The Pursuit of Happiness in Manhattan
OMG! It’s finally done! Really! It’s more than a year later than we wanted, but I am grateful to say that I have finally finished our kitchen and it is spectacular! It has been sitting at the 98% completion mark since this past spring, but we finally managed to get the last of it done and, for the moment, we can relax.
[Photo: My self portrait for today]
OMG! OMG! OMG! WOW!
The floor that we have been planning for this past year… The floor that went through dozens of changes and iterations…. The floor that we finally decided was the right floor, regardless of cost…. The floor that makes our hearts sing… Has been installed and it is AMAZING.
[Photo: This Tiffany blue marble was found amongst the debris under the floor, perhaps a child found a secret passageway to the underworld long long ago.]
I am beyond excited to say that as of Monday Morning, we were tile ready. But OMG what a hell of a three weeks it has been getting to this point. Last week’s progress report was titled Subfloor on Subfloor because when I started writing it, I expected that we would have finished installing the new subfloor by the end of the last Sunday in February. Boy was I wrong… Very very wrong.
[Photo: One of the areas where we had to replace the 1x4s with plywood. All of the boards in this patch were totally rotten.]
Last week in our first kitchen progress report I gave a brief recent back-story on our kitchen floors, followed by an update from the previous weekend’s adventure. Another week has passed and there is progress, but as usual, there are also hiccups.
We are in the thick of it now and the original kitchen floor is no more… We have moved even deeper into full renovation mode as we spent this entire past weekend pulling up 105 year old oak parquet flooring. Now for those that don’t know the back story, don’t get your panties in a bundle just yet at hearing we are ripping up 105 year old oak parquet flooring.
In December and January, I went over the final details of our kitchen renovation and shared our excitement that this really was finally happening. And now that the tile and cabinets have arrived (having filled up our entry hall), its time to follow up on a promise that I would do a post about the budget, and here it is…. First thing to remember… Setting location aside, kitchens are expensive! And when you factor in our location, it can become downright frightening.
Finally I can finally say that 90+ percent of our plans for our new kitchen are finalized. I can also say that just as Hilary has evolved on same sex marriage, we too have evolved on our kitchen plans. We are now planning on doing things we would never have approved of (or even thought of) in the past. With each passing day we are getting super excited because this sh*t is finally getting real! How real?
As we get closer and closer to finally starting our kitchen renovation after many, many, many delays, we are finding that there has been an unexpected benefit to having postponed our renovation for so long. That unexpected benefit is that with each delay comes continued insight to plan as it relates to materials resulting in a much more refined final look which we would never have done had we just gone with our initial plans.
[Mott’s Modern Plumbing Catalog from 1910. This would have certainly been a fancy kitchen in 1910, but it is still quite utilitarian compared to the “Old World” style kitchens we see today. Image: NYPL]
Kitchen floors and walls….. Using common tile and elevating it to classy and timeless.
[Update at bottom] As the plans for our kitchen renovation are forming and the anticipated start date of
[Photo: Detail of bedroom floor. Unlike the living room and hallways, the mahogany border is only a veneer in the bedroom and you can see where it has worn away in the doorway on the lower right.]
The floors are finished! Woo Hoo!!!!!
Well, not so much in the kitchen, but that will be an entirely different post… I came home from work last night and Yoav and I got to finally get a good look at the results.
Hi, my name is Devyn. This was my blog about the adventures of finding, buying, renovating, fixing up, restoring, DIY'ing, and decorating a part of New York housing legacy. We have left NYC for a new life in Philadelphia. Visit my new blog Our Philly Row and read all about our "fixer-upper-ing" an 1852 rowhouse
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