demolition: day 9

so, bryan got all of the asbestos ridden flooring out. unfortunately, the asbestos company wasn't able to lend bryan the machine monday, so oliver and i spent the night at mom and dad's again that night. luckily, oliver slept like a champ, especially considering i had a migraine and fell asleep on the couch at 7:30pm.

bryan got the negative air machine tuesday, and was able to clean the room of any asbestos in the air. since the machine was rated for a room many times the size of our kitchen, we're very confident it was cleaned. bryan also swept, vacuumed, and washed everything down multiple times as the machine was running. the asbestos guy was also very impressed at the job bryan did sealing up the room, and said we shouldn't have any problem with air quality. good job, manly man! they hauled away all of the materials, and we got our kitchen back! well, not the kitchen, but the room at least... and oliver and i get to sleep in our own beds, which is a relief.


bryan has bought the plywood he needs to begin rebuilding the floor (it's kind of scary to walk in there right now just on the slats - my heel went through an open spot this morning!!). he'll be working on that this weekend. saturday, we plan on going to the tile store and dropping a pretty penny on all the tile and tiling supplies. we've decided to go with a mocha slate tile, which has gray/black and brown tones. it's very pretty without being overly busy.


which is good, because i believe we've selected a countertop material. we still haven't gotten a quote on the icestone, and finding the time to get to the granite gallery has been tough, not to mention we'd then have to find someone to install it, since they just sell the stone. so we really needed to get moving on a solution. i did some research and found some additional stone home depot sells that they do not carry in their store; it is "specialty." and really, really pretty. much more variation in the pattern, and larger patterns. i had been scared of the large pattern, but looking at slabs side by side, i could see that the smaller patterns just end up making the stone look too uniform in color. the larger patterns look much more elegant and classic to me. so i believe we're going with alabaster viole, which will look great next to the white marble as well. i feel a great weight lifted off my shoulders having that figured out!

here are the other 2 stones we were looking at (saffron gold and emperador mocha, respectively). would you agree that we made the right choice?


we also we able to decide on a sink (we think). we definitely want to go with a granite composite in black, just need to decide on the style. we both really like the look of a large, single basin, but i think we'd really miss the 2nd basin, so we'll probably go more standard on that. it will be an undermount, which will make for easier cleaning, and look slicker, in my opinion. we are thinking a burnished bronze faucet and accompanying fixtures with it, to show less fingerprints and water spots, plus coordinate with the cabinet hardware we're currently eyeing.

so what is next? nothing critical, luckily. we need to figure out paint and backsplash tile, which should be more fun than stressful. shannon gets home from school this weekend, so she'll be able to help with that, along with settling on a lighting design. oh, and plumbers - bryan got an off the record quote from a plumber and it's really sort of disgustingly high. i suppose it makes sense for labor and parts, but we're not asking for much... bryan is going to get a few more quotes. it's too late to turn back now, though, so whatever it costs, we will be paying. so: new floor, tile, then the waiting game for the cabinet install starts, during which time bryan gets to mess with the upper cabinets and the unspoken dread of the soffits.

WFD: going to mom and dad's. adrianne invited us over but i don't think told mom, and mom is in class until 5pm, and i won't be able to get there until 6pm due to an appt at the chiro (3rd reschedule so i better go), so that leaves adrianne in charge of dinner... i told her i could walk her through a spaghetti sauce, so we shall see. :)