The Fixer Upper Update

Despite the interruption of Sue’s knee replacement surgery, the show goes on at Colbert Country Manor. Kevin took a week off to stay with Sue at the hospital and for the first few days of recovery at our daughter’s house, but then he headed back to the work site to press on.

Before leaving town he had started the long-awaited,  much-anticipated laying of the travertine tile in the entry, kitchen, and back hallway. Travertine flooring was one of the first design elements Kevin envisioned when he  saw the house and began the re-imagining process. “When you walk into a cathedral in Europe, you see marble flooring. It’s been there for hundreds of years!” Kevin says. “It never goes out of style”.  After many months of wrangling new skills, uncovering additional challenges, creatively compensating for structural anomalies, and persevering through labor-intensive intricacies of pluming and electrical tasks, it was finally time to practice a craft with which he has a great deal of familiarity and comfort.

First the chalk lines went down, then the process of laying all the full tiles. He was able to set all of those–a good stopping point–before leaving town for surgery week.

 

With Sue settled in our daughter’s house (with friends pledged to visit and help her out as needed) for the next few weeks, Kevin was back on the job and soon had the remaining tiles cut and placed and the grouting and sealing done. To make working conditions a bit more comfortable, he decided it was time to crank up the water heater and see how those heated floors work.

 

Then it was time to turn his attention to the finishing of all the drywall in the kitchen. More mudding, more sanding, and finally primer and paint. Kevin is truly master of all trades, but if there is one he avoids whenever humanely possible, it’s painting. The priming wasn’t so bad because it doesn’t have to be perfect (although he still would avoid it if he could), but he hates finish painting with a passion that few could ever understand. But with Sue’s persistent reminder that painting before cabinetry is installed is a luxury–an opportunity not to be missed because the dreading edging is greatly reduced when there is nothing there to go around–he eventually succumbed and slapped some paint on the walls (imperfections to be corrected later).

And then it was time for the kitchen cabinets to be delivered! They had been ordered in early November and had been sitting at the lumberyard since early December, so there was a constant pressure in the back of our minds to get them delivered and installed. A friend had offered to come help install them–which was a great boost to Kevin’s anticipation of the project–but that visit was thwarted by the great snow storm of February, so–once again–Kevin tackled a job alone that is usually done by a team.

The first phase of cabinets installed…

 

The island installed (wired for electric outlets) and the towers (Sue’s favorite–all that storage space!)…

 

And then the counters…

 

Sue is now watching the progress via videos and images that Kevin texts her and from his Instagram posts. He made a trip to Naperville to accompany her to a follow up appointment with the surgeon who removed the staples from her knee. During that time he downloaded all the images and videos from his phone to her computer so she would have material to update the blog. You can get more up-to-date info by following Kevin on Instagram at great_gonzumaka.

Next up: Kitchen sink installation, plumbing and electrical hookups, and installation of the appliances. It’s almost a real kitchen!