Kitchen- Before & After

Amazing what a year can bring you. Although it's been a long hard year. It was worth the work. Many tears (me crying hanging drywall) and sweat, (Erik just about every day) literally working himself to exhaustion. We do have the rest of the house to finish- but it feels so good to have one space that is done.

The photo above is of the large fireplace during our walk through. This great room was a surprise to us, it is not apparent from the exterior of the house, that this room existed. It did have some issues, some of you may remember the tree removal. That helped immensely. Now we have a slider with a transom over the top that brings in so much light during the day and gives us a great view of the pond out back. Removing the 8'-0" hearth has helped in being able to furnish the entire space. Of course relocating the kitchen into the room- affords us a place for us both to be- while Erik whips us up a gourmet meal I can sit on the couch and watch,American Loggers. Or did I get that reversed. It is, NOW, truly a family room.

This photo is dark- but really depicts what this room was like. This is looking back toward the driveway- there was a door into the great room right off the driveway and next to it another door into the garage and large fixed window.

This was taken during our gut of the space- where the ladder is leaning up against the wall was what was meant to be ( I think) a powder room- but was never realized. It just became another dark hall way with a large closet. We tore it out- opening it up to the existing house- with the intention of building a mudroom entry at a later date that would open up to the new open space. The door in the background opens up into the garage- for some time our dumpster (s) were in there and that is where a new smaller mudroom, giving a buffer from the garage, instead of just opening up into the great room.

AFTER

We kept the wood box- put new pine paneling inside. We drywalled the entire room- leaving the existing beams and natural posts.

New slider with transom above and replaced the door to the deck with a window. Much brighter.

Sliding barn door, Erik made the door from salvaged barn board and it is on wood rails that run on a metal track. This closes off the mudroom into the garage- if we want another layer from the garage in the winter. It is reminiscent of our trip to Austria- where they utilized many old materials. It helps tie in the old beams to the space as well. The mudroom has changed color since this photo was taken- stay tuned...

Ta DA!! Kitchen revealed, new window over the sink. Island. Pendants. There are a few things in here that need tweaking, but we are officially using the refrigerator, sink, dishwasher and stove. Erik added barn board to the underside of the Island, which really makes this a one of a kind piece.

It's a bit Shaker and a bit Scandinavian. We tried to stay with the classic lines with the cabinets, keeping the old details of the beams, while we edged it up with some modern fixtures. Of course, this post comes after about 15 different paint colors. We finally agreed on Farrow & Ball's, old white. It is a subtle color that is bright during the day and gives a warm cozy feeling at night.

We are planning on adding some more barn board to mimic the beam above the fireplace wall over the sink- but we ran out, so if you know any sources, do let me know. Preferably free. I don't mind dressing in black at night to get it either, if you know what I mean.

Hearth Repair- Before & After

March 11, 2010 (Before)

Last year about this time, we were ripping up the Hearth that extended into the room 8'-0". It was awkward. Kevin & Erik went ballistic on the brick work- tearing even into the inside of the fireplace. When we brought the wood flooring over the concrete slab- we had to lay thin sleepers over it, in order to maintain an even height over the slab. Well, the same was true when Erik went to lay the bricks back into the fireplace & hearth. Still wanting to maintain the elevation of the Heart Wood floor- we wanted the hearth to be flush to it. This meant that each brick had to be cut to realize the floor height. It was a chore- since the slab was poured rather uneven- each brick was a different height. Some turned out to be a 1/2" thick after being cut down. Not only was this a feat of skill, it was a race against time, with the rental of the brick saw only giving us a small window for all the cutting to take place, 5:30pm on Friday night until 5pm on Saturday. Not quite 24 hours.

The Hearth with the bricks laid out in a pattern- precutting. A bit of history- the bricks were originally salvaged from a building that was torn down at Portland Head Light. The story goes that the Capano kids (previous owners) cleaned the mortar off each brick. Let's see if they confirm that story.

Head to Toe covered in brick dust.

The finished result, Bartlett is enjoying the new flush hearth. She has turned into a dog that loves to sleep in front of the fireplace. Who knew?

Everything & the Kitchen Sink

We have everything ready for the kitchen, including the kitchen sink. All the cabinets are here, lights & faucet...waiting and ready to install. We are hoping to get them in the kitchen once the flooring is installed. Fingers crossed it will be done this weekend!

boxes

Cannot picture what this is- it's a wall of cabinet boxes.

and more boxes.

That is the path through the dining room. It is about a foot wide. Wall to ceiling boxes of cabinets. Oh, and Yes that is a brick patterned linoleum flooring. It's throughout the entire original section of the house. I know, we are so lucky!

Team Heart Wood

Erik & Carter begin the installation of the flooring. Erik started laying out the flooring this week in preparation for Carter coming up to help. Since the room is a little bit out of square (6"to be exact!) he started in the center and is working his way out to each side. This is proving difficult- but the boys are making it happen and it looks beautiful.

Here they are putting in the last piece to the wall side- the board furthest to the right is the first piece down.

Carter cleaning up before laying the next piece down. Erik banging the line into place.
Team "East by NorthEast"! I don't think they planned their matching attire...

Heart Wood in the HAUZ!

Now that the heat is on, literally, we can finally get going on the room. We've got everything coming in, on it's way or in the storage somewhere. On Friday we had the electricians in to finalize some lighting and receptacles. We also got our flooring. Erik and I spent a romantic valentine's day laying out the flooring in the space to acclimate for the next 3 weeks. Then once it reaches within 2% of the moisture ratio as the plywood, then you can install it. The blue tape outlines where the island will be, and the cabinets on the other sides. So exciting.

This photo is taken from the existing side of the house looking into where the new kitchen will be. Again, the blue tape outlines where the cabinets will be.

Here is our flooring. On Friday, the old guy from Bingham Lumber came up and brought the flooring. Erik and the old guy loaded each piece into the kitchen one at a time. It is camp grade Heart Pine. Which is the hardest of the softwoods. It' is so hard, since it taken from the "heart" of the tree. Many of America's mills and factories were built with heart pine, since it was valued for it's characteristics of being rot and insect resistant. They say that it is more stable than oak? I am not sure about that fact- but it sure is pretty.

This image above & below is the butcher block top. Today, the guy from Bingham Lumber brought the top up. It was laying in the back of his SUV and we carried it in together. It was super heavy. When I finally looked at the piece, I was almost crying it is so beautiful. The guys at Bingham did such a great job, picking the right pieces to construct the butcher block. It is so pretty. It is made from reclaimed heart pine. Which means it was originally a beam in an old mill or barn and cut down to take off the worn exterior and has a tight grain pattern. The newer wood doesn't have this character, but it is still beautiful.

Laying Pipe- PEX that IS!

It is official- we have heat!!! Rick the Plumber came and hooked up the 4 loops of pex tubing to our existing furnace and laid the tubing between the sleepers. He and Erik only got 1/2 way across the room, but the thermostat is slowly going up. I hope he can get back in to finish it, before the flooring is delivered.

This weekend, we also went down to Ma. and helped Stella & Karl pack up their condo in Haverhill for their downsizing to the Franconia Cottage. Good luck on the move! By the look of that U-haul truck they are definitely going to need an addition to fit all their stuff.

Laying Planks

So, as some of you know we haven't been up skiing that much. Mostly, because we have so much happening so quickly, that we need to get some momentum. We need to get flooring in the room, we have appliances & cabinets ordered. In order to get flooring in- we need heat. In order to get heat, we need to lay the sleepers to run the radiant under. So instead of getting on planks to ski, Erik laid some planks over the sub-floor. Of course this sounds like it might take a few hours, but 1/3 of the room has a concrete pad. Erik put down a reflective bubble wrap over the entire room, this is to reflect the heat from the radiant tubing up instead of heating the slab and the crawl space below. The concrete slab was also about an inch above the subfloor, so Erik had to slice the 2 x 4-s so that they were level with the 2x on the subfloor.

Above is Erik starting to lay the 2x over the subfloor section. Those nailed right in. Over the concrete was a different story. I had to run out and buy a hammer drill- for him to screw in to the pad. He had to spray water as he was drilling so that the bit didn't get too hot. It took about 2 days to get that section done. I also had to borrow an electric hand planer from Mike, since the concrete pad was not level, he was planing each 2x with an antique at one point. The electric hand planer saved him about a week of work.

This is the finished result. Sleepers across the entire room- now we just need to get the radiant in. While Erik was working, the dogs and I explored the woods behind our house. We made some snowshoe trails and enjoyed all the snow, we've had.