Kitchen Reno Diary - Week Five

Wow, what an exciting week! We've passed the tipping point in this renovation project - the demolition is all done, and now we're reconstructing.

This week's major developments were the ceiling and floor - photos have been added to the Flickr album. Last Wednesday and Thursday, drywall was put up on the ceiling, and it was plastered and then painted by moi yesterday. On Friday morning, the flooring guys moved in. A. had removed all the old tiles and layers of plywood, so only the bare boards (comprising the basement ceiling!) were left. Last fall, we bought reclaimed 2¼" oak flooring, of a similar age to the rest of the floors in our house, from an architectural salvage company here in the city. Since our dining room and the old pantry room have these original oak floors in situ, the flooring guys came in and laid the reclaimed stuff down in the old kitchen, matching it up with the existing floors. It was then sanded and - in the moment of truth - a coat of tung oil was applied. I got home Friday afternoon just as the guys were finishing up, and I was absolutely thrilled. They did a fantastic job - and if you didn't know where to look, you wouldn't be able to tell where the original floors end and the newly-laid part begins. The final result is even better than I'd hoped for - it's amazing!

Needless to say we're taking great care of the floor now. The guys have to come back this week to give the whole area a final buff, then apply two coats of polyurethane - and then the job will be done. In the interim, we had a bricklayer come in today, to repoint the now-exposed chimney. Very glad we did that, as the old mortar of the chimney was a bit rough - it looks much better now.

Things are moving along at a fast pace these days. A. is finishing some plastering this week, and needs to put up the window trim. Then this weekend (a long weekend for me), I'm planning to prime and paint the walls. I've picked out a pale green colour which I hope is going to work - but knowing me, I might end up changing my mind later once all the cabinets are in place and I can get a good look at the room at different times of day, in different lights!