Galley Kitchen Remodel

    Before we start this remodel we have to make lots of decisions....this is my weakness. I like many different styles....some designers call this eclectic, but I think it's just being indecisive. Either way, it's not a good character for a remodel. We are DIY folks, and I have worked side-by-side with the hubby, Danny,  through a lot of projects, but this job and stage in our lives, was more than we wanted to handle.
Time to hire the Pros!     I'm excited!

Removing old track lighting, replace with recessed.

1st decision: what stays and what goes:

Gray Floor tile with dark grout. 

 Frig still works, so it stays.
um.....this later goes :) 

Counter tile with more dark gray grout....what were they thinking?

Widen doorway

Rusted out faucet and sink.

JennAir stove & micro going!

Loved the JennAir dual oven, but
replacing with oven/microwave combo

Need to move heater outside to
 expand the pantry. 

Ok, now that I'm over the embarrassment of sharing my Before Shots.  Not to say, I haven't loved this kitchen, we did replace all the appliances & hang new cabinet doors when we moved in 25 years ago, but we left the old tile, which was never very attractive. Danny moved the washer/dryer out and built us a laundry room and a bar in 2013. But, now on to this new phase....

set up our temporary
kitchen in Laundry room 

1. Counter tops....GRANITE! Absolutely..... Granite can easily take over a kitchen, but I don't want it to be a big WOW factor, like most do. Our home is reasonably conservative and I don't want the kitchen to yell, "Hey, I'm New!" and make the rest of the home look more dated. Just want it to be traditional and flow throughout our home. Larry Owens, our contractor, suggested we visit DalTile. Not knowing what we liked, we came home with samples and still hadn't felt comfortable with anything until our 2nd visit when the owner, Eric, helped us. He knew we were undecided between the dark and light granite. At this time the white granite is a hot trend. We wanted a dark contrast with our white cabinets somewhere. He said, you have 2 options for your granite, "do you want it to be the focal point?" or "do you want the appliances & decor to be the focal point?" I knew it was the latter.... "then the black is the better choice", he said. 
2. Back splash.... I had initially thought the white subway was the way to go, but after choosing the black granite, the Arctic Grey Limestone just warmed up the granite and we were immediately sold. 
3. The flooring was tough....I love wood, but the rest of the home is original, 1950's 3" plank wood and anything against it needs to be complimentary, because it STAYS! Tile looks best. With Eric's help again, we chose the another Daltile, from the "Exquisite" collection in "Ivory". 

Eric put this together outside for us to get a better visual
....it worked!

Inspiration 

Oct 4th, Demo Day

   
The center photo fully explains why we didn't want to do 

this project ourselves....thick layers of mortar under the tile. 

Before Floor Demo

Demo Day!

Old original light green linoleum revealed

Oct 6th, Meet Electrician

          

    Trull Electric really did a great job for us. They were courteous, explained the steps, asked me questions and were also very neat.

    Recessed lighting and updating the plugs was all we originally had on the list....but, then the list grew!!!!

    We've added:
- removal of both chandeliers in the dining and living room
- replacing old hallway lights with recessed
- add exhaust fan and light in guest bath.
- pre-wire for additional lighting under cabinets (Danny to do later)

You only remodel once, right?! ha! 

Recessed Lights.

We took our vacation the 2nd week in October. This was not perfect timing, but that's all our schedules could do this year. We went to Napa area where the start of about 16 fires in CA broke out. See my vacation post here. And back at home, the contractor found a problem under the house when they removed the water heater. It was, thankfully, an old issue. Rats had been nesting in our AC duct and tore out quite a large chunk. yuk! But, we never, ever knew....no smell, no noise, but we did notice our AC didn't work so well in the kitchen.  So, not much got done this week. 

Replacing damaged Ducting from Rats.


Lots of patching and priming planned over the next 2 weeks. 

Oct. 24th - Nov. 2nd

     Stryder & his assistant did the patching and priming of all the walls. Mostly covering up the old electrical. Stryder also added a nice texture to the walls and primed it for the painters.Who are do arrive next week.

Nov. 7th  

       Pantry Installed!!!! yay..... I'm gonna love this. 

Coming through!

   

Nov. 17

    

      The painters have been busy for 2 weeks. They removed all the doors and took them back to their shop.

I've seen this look for a longer time that I had hoped :( 

 Old cabinets required lots of patching, priming and sanding. I expected the kitchen to be further along and am disappointed that it is not. But, I think it'll move quickly after it's painted, or so I'm told. To be honest, we had some "miscommunication" with the painters. And they had to do repaint all the cabinetry.

Nov. 19th

       Painters finally finished. I pushed them through the weekend, so they painted the walls on a Sunday afternoon. We have granite coming Monday morning of Thanksgiving week.....I'm getting to the breaking point and want to see some progress. We chose Benjamin Moore paint colors: White Dove for the woodwork and Monroe Bisque for the walls. I'm so glad we chose the creamy wall paint color too. I was almost talked into painting the cabinets a Bright White and the walls in the Agreeable Gray by SW, but stayed true to my first choice of BM's Monroe Bisque. "remember, my problem with being indecisive?"

I found the best Gliderite SS door pulls online with Wayfair at a great price. The sink & faucets came from a local showroom.

Nov. 20th

       Granite team is here by 7:30 am. So far, I'm impressed with them.  I haven't seen the granite in 2 months, and was imagining all kinds of crazy things. But, I love it, it's classy and kind of subtle. Love the simple squared edge and deep, low-profile cast iron sink in ivory.

Expecting door fronts this week, so that will help make it look more complete.  Planning to tile and install appliances next week, since it's a short workweek for them. Thanksgiving Week....We still had a great meal cooking on our patio with the BBQ and campstove. We brought it all in the house on to our new granite.(sigh)

Nov 27-30

 Getting set up for the backsplash. Chose the Dale Tile Limestone in Arctic Grey with Oyster Grey grout. I'm so, loving the warmth this is bringing to the kitchen.

Micheal Guy and his toolbox have been around for awhile.

Nov 30- Dec 2

    If only every week could be this productive...... I'll let the photos do the talking.

Wolf Cooktop and Hood installed

Kolher Low profile sink, Faucet & Filtered water.

Floors are tiled, grouting in a couple days. We chose Ivory from the Equisite Series, also a Dal Tile product with the same Oyster Grey grout as the back-splash.

Another View...door and hardware installed.
Loving the Benjamin Moore paint colors "White Dove" on woodwork and  "Monroe Bisque" on the walls.

   Long pause until the next phase since our oven's on back order AND we changed to all stainless in the middle of the remodel. It's bound to happen. Ordered frig & dishwasher....both gonna be another 2-3 weeks because of all the holidays sales. But, in the meanwhile, I have a working kitchen.

Dec. 21, 2017

        Whew..... That was close. Didn't think I'd have an oven before Christmas. But, I got the frig, dishwasher and ovens installed this week....all Kitchen Aid.

       Only thing left is under cabinet lighting and that's hopefully happening this weekend. 

Merry Christmas to me :) 

The Vacation when California was on Fire

   We headed north to Geyserville, CA on our Harley, on an October Sunday. As we got further north the weather grew extremely windy around Fairfield, CA and into the rolling vineyards of Napa. Typically, a very pleasant drive, but the wind made it very rough on us. I had to hold onto my helmet to keep my neck from hurting too much. :(
     Making plans in my head of all the tasting rooms to visit in the next few days and getting excited to try out some new wineries. Nearing our destination decided to stop at FieldStone Winery .....confused by it's unique, hobbit-like entrance.

Fieldstone Winery Entrance

The tasting room offers wine from all around, as they are in a transitional period. 

We loved the wines selected for our tastings and purchased 2 bottles.

View from our Balcony

Enjoying some great Wine

    Arriving late afternoon at the wonderful Geyserville Inn. The Inn was chosen for it's location, comfortable beds and spacious rooms. The Inn is on the north-west edge of Sonoma county and has the beautiful hwy 128 to take us to the coast in a couple days.

We had a gourmet meal at their restaurant with a bottle of 2013 Trione Pinot wine, and then relaxed on the balcony to begin our vacation. Relaxed and ready for the new day....or so, we thought.

     


 I woke up around 2am to a red reflection on the TV screen. I got up to see that there were flames in the distance from our balcony. Stunned......I  woke up Danny to witness the fire as we sat on the balcony for a moment; saddened and concerned.

Geyserville Inn view around 2am

By morning, it was apparent that this was a serious fire(s) and it was spreading quick.
Smoke-filled air, ashes on the car and on the bike. We knew we would be checking out soon. 

Next morning: smoke-filled sky

        No time to fuss over our loss, these local people were going to have their world turned upside down. We checked out quietly, wished them the best, and headed out.
But, 1st breakfast and Bloody Maries at the RR Station Grill.


It turned out to be a projected meeting place for those affected by the fires. solemn, yet respectful moods. The owner's son..... seeming to be around 13, unaware of the surrounding tragedies was home from school and present at his dad's bar.

The road leaving Sonoma county was everything I had hoped it would be:

I chose the gentle curving of hwy 128 to get to the coastal highway.
With all the Vineyards, gorgeous wineries, old barns....this is 

the Anderson Valley we've heard about that great wines come from. 

I wanted to stop at every winery :)  

Then north up the 101.....oh, wow!
 these views are amazing..... my neck is gonna hurt :)

Hwy 101 views....smoke has spread quickly

A quick nights stay in Eureka....not worth mentioning. I do not plan to come back here. 

Beers & Tacos in Eureka

We had hoped to head north up the coast into Oregon. But, with rain in the
forecast, we changed plans and headed east on hwy 299. 

 The drive was gorgeous down hwy 299, a bit cold but beautiful views of trees and streams along the way.  

Our next stop is Weaverville, Ca. We pulled up to the only hotel we see.... the Weaverville Hotel ....they had 2 rooms left. We passed on the twin beds and opted for the suite.

I'm so glad we did....it was so comfortable that we stayed 2 nights. 

Turn-down Service....spoiled me :)

Our Bed in Weaverville

Cozy sitting area for guests only. 

Hotel Gift Shop....vibes in this town. 

The small town of Weaverville, Ca does not have a lot to offer in terms of shopping, but the 'down-time' was needed. We walked the town and had great food, wine and superior customer service everywhere we went.

We ate at La Grange Cafe on both nights. They had delicious food and local wines that were fair priced and impressive.

   We checked out the museum, too. 

Lots of interesting facts and displays about the area.

Heading further east         

Whiskey Lake 

          Because, of our change in plans we decide to traveling east

Adjusting the communicator 

 to find a towards home that avoided both the smoky air 

of the Napa fires, and also the busy towns around the I 5. 

So, we chose Nevada City, Ca. since we've never been and have heard
 interesting things about the little town. 

My safe driver

Northern Queen Inn....great parking

The Nevada City downtown area was very busy and had "no vacancy" signs, so

 we stayed just 1/2 mile out of town at the Northern Queen Inn. 

Turned out to be a gem :) 

It would be a great location for a large group to stay. It's a 

short cab ride into town and has some beautiful grounds.

The bridal path. Perfect!

Amazing  backgrounds for photos

   Cab ride into town for another delicious meal and great local wine.

Art Wall At Bistro 221

Bistro 221

The next morning we had a nice warm breakfast in the train car for Danny's birthday. 

Birthday Boy :) 

We had been told by our server last night of about 6 tasting rooms downtown....sounds perfect :)

So, after loading up the bike, we planned to check out a couple.  

Nevada City Winery.... good wine, we had it last night. 

but, they didn't open for another hour.....

"so, you wanna find a bloody mary?" 




"sure!"

We wondered into the National Hotel.... found the bar.

 and....well, We have the best luck ;)

Joni made a mean bloody mary. 

Loving this view with a drink in my hand

Bloody Maries on the Balcony 

 Dallas, a traveling musician

    Bloody Maries on the balcony and a local musician practicing..... Just what we needed to start our day.  Good choice!


    I think we'll check out the rooms and stay here next time we're in town. There's more to see and we just didn't get the chance this trip.

   One more day on the road, and a quick night stay in Sonora and then home.

Almost home.....

     Over all this was a trip where we drove the most miles; 2,300.
   The reason for my title is because the fires have spread throughout CA, up to 17 by the end of week.
Before & After Photos: Fires Tear Through California Wine Country
   We stayed longer in places we hadn't plan to visit, and didn't get to stay in places we had hoped to. 

But, we love our time together, chatting on the road, finding new places 

to explore, and wouldn't change a thing.