If you’re new to this series, Clark is my flip house (named for the street that he’s on). Check out my previous progress posts here. Yesterday, the skies parted, the sun shone down, birds were chirping, and I did the biggest happy dance that Clark's ever seen.
If you follow me on facebook or instagram, you saw a few teasers of the kitchen cabinets being installed at long last!
Before we start looking at complete kitchen, I need to express how utterly ridiculous this whole process was. This saga's not short, so bear with me.
I purchased the cabinets on March 1st. March 1st! Yesterday was march 28th! That was my first mistake, I guess- IKEA was having a kitchen sale. I didn't get the discounts, though, because the total wasn't high enough, so I just had to deal with the hoards of other people trying to get kitchens installed as well. I know IKEA cabinets are designed to be able to be installed yourself, but in the interest of time, getting them installed was the way to go (or so I thought). The install problems happened as soon as I bought the cabinets: IKEA wasn't able to schedule it in their computer due to some glitch, so I had to call the installer directly. Ugh. After almost a week, I talked to the local installer, Frank. Oh Frank, you are not my friend. Frank was infuriating. All I wanted to know is WHEN you could install my kitchen. If I had been told 3 weeks ago that it would take 3 weeks, I would have looked elsewhere for install- BUT he wouldn't tell me WHEN! Instead I had to call him almost daily (since he wouldn't ever call back when he promised). First he told me last week, Thurs & Fri, then this week Thurs & Fri, and then when I called to confirm each time, I got pushed back. Luckily I had found another company and received a quote the first time my install got pushed back. When I talked to Frank on Tuesday and was told I had gotten pushed to Monday (supposedly) and that was the absolute last straw. I called the other company (Kitchen Works Installations in Brookline MA) they came to the rescue! They were able to come and install my kitchen with only a day's notice and in half the time they quoted!! AND for the same $ as IKEA's installers with a fraction of the headache. I'm a little excited. I have nothing but good things to say about them, so THANKS!!! I would recommend them to anyone. AND as a bonus, I got to call and "break up" with Frank. I was very courteous, but it was so satisfactory. So if you're thinking of getting an IKEA kitchen installed in the Boston area, save yourself the time and don't go through IKEA.
But now Clark has an amazing kitchen!!! (in my humble opinion)
Appliances are coming Monday, the countertops are going to be templated hopefully in the next few days and the backsplash tile has been ordered! It's about time!!!
I scrambled to get the walls painted before the cabinets went up, but I love the color- a very light minty green. I know this is a flip house and the colors need to be neutral, but it can't be sterile. The mint will blend very nicely with the light green penny tiles (ordered for 20% off- woot!). I bought out all the knobs at the Lowe's by Clark, so I need to stop by another to get the last 6.
Somehow, checking this one (albeit large) thing off my to-do list makes the whole house seem more complete.
While the guys were in the kitchen working their magic yesterday, I locked myself in the bathroom and got to work. The ceiling got painted (2 coats)
and I cut and started laying down the backerboard to prep for the floor tile. I have one more large piece to adhere down (it's in the pic, just not attached to the floor) before I can get tiling.
The toilet and sink are now hanging out on plastic in the living room. I think this is an up and coming design trend- plumbing fixtures as art. Don't you think? The sink will be reused and the toilet replaced and donated, but this is motivation to move fast on the floors- driving to Dunkin's every time nature calls will get old real fast.
Aside from the leaps and bounds in the kitchen this week and the prep in the bathroom, I also got around to finishing some areas of the hardwood floors.
I laid floor in the closets,
installed quarter-round to hide the expansion gap,
and finished the transitions into the bedrooms.
Other things I got to check off my list this week include:
- hiring a house painter (yay!)
- installing a closet bar into the kitchen closet (since we eliminated the coat closet in the living room to expand the kitchen)
- painting the kitchen closet
- repairing the wall board in the bathroom at the tile corner
- dry-fit the bathroom floor tile to start planning out the install
- having the plumber repair a leaking pipe and faulty venting in the bathroom (the tub drain shouldn't gurgle every time you flush the toilet)
There are many other things in the works, too. I've been seeing this project come together in my head for so long, it's so nice to start seeing it REALLY come together in reality!