House Renovations: Kitchen is finished!

Well almost.

On Friday morning bright and early, 5:35am to be precise, the Kitchen Concepts team came to start my kitchen installation.

When I called them from work at lucnhtime, they were finished installing the cupboards. The only thing left to do was for me to go back into them on Saturday and select my countertop, which I did and they came back on Monday (yesterday) to finish that up.

So here are some before and after pics.

BEFORE - Getting the kitchen ready for painting

BEFORE - Afro Chic and Daddy Chic priming the wall

IN BETWEEN - Almost there

AFTER - My cupboards installed

AFTER - Cupboards installed and waiting on countertop

I have to choose a tile/desing for the backsplash still, but that will come later.

Renovations Update: Kitchen

It's been a while since my last update and the reason for that is there was nothing really going on and things were generally just at a standstill.

I have gone through FOUR, yes I said FOUR 'cupboard men' who have all promised to "get back to me".

Is a good thing I was not holding my breath cause allyuh woulda read about me in the papers...

"Woman Dies Waiting on Men to Install Kitchen Cupboards"

Anyhoo...

Two weeks ago, I saw an ad in the newspaper for a company in Chaguanas that does kitchens by the name of Kitchen Concepts.

I visited their website and saw some stuff that looked interesting, so I made a call for directions and visited their showroom two Saturdays ago.

Sample kitchen in showroom

Sample kitchen in showroom

Sample cupboard doors in various finishes

The cupboards are made of MDF board and fused with a PVc, which makes them termite free and water resistant.

My kitchen was measured and I saw the design last week Saturday. It's a basic L shaped kitchen and it'll be a mix of light (maple) and dark coloured (tobacco) wood. Before installation though, I had to arrange to have my floor surface finished and my walls painted.

After I visited their showroom to make the final arrangements, I visited Roopnarine Tile Mart which is right down the road, and purchased tiles for the kitchen area only.

I had to make an emergency call to my tile guy to have him come and complete the tile work so that my cupboards could be installed this week.

Kitchen Concepts has promised installation in 2-3 days, which means by this weekend, I should have my kitchen installed!

Marvin the tile guy came on Monday afternoon and by the time I got home later that evening, my tiles were laid down and work was done!

My FAB! kitchen tile

View from the kitchen into dining area

I love the tile I got at Roopnarine (it's a wood finish 18 x 18 tile), so yesterday I arranged to get some more tile to complete the living room area and Marvin the tile guy is scheduled to come again this evening to finish off that part of the house. WHOO!HOO!

Tomorrow is painting day and yesterday during my lunch hour I made a trip across to Agostini Interiors to purchase my kitchen/living/dining room paint.

Many months ago, I had already picked the colours I wanted as I knew the colour scheme I had i mind, so these are my colours:

The darker shade (Rural Green) is for my focal wall where all my photos will be displayed and the other shade (Sassy Green) is for the rest of the room.

My favorite part of the renovations is coming up and that's the decorating!!
I already started purchasing some accents pieces for my kitchen and dining area, as well as looking for upholstery to cover my sofa set.

I am hoping...no, make that determined to move back into my house by the end of this month, come hell or high water!

Renovations Update: Are We There Yet?

So here's the update...

Bathroom:

Tiling started on Wednesday and finished on Friday.

My tiles look FAB! and my bathroom is now my favorite room in the house.

Bathroom tiled and toilet installed

My plumber came on Sunday and started installing the toilet and the shower. He has to come back this week and put in the sink and finish up his part.

Ceiling:
My ceiling was started on Thursday last week and when I got home I was very pleased to see that most of the rooms in the house were done. The ceiling looked GREAT.

Ceiling in living/dining/kitchen area

Then I took a look at the moulding that was put up and had to do a double take as they guys had installed plain white moulding in the boys' room, but white and gold moulding everywhere else.

Nasty white and gold moulding

I was NOT feeling that white and gold AT ALL, so I had to call up my ceiling guy to tell him one time.

Apparently when they went to purchase the plain white moulding they only got enough for one room, so they made the decision to go with white and gold to 'expedite' the project and they thought it complimented the ceiling.
Hello?
Without consulting the woman who have to watch up at that ceiling for the next 10 years? Eh eh.


After a couple of phone calls I told them in no uncertain terms that the moulding had to be changed and they needed to find a solution. By the time I got home on Friday my moulding was all white and I was happy.

Electricians:

The electricians now have to come back and finish pull their wires and afix their fixtures.

To date, the electricians have been my worst workmen.

I say this not because they working slow or anything, they are actually working pretty well. I say it because they are the most untidy.

After my main contractors had completed their work they always swept up and threw away whatever rubble they made. Not the electricians...Eh eh.

They break parts of my wall, not whole wall eh...parts...to run their new wiring and left more dust and rubble over my house that my other contractors.

The one room in my house where I had everything stored to keep it 'safe' from dust, now has the most dust in my house.

Not to mention that they break one of meh scented candles.

Not to mention that they break meh brand new broom.

Not to mention that they put up some ugly ass fixtures (they have to take them down) in front the house. (like they eh make out my FAB! door or what?)

Not to mention that in taking pics of the FAB! door yesterday I noticed that the ugly ass fixtures not put up straight..one higher than the next! Hello?

High and low fixtures

*sigh*

I did mention to them (very nicely I might add) that when they were finished taking down their wires and so forth that they could move the rubble into the yard and they did do this last week. But my entire house is now dusty thanks to my electricians.

And they have plenty work to re-do cause like they breathless and just doing want they want.

That's the update for now.

I am still looking for someone to do my kitchen cupboards for me, so if you know anyone, drop me an email at afro.chic@hotmail.com.

Renovations Update...

Since my last update with purchasing the tiles, we've had to fire our tile guy and source a next tile guy. So my tiles have been sitting down collecting dust.

The new tile guy came to visit and gave us his quotation for doing the work and has said he is 'swamped' right now and has promised to come next Wednesday. *crosses fingers*

I finally purchased a FAB! shower mixer for my bathroom as well (sorry no pics), and my plumber (daddy) came and installed the pipes in the bathroom last Saturday.

In the meantime there's been some back and forth between my ceiling guys and electricians. My ceiling guys came on Good Friday to frame up for the ceiling, then had to wait on the electricians to continue pulling their wires etc.


That was finished yesterday and my ceiling guys promised to come back today to finish put up my ceiling.


The ceiling that I finally decided on is the PVC ceiling in two finishes. One for the living/dining/kitchen area and one for the bedrooms and bathroom area.

PVC ceiling samples

(Top left) Living/dining/kitchen area

(Bottom left) Bedrooms and bathroom

I've been hearing mixed reviews about the PVC ceiling, but I like the samples of the work I've seen and it's way less dust than my original choice of gypsum.

When the ceiling is installed, the electricians have to come back AGAIN, the finish pulling wires and installing their fixtures.

Once THAT is done I can FINALLY start cleaning up my house *crosses fingers* and move back into my home :)