You know that certain stage in new construction where it seems to slow down? You see the framing go up, the walls and the roof and the changes are visible almost daily. But then construction seems to come almost to a halt. We all know that’s not really the case because workers are going in and out, but nothing major appears. Well, you know that stage? Well, we’re at that stage. :-/ LOL

We’ve discovered the fun of the stage where nothing seems to happen and we have to keep telling ourselves “but it is” and in fact, it is. We’re working hard daily, and long days many times.

This is the electrical and plumbing stage. We’ve been busy at it running wires and lines and testing along the way. We’ve now finished the electrical and are down to the end of running plumbing for the kitchen and laundry. And this is very important to us right now. The significance of these steps are that this is KEY to us occupying that home.

What’s a little tricky is that as we run the electrical and water lines in the walls, we are doing it based on where we think…maybe…pretty sure….yes definitely the sinks and plumbing will be. I know, we should be approaching this with an architect’s plan or a drafted kitchen design and at some point we will but for these things, their locations won’t change based on drains and how the general floor layout necessitates. We are though being very slow and methodical on it all, discussing daily so that we aren’t forgetting where a line for the dishwasher needs to feed in, where the refrigerator should go, where the drain will be, etc…

But finally, electrical is done and the plumbing is headed around 3rd base and approaching home plate!

I also finished working this week to seal the newly exposed bricks. I had chipped away the old plaster to expose them but the mortar was a bit crumbly and we knew we needed to secure it. I sealed it up (and yes, we chose to leave the filled in stove pipe hole. I kind of like it. It gives a certain authenticity to it all vs a retro fit). We truly love the exposed brick. What a great element this is going to be in the kitchen.

The last owner of the property had installed a second water heater in the back utility room of the house. Pipes coming and going, were run along the exterior of the wall, tracing the ceiling into the kitchen and into the bathroom, and might I add, painted and repainted over many times. We decided to approach that differently.

Although we have a tank-less water heater in the cellar now, we are not feeding the kitchen with it (long story) and instead will again use a regular water heater but we didn’t want it to go in the utility room, which is now part of the expanded kitchen and would be seen. Paul had a perfect idea; on the backside of the utility room wall are the back stairs and under those stairs is a small unassuming closet.

Guess where the hot water heater goes. We simply (well, not simply but on paper, it was simple…) fed the lines through the walls and punched a small hole into the closet. This is where the new hot water heater, feeding only the kitchen, will be. How perfect!

As part of that though, we had to clean up that closet. The house has so many projects that we tackle them as we work through and we hadn’t yet tackled it. But the time was now. We pulled out the two small built in shelves, pulled out the old drywall (trust me it needed to go), installed new drywall (guess what we have now added to the list of newly acquired skills. :-), primed, painted and Paul added new flooring over what was concrete and he built a platform to support the tank. A few pics below.

Along with cleaning up the old closet, was cleaning up the old door. You know us, we had to take a look at what was under the paint. This door was oak and beautiful, too! That meant we show it off.

So we stripped the paint, treated the wood and gave it a light stain. There were 3 small holes at the top of the door and I found this perfect little wooden applique which I stained and added to the door. I think it looks like it’s always been there.

Also the old hardware no longer worked and the door swung. Paul wanted something that would latch the door closed so I found a different latch from an extra door we removed from the back hallway upstairs.

I stripped its old paint, took it apart, gave it good vinegar bath, put it back together. One fresh coat of paint later and I think it fits the door perfectly. And it works!

It’s one step at a time but we’re getting there!