebuilt it with the new shade. Need a new pic!

Then came the frantic research and purchase of our new undermounted sink and a one hole faucet, both purchased through Thalassa Domocile here in Laval (two weeks ago).

Once the cabinets were done (who am I kidding, we are still missing a replacement cabinet as it was damaged in the box, so I built it temporarily so we could call the Granit people), I placed a call to the Granit company, who came and measured our cabinets for a precise fit (last friday). (The guy had a laser measuring machine! Pretty cool!) Of course, since it’s obvious things can’t go according to plan here, I forgot to verify WHEN our sink would get here before sceduling the measuring. A few more frantic calls to the sink company had my husband leaving work early so he could be on their doorstep before 5 (how’s 4:55pm?) to grab the sink so we would have it the next morning… I open the box before bed to bask in our new sinks grace… only to find it’s the wrong model. No joke. It’s a over counter mount, NOT an undermount. Joy. So, MORE frantic calls, and they are having one from the south shore’s warehouse shipped to Laval. It’s Tuesday night, September 1st, still no sink. The granit people are waiting on the sink’s template to go ahead and cut the granit and can only guarentee a “before sept 17th install” if we get them the template before September 3rd.

AND, through ALL of this, there has been a busy Photographic summer. Well, busy considering I had almost no time to spare! As you can see in my previous posts, I’ve had an early July session (they actually got to witness the grandeur of our work when they came to view their photos) and then a late July session. Between those two sessions, I had a special session for Kidscentive’s marketing images and in early August I had another session, the ones with the dinosaurs

Yeah, thankfully it wasn’t the “nicest” summer weather wise, so I don’t feel like I misssed out on too much. That said, my husband only took a couple weeks vacation time here and there. So I basically worked around the kids’ schedule (which includes, three meals, two snacks, playing at the playground with friends, and a few bike rides & errands) and on weekends when I didn’t have any Photographic sessions that needed my immediate attention.

I’m looking forward to posting an “ALL DONE” photo. Check in soon, I’m counting on being D O N E before my girl’s 5th birthday, mid October… Hmmm, my second “original” deadline was before school. NOT gonna happen it seems…