Phase One – Marble, Marble, Marble, Kitchen Appliances & Fixtures, Pantry Fit-out Begins
March came in like a lion, and also left like one too. This month was a whirlwind, but the transformation is incredible.
Marble installation completed.
I’ve thought more about stone installation in the month of March than I have in the rest of my professional and personal life. Not just the stone itself, but everything related to this installation process. Starting with a temporary entrance ramp: brainstorming access to our house, working back and forth with the scaffolding company to land on a ramp design for the rear entry, picking up and installing the temporary ramp, discovering critical pieces are missing for the ramp over the weekend and arranging to meet the owner to pick up pieces, further refining the ramp design as it was built, and then balancing all of that around some pretty horrendous weather.
Next up was trying to schedule the stone installations – three of them! – around very busy work schedules. Round one was on Monday the 9th, and we got to test out the temporary ramp constructed that weekend. The stone guys were going to bring a series of ramps to connect their truck to our yard, and then use our ramp to get into the house. (Spoiler alert: It worked beautifully – they were thrilled to avoid stairs completely.)
After scheduling was done, we began to stage the room for the work ahead. We took all the doors and drawers off the cabinets, and set them out upstairs in the back room. We cleaned the floors really well, and covered the floors to protect them.
The first stone installation day was for the countertops and the front panel of the range backsplash. You might recall in February we pulled all the plumbing fixtures out of storage, and this was the day the sinks were being installed. I was pretty nervous about this first step, and especially nervous about the sinks. The large kitchen sink we purchased a few years ago is no longer available. It was one of the earlier sink systems that Kohler offered, and they’ve now expanded those options into several separate lines. We had done so much work to create custom cabinets to accommodate this sink, and I was really nervous it would get damaged and would be difficult to replace. I had to remind myself that everything is fixable.
Even if something happens to this specific sink in the future, a custom sink replacement can be fabricated to fit the cabinets / countertops. But I’m telling you – these finish details on some of the higher ticket items of this renovation still make me very, very tense. It was really nice to hear from the stone guys that our cabinet design and installation was one of the best they had seen. Not bad for novices!
Also scheduled for that same day was a second visit from the stone template guy. He was there to check all dimensions of the first installation and to talk through details of the backsplashes and side splashes with us. Those shop drawings took a couple of days, and then I was off work that Friday and worked through the twenty page set before eventually signing off on them. The splashes went into production immediately, with the goal to get them installed the following week.
That week was F’s spring break, and M and I both planned to take off from work at the same time to advance the project. I was still resting my back from my lumbar strain, so I wasn’t much help on the physical work of the project, but there was plenty of coordination work to keep me busy. F and I also planned a brief college visit tour for the start of the week – we visited family in KY, and then toured four schools in Ohio and Michigan that Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. It was jam packed. Before we left, F helped M pickup the V-groove paneling we had our cabinet guy make.
Refrigerator installation completed. While we were gone, M focused on getting the refrigerator opening ready for installation that Friday. That took the majority of the week, but the opening looked amazing when we arrived home on Thursday afternoon. The opening for this fridge had to be a very exact size – only 1/8″ tolerance for the dimensions – a bigger opening is NOT better. He worked non-stop for a week to get the opening trim exactly right – and square – and made several trips to the millwork place down the street to get the trim he needed.
On Friday morning I met the delivery team – five guys and two trucks! – at my office at 8am to detach the fridge from the wall in a storage area where it had been for almost two years, through the building, and onto a truck. Then we headed to the house, where M had the kitchen ready to receive it. They did a similar setup with ramps from the truck to the yard, and then used the temporary ramp into the pantry. I thought the marble installation was stressful – but it was nothing compared to the fridge move. Luckily the delivery team was fantastic. I initially thought five people was overkill, but everyone had a role to play from strategizing to set up to muscle to installation to cleanup – five stars all around. That process took almost three hours, and as soon as they pulled out of the garage the stone guys pulled in.
Stone installation day two began, and the back and side splash pieces were brought in and dry fit in place. Then the adhesive came out and the windows were opened! This took the remainder of the day, and totally transformed the place. When all the splashes were in place, they were ready to drill for the faucets. Since the large sink’s faucet was to center on the window mullion – not the sink – M pulled out his laser to get it located just right.
By the end of the day Friday we were all exhausted but so thrilled with the progress. Having the fridge stored in my office had really stressed me out – I worried about it being damaged, I worried about the installation, I worried about the length of time everything was taking. Having the fridge in its final resting place was such a mental milestone for me. The installers said that it was the most precise opening they’ve ever worked with. I’m still amazed at how M transformed a very old and pretty crooked opening into a perfect receptacle for the fridge. Moving the fridge location to this spot – and sourcing and purchasing and prepping and installing just the right appliance in there to make it work – literally took years and years of planning, and more than a little luck (hello floor model opportunity!). When I come down the stairs each morning it’s the first thing I see, and it really represents the hardest and the best parts of this project to date.
We probably should have taken the weekend off to recover, but we had some emotional momentum on the project and kept going. M worked on the pantry wainscoting and I did touch up paint at the cabinets – a couple of filled nail holes on the toe kick, and I painted the opening for the range and the top of the sink panel that is visible when the doors are opened. M had also prepped the original transom window, and I applied two coats of Zinsser primer to both side, and then two finish coats of paint on one side. We reviewed details in the pantry and talked about how to hang the vent hood surround.
Range and Dishwasher – Prep for Installation. The last full week of March was a really busy one. Our days and nights were jam packed, and we needed to get the appliances uncrated and moved into the kitchen for the plumber to arrive on Friday. Initially the stone shelves were going to be installed before the plumbing was complete, but the shelves took longer than expected to be fabricated. M and I spent a couple of hours unboxing and carefully labeling and moving range pieces so it could be tipped onto its back and the legs could be installed. Our good friend, J came over to help with this. The range weighs 420 lbs, but we were able to reduce the weight by removing all of the accessories and the doors. They used moving straps to lift it, and it went really smoothly. Now we were ready for the plumber.
Final plumbing installation. The plumber arrived just after 8am on Friday, and was at the house the whole day. He installed the faucets and disposals at each sink, and then installed the dishwasher. We will attach the dishwasher to the cabinets ourselves so that we can get the cabinet panel door in the exact location to align with the other drawer faces. He started on the gas regulator installation at the range, but needed to come back on Monday so we shut the gas off at the range and also in the basement. Words cannot describe the feeling of using a sink faucet that pivots and has a sprayer. We’ve washed dishes for so long in our small powder room sink that I feel like it’s Christmas morning every time I walk into the kitchen and turn on the water.
Pantry progress. M worked on the pantry wainscoting some more. The cap / window sill was installed, and then he installed a ledger at the base to temporarily hold the panels in place while nailing them. He finished the long wall, and next weekend we’ll start wrapping around the corners in the back and detailing around the door. We don’t want to install the panels in the back of the fridge until the electrician is back just in case they need to access the power back there. Now I need to decide on a color for the paneling. I’m considering a paler version of the cabinet color, but I’m also wondering about doing a complimentary color. I’m very, very excited to order the shelving for this room because then we can start to shift things from the temp kitchen into this space and start working on the dining room.
Final stone installation. We did it! We really did it! I’m not sure I have any more words for this right now. I can’t believe we did it.
Like the mosaic out front, the design elements for this kitchen were initially forged during my time in Genoa, Italy. So many of the elements here were influenced by the spaces I lived in over there. This marble is something else.
I wanted a hyper-functional space disguised as a gallery space that displays all the things that bring me joy on a daily basis. We’re almost, almost there.