Love it or change it - out with the old...

Love it or change it – out with the old…

The dark with the light top for the island,

 the white with a darker top for the rest.

Having decided on our contractor on Monday, next steps involved choosing materials with which to replace the old. I met with the GC down at his storefront in San Diego on Friday. He had laid the cabinets we’d earlier discussed out on his table with some suggested countertop colors. 

New tile for the floors - "hot, new" just released color.

He’d also chosen some tiles for our floors for me to view. I came away from that meeting with the cupboards decided and some options for the floor and countertops to share for our final decision.

I got a text on Sunday from the GC asking if he could come by the house with some paint samples. He also brought the tile sample that we had thought might work. He showed up shortly after with a box full of small pots of paint samples and laid the tile on the floor to see how it might look when down. The tile was an instant hit; the paint was a little more of a process. At first we thought we’d decided on the paint, but as the light of the day wore on and we saw the effect on the painted patches, we determined we hadn’t quite hit the right combination for our new look. As we’d decided on a start date of a week following this one, we needed to figure it out soon.

Colors on walls - trying to determine which would be best in all lights.

We were back and forth to HD all that week looking for that ‘just-right’ grey, and the blue for the accent that had the perfect tonality that would turn our home from the somewhat dated, but once funky color palette to the cool, modern, coastal look and feel we are striving to achieve. That’s it, that’s the perfect shade right there, then we’d go through the different times of day and night throughout the various light changes and decide, not yet, it’s not quite right yet. Who knew there were SO many shades of grey, more than 50 for sure!

The fridge was scheduled to be moved on Monday, the demo to begin Tuesday. This was the last weekend we had to find the paint, choose our tiles for the shower and kitchen backsplash, and decide which of our light fixtures would be replaced. We also had to determine what new appliances we would need and choose and order those. We decided we should stay in SD for the weekend with our shopping list firmly decided and determination as our mindset.

I was back and forth to HD all week gathering paint samples and patching the walls to see which was just right. We had definitely determined the one accent grey, Slate Rock, but were still not satisfied that the light grey for most of the house and the accent blue were quite where we wanted them to be.

Saturday we headed out to the store to search out appliances and plumbing. Luckily enough, right next door there was a tile store, so we were excited for our one-stop shop! We went in thinking we needed a dishwasher, drawer microwave, cooktop and vent, a kitchen sink and faucet, and shower plumbing. Of course we came away with a bid for a few more things than what was on our list, the least of which was a new double oven – if everything else was going to be new, wouldn’t we need a new one of those too? 

We found a backsplash tile we loved and an idea for the shower. I would share with the GC next week to see if they could all work. A couple more trips to HD on Saturday and we finally settled on our accent blue color – Mammoth Mountain Blue! Still struggling with the light grey.

The appliance supplier also had lighting, as we were looking for new dining room, entryway, and kitchen pendant lighting. However, all we really saw that we wanted from there was a possibility for the dining room, so on Sunday we headed to the lighting store to look for ceiling fans and the rest. We didn’t really find anything there either, so we put that on hold for the time being. We stopped by HD to grab some boxes and packing supplies as we now were faced with packing the kitchen and closets. I mean completely packing, as if we were moving – closets had to be completely gutted to be painted, EVERYTHING in the kitchen had to be packed up because the cupboards were being removed. So pack we did.

On Monday morning I worked from home so I could be there for the appliance movers to come and move the fridge (new last September, so she was staying) out to the garage for the duration of the renovation. That morning I shared our list with our GC and he added a few plumbing items we’d not known we needed. Monday night, on one last trip to HD for more boxes to pack up the rest of our stuff to make way for the painters and demo, T brought home a few more light grey paint chips. FINALLY, we thought we had the one! Silver Bullet!! 

Our colors chosen! Note the additional swatches.

The demo was due to begin the next morning. As soon as we had decided to go forward with the reno I let our housekeeper know, not quite sure she totally understood what I was saying to her. However, that night I got a call from her husband, our gardener, who asked if he could have our kitchen cupboards when they were removed. I told him I wasn’t sure how that would work, but that I would speak to the GC and let him know that he wanted them.

I came home from work on Tuesday to find four men in my kitchen, one of whom was my gardener. The cupboards were half dismantled, the cooktop and microwave removed. My GC was there and in a bit of a huff, he took me outside and under his breath expressed his frustration at the gardener’s involvement in the demo. Because he wanted to preserve the cupboards it was much slower to remove them than was originally planned.     I told him that I would tell my gardener that he had until 9 the next morning to get the last of what he could out of the kitchen before the wrecking crew was going to take over. Not only was he taking the cupboards, but also the cooktop, dishwasher, and now double oven (since we decided to invest in a new one), along with all the miscellaneous kitchen gadgets and dishes we didn’t want to put back into our new cupboards. He and his wife would be turning and selling most of it at some Mexican swap meet to make some extra cash, ever industrious and hardworking, those two.

The next day things really started to take off and the demo was completed, leaving us with nothing but bare walls in the kitchen, some somewhat drippy, smelly exposed plumbing, no downstairs sink or toilet, and a gaping hole where once we had a shower in the master bath. The tile on the floors was removed, plastic was draped over doorways and furniture, and there was a pervasive layer of dust everywhere. I seemed to be very congested and that night sleeping was very difficult, I was quite certain I would cease to be able to breathe at all at some point during the night. Fortunately, T was away in Denver for work and didn’t have to share the suffering.

He knows he used to get fed around here somewhere.

Each night after work I continued to pack all our clothes and other possessions from the closets, trying to keep one step ahead of the painters. The paint began in the back corner of the house and moved ever closer to the master bedroom, putting increasing pressure on the need to get everything packed and put away. It’s amazing how much stuff we accumulate that when faced with packing up becomes an inordinate amount!

Shower, blocked off from cats so they can't get into the
walls of the rest of the house.

By the time T came home Friday I was beside myself from the dust, the mess, trying to feed the dogs and cats with no water, and living amongst the growing stacks of boxes and plastic-wrapped house! It was time to get outta Dodge!

Enshrouded from paint - see Mammoth Mtn Blue 
through the dust.

The hole in the plastic is from Tailor breaking
through into her bed.