Cabinets, hardwood, Marmoleum, and (finally!) a Deck

Well, some folks might think that we'd take a break during the week leading up to Christmas and the week between the holiday. NOPE!  We had folks interested in working so we were happy to oblige.  Later this week we anticipate trim carpenters to be on site installing the doors that were delivered on Friday (as were the two remaining toilets - Woohoo! - "all I want for Christmas is my two Toto Toilets!").

Last week they put the marmoleum down in the two upstairs bathrooms and then yesterday they laid the basement bathroom (after a bit of self-leveling compound and more work to get it reasonably flat) in preparation for the cabinet installation.  We chose sheet marmoleum for the two "hallway" bathrooms but had to go with marmoleum tile in the master bath and the laundry room because they're too wide for sheet meaning there would have been lots of waste and the seams would have been out of kilter.

Upstairs bathroom with marmoleum installed.  Yeah, that's dust floating in front of the camera highlighted by the flash.  

They also finished sanding all the maple floors, applied the stain (Minwax Golden Pecan) and the first coat of finish. We were banished from the house until at least Sunday but we took a day off and didn't visit until yesterday.  The floors look great.  All the skeptics who say you can't stain maple because it gets "blotchy" must do something different.  Sure, there's some grain that shows through differently on the floors but we really like the color and finish.

Looking down the hallway from the East end. Stain and finish applied to the maple flooring.

Family Room and to the left kitchen.

This gives a bit better idea of the color - that's a satin finish on the floor so it's not quite so reflective.

This morning at about 7:45 the cabinet install team arrive (Travis and Russ).  We commissioned them to design cabinets that were a bit unique and fit perfectly in our kitchen and two of the three bathrooms.  They did a FANTASTIC job matching the "dream cabinets" DeeDee had found which interestingly enough was one of their cabinets.  The cabinets she liked had a two-tone look to them but when we discussed it with Travis, they were in fact a single wood - Alder.  We decided to go with a Cherry and Alder combination to emphasize the two-tone look and we're absolutely thrilled with their work.  They also built a floating shelf and wrapped the island in a wood panel to match the cabinets.  We asked them to build standing dish racks in a drawer, a plate rack for above the raised dishwasher, and to put pull-out drawers under the sink instead of the standard doors.  Wow did they deliver.

The delivery vehicle for cabinets - a 30' trailer full!

A peek inside the trailer after about 1/2 of it's already been moved - see the wet footprints (yep - another day of rain here)

Here's the kitchen cabinetry as they're about finished installing the first cabinet which was the wall corner cabinet.

A bit further along in the prcess - most of the cabinet boxes installed but doors and drawers yet to install/adjust.

There's the panel for the island.  Pictures simply do not do it justice.

The end panel for the island - much better representation of the woods.  Cherry panels and alder stiles.

The sun came out for a bit so this is a non-flash picture after the install is complete.

Refrigerator/range wall - those cabinets over the refrigerator actually DO come all the way to the front of the refrigerator.

Here's a flash picture at the end of the day.  Again it doesn't do justice to the coloration and grain of the woods.

and one from a bit further away.  

Here's the standing dish drawer we asked for.  That's stoneware that scratches if you stack it so we wanted this.  The dinner plates go on the wall over the dishwasher.

Here's the master bath - again the flash caught lots of dust so you can't really see the true beauty of the cabinets or marmoleum

A bit better shot - the tub surround is maple like the cabinets and the two center panels are actually handle-less doors for access to the plumbing works.

The basement bath - that's poplar (unpainted but clearcoated) for the vanity and the closet doors which are cabinet grade doors.  

 On Friday we started installing decking material and after 3 full days and one half day, we're about 2/3 done with the deck.  We finished the 8'x16' and 16'x 29' (all but one board width at the outside edge) and only have the 8'x44' section remaining as well as the stairs.  Man, that's a big deck.  Today was a very rainy day and while I did get a little wet working during the rain this morning, for the most part I stayed dry as did all the tools which was very important to me.

Flash picture of the completed part of the deck - 560 sf down, 400 sf to go!