Doors and floors

As the weekend draws to a close, you know that it is time for a kitchen update! Earlier this week I finished up the clear coat on the walls. Kevin and Dad were hard at work on Saturday installing doors and windows while I was at Etown for an Alumni Association meeting (I have to learn to say "no.") For such a small space, there are three different doors and one window, which is a lot of hinges, handles and cranks!

The basement door which Kevin took down last weekend is replaced with a new paneled door. A new door went in to the doorway between the living room and kitchen where there previously was none. Besides looking cool, this will help to keep the air conditioned air in the living room during the summer months (which is light years better than the sheet we had tacked up this past summer!) as well as keep the loud appliances like our washer/dryer and dishwasher from affecting what is going on in the front of the house, such as reading, entertaining and TV watching. I like it already and once it's stained, it will be a handsome addition to the home.

We also finally have a broom closet!!! Until now, we've been shoving brooms and mops in any old corner, the most likely one in the stairwell to the kitchen. Now we have a little closet built just for them as well as other cleaning supplies. Brilliant!!

We also now have a new casement window in place of our old double hung that was above the sink. Not only was the old window hard to open with a Kevin-made screen (better than no screen, like when we bought the house!) it was just durn ugly. We couldn't fix up the whole kitchen and leave that thing in.

In the interest of more light, the new window is bigger and the crank out windows will make getting fresh air a literal breeze. Of course, like all winter days in our alley, it was probably 20 degrees colder there than anywhere else in on our property, so kudos to Dad and Kevin for getting it done when there were warmer jobs to be had that day!

Today was flooring. We decided to go with a similar style floor to what is already in our laundry room, for consistency's sake; however, we learned that the particular color had been discontinued. After looking at samples, we went with one that was a close match and I actually like it more in the end. Dad grumbled when I chose this floor again because it is an interlocking laminate floating floor. Putting it down around cabinets is particularly hard because of the locking motion, so he decided to put the floor down first and then the cabinets on top. I think this will be nice for anyone who wants to replace the cabinets but may like the floor in the future. When they rip out the cabinets, they will discover a full floor underneath! I know, why am I thinking about future homeowners possibly undoing all our hard work? Who knows. See floor pics below.

Everything looks amazing and it's easy to feel that things are really progressing now when you see the changes. Still, it is becoming hard to deal with a living room that is overflowing with kitchen wares and gadgets and we are growing extremely tired of eating out, though we are rarely home in the evenings so this was the best time for this project.

On the homefront, we also had a heater repair this weekend on Friday night. After work Kev turned the heat up and when we returned from our evening meal, it had in fact dropped down to a cool 57. Upon inspection, our pilot light was out and we could not light it. A quick call to Dad and his friend Mike resulted in a super-speedy housecall where our thermal coupler was replaced (our 2nd in a year). Kev is hot under the collar on this issue and demands to know why the average life of the product isn't longer than 6 mos. I explained capitalism to him, but to no avail.

The theme of this post, therefore, in addition to doors and floors, is that my dad is amazing. I know all kids think that of their dads at some point, but I am continually awed by his ability to work all week and still come here to manage our projects as well. His attention to this job when he has so many other things going on is so appreciated and we obviously would be doing none of this without him. THANKS, DAD!!