He just worked on the floor today. He didn't get as far as I had hoped but we'd rather have it done well than done fast. He was working out from the outer wall which is where one set of cabinets will go so that area needs to be perfectly level. That took him some extra time. He said he'll be able to progress faster tomorrow. Today he laid 21 tiles I think. They're 12x24 so he put down about 42 sq ft out of a total of 237 sq ft, in addition to what he put down yesterday (maybe about half that) so I think we're around 25% done but I didn't actually measure exactly.

He said he will be working late tomorrow but then will be off on Friday because he has a graduation to attend. He will come by for a short time on Saturday because the spacers between the tiles need to be removed once they're set.

Even though only about 1/4 of the floor is in place, we can at least get a much better idea of how it will look in the room and we're happy with it.

Over the weekend we found and ordered the light fixtures for the bathroom and over the kitchen table. The kitchen one really took some work as there are literally hundreds of options to choose from. It's quite insane. Yesterday we placed the order for the cabinet hardware. We haven't bought it yet but we know which kitchen faucet we want. The only major things we still need are the bathroom sink and faucet, the backsplash, and a paint color.

Our contractor called out yesterday because his back was acting up. We actually kind of appreciated having a down day ourselves. Having someone here working 9-5 is a little strange and just kind of throws off everything.

Today he started on the floor. I didn't realize how time consuming the process is at first. He started along the outside wall and every tile in contact with that wall needed to be cut to size and some needed to be shaped around the door frames. He also explained how important it is to get that first section set perfectly straight because the rest of the floor builds off of that. By the end of the day, we had 16 inches wide of tile in place down the length of the room. He said the middle of the room will go much faster until he reaches the opposite walls. I'm thinking that by end of day tomorrow we will probably have the majority of the floor in place but we shall see.

Until you start on a project like this, you really don't appreciate how many decisions there are to be made. There are really only about 10 main things to decide: floor, cabinets and hardware, countertop/sink/faucet, backsplash, paint, lighting, and appliances. The problem is within each of those items there are at least a dozen and up to hundreds of individual options. We went to 6 lighting stores I think and browsed multiple online suppliers before finally settling on the celing fixture we bought. Cabinets come in many different colors and finishes, multiple door style options, many varieties of size and configuration, etc. Years ago, life was far simpler but we as a society have made things far more complicated in the name of capitalism and consumerism and individualism. When we were growing up and visit friends and family, most people had relatively similar stuff in their homes. There weren't a zillion choices like there are today. Now, it's fairly rare to see the same things twice since there are so many options to choose from.

Today he did more finishing work on the drywall, joint compound, tape, etc. He patched some damaged studs by the sink and put up the drywall on that section of wall once he did. Then he turned his attention to the floor. Instead of a traditional mud bed under the tile, they now use a product called Ditra which is a plastic rolled out material that is much faster and easier to use. Roll it out, cut it to fit with a utility knife, and then the tile goes onto that (I don't know the whole process yet since only the Ditra is down currently). Not only is it fast and easy, he said it also provides a bit of cushioning to the finished floor which reduces the risk of tile breakage. A mud bed is solid rock so there's no shock absorption to protect the tiles.

My wife and I went shopping for lighting today again. We saw a couple of possibilities for the bathroom but not really anything we liked for the kitchen. Then we spent time at home online looking for options and found a couple that we like. No decisions made yet.

We still haven't ordered hardware for the cabinets but I think we've settled on the one we're going with. I just need to contact the cabinet place and order them.

The plastic barriers came down today which makes a big difference. Our kitchen has a doorway into the living room (where our temp kitchen is), the sitting room (where we hang out and watch TV and stuff), and the family room (where I do my reselling stuff and leads into the garage). The living room doorway was completed blocked with a solid plastic sheet. The other two doorways had zippered access It was rather annoying but kept the dust under control. Now it's all back to normal access which is very nice. And we're parking in the driveway again. Progress is happening day by day.

Yesterday he put up most of the new drywall except for around the sink and the ceiling section. Today he took care of the ceiling. He had to cut out and replace a water pipe there because it hung lower than the ceiling (there used to be a soffit there which we removed). He did the spackling of the new drywall as well, did the corners, etc.

The dumpster just got picked up a few minutes ago. We were glad to see that go. Now we can use our driveway again.

I changed the HVAC filter yesterday, which I meant to do a week ago and really should have. It was FILTHY. Totally covered with a thick layer of dust and debris. I'm sure our AC efficiency was horrible with the filter completely clogged like that. I'll change it again in a week. All of the dirty work is done. Maybe once the kitchen is finished, I'll look into having our ducts cleaned.

Yesterday morning I filled the hole in the lawn left from removing the basketball pole. Of course it was raining all morning but it's done and no longer a huge safety hazard.

We still need to finalize our cabinet hardware decision. We also need a new light fixture over the kitchen table and one in the powder room. We've been browsing but haven't settled on anything yet. Those are last minute finishing items but we still need to get them. We also need to find a sink for the powder room. We want to do a pedestal sink instead of a vanity but it's a small room so the standard pedestal sinks are a few inches larger than we need. And we need faucets for both sinks. I think DW found a kitchen one she likes. We haven't really looked for the powder room yet.

I'm not sure what he has planned for tomorrow as I didn't get to talk to him before he left today, but it's continuing to come together step by step.

Nothing huge to report today though a lot was done. He finished all of the floor plywood in the bathroom and last section of the kitchen. He put up more insulation on the outer wall. I'm not sure what else got done. Tomorrow he will do the heat guard where the oven is going, start putting up new drywall, and also finish some of the plumbing. I feel like starting to close up the walls is a significant step in the process. The motor of the old bathroom exhaust fan died so he's trying to find a replacement that fits so he doesn't need to replace the whole unit (which involves cutting a hole in the ceiling to get it out). He told us today that the dumpster is getting picked up on Wednesday so we'll get our driveway back which will be nice.

Unrelated to the kitchen job we also had a concrete guy come out today to remove the basketball pole next to the driveway. It was there when we bought the house. We used it a little in the past but haven't for 20+ years at this point. We just never bothered to get it removed until now. The concrete footer was super deep. I'll have to run over to Lowe's in the morning to get a couple of bags of top soil to fill the hole as that was the only thing the concrete guy doesn't take care of but I'm fine with doing that part myself.

Today was the last of the demolition. He removed the old floor from the powder room along with the vanity and toilet. He did find a leak around the toilet and some condensation around the air vent so he's got a fan going to dry those out over the weekend and he'll need to repair some of the subfloor on Monday.

We bought our floor tile today! That was exciting. We went back to the original place we had shopped, found one we liked, and it turned out they didn't have enough in stock to do the job. We went to one other place and found nothing. Stopped back home and had lunch and then went to a third place and that was the winner. We found one we really liked there. Bonus was it was nearly half the price of the original place. They have it all in stock so we bought it and they will hold it for us until our guy is ready to pick it up, probably by sometime next week.

The cabinet guy called our contractor today and said the cabinets won't be in until 6/27 but that gives him plenty of time to put up the drywall and install the floor. And I'm sure there's some other stuff he can work on in the meantime.

As he was leaving today, he said we're moving into phase 2 now that the demo is done. It's been 9 working days so far and I feel like it's moving along nicely.

The main focus today was on the electrical work. Our contractor and the electrician were here working on that all day. We now have the cutouts and wiring for the new recessed lighting. 2 lights on each side over the counters, 1 in the middle, and one over the sink. That should give us much better coverage than the old single fixture that was in the center of the room (and there was a light over the sink). Before no matter where you were standing the light was always behind you which made the counters be in shadow.

He installed the wiring for the oven and microwave and a new outlet for the fridge which is also moving. One light switch on the wall between our kitchen and family room had to be moved to the other side of the wall because it would be in the way of the fridge now. We did confirm that we'll be losing one wall outlet because our new counter and cabinets will extend further along the one wall than the old ones did. That's okay because we almost never used that outlet anyway. I occasionally plugged in the vacuum there but there are several other places to do that. A side bonus is that in the course of everything, they had to pull out the outside outlet that shared the wiring and will replace that with a new modern weatherproof outlet.

While the electrician was doing his stuff, our guy was working on the water pipes installing new PVC. He also insulated the outer wall. Our house was built in 1964 so it had minimal insulation. This will make the room much more weather resistant. The old tile floor was always cold in the winter but should be a lot warmer now without cold air coming in through that wall.

The plan tomorrow is to do the last of the old floor demo in the powder room. I'm not sure why he left that but he had some good reason.

My wife and I will go to the tile place tomorrow and hopefully make a final floor selection and get that ordered. As soon as that comes in, the contractor should be ready to install it. This weekend we need to shop for a bunch of stuff like the faucet, the bathroom sink and toilet, a couple of new light fixtures for over our table and in the bathroom, light switches and plates, and other little stuff like that.

I realized I haven't updated this week. Things are rolling along. We did order the cabinets and appliances. Our guy ran into an issue with the old flooring which took him an extra couple of days to deal with but it's all done and he's actually putting down the fresh plywood as I type this. We will probably order the flooring in the next couple of days. Until he was sure how things would end up, we couldn't commit to porcelain tile vs luxury vinyl but all is good and porcelain tile will work.

He took down the old drywall yesterday and put up fresh drywall in the space where the pantry is going. The rest has to stay open until the electrician does all of the new wiring but the pantry space needed to be closed because the air return for the HVAC is in that wall and he wanted that sealed up so it wasn't getting a bunch of dust in it. I think the electrician may come tomorrow but he hasn't said for sure yet. Oh he also took out the old pipes to the sink (I'm not positive why they needed to be replaced but they did). He also has to lower the drain because the new sink will sit lower than the old one.

It's nice seeing construction happening instead of destruction. Just having a fresh plywood floor looks much better than what was there this morning. Once the tile comes in he will install that, which needs to be done before cabinets and appliances can go in. So right now the next step is doing all of the electrical work. The oven is moving to a different wall and we'll have a built in microwave so he has to wire all of that, as well as move some outlets and do the recessed lighting in the ceiling.