Don Genova's Blog

Dear Mike;  Kitchen Reno lesson number 1.  Be patient.  I thought our kitchen was going to get demolished today.  Wrong.  The contractor and his lead ‘demolisher’ turned up today to get the lay of the land and do some more measurements.  The reassuring news is that the guys will be here tomorrow to ‘protect’ the rest of the upper floor.  The hardwood will be cleaned, plastic and plywood put on top, our bedroom (which we have vacated) will be taped off, as will the bottom of the stairs. Even the aging vinyl on the deck will be covered up to prevent it from getting scarier then it already is.  All the furniture remaining in the living area will be covered up, as will the fridge and dishwasher when they get disconnected and unplugged.

The photo above shows the elegant floor of our master bathroom, ha ha!
This is vintage 1970’s vinyl!  Makes me throw up in my mouth, just a little bit.  The rest of the bathroom is just as ugly, as you can see on the left.  It is all getting demolished, new tub, new toilet, new pedestal sink….and an additional window at the end of the new tub so we can lie in the tub and look out the window into the forest.  I have posted two short videos, one of the kitchen, one of the bathroom, to Facebook(you don’t have to be a member to watch them) so you can tour the existing ‘facilities’, and plan to post a lot more photos and videos, leading right up to ‘the reveal’.  When will that be?  Lesson Number 1.  Be patient.  (the videos aren’t posted just yet, will update this post with the links when they are.)  At this point Facebook is refusing to encode my videos for some reason.  I have now uploaded them twice, with no results.  Now I’m trying youtube…here is the kitchen video, I think:

And now here is the bathroom video:

Dear Mike;

It’s so close we can almost taste the drywall dust.  After months of planning, shopping and decision-making, we think the work crew is arriving on Wednesday, July 2nd to begin demolition and construction of our new kitchen and bathroom.  Estimated time of completion – who knows?  I’m hoping for one month, but a lot probably depends on materials being delivered on time.  I’m still waiting for our microwave oven and trim kit to be delivered from Home Depot.  Now we’re looking at July 15th, as the microwave itself was backordered, although the trim kit is already in stock.

The microwave is just one of the changes we’ve made since the last kitchen diary.  My sister had a look at our plans and suggested that if we were going to have a microwave at all, it should be built in, above the new wall oven.  This actually made a lot of sense, so the cabinet maker has incorporated the specifications for that, and also made some changes to the corner cabinetry, which means we are now getting an ‘appliance garage’ to the left of the sink, and instead of angular drawers, a corner unit that pulls completely out of its hole for easy access to everything in it, unlike the typical Lazy Susans that are usually installed in corner spots.

The latest drawing I’ve posted here shows a few of the changes our designer/contractor has made to the island.  There will be a raised pie-shaped counter at the end closest to the stairs, so when you come up the stairs it will block the view of the entire island.  This will a) build anticipation for newcomers and b) conceal a mess on the island or anything else you want to hide, say food preparations or dishware.  We can then have fun putting hors d’oeuvres or flower displays on top of the ‘pie’.

We have made lots and lots of decisions since receiving that first drawing a few months ago.  With the help of Jane Munsell, (former assistant to designer/contractor David Coulson) with have picked out our bathroom and kitchen faucet fixtures, cabinet pulls and more.  We decided against recycling the oak floor that will be taken up to construct the island.  We were going to put it in the bathroom, but have moisture concerns.  So now we will have matching Italian-made porcelain tiles in the kitchen and bathroom.  They look like slate, 9”X18”, with a bit of texture to the surface, and a fairly wide variation in colour to pick up on the shades in our Volga Blue granite countertop.  I also decided to have in-floor heating installed in the kitchen and bathroom.  This added about $2500 to the project, but I have rationalized it in a number of ways:  It should give the house added resale value; when else are you going to have the floors ripped up to make installation a no-brainer; and the first two places I set foot every morning are the bathroom and the kitchen.  Who wouldn’t want toasty toes on a chilly Cowichan Valley winter morning?

All of the changes have seen the original estimate of the kitchen and bathroom balloon.  I guess we were kind of expecting that. We just hope that there won’t be any ‘surprises’ in the job as we go along.  More postings coming soon!  (including photos of the horrible bathroom we are so happy to have demolished)