Sewing and Beyond with Mary Anne Ciccotelli

Here is an example how this project has taken over more than just the kitchen/office area. 

This is the couch and coffee table that my father made for me when we moved into our new home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado in 1988.  My father and other family members had student housing at Ricks College (now BYU-I) in Rexburg, Idaho.  My father got really fustrated and tired of always having to repair the furniture each year that was broken by those crazy college kids.  He designed this furniture and built it to LAST!  I did replaced the foam and made new covers for this furniture just shortly after moving to New York 13+ years ago.  Needless to say – I have been using this furniture a long time and it has served us well. 

As I as thinking forward about finishing touches in the kitchen I didn’t really want to put the same window coverings up.  This then lead me to start thinking about the the adjoining dining/living room and I did wanted to coordinate with what was in there.  Well, then my thought process went to the cushions on the couch and chairs and how they were starting to show come wear.  We decided that maybe it was time for a change.  I then set out to find new furniture for the living room.  More on that when it is actually put into service.

   
Tom emailed a couple of leaders in our church and asked if they knew anyone that was in need of some living room furniture.  One man responded that there was a family that had just moved and they had no furniture.  So, arrangements were made for someone to come and pick-up the furniture for this family.

It was starting to rain so they are covering everything with plastic. 

We also gave the family this recliner.  I had purchased this when I moved into my townhouse in Laytonsville, Maryland (1993).

Everything is loaded and on it’s way to its new home. 

Thanks Dad for making me this furniture so many years ago.  I am sure you are happy knowing that it is going to a family that really needed furniture.

on Thursday, October 13, 2011

No pictures today because they would be almost like yesterdays except they started to work on the walls in the pantry.

I still think this is a funny order to do things in.  Oh well, at least I am not having to do the work.

on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011

It kinds of seems to me that they are doing things in not right order.  In my mind I thought they would build the new part of the wall and then work on the walls, therefore being able to do all the wall work at the same time.  But – I guess not. 

Today they removed the chair railing and starting to working on patching the wall.

This is actually starting to make our kitchen look better.  Maybe there is hope after all.

They also removed the old pantry.

on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011

The workers were no show on Friday and Monday.  Needless to say, I was somewhat discouraged this morning when it was 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30 and not workers.  I could start to see us living in what is cramped like a New York City apartment for the rest of our lives.  Then just prior to leaving for the Village Squares Quilters Guild meeting Pedro called and said they would be here to work in about 30 minutes.

When I returned home the hardwood floor was being removed in the office area.

Here is the hardwood floor in the trash bag – kind of sad.  They did save some of the best pieces to use in the the little hallway that will adjoin to the living room.

on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011

Today the demolition continued.   On the first night Tom asked them to put plastic over the doorways to keep the dust confined to the construction area.  Pedro used a couple of the large BLACK garbage bags.  This made it really hard to see what was going on.  At one point I was on the telephone and there was a loud noise from something being removed.  The person on the telephone  asked if I was okay.  With all the differnt and loud sounds going on I was getting really curious as to what was actually being done. 

Finally I went out my front door walked around to the back of my house  and used the outside entrance to go into the basement.  Since the tiles have been removed, there is a fairly large space between the door and the floor which made it so I could see alittle of what was going on.  Do you like my view point.

The kitchen part of the room is gutted. All the cabinets have been removed along with the sink.  I think the loud noise must have been when they were removing the subfloor. 

I have spent alot of time thinking and planning on how I would handle our food preparation while having no kitchen, but I hadn’t though about not having any water.  And to make things worse – the water that we will have is BATHROOM water.  Tom chuckles at my dislike of bathroom water.  He just cannot relate to my dislike of bathroom water.  Growning up we had soft water in our house.  Since my mother didn’t like the taste of soft water there was special plumbing so we had the regular water in the cold water tap in the kitchen.  Therefore, our bathroom water did taste different.  I know logically that the difference was because of the soft water, but emotionally I still have this adversion to drinking bathroom water – in fact I don’t do it.  Well, I am probalby about ready to have to start eating (or drinking) my words.  Not only will I be drinking bathroom water, I will be doing our dishes in bathroom water.  What is this world coming to.

This is the corner where we (actually Pedro) will be extending the wall.

Since that wonderful outdoor tile also extended into the powder room we had to rip up that floor also.  Also, talk about one thing leading to another.  I began to worry if the cabinet we had in there would look old if we put it back in – so we are now going to put new cabinets in this room also. 

The other end of the kitchen will be our office with a built-in desk with wall cabinets above it.  Right now this area is serving as a storage area but eventually the hardwood floors will be taken out and the tile will also be laid in this section.

This is the doorway that will be our access to the basement from now on.  The door is to be removed.  When they extend the wall you will not be able to get into the kitchen through this doorway.  I think that when we get our new classey living/dining room (oh, did I forget to mention, this redo has also spread into that room – more about that later) those personalized licenses plates will have to go (to the train room).

Lots more details to share over the coming days.  Here is a preview of my make-shift kitchen/office.

Just waiting for the workers to arrive to get started on Day 3.

on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011

At the beginning of 2010 Tom saw something about rebates being offered if you replace your old appliances with more energy efficient applicances.  We started talking about replacing our refrigerator.   Next thing you know we are talking about redoing our entire kitchen.  Since the beginning of 2011  we I have been planning for the renovation of our kitchen.  Back in March I remember having a conversation with a friend on the way home from The Lancaster AQS quilt show about wanting to swap locations of the frig and stove, but the frig would stick out beyond the wall so this probably wasn’t going to be that great of an idea.  She then wondered if there might be a frig that is designed to be more the depth of the counter.  The next day I did some research and found that they do make counter-depth refigerators.  Who knew?????  (Me now!!!!)

Our kitchen is quite small and I wanted to maximize the space that we do have.  For the past few months I have used alot of my creative energy thinking and planning for our kitchen renovation to hopefully accomplish this.  When the hurtle achieved of convincing Tom that it is possible to move the gas line thus making it probable to swap the frig and stove I began scouring cabinet catalogs for the perfect size/type cabinet (both inside and outside) for each small space that we have.  Then it was on to securing estimates.  This in and of itself was an agonizing process.  The difference in cost was astounishing.  Also trying to decide the cabinet types and all that kind of stuff was very overwhelming.  I think I finally could relate with those quilters that have so much trouble in choosing fabrics for their next project.  At one point – I just wanted to someone else to make all the decisions and be done it it.  Just when we thought we had finalized the size/shape and layout of the cabinets, another big brainstorm – closing off the one corner (passage way to the basement) to really make it feel like a real kitchen.  I think this last alternation was the crowning decision to make this kitchen really nice.  Needless to say, this has all been very exhausting.  After deciding on a contractor then we had to plan the work around visits from our kids.  Anyway – the kitchen is empty (needless to say – our front room/dining room IS NOT) and the contractor started working on Wednesday.  

Day 1 – 
Removed the old floor tile (I really have disliked this tile – come to find out it is an outdoor tile and is not really meant to be used inside).  Let’s hope the new tile we have chosen will look nicer and be easier to keep up.  They also removed alot of the wall tiles.  

Thank your Pedro and your workers – I am REALLY glad that Tom and I ARE NOT doing the work ourselves.