Kitchen Progress from the POV of my iPhone

The last two weeks, as documented by my iPhone camera.

Two weeks ago. We’re bright-eyed, ready to go, and naive in thinking we’re going to have a brand new kitchen in two weeks. We rip out the cabinets, revealing a really ugly paint color, a hidden chimney, and some other fun artifacts.

The kitchen crew arrives on a Monday, inspects the cabinets and leave. We wonder if they’re just on a lunch break, but we don’t see them until the next day. The next day, after a real lunch break, the crew begins by removing a portion of the wall separating the kitchen and dining room…

…exposing some really ugly and potentially dangerous cloth-wrapped wiring circa 1934. We pay an extra $1400 to get that rectified after a dispute that left us feeling pretty dismal about contractors.

The other half of the wall comes down. We have a couple more fights with the contractor, which ultimately saves us $900, but which I will inevitably end up handing over to United Healthcare to rectify the ulcer I am surely headed for. The breakfast bar half-wall is almost revealed!

The whole wall is down. The crew takes more than two days to mud the wall and we call the contractor to complain because Roscoe could have mudded the wall in less time, and also because it’s no fun to not have a kitchen for several weeks. A heroic and brave plumber comes out to remove the steam radiator, which is a system that apparently most plumbers want nothing to do with.

Roscoe steals a biscuit to prove our point. He really is very talented.

The world ends in the DC metro area. All kitchen progress comes to a standstill.

At first it’s a great time and it’s really romantic and full of SNOW DAY! and MOVIES! and CUDDLING! and BLANKETS!

But then it starts to feel a little bit like The Shining and we still don’t have a stove or oven or sink. We become creative in the art of entertaining each other.

Kitchen work resumes. We remove the old flooring, Jason and Justin install sheets of Hardibacker in preparation for the tile, and upper cabinets are hung on the window side of the kitchen.

And here is what we have as of yesterday. The ‘fridge is all boxed in, the breakfast bar upper cabinet has been hung and will soon be sporting some fancy glass doors, and we have some lower cabinets (sans doors).

I might make it out of this alive.