We are nearing the finish line! After today, I believe in their end of Friday or noon Saturday estimated delivery date!
Before I get into today, I have to show off my breakfast. Long-time readers know how much I love a tomato sandwich for breakfast and enjoyed tomato toast when I was in Spain. I picked up a baguette from a bicycle cart vendor last night on my way home from Pilates in anticipation of using up some cherry tomatoes and panela cheese I had in the fridge. I started with a layer of garlic butter, then added the tomatoes and cheese before broiling. Came out divine!
First order of business today was measuring the hole for the stove and then building out a counter:
More painting happened and I am thrilled with how that yellow looks next to the green.
Surround and countertops just need their finish coat (and I need to know why the new counter is so much higher than the old one — goof or the counters are going to have more finish coat than I expected? … 15 minutes later, after curiosity made me pull out a tape measure: the new one is the correct height, so I guess the finish coat is going to be thicker than expected).
The new sink is actually going to have a smaller footprint than the old sink with the drainboard:
More happiness (and I’m not just talking about the paint):
Day 8 was another day of a lot of things starting and nothing getting finished, but there was so much tangible progress!
Electrical wire was passed and they patched up this wall completely (end result in the video, this is in progress):
They started on the new counters!
Patching of the corner started, and I literally had to give the guys a prize for the most creative use of a ladder (snickers). Seriously, I’d been meaning to have doughnuts or something in the mornings and haven’t gotten around to it, so I ordered them a tray of brownies that arrived just in the nick of time at the end of the day. Everyone was happy at the end of today!
Friday was more of a prepping than a let’s get ahead kind of day. The concrete guy was here smoothing out the base of more of the walls because I am not going to have baseboards anymore in this room, which will save me precious inches of space. They made progress on some of the electrical work, but I discovered that my “Please change the two existing outlets and the fan control on the living room wall side” was not conveyed to the workers, so now those might be extras in the budget (really not a big deal — I’m just glad I caught them before they reinstalled everything).
What a mess they had to make to improve things!
I love to document every step because construction methods here fascinate me as I have little experience with concrete. It looks so bad but once it’s fixed, you’ll never know they were digging in there.
My photographer friend Jan came over to see if I could restore Gmail access on his new phone. The smart man brought a frozen pizza and wine knowing that I was going to war and would need sustenance.
I’m not a fan of red wine but this, the absolute cheapest bottle at Walmart (Liria, from Spain), was quite good! I love the white version of that same wine and have even passed it off to wine snobs as much more expensive than it is!
I cannot believe the sheer nonsense Android users go through on a daily basis. When I bought my last iPhone, I put it next to my previous iPhone and within minutes, the new phone was all set up. Jan had to pay someone to transfer his old phone to his new phone and could not get his Gmail to work because of a password issue. Excuse me? How was it possible to transfer everything over but not his password?!
I went through what felt like a dozen hoops to try to reset the password and kept getting blocked at this, with there being no help at all online. There was simply no place to enter this code that claimed to be the final step.
Thankfully, he’d brought a folder over full of passwords. I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of attempts before Gmail would lock me out, but thankfully, the third password I tried worked! So what if someone doesn’t have a folder of passwords or aren’t on Apple with Keychain? They lose access to their Gmail altogether, too bad so sad? As I said, pure nonsense.
Jan offered me this magnificent photo of an uprooted tree that he took at Lake Tahoe, California. It’ll look stunning in my guest room!
Please checked out Jan’s site to see more of his work. If you like what you see, I can arrange for you to get a full-size digital copy of any of his photographs that you could print and have framed: artgrandi.com
Bonita had a great day. She got to supervise the kitchen work and then hang out with her buddy Mr. Frodo. Soon as everyone was gone and I’d had a swim, I crashed with her for a bit and she graced me with a rare snuggle!
She’s been doing this other thing lately where she’ll come sit on her bum next to me, like a human, bottom legs sticking straight out, and then snuggle against my chest. It doesn’t last long, but boy is it wonderful! Four years together and she’s only just discovering how great cuddles are. 💖
Thursday was a painting day! My contractor showed up a bit later than expected (with a heads-up) because he was out buying supplies, but he made up for that by staying a bit later. He used tape, drop cloths, and primer, all firsts. The primer really was a must with the uneven colours and finishes we were starting with. The back part of the room that I painted with the washable paint is proving to be a beast to cover, but he’s working steadily. This morning, he explained his methodology of getting something on that part of the kitchen and then moving to the front part of the room so he can give the back part extra time to dry.
The yellow is looking so good! It is a bit of a cooler yellow than I had in the motorhome. Maybe a tad cooler than I was hoping for, but we’re at only one coat so far, so it can only get better. I’m very happy so far!
The only question is the backsplashes around the counter — I thought they were meant to be grey, but they’re starting to paint over them. My contractor is going to check with his boss today, but he’s pretty sure they’re in the plans to just be normal painted wall. If that’s the case, I am going to later investigate a peel ‘n stick backsplash as that’ll offer me way more design options than regular tile would have. The area around the stove is going to all be polished concrete, though, as I understood.
He finished around 4:30 and I had just enough time to change, call an Uber, and get myself to GalerÃas in time for a quick dinner before a 6:20 showing of Thor: Love and Thunder! This Marvel movie and margarita-of-the-month (at Chili’s) thing since Spiderman last December has done wonders for morale!
The margarita of the month was watermelon-based and sooo yummy. I’m always impressed by how they always look exactly like the ad picture and like a vacation in a glass.
I was going to do my usual ribs for dinner, but when I saw a shrimp and chicken with rice and broccoli plate topped with pico de gallo, that’s what I wanted, probably because I haven’t had a lot of “real” meals lately. This was pretty darn close to home cooking and so good. I love how their pico de gallo doesn’t skimp on the serrano peppers, lending just enough heat to the meal while brightening it up and cutting through any richness.
I really need to learn how to make blackened shrimp at home!
The movie was awwwwwesome. It’s rare that I can sit entranced for two full hours and not get fidgety, but this one just transported me. When I was binging the Marvel movies last year in a desperate attempt to catch up in time for Dr. Strange 2, I got stuck at the first Thor movie, same as I did the first time I attempted to get through all the movies, because I had zero interest in the Scandinavian gods. Well, I’m glad I pushed through because Thor turned out to be my favourite character in the franchise. His first outing was my favourite film of his, but I think Love and Thunder has edged that out. I cannot wait to rewatch this one!
I went with polished concrete for the floor, counters, and backsplash because I couldn’t find any inexpensive tile I liked. This isn’t meant to be my “forever” reno where I’m looking 20 years out, so I didn’t want to put in anything that is very customized or expensive. The idea was to do something pretty neutral (in case I choose to sell) and updated that would be easy to clean and maintain. Polished concrete fit the bill. Dark grey (natural) happened to be much cheaper than white and was my preferred colour as dark grey carries through the house. By the time the furniture is in and the walls are painted, it’s going to look much less industrial.
This is my inspiration picture for the room showing how bright yellow, turquoise, a polished concrete floor (albeit a tad lighter), and big windows can come together. Of course, I’m not doing the terrazzo but rather wood, and I think that’ll really warm things up.
As I explain in the video, yesterday was a spendy day because I had to pay for all my extra materials. The sink was a little over budget (but worth it as I’ll get a newer and better quality faucet), but paint was right what I expected and they even found me a new water heater that was much lower than my budget!
I cannot believe how the sink turned out. It was determined I did not have space for a large, deep, two-basin sink if I wanted to keep the undercabinet shelf with the 18 metal baskets. So I was advised to find a single big basin I could live with. Instead I showed a sign outside Cubimás, a kitchen store next to my Pilates studio and asked if the sink in that ad might work. I’d spotted it during online shopping, or at least I was pretty sure it was the one I’d spotted, and I knew the depth was perfect if that was the case. One biggish basin with half a basin would be a great compromise.
I had an almost identical sink in the RV and loved having the two sizes:
Oh, the nostalgia from that picture. That was a great kitchen.
The advertised sink ended up being exactly the right dimensions for the space we have to work with!
The only other thing to pick out is the hardware for my new cabinetry. I showed how I want the same burnished bronze as the door handles through the house, which the carpenter called “antiguo” (antique) and was told I’d be given a few options to pick from. I think that’s it for choosing anything. Now, it’s time for the rest of this project to come together!
