Deadlines and Designs

We thought it would be a good idea to be able to do the same job in multiple places at once rather than keep stopping and starting all the time with different tools and materials but it didn’t always work out that way.
The idea was to finish all the downstairs drywall/cement board/purple board at once, then do all the taping and mudding, then all the painting. But sometimes scheduling our outside workers and other issues meant that these areas ended up progressing in different stages.

In the master bathroom we had had to go back and replace some of the drywall we had already put in.

This is ordinary drywall and it needed to have purple board instead. Plus, since we would be putting cement board below that in preparation for tile, we had to put in plastic sheeting and it was easier to do it from the top.


While we (as in Mr. R and helpers) were doing this, Mr. Tile was putting in the kitchen floor.


After which we replaced the boards in the kitchen and started mudding them ready for painting.

I’ve decided that mudding is one of my least favourite parts of this remodel. For those who don’t know about this is about: after you put up drywall/purple board/cement board, you put tape (either like packing tape or a mesh tape) over the seams followed by wallboard compound or mud as some people call it. Mud also goes over the nail or screw holes that affix the board to the studs. It is goopy and has to be spread on thinly and then sanded flat and smooth once the mud has dried. Mr. Fix-It is very good at putting this on but it can still take two or three coats. So you mud, let dry, sand, mud, let dry, sand etc. It takes forever, or so it seems.


Leaving the bathroom and living room aside for now, it is full steam ahead in the kitchen because we have scheduled the kitchen installers and we need to have the room ready to go. That means: kitchen removed – yes; floor tile installed – yes; drywall repaired/replaced – yes; drywall mudded – yes (see above); walls textured – yes; room painted – no. No. What do you mean it’s not painted? It’s Saturday evening, the installers are coming on Monday and we don’t like to work on Sundays, and the room isn’t painted. Well everything takes longer than you think/want it to and you suddenly find yourself backed up against a deadline.
“No worries,” says Mr. Remodel at 8pm as we start to paint, “We will be done in two hours.” Tra la la.
As we step aside leaving the happy couple to their paint and brushes let’s discuss kitchen design.

Mrs. Remodel has never had kitchen she has chosen herself so when she was afforded this opportunity she had no hesitation as to what she wanted. A white kitchen with a kind of slatted-wood look on the doors she had seen in a catalogue in England years ago. This, she thought, would fit well with a beach-look decor.
Several companies do this design so it wasn’t hard to find. So we duly looked at the cabinet sizes they had and tried to work out the number and placement we wanted. Our design was going to include an open bookcase for recipe books (up to now, Mrs. R had always had hers in a cupboard and she wanted them more visible and accessible) and large pantry cupboards in the dining area. It also incorporated a peninsula that would allow for the watching Mrs. R’s art history videos on the TV in the living room while prepping food.
There are many websites and books that will give you checklists for considering what you need from a kitchen. We could take some of the dining area space for pantry cupboards because we have a small dining table and mostly entertain in small groups. There is only one cook and no children so we didn’t need to take additional bodies into account. Everyone’s situation and needs and wants are different so it is wise to spend a long time thinking about what you want as it is a lot harder to change it later. We also started out deciding to move the plumbing to where we wanted it but eventually changed the design to fit with the plumbing as it was to save money.
We poured over different configurations for hours and when we took the plan to a large home improvement store (not Lowes), we got sticker shock, as Mr. Remodel calls it, when the cost was added up. The final price was $13,000. The price didn’t sound any better when we gave up wooden doors for particleboard, which came to $10,000. The price did not include appliances, installation, or those nice softly closing drawers and door hinges.
A friend suggested we visit IKEA. They too had that same slatted-wood look design and, if anything, it looked nicer to me that the other more expensive versions. I also fell in love with their oak butcher block or my counters, which would cost around $200 instead of the $5,000 fancy yellow granite I liked (in spite of not really wanting granite).
The downside was that IKEA did not do all the same sizes of cabinet as the other companies so we had to come up with a new combination of cabinets, which took more time. However, on the plus side, the cost was under $5,000 and the price DID include those nice softly closing drawers and door hinges. Just at the time we wanted to buy the cabinets IKEA was offering 10% off kitchens over $5,000 with free delivery so we added some of those tres bon pull-out drawers for the pantry cupboards to tip us over $5,000. They were also offering a discount on the installation with the only IKEA-authorized installer in the area so we decided to let them do the work while saving ourselves some money at the same time.
Thankfully, with kitchens, you don’t have to go round with a trolley and pick each item off the shelves as we had a final list of over 260 items. I will say when you do make up your list for delivery, check it and check it again to make sure you have everything or you will be driving back to IKEA after the installers arrive for the sink unit you forget to order.

Since you’ve had to wade through a lot of information, I’m ending with how the living room looked after all the IKEA stuff (minus the butcher block and pantry cupboards which had to be put in another room) and the appliances were delivered ready for the installers.