New Gutters and A Granite Counter

Hello everyone.  Today's story is a combo story of putting a few gutters up and having the granite installed in the kitchen.

So let me show you how things are going.



This house had no gutters which actually made sense.  With all of the Oak trees and the Spanish moss the gutters would constantly be filled up.  Unfortunately somehow the doorways leak when it rains hard.  Mike and I saw the water come just inside the doorways after one hard rain and we knew we had to add some gutters.  We decided to just add gutters and downspouts only by the doors where it is needed.


We are using brown gutters to match the soffits on the house.  Our "new" front door area was too long for a one piece gutter from Lowe's or Home Depot.  Lucky for us we found a local aluminum place that makes gutters in any length.


Mike works on the first gutter by cutting out a hole for the downspout:

He found a new way to make a nice cut.  Using a hole saw he made two round cuts which made a clean opening for the gutter adapter:

Siliconing the end caps.  And yes the boat is still in the garage.

I held one end of the gutter up until Mike got a few screws in.  Now he is working on the downspout:

The front door almost complete:

Now for our "new" back door.  Lucky Mike has something to stand on:

Downspout is in place:

Using the cut off wheel to cut down a downspout piece:

The smallest gutter needed for over the kitchen door.  Mike is finished:)

Yay…the day we have been waiting for.  The counters for the kitchen are getting installed.  I am actually more excited about a sink being back in the kitchen, lol.

Three of the workers getting ready to carry the granite in:

Two pieces are in place:

I am very happy that there is only one seam and it is a small one.  Thankfully they were able to make the cut at the sink.  This is a suction/vacuum type tool which pulls the seam together so it can be glued/bonded:

It's starting to look like a kitchen:)

After the granite was installed Mike did the plumbing for my sink and I now have a functioning kitchen.  I am so happy about that.

That's a lot of counter space.  We need to get the counter stools that we left in TN.

Sure now I have all this counter space and I am the type who doesn't like things "out" on top of the counter, lol.  

The kitchen is finished outside of some window treatments…but that is enough for now.

I hope you enjoyed this quick update and I will post again next Monday.

Lisa

Getting The Boat House Ready, The Stone Yard, Floor Trim, Some Decorating & More

Hello everyone.  Mike and I have been busy trying to get the last of the decorator type things.  It has not been fun.  Oh well…at least we like the working on the house stuff:)  It can't all be fun and games, lol.


Our neighbor gave us some straps for the boat house.  The straps are used to lift the boat out of the water on a winch.  Mike needs to fix the ends and add the heavy duty hooks:

Maybe we can finally get the boat in the water:

Mike cleaned and greased the motor that will lift the boat.  Apparently this boat house was added and never used:

And the straps are on.  Now we need to get some life jackets and we can get the boat in the water:)

Now that we have the kitchen cabinets are installed it's time to look for a countertop.  There is a stone yard for us to visit.  If we don't find a slab here than I will go with the laminate that Nicole went with.  

Hmm…another thing learned today.  The stone yard is big but they are not the fabricator.  I did find a fabricator who is highly recommended and he sent us to the stone place.  Sadly Mike and I don't like the ways things are run at the stone place.  It looks like they have hundreds of slabs…well they don't.  Mike and I picked out a beautiful piece only to find it has been sold.  We found another one, it was sold.  Then a third one…yup…it was sold.  Ugh…they should move the slabs once they have been sold.  Their problem with that is they don't take a deposit on the held pieces of granite….seriously.  A couple of the pieces they were holding had been reserved for more than 30 days.  Mike offered to pay for it right then and there but they don't do that.  Grr!!!  If we had known that we could have picked one out months ago.  Oh well…we got a nice one just not out first 3 choices.

The fabricator came to make our templates:

All the pieces are done…now we have to wait for the install.  At least we are on the list:)

One mistake we did make was putting the electric for the dishwasher too high in the sink base.  It's an easy enough fix, we just wished we thought of that before Mike did such a nice job.  Mike is cutting it out so he can move it lower in the cabinet:

I ordered our cabinet knobs from the same woman I have been ordering them for years.  Mike and I like these birdcage knobs because they are not in your face and they don't look like the dreaded Christmas tree, lol.(That happens when you have too many silver knobs on too many cabinets and drawers)

And moving on.  Mike is measuring and working on floor trim while I start painting the dining room:

We are trying the the large floor trim for the first time.  I get to do my usual first coat of paint:

Mike installing the trim after it has been cut down:

After it was all installed, Mike caulked it all in and then I repainted the nail holes:

Next up…change out the light in the dining room.  Oh yeah….we had a heck of a time finding a light.  We wanted one that faced down and also not one that was too big.  What is with all the light bulbs in once fixture.  Oh and we also needed a chain light because the electrical is not centered in the room….imagine that, lol.

Mike goes fishing.  Kidding.  This is the best way for us to find out where the hook has to go for the swag in our chain.  Using the fishing pole and a weighted line we can determine where the center of the table meets the ceiling.

Mike getting ready to fix with the electrical:

This house is an electrical nightmare:

It's pulling together.  Now we need a picture and maybe some drapes to block the summer sun.

Now for my hand at something different.  Mike has been making fun of me, in a loving way, about me trying my hand at decorating.  I have always loved bedrooms with plum/purple and gray.  Since Mike wouldn't like it in our room, I decided to try it in the spare bedroom.  I found a comforter first and matched one of the plums in to a paint color.  I decided to only do one wall in the purple in case it was too much…I know I'm a chicken, lol. 

I painted the wall and thought…uh oh.  Surprisingly Mike said it wasn't bad.  Go figure, lol.

Next up the gray.  I did go a little lighter than the comforter on that color.

It is different but I really like it.  It is very neat and clean.  The room needs more stuff though because it is so big.

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed out update.  This Wednesday is our countertop day.  I am so excited to have a working kitchen again:).

Have a great week and I will post again next Monday.

Lisa:)

Some New Furniture and Installing Kitchen Cabinets with Electrical

Just as we finished up the assembly on the cabinets we got our furniture delivery.  It was really hard finding furniture we liked.  Same old story right, lol.  We lucked out and the one store out of about 12 that we went to we found some furniture that we liked.  At the same time we would like to try our hands at a little bit of color/decorating.  Oh this should be interesting, lol.


We bought an area rug for the dining room:

Mike picked out a sofa table that he said would go great with a picture we bought a few weeks back:

Not bad….Nicole hates the bird picture, lol:

The only pieces so far for the living room.  This room needs work but we have to figure out how to lay it out first:

I love the way this is turning out.  We still need to pant and change the light fixture in here:

The spare bedroom set.  We thought about going light/white but it would have looked bad with the white blinds.  So we are back to dark furniture.

And the dresser.  They have gotten really high.

This is my room to play with:).  I will be trying some new decor and colors.  Mike is not so sure about it. I told him…we can always close the door, lol.

OK…back to the kitchen cabinets.  Mike uses the clamps the squeeze the cabinets together so he can screw them together for a tight fit:

Getting the uppers screwed in.  It's sad that we had to build the cabinets with the face fronts and doors only to take off the doors to install them on the wall.  It makes them lighter for us to handle.

Because of our layout we had to get a 30 inch cabinet for the sink base.  Since a 30" did not come in a sink base only a regular base it needs some modifications.  This does not have an open back like sink bases do so Mike cuts the holes for the plumbing:

Also since we cannot get electrical through the walls in the house we will have to run it through the cabinets for the dishwasher:

The wires are in…time to clean it up:

Getting the dishwasher wiring hooked up:

Cutting the box out for the electric in the island:

Getting ready to drill in some supports for the island:

Pilot holes into the concrete so Mike can screw in the 2x4's:

Screwing the two island cabinets together so they are one big unit:

Nailing the cabinet to the 2x4 underneath…and the hole for the outlet:

Cleaning up the wire by putting it a tube and hooking up the island electric:

Yay…the island electric is on:

Cleaning up the electric in the wall and over to the dishwasher:

Since we have a regular base cabinet as our sink base Mike has to screw in the drawer fronts:

All finished:

Time for the blind cabinet:

Mike screws the fillers into each of the corner cabinets. Since we have so many cabinets we decided we didn't really need another one in the corner:

We are keeping the microwave that was here.  In doing so we have to get the brackets and microwave installed without a template:

The cabinets are in:

It's a bit odd with all the windows but I think it came out well:

Don't you love my cardboard counters, lol?

This is going to be a nice island once we get the real countertops:

It's nice to be getting to the finishing stages.  Only a few more stories on the inside then we will start with the outside work.

Have a great week and I will write again on Monday.

Lisa:)