Drywall

All the walls are sealed up now! When I walked into the room, it suddenly felt much smaller...maybe it's the white. Notice the vent on the ceiling and all the sockets (there are so many!).

Sink

We got our sink in the mail a couple days ago! I'm excited...it's stainless steel and very modern by Houzer. I love the sharp corners. It's not as big as I would have liked, but it's still so much better than what used to be there. It looks something like this:

Lights and Insulation

There's been a lot of banging around, sawing and hammering every morning. It's been 2 weeks since the construction began and they have recently completed all the electrical work. We have sockets! Tons and tons of sockets! (previously, we had only two). There are now six recessed lights and four tiny ones in the skylight.

The room is nice and cushiony with insulation too! Hopefully, we won't be hearing too much of our neighbors anymore. (In case you didn't know, our house is literally sandwiched between two other ones, very typical of San Francisco).

The Fireplace

Okay, I know this isn't part of the kitchen, but we are having the contractor replace the tiles of the fireplace. If you haven't noticed, it's PINK. It has to go.


And actually, it went away today (which isn't any better):


I've thought long and hard about what to replace these tiles with...and it's been really tough. Right now, we are considering a brownish red rectangular mosaic tile pattern. Mosaics can look really good as a small swatch, but it might be a completely different story when it's a slab of it. So, we are still contemplating whether we want mosaic or larger, simpler tiles. Here are a couple of samples we were looking at:


I don't think I'll last staring at that ripped out fireplace for long though...so we'll have to decide soon. Stay tuned...

Reframing & Plumbing

Today the contractor reframed the window, shifting the whole thing over a bit to the right so it's centered. Here's the old window on the floor:


The plumbing was done in a day. They replaced the exhaust pipe, and moved the location of the gas and water pipes. We also decided to open up the skylight. The framing and the glass has been taken out so far. The plan is to replace the skylight and add small lights on the sides of the walls. First photo is the original picture.

Demolition

This is the progress the contractor made in one day. Wow, it's all gone already...

And now it begins...

This is the original kitchen, built in 1940, with very little counter space and a total of two outlets. The window is not centered, the piping of the hood is exposed, and the linoleum floor is just awful.

The plan is to have cabinets along both walls and have a eat-in bar towards the entryway. We will have a dishwasher next to the sink (yay!). The placement of the refrigerator and the range will be swapped, allowing a nicer view of the space when entering. Here's the basic idea:



As far as materials, the cabinets will be bamboo, with white CaesarStone countertops, and a yellow laminate for the base of the eat-in bar. The linoleum floor will be replaced to match the existing hardwood floors. One thing I am very excited about is making a portion of the wall (to the right of refrigerator) a chalkboard!