In which there is fast progress now that the race is on!

Phew, what a week!  We are taking Sundays off these days, so last Sunday, on our procurement day, we found ourselves looking at hardwood flooring for the mud room, to try and save us time.  We came back to the building and unloaded and at that time, the kitchen looked like this. No floor, no cabinets, and the wall in the center of the space still unpainted.

I took the stain we used on the risers and for the trim in the living room and had it made into a paint.  I can't stop looking at the color because it is so rich and has such a great depth of intensity to it.  The darker gray is being used on the central wall and the stair core and really adds a nice cozy warmth to the space. You'll notice the first cut out of the walls in the kitchen...this is for adding a new plug for the stove. We thought we would do a gas stove, but never put in the propane tank for it.  So now with an electric oven, we've had to tunnel under the wall and the floor of the mud room to get it over to the electrical box. 

I think I posted last week about the great find on ash flooring.  It is beautiful, and made in North America.

By Monday, we were flying....Took us all day and into some of the wee hours of Tuesday morning, but we installed the floor, overtop of the blue Thermoquiet layer and also a moisture barrier paper.  The Thermoquiet does seem to muffle the sound of someone walking above...just not someone running a table saw!!

We finished Tuesday morning around 8:30 am, just in time to get the floor stapler and air compressor back to the rental place in under 24 hours.  Note that we also have wiring for under cabinet lights now too....hence the other hole in the wall!  The color of the floor is just perfect.  We love it!

By Wednesday evening, we had all the easy cabinets installed.  Greg took the last two cabinets and had to retrofit them around some plumbing pipes.  IKEA recommends that the rail onto which the cabinets fit is screwed into the studs every 12".  For an old building like this one, that was a tall order, so Greg tore out some more wall board and added nailers... these cabinets ain't going nowhere!

The same day the cabinets went up, the door fronts on the upper cabinets were put in place...fairly easy, most of the doors just snap in place on the hinges and all of them have soft close hardware....I love it!

This kitchen has some storage too!  I love this bank of drawers, and will love them even more when IKEA decides to make more drawer fronts!  We are short six drawer fronts at the moment. It was eight, but we have to convert the set of drawers next to the fridge into a cabinet with doors because of the large pipe coming through from upstairs.

By Saturday Afternoon, about 115 boxes of kitchen had been installed.  We will wait to put the side panels on the cases until after the backsplash is installed.  Appliances come Tuesday and then we can fit the counter tops.  We could have running water by Friday of next week!

All in all a great week.  We are installing another wood floor (same color) on Monday in the mud room.