Countertops Are In

A few emails between Jill & me. Artisan K & B is at the NARI home show at State Fair Park this weekend, so we lost a day because they were setting up their booth.

Our refrigerator is in front of the TV, which will be an issue at about noon on Sunday. They're moving it. They will also move our working 'fridge into the dining room so the floor guys will have no issues.

I am anxious to see the sinks and counter tops as Jill mentions below.

Matt--

No, the fridge and dishwasher will be put in place, and hooked up, after the floor is finished. Unfortunately, these appliances will be living in other rooms until next week Thursday, when the finish plumbing is scheduled.

I just stopped by the house, they granite is in and looks great. The black sink looks awesome. Staining is being done on window trim. Greg has the dividers done for above the wall oven. We also have a helper along today who is handling general cleanup duties. They are starting with the decorative hardware installation. Greg’s plan is to have the hood in today, also. The toekick trim work will be done after the floors are finished.

Greg wants to know if you would like him to cut a shelf for the cabinet above the refrigerator. He has shelving material left from making the dividers above the oven.

I will be leaving today at 2:30 today to work at our booth at the NARI show at State Fair Park . Please get back to me about the shelving question today if you can. Thanks.

Jill

From: Matthew Piette
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 7:56 AM
To: Jill Doss
Subject: RE: FW: questions about pantry


Will the fridge and dw be installed today?

Jill Doss wrote:

The wall oven was unpacked, in the delivery truck, before the driver and his helper brought the item into the house. My guess is it may have been left behind in the truck lost among the packaging. Carrie did not indicate the amount of time to get the piece. They want to check the delivery truck before ordering anything. If it does need to be ordered my guess is probably a 10 days to 2 weeks.

The pieces installed look fabulous.

The dishwasher was moved to the dining room. The refrigerator is still living in the family room (blocking the TV—sorry, no placed else to put it)

Jill

Scheduling to the end!

Matt:

Door bell was installed this morning.

Electricians should be finishing up today (appliance installation).

Granite scheduled for tomorrow.

Floors scheduled for next week Monday and Tuesday. The floor finishers will arrive on Monday between 7:00 am and 7:45 am. I will be there around 8:00am. The first thing that needs to be done is to get an approval on the stain color. I have advised that I would like to have a color that most closely approximates the existing stain color. Please note that exact color match cannot be guaranteed. Because of the nature of wood, the age of your current floors, exposure to sunlight, etc., there may be some color difference. Stain goes down on Monday. If you need to walk across the floors, please use rags or old towels to “glide” across the floors. The reason for this is that the oil based stain that will be used may still be drying; you do not want to transfer the stain to the bottom of your socks or your feet. They will provide some rags for your use. Three coats of polyurethane will be applied on Tuesday. This should be dry by the time you get home that day. Please walk across the floor with socks only while the polyurethane cures completely (for the next couple of days).

Plumber is scheduled for next week Thursday to do finish work (sinks, faucets, garbage disposals, dishwasher, cook top gas line, and refrigerator water line).

The following Monday and Tuesday we will be tiling the back hallway.

Our guys will be around as needed to do any finish up work.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Jill

A Note On Appliances

Unfortunately, Kennedy Hahn did not deliver the appliances yesterday (unclear why). I have spoken with the sales assistant at Kennedy Hahn (Carrie is off until Thursday). The appliances are now scheduled for delivery Wednesday morning. I will be meeting with the electrician Wednesday morning to go over the finish work. Greg let me know that your new hallway fixture is in the family room—can you please put it in the dinette so the electrician can easily locate it? I understand that you also would like to have the outlets and switches in the back hall replaced? Please confirm….thanks!

Greg also let me know the hood installation is a three man job. Greg, Pat and the electrician will be maneuvering the hood into position tomorrow.

All for now, hope your day is going well…….Jill

Floors & Shelves from Jill

Matt:

I have reviewed the question you had about refinishing the floor in the pantry. The sole work we had planned for the pantry was the removal and installation of the shelving. We had not originally planned on removing the flooring. Flooring removal for the back hall area was limited to removing the flooring for anticipation of the tile work. Unfortunately, we are not able to absorb the cost of the additional work for refinishing the pantry.

The additional cost for refinishing the pantry and front foyer is $376.00.

Also, the refinishers would like to know if you would want to have them use a new, “dust-free”, option they are now offering. This is something that needs to be planned for in advance as it uses a different work crew and truck. The additional cost for this service, for the kitchen, pantry, and front foyer is $193.00.

As an additional piece of information, if you are interested in the price of refinishing the dining room and living room, while they are there (yes, I know you said you would pass as this time) the price would be $1582.00. Add an extra $340.00 for the “dust-free” option.

Greg has a question about the pantry shelving. I had originally suggested wrapping the shelves around all three walls. He was wondering if you would like to forego the shelves to the right as you enter the pantry. The reason is that you may want this wall left free for hooks for brooms, mops, etc. I suggested you may want to hang these items on the back door of the pantry. Please let me know…..

The dividers we are installing above the oven will have the vertical dividers on the left and the horizontal on the right….Please get back to me if the arrangement is not correct.

Jill

End of Week Four

Has it been four weeks already? This is going fast.

They made a lot of visible progress this week. They installed the floor and cabinets. The cabinet above the ovens will be divided in half with one side further divided for storage of cookie sheets and cutting boards. The trim around the drawers under the cook top still needs to be installed. We’re not having doors there and right now it looks like a cabinet that is missing its doors.

Yesterday they cut the templates for the counter tops and those will be installed next week Friday. The ledge between the kitchen and dining room will be 11½” wide: 2 inches overhang on the kitchen side, 4½” for the wall, and 5” overhang on the dining room side. That’s not all that wide but it’s wide enough to put snacks etc there.

I picked up a plain light fixture from Home Despot for the hall. I also need to get a door bell. A door bell? What’s up with that? Who buys door bells? I looked at them and have no idea what to choose.

The remainder of the appliances will be delivered on Monday. Jill didn’t say if they’ll be installed next week but I am assuming that they will be.

Everything is still moving along swimmingly. We should be knocking out punch list stuff by the week after next.

All this eating out has not been good for me. I've gained 5 lbs since this project began.

More Details from Jill

Matt—

Thank you for the update.

I have mentioned to Ray that you do not want to consider refinished the floors in the living room and dining room at this time.

Checking on the floor refinishing for foyer and pantry.

Radiators—we do not have access to people who do sand blasting of old finishes on radiators. We will check with the HVAC people, maybe they will have some suggestions.

Schedule for the upcoming week:

Monday—miscellaneous carpentry work (molding, hardware, painting, etc.)

Tuesday—same as above

Wednesday—Electrical finish (including installation of appliances). Subject to confirmation with electrician. Please make sure new hallway light is on site by this time.

Thursday—No work today for our people, show move in for us at State Fair Park (setting up displays).

Friday—countertop installation. I will be out of the office on this day. I will be working at the NARI Fall Remodeling Show at State Fair Park.

Change order—Materials, as needed, are being ordered. Also, the exterior and storm door are non-standard sizes (surprise!). This accounts for price and also lead time—3 weeks to receive…we cannot schedule this portion until we have and ETA on the doors. I will advise.

All for now, have a great weekend!

Jill

A Note From Jill

Hi Matt:

I took a look at the basement area in question. Yes, the electrical area needs to remain open per code. We were not planning on reinstallating the area where materials were removed for plumber access. We can cut, and install, OSB (oriented strand board) in the area above the washing machine and dryer if you would like.

I can have the electrician look over the light fixture in question when finish electrical is done.

The cabinet installation began today. My design had mentioned the creation of a divided cabinet above either the refrigerator or the wall oven to hold trays and platters. Would you like that item installed above the fridge or oven? My plan was to divide the chosen area in half vertically, than one of the two halves in half again (creating a space for cookie sheets, trays, etc). The remaining half was to be divided in half horizontally (to hold bowls or small appliances). What do you think? Please let me know…..

Attached you will find our change order(s) for the additional work you have inquired about, and also those additional items you have requested be done. Those items that are done and completed have been noted. Please review and advise how you would like to move forward on the other items. Point #10 and #11 refer to the new side entry door you are interested in replacing. Please refer to www.simpsondoor.com to review the two doors mentioned. Give me or Ray a call with any questions you may have.

The kitchen is looking fabulous!

Regards,

Jill

Views & News

I added chronological photos of the north, south, and east views from the other albums. I thought about this too late and therefore do not have the exact same shots throughout. Still, you can get a good perspective of the progress.

They completed the painting yesterday. The lighting in the pics makes it look more yellow than it really is. It turned out well.

They will start on the floor today, I think, and will also begin installing the cabinets this week. They’ll get the templates made for the countertops and then begin cutting the granite. The photo of the granite didn’t turn out too well

The hood will be delivered Wednesday and the remaining appliances will be delivered at the beginning of next week.

I’m not quite sure what they’re going to do with the hardwood floors in the pantry and the front hall. They need to be redone and it should happen now. The tile in the back hall will be one of the last things that they’ll do.

So far, so good.

Paint Choice

We got our paint today. The walls will be Sherwin Williams 6379, "Jersey Cream" and the ceiling SW 7012, "Creamy".

Paint is expensive - $30/gallon and we needed three of each.

Week Three Is Over

Week three is over and we’re still on track and happy with the progress.

This morning the dry wallers arrived before 7:00AM so I was able to talk with them (although their English was not too good). They are on their last day, fixing a few more spots, smoothing some patches, and then spraying everything. They were quite proud of their chamfering. It was the first time that they had done it. Fortunately they had all our other passageways to use as a guide.

We need to choose our colors this weekend. We’re having some difficulty with this. It’s completely beyond me, so Laurie will have to do the heavy lifting here. We want something that will complement the copper flecks that are throughout the granite. The ceiling and back entrance will probably be different colors than the kitchen and each other.

Our tile plans have changed. The maple in the pantry is nice so we’ll keep that and have it refinished. There is oak under the vinyl in the front hall and, from what we could see under the area they pulled up, it appears to be in pretty good shape. Unless areas further in are in very bad condition, a possibility, we’ll keep that as well.

We need to make an interesting choice about the trim around the two windows. We were originally going to go with a maple to match the cabinets. That seemed easy. However, we saved the wood trim around the door in the dining room and front hall. It’s in excellent condition and matches the trim around all the other windows. There’s just enough to do both of the kitchen windows. Do we have the windows match the new kitchen wood, or do we save part of the original house, and match the existing windows? I don’t know. Suggestions?

All appliances, except the hood, are here and will be delivered next week. The hood is supposed to arrive no later than the 20th. The cabinets are all in and will be delivered next week also. See the schedule in the following posting.

Paint , Schedule, & Appliances

From Jill:

I have had an opportunity to review the paint colors, here is my suggestions:

Warm tones:
Glidden Cozy light 50yy 79/205
Coast light 50yy 83/171

Cool tones (from what I had to choose from):
Vermeer’s Pearl 49gg 83/012
White Lagoon 41bg 76/025

Laurie is not too keen on these colors & she's the decider.

Schedule for Friday—spray sand texture and primer

Monday—touch up plaster and texture in front hallway and dining room. (We may also possibly be able to paint kitchen and dinette ceiling on this day. Please have paint ready)

Tuesday—finish painting walls

Wednesday—Begin floor installation.

Thursday—Begin cabinet installation.

Friday—Cabinet installation.

Also on Monday we will deliver cabinets. Please plan on a payment of $9535.84 plus change order of $725.00 for a total of $10,260.84…..I will be here after 5:00 on Monday for a client meeting, you can plan on stopping by to take care of this.

Jill.

From Carrie:

Hi Matt

The Hood is shipping from Texas to mpls tomorrow. I am getting clarification on when it will be here.

I was told we could deliver the hood the 20th. Possibly earlier.

I will give Jill a call.

Thanks Carrie

Details

The drywall is up, mud in the seams. The drywaller will be back today to spray on the final finish.

We met with Ray and Jill to discuss a few details:
• New pantry door will be painted
• New back door will be painted and have a light
• Put new drywall sanded spray coating throughout the back hall and down basement stairs
• Remove basement stair carpet and paint stairs
• Replace radiator in dinette
• Paint all of back hall
• A bunch of details about trim, bases, shoes, and knobs
• Replace wood around vent discharge
• Get quotation on tiling front entrance

We will probably do that last one. We need too and I was holding off because of “project creep,” but since we’re living in chaos now, we may as well get it over with. In for a penny, in for a pound.

We still need to choose the paint color. We will go with an off white for the ceiling and probably a pale burnt yellow in the kitchen. We’ll have to have the rest of the downstairs painted next year.

We’re still moving along well. Cabinets will be delivered next week. The hood should be in next Tuesday.

Ray just called me. He said that the floor underneath the linoleum in the pantry is maple and in good condition. They are checking to see how much there is maple. We may not need tile in back at all.

Another Email from Jill

Matt,

I will check to see when we can arrange for delivery of the cabinets to the garage; do you prefer one side of the garage over another? Is there a key to get in? If so, can you place it in the lock box?

I will let the drywallers (who are working at your house today) know that you would like to have the corners of the new opening “chamfered” (I will go with it being a word).

Electrical—our work order with you specified your supplying the light fixture for the pantry—my understanding from your information is that the electrician is now supplying the light? Let me know if my understanding is correct.

Plumbing—the ball valve installed on the prep sink line was put there for the convenience of the plumbers while they were doing their work. All new shut off valves will be installed upstairs, below the sinks and next to the dishwasher when the finish plumbing is done. The refrigerator water line will be run and installed during finish plumbing. The finish flooring will be in place as well as the refrigerator. The plumbers will only need to drill one hole leading to the basement. Also, if the water supply line is run now, it will get in the way during the floor installation.

The Wauwatosa building inspector was scheduled to be at your home today at 2:30 for another inspection. We let the drywall crew know not to touch the exterior wall until the inspector gave his blessing…….

Jill

4 Emails from Jill

Matt
We received an “ok” from the building inspector for the work to date. He wants to come back and approve the insulation installation that we did (the insulation was not in place when he was first out at your home). We are trying to get in touch with him to schedule the inspection. He is in his office from 8:00-9:00 am and 1:00-1:30 am to take calls to schedule inspections. We are going to try and get in touch with him today during his office hours.

Jill

Matt—you also requested that the new arched doorways be “chamfered” like the other doorways—the additional cost for that work will be $725.00. Please let me know if you wish to proceed with this additional work.

Jill

I will check with Ray today (he is not in right now). We should be ok.

I will also see if we can get some firm numbers together for the additional work you requested last week (pantry door, electrical work to install new hallway fixture, additional painting for the back hallway, tiling the pantry, and new back interior and exterior doors).

Have you selected a fixture for the pantry and will you be supplying the fixture for the back hallway?

Jill

The cabinets arrived last week Wednesday. There is not much room to store the cabinets—is there space in the garage? Otherwise, we will hold off delivering the cabinets until the drywall is installed and the room is ready.

The electrical inspector and the plumbing inspector approved the work that was done in your house. I will check with Ray as to the schedule for the rest of the work and see if we can get it finalized.

Jill

Granite and Inspectors

We’re nearing the end of week two and the project is about where expected.

Last week the water was roughed in. The plumbers need to redo the water lines to the main sink, though. They connected them to the old galvanized lines behind where a cabinet will be. That’s an obvious potential leak source (galvanic corrosion) so they will run new copper all the way to the new copper in the basement. They also haven’t run the water to the refrigerator, but both of those issues, as well as the city inspection, should be complete today.

The electrical is done, at least as much as can be at this stage. All the old wiring was ripped out, the boxes for the devices and the cans for the lights are in place and wired, and a new panel is installed in the basement. The electrical inspector should be there today as well.

You can see our clothes chute. That 45° bend has caused us a lot of grief. Once we had a pair of jeans stuck in there and it was hooked on something on the inside. I had to lower our Wolski’s bottle opener down on a string and Laurie tied it to the pants so that I could pull them up. Someone probably got fired over this when the house was built in 1929.

Once both inspections are done, Greg and Pat will start putting up the drywall. They cut in the arches around the openings and those look good. It will be interesting to see them when they are complete, but they appear to have matched the arc well.

Yesterday (9/6) we met with Jill to select our specific granite and very nearly succeeded. The granite we choose, Black Galaxy, is a very homogeneous black with copper flecks. Still, we wanted to see ours. When we got there she said that she didn’t have anyone to move it. That’ll be ok, but disappointing. I’ll probably go back.