Sewing and Beyond with Mary Anne Ciccotelli

Nov. 28 – Monday
Tom was very good about sending me picture updates of what was going on in the kitchen the week I was in Utah.  I just was not very good about posting them here on the blog.  So, better late than never.

Most of the doors are installed.

This drawer was installed because it is not a real drawer (under the sink).

Nov. 29 – Tuesday

Crown molding installed on the upper cabinets.



Drawer hardware installed.

Wednesday – Nov. 30

The wall tiles finally arrived.  There were REAL problems in getting this tile.  I had purchased it back in October to make sure that I was not the reason for a delay in the kitchen.  When I tried to pick it up a few times before I was leaving town I was told by Jamie that it would be available to pick-up in a few days.  Shame on me for believing him.  As it turned it he was not being honest with me.  When I went in to pick it up on the promised Friday before I was leaving – again it was not there.  I then told Jamie that I was leaving town and that this was not acceptable.  He told me that he would deliver the tile to my house when they installed the counter tops.  Well…………………..when he went to bring the promised tiles to my house they were THE WRONG TILE!  Needless to say – I was not very thrilled about all of this.

Not to worry, the Friday after Thanksgiving he sent a driver out to Long Island to pick up the correct tiles only to find out they were the wrong tiles also.  Now I am getting really worried.  As Jamie started to call around he was not finding any of the tiles that we had order.  He then expanded his search and ended up finding some down on the Jersey shore.

One good thing about the missing tiles – it was keeping the heat off of Pedro for a few days.

Here is the bull nose tiles that will be on the edge above the sink.

Dec. 1 – Thursday

The keyboard drawer is installed.

The file cabinets drawers

the kitchen drawers

and the doors on the pantry.

I LOVE the beautiful crown molding.  I am really pleased with the work that Pedro is doing.

Dec. 2 – Friday
The Appliances are Installed

The dishwasher………….

the stove (but the gas line will be attached after the wall is grouted and sealed)

and the refrigerator.

Overview of the kitchen with the appliances.

Here is a problem child, because of the thick thick casings we have it hits the frig door here on the corner.  Pedro and Tom are thinking that some brown wood there like it on the side of the cabinet (see below).  WRONG – I said that whatever they did it had to be something that would be white.

I am getting really excited to see all of this in person.  It has been hard to be away and know all of this work is going on – but I had a wonderful time with Emily, Ben and the kids.

(Sunday, Nov. 27)

Tom flew home on Saturday from Las Vegas and I flew to Utah.  I will spend the week here with Emily and her family.  On Friday Tom will fly back to the west (Salt Lake City).  We will attend Autumn’s baptism on Saturday and then both fly home to New York on Sunday (Dec. 4). 

When Tom arrived home and called with a report I was disappointed (but not surprised) to hear that nothing else had been done on the kitchen.  Time to call Pedro and see what was going on.  On Sunday morning Tom got up and left for church.  After church he visited a couple of people and then went home.  When he entered the front door he was greeted with a “Hello” from the kitchen.  Pedro was doing some work on the kitchen. As it had turned out –  Pedro’s son had dropped in for a surprise visit on Friday and Saturday so Pedro had spent some time with his family.  He decided to come on Sunday.

He dropped off most doors.

More doors and some of the crown molding.

Lots more doors, draw fronts and other supplies for the cabinets.  Thing are getting EXCITING!!!!!

Moved the electrical box for the problem fan.

Installed the faucet on the kitchen sink and …………….

and the bathroom sink.  The water was not hooked up because Pedro needs a different hose or different part for each faucet.  No water yet on the main floor.  Probably in a few days.

(Wednesday, Nov. 23)

This update is coming to you remotely.  Tom and I traveled to Las Vegas on Monday to spend Thanksgiving week with Jason, Christy andtwo of our beautiful grandkids.  There has been quite the delay in getting the countertop installed.  The template work was completed -on Friday, Nov. 4.  When we purchased the countertops they told us it would take 1 week to 1 week and a couple of days.  Needless to say, ours took ALOT longer than that – two weeks and three (business) days!  It was very hard for me to leave town knowing that I would miss getting my progress pictures (and just seeing the progress in person).  Jamie at Tile City promised that he would take come pictures of the counter tops after they were installed.   (The following pictures of compliments of Jamie.)

(The week of Nov. 14-18)

As it turned out this week was somewhat DISAPPOINTING in regards to the progress of the kitchen.  I was expecting to see alot of changes in my kitchen but it didn’t happen.

Pedro did deliver the pantry.  It was too big to be put into place so they cute off the toe-kick section.  They still could not get it into the area where it belonged so he removed the two side front panel pieces.

Our applicances were delivered on Thursday and are in waiting in our living room until they can be installed in the kitchen.

On Friday La-z-y Boy delivered……………………………

our two new chairs.

I did spong the walls in the bathroom.

Worked on painting the bathroom door.

Painted the little chair and a couple of other kitchen items.

Painted the heat vent.

And painted the trim white in the kitchen.  We also got our TV installed by the Geek Squad on Saturday.

Prior to leaving to Jason and Christy’s in Nevada for Thanksgiving and then do Utah for Autumn’s baptism Pedro assured me that I would return home to a beautiful kitchen. 

With that said – Tom and I are hoping that we have cooked our last dinner in our make-shift kitchen and………………

washed dished in our make-shift kitchen sink.

Here’s hoping!!!!!!!

(Tuesday, Nov.  8)

Today they installed the upper cabinets.

Here is the corner cabinet waiting its turn to be hung.

I am really loving the feeling of this layout.  I think I am going to love having the frig in the corner.

Another view.

Here a view of the office.

We have a problem – the fan is going to hit the door of the cabinet when it is open.  Solution:  the fan/light needs to be moved by about 6″.

Bathroom Door

I have been spending a lot of time stripping the paint off the bathroom door.  I have decided that this is probably the ONLY door that I will ever strip the paint off of.

First I removed all the hardware.

Applied some of the Paint Stripper/Remover to one side of the door.

The first couple of layers came off pretty easy – then the REST (about five colors worth) of the layers!!!!

I had to work outside because the fumes of the paint remover are so strong.

The Little Orange Chair

When I was thinking about needing a stool to step on when I want to get something off the top shelves I decided that this little chair would be just perfect.  Also, it would be fun to have it in the kitchen for the grandkids to use when they wanted to help in the kitchen.  I decided that it would look really cool to stain it the color of the cabinets.

So, back in September before the cruise I used the handle of the dinner knife to tap on the chair and chip off a bunch of the paint.

While stripping the door I figured I would also continue working on this cute little orange chair that I found on the curb a couple of years ago.

With all the nooks and crannies on this chair that I am going to paint it instead of staining it.  Just a little more work and it will be ready to paint.

We Have A Problem

After they installed the bathroom cabinet we realized that the sink that we had was too BIG for the cabinet.

I called around to some area stores and none of them had a small sink in stock and it would take 4-5 days to get it in.  Thank heavens for the internet.  I found this little sink on the internet and placed an order on Friday.  The sink arrived on Monday.

Here I am verifying that it fits (and trying to take the picture at the same time).  I delivered it to Tile City and they would get it to the company that is working on our counter tops.  I should not be the reason for a production hold-up! WHEW!!!!!!

An Expensive Box

Tom and I found this faucet at Home Depot and we decided that we would put into our bathroom.  Later we decided that we should also get a new towel rod and toilet paper holder.  Home Depot did not carry these items in the store but had them online.  While I was online getting ready to order the towel rod and toilet paper holder I saw the same faucet that we had purchased but it was $70.00 cheaper than the one we had purchased in the store.  Could it really be the same faucet?  The only way to find out was to order the one from the internet.  Above is a picture of the two faucets that we have.  The one on the left purchased at Home Depot – the one on the right (in the white box) is the one we received from HomeDepot.com purchased for $70.00 cheaper.  Surely they cannot be the same………………….

when we opened the boxes they look EXACTLY the same!  I am thinking the box on the left is a pretty expensive box.

Toilet Paper Holder

In preparing for the new toilet paper holder I had to pull the old one off the wall.

and it left a fairly large spot to repair.

I also found this piece of wallpaper  - another clue as to past colors of this house.

I am looking forward to when it is time to start putting our home back together.

(Wednesday, Thursday & Friday – Nov. 2, 3, & 4)

Tom is fixing the wall because before we lived in the house someone had patched a place on the wall and then just painted over it without sanding the rough areas.  While I was painting the walls I noticed it and just looked the other way.  But it really showed up in the darker wall color.  While fixing that place Tom started trying to remove more of the imperfections.  Needless to say, that could turn into a big job.

I asked Tom to just work on this one wall.  I really didn’t want to have to repaint the entire kitchen.  Here is the wall all fixed and primed.

On Wednesday and Thursday they installed the base cabinets.

Another view of the base cabinets.

When I stand here if I squint I get a  glimpse of what our new kitchen it going to be like.  I am REALLY excited!

I am not exactly sure what was going on here, but I have faith in Pedro and…………..

I was right, the bathroom cabinet is in the right place now.

Friday morning they came and did the tempalte for the quartz counter top.

I was wondering how they would do this – here you can see how they used this thin wood and glue sections together to form the exact shape of the counter top.

Then he marked the template with the information the plant would need.

I thought this was a great idea of putting a clamp on the tip of the hot glue gun.

The completed templates ready to take back to the plant.

(on Monday, Oct. 31 and Tuesday, Nov. 1

Most of the cabinets have been delivered and place in their somewhat correct position.

I am really loving my cabinets.  Pedro says this is noting – this is rough work.  The doors are going to make them look really beautiful!

They worked on removing the swinging door.


Working to hard right now for my favorite “Cheese”.


The door is removed – This corner is starting to come together .


Stephen worked on the drywall in this little landing way by the basement stairs.

When they removed the hardwood floor from the office area in the kitchen they saved the pieces to use in the little landing area by the basement stairs.

Here Stephen is working on putting the new (old) hardwood floor down.


I am really glad that Pedro had the forsight to save the original hardwood to use in this small section.

Preparing the new recessed light fixture for this small area.


The final decision where the light switch/outlet will be placed.

I painted the ceiling.  I am finding it exhausting getting the painting completed.  I have to paint in the evening so I will not be in the way of progress.  Fun to see it all starting to come together.

(On Thursday, Oct. 27 & Friday, Oct. 28 and the week-end)

On Thursday I did some more prep work on the walls.  I was a nervous wreck working where the tile had been laid even though I had a drop cloth down.  On Friday morning I covered the entire floor with this heavy duty paper.

Just when I was finishing with putting the paper down Pedro showed up with more cabinets.  The corner cabinet was to big and would not fit through the door.  Pedro had to cut the toe-kick part off and will build a separate piece for that.

I have spent A LOT of time making sure that I liked the color of paints that we have chosen.  This is the color for the kitchen walls.  Okay, but my heart is not singing.

The red color on the left was a “not-so-good” idea for the bathroom.  Back to the drawing board for that room.

I thought that the darker green would be better, but Tom and one of my friends said that it would be too dark.  I agreed that maybe it was too dark, but maybe a color half-way in between. But, maybe I just wasn’t getting it – this color would be okay.

Then, Friday evening before going to the temple I was visiting with Emily and discussing my woes of the paint choice.  She agreed that a darker color would probably be better, but maybe not as dark as the next color.  So, on Saturday I took my paint back to the paint store and ask them to make it darker, but not as dark as the next color.  Came home and tried and this is what I had.

I talked to Tom about it and he said that he did like the lighter color better (and I let out of sigh of disappointment) but then added that he liked the darker color also.  He was living the moto – If I am happy he is happy.

As I started to paint I began to doubt myself – was this TOO GREEN????????

As I continued to paint and it dried – I really began to like it.

Now that it is finished – I LOVE IT!!!!! and I also now LOVE the fabric for the curtains for the kitchen.  IT is all beginning to come together.