Insulation and Kitchen Demo

Becca and Will, you should be proud that I am posting a weekly update! :) Hope you enjoy!

At the beginning of this week, we had insulation put in and it made a huge difference in the noise level. I had no idea it was such a noisy house before! That should really help when I stomp around inside the house in the future. :)

They also took out the bumped out wall in the kitchen. It had to be removed because it actually had a chimney behind it which was structurally unsound- go figure and so had to go. They also removed all of the cabinets and counter tops. Surprise! That was great news to my ears because I had been hoping we would be able to get new counter tops and cabinetry but wasn't sure how the budget was coming along and if that would be a "second phase" instead of doing it now. The hard part is that it also means we have to make some final decisions on the layout of the kitchen. We would like to try to make it a more efficient work flow, esp for two chefs (or for the chef and his sous chef) to work together or at the same time. I had been working on a floorplan (props to Will for sending me a great free site to use for this) and had been looking a few different options. Dan talked to the crew about it and Jeff realized how much of a multi-modal learner I am and so actually mapped out some options for the kitchen counter tops with extra pieces of 2x4 wood with measurements written on them and directions :) talk about being able to visualize it and have it demonstrated! Now, he may have had some ulterior motives based on past experince with my decision making, but it was a great treat for me. What an awesome crew we have! We can now walk through as if it were rebuilt and decide the best way to set it up. We are also meeting with a Marble Dealer tomorrow to look through samples to possibly put into the Master Bath.

So lots of progress this week and I imagine that will continue as, in Donny's words, "our window of change gets smaller and smaller" and as our finish line gets closer and closer.

Pictures of Insulation:

Garage Door hallway

Utility Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Kitchen Demo:

This is where the bumped out wall was (the counter curved there as well) that they removed. You can see the hallway bathroom door through the hole. We did lose the closet in the bathroom but will gain a lot of space in the kitchen.

This shows the rest of the kitchen cabinets and countertops removed. You can also see in the bottom lefthand corner where Jeff mapped out options on the floor. Its crazy to see it all torn down but I know it will be back in order soon!