2014 May | my inspirational home

Kitchen Cabinets: Complete

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Sophie

They’re all in! Check out our fully installed kitchen (well, except for the toe kick that mistakenly got sent back. It’ll come in another couple of weeks):

In that last picture, you see Sebastian from the granite fabricators measuring for our countertop template. I went to the fabricator yesterday to see which pieces of the slab to put where, and it went great – we discovered that we can make do with one slab, not two like we’d originally anticipated. And the counters will all be seamless!

They’re going to be installed next week. Can’t wait!

Anyone Want Some Honey?

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Sophie

…because it looks like we’d have a lifetime supply if we kept these bees.

Thanks to our brave beekeepers Gary and Tom, we don’t have to!

Yes, he is holding those with his bare hands. <shudder>

Gary says this is one of the biggest hives he’s seen. Home to approximately 40,000 bees.

That’s right: forty thousand bees.

Here are just some of our uninvited tenants:

It’s pretty cool to watch our guys pack up the bees.

Don’t worry, I’ve got a good zoom on my camera; nobody’s catching me anywhere in stinging distance of those things!

Termites and Birds’ Nests and Bees, Oh My!

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Sophie

In our absence, our house has become somewhat of a nature preserve. The termites are (thankfully) gone, but now we have a new issue: honeybees! There are hundreds of them living in the soffits under our roof on either side of the chimney.

It wouldn’t be that big of a problem, if not for the fact that it’s illegal to kill honeybees. We had to call in a special beekeeper to remove them. Check it out!

He has to take out the entire hive, including the queen, to get rid of them. If the hive stays and the bees die, we’ll have rotten honey in our rafters and attract all sorts of other animals. As you can see, they’ve been successfully evicted. Thanks, Gary and Tom!

Meanwhile, under our porch roof, some robins have taken up residence, built a nest, and laid eggs.

They’re tiny! Next year we’ll have to put up spikes to discourage the birds from nesting, but for now… how cute is this?

I think we’ll start charging admission for the little kids in the neighborhood to come check out our wildlife habitat!

Kitchen Installation, Continued

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Sophie

The kitchen is partially installed, and looking better every day. As of today, most of the cabinets are in. (Some doors and drawers looks a bit crooked, they’re not done yet.) This week the granite guy is coming to make our template, and then all we need are the counters, the toe kick (for some reason it was shipped back with the original wrong-colored kitchen), and the appliances! Check it out:

Kitchen Installation

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Sophie

Our house is actually beginning to look like a house! The kitchen floor is laid and grouted (and filthy, too)

and our kitchen installer started working this morning. Now the kitchen cabinets that were piled all around the house…

(Yes, that is the pantry being used as a storage shelf in the hallway)

…are actually where they belong: in the kitchen!

No more pantry in the hall!

It’s Tile-Laying Day…

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Sophie

…finally!

We decided on the tile layout (bricked) today, and it’s looking great so far. Here’s what it looked like when I went over:

This is the tile stacked (laid straight):

We both like it better bricked (first picture).

And now the kitchen is completely Sheetrocked, too!

As of this afternoon, the kitchen tile is nearly completely laid:

(Photo courtesy of Juan, our handyman.)

The tile is continuing into the hallway but we’re not tiling it yet. The kitchen was most important because it’s being installed next week (FINALLY!). Stay tuned for more updates!

Help Us Pick Cabinet Hardware!

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Sophie

As we inch closer and closer to completion, the little things are starting to become important. Today we went to pick out grout for the tiles (they’re being laid later this week) and hardware for the kitchen cabinets. We want straight bar pulls, but not like these: