Final Result Part 1

She's Hot!

It's here!  It's here!  The men in red have just delivered and installed her.......meet the ultra sleek and sexy SMEG...

feeling out of place in this messy kitchen

light my fire!

Or so I thought!

M and Laarnie decided that to complete the renovation, we also had to paint the window grills and frames.  It was 2 against 1, so I donned my face mask once more and proceeded to finally finish the renovation.  I must admit, the grills do look cleaner and brighter after that fresh coat.

 Will it ever end?

The Very Last Day

...we hope.  The house is at its messiest today, and I can't stand another day of it!  Most of our things on the first floor are clustered in the living and dining areas that there's hardly any place to move.  Arggh!  I can't wait to get my hands on the vacuum cleaner!

someone call Clean House!

Narding, putting the finishing touches

Call us for your next renovation project.  We'll give you a good price ;-)!

How To Pretend You Can Buy Your Dream Oven

A and I survived a full Sunday today. After the 8:00 AM mass we drove straight to Ortigas Home Depot to get a can of paint and to check ceiling lights for our bedroom (as you can see, what was originally only a kitchen renovation is now slowly expanding to other parts of our little home--we're still smiling), and then beat the madding crowd to Megamall to buy a new bed for our helper, Laarnie, ladder for the kitchen, range hood, and curtain rods. Then we drove to Serendra at the Fort to check the SMEG showroom. One can see in the picture above one happy customer, imagining how the oven we chose would fit in our kitchen and, more important, how many happy years of cooking and breadmaking it will give us.

But then the happy face turned a bit serious as soon as the saleslady told us how much the oven cost:


We tried to regain our composure, and thought of happy thoughts, and looked at all those very pretty refrigerators:


After whetting our appetites at the SMEG showroom, we drove to our last stop, Wilcon Builder's Depot along C-5 in Libis, to get more paint, switches, bulbs and wires. Our purchases entitled us to tickets to a car raffle (a very nice Montero Sport at stake--should we win it, we will have to sell it, as it is too big for our needs, and use the money instead for the next renovation).

End of Week Three. Our kitchen is slowly beginning to look like as A and I envisioned it. We are particularly fond of this classic brass faucet that really goes well with the black granite counter top.

I am reminded of Marie Luise Kaschnitz who, in her collection of essays titled Menschen und Dinge (Humans and Things), speaks of how we might have lost the old charm of simple things we use in our everyday life, and how our children will be the richer, not poorer, if we could somehow bring back that old charm of everyday things.

Through this faucet--this salutary faucet--water will pour, and pour into our lives, giving us water to drink, and helping us prepare our daily meals.

May the heavens find us worthy of experiencing anew the charm of the simple things that make up our lives.

Those Elusive Subway Tiles

M and I have been coveting those beautiful subway tiles we keep seeing in magazines and design blogs, but sadly, they're nowhere to be found in the Metro.  Numerous trips to all possible home depots from Makati to Munoz yielded 0-zilch-nothing.  Last week, we visited our beloved Quiapo, hoping to find treasures in the small shops.  We discovered Ban Shieng along Soler St. in Sta. Cruz.  Ban Shieng is a narrow store filled to the brim with lovely tiles that you'd no longer see in your run-of-the-mill tile/home depots.  When the Chinese proprietress noticed M and I seriously deliberating on a particular tile, she proudly told us that the tile was manufactured here in the Philippines by Mariwasa in the Marcos era and was of very high quality.  Hmmm, so had she hoarded all those tiles from decades ago, knowing that one day, crazy people like us would come a-scavenging?  In the end, not even a broken subway tile showed up.  But I did buy 2 beautiful decorative 10 x 10cm tiles from Ban Shieng.  I think they're vintage Mariwasa tiles.

the vintage Mariwasa tiles

So since we couldn't find the tiles we wanted, we decided to make them ourselves.  We bought plain white 20 x 20cm tiles which Francis and Dondon cut into 6.35 x 15.25cm pieces.  Though the whole process was a lot of work, the results were worth it.  M and I are happy that we stuck to our guns.  Now Dondon says he gets a bit cross-eyed while installing the tiles ;-).

Francis, cutting the subway tiles

Dondon, installing the homemade subway tiles

almost there!

Concessions

I've had to concede 10cm of precious counter space to avoid cutting the longer slab of granite, or as M puts it, to preserve its integrity.  I was heartbroken!  For weeks now, I've been trying to reconfigure in my mind the countertop set-up--where to put the rice cooker, coffee maker, knife block, etc.  We even had a small rolling island made for additional work space when preparing meals.  And now this.  But it was either chop off those 10cm or live with the unappealing sliced slab of stone.  Form or function?  This is one of the very few times M went for form and I actually leaned towards the latter.

 where the 10 centimeters should have been

Taking Shape

The kitchen is slowly coming to life--YAY!  The black granite countertop was installed yesterday, but not without peppering the whole house with thick dust.  The process started last Saturday when the slabs were cut to the correct size and shape of our kitchen.  We thought that would be the peak of dust activity of the renovation work, but no!  Monday was THE day!  The hole for the sink was cut inside the house. I couldn't stand the noise the saw was making, so I locked myself up in the bedroom. I had no idea that the amount of dust had reached volcanic eruption proportions!.  And indeed, the cloud of dust the cutting created darkened the whole first floor, according to our household helper, Laarnie.  But boy, does that countertop look good!  

One thing that wasn't part of the plan was putting the faucet on the right corner of the sink instead of the middle.  Had we insisted on putting the faucet in the middle,  there would hardly be any clearance between the tiles and the faucet knob.  Not a good idea.  We're fine with the faucet on the side.  In fact, Francis, our foreman, even suggested that the off-kilter set-up is more interesting and creative.

Things are looking up for Unit G. Now, it's time to think about the clean-up. 

Team Granite trimming the longer slab

the installation

 at last!

Laarnie, trying to imagine how everything would look like

cutting the hole for the faucet

  

finishing up

stress-free...NOT!

Faucet Love

The dream faucet....We had actually bought a nice faucet in a chrome finish just about an hour before, but when we saw this in a shop just outside the main home depot, M just had to have it.  It was double the price of the chrome faucet, but not really beyond our budget, so after a day of "deliberations," the spurned chrome faucet was returned and this hotter one purchased.  It's a Chinese knock-off of those beautiful Italian originals, but is also made of brass and looks  quite sturdy.

Whitewashed

2 of the workers sanded, primed and painted the living/dining areas ceiling yesterday.  What a difference a fresh coat of paint makes!  And now the workers are working on the walls.  I'm quite excited to see how the white paint will affect the whole living/dining areas.  We've never used white before--our walls have always been in cream/off-white.  And I've always thought that if we ever get to repaint our living/dining rooms, we'd choose to paint them in Tuscan yellow. But after seeing so many lovely photos of white rooms with bright colored accents in magazines and blogs, we knew we'd fallen in love with the non-color and its possibilities.  We're not letting go of our Tuscan roots, though.  The shorter wall in our dining area will be a homage to one of Italy's most beautiful regions.

Here are the latest photos of the renovation.

Here I am, in my "morning suit," checking out and asking about the shelving under the sink.

the gang of 4

the mess we're in--dining area

Nilo, the 5th man, working on the walls and ceilings

the new pantry

whitewashed walls

Men at Work

Dondon, the tile guy

Michael, the all-around helper

 Narding, the master carpenter

Michael (in white) and Francis, the foreman, in blue

Click here for more pictures of our old kitchen...

Kitchen, philosophy, football, and love

I'm new to blogging. I think this is in fact my first time to post something in a blog. It takes a kitchen renovation then for one like me to get into blogging.

Thoroughly enjoyed today's trip to home depots, checking out granite counter tops, faucets, tiles and cabinet hinges. Uhm, actually feels like A and I just got married!

In between trips to home depots and checking out the progress of the work, I had to find time to read a master's thesis in philosophy that is up for defense tomorrow, and I'm one of the examiners.

And besides, have to wake up early for Old Trafford. 7 April 2010 20:45 CET.

Kitchen, philosophy, football, and love in the midst of it all.

How much better can life get?

Getting the hang of it

M and I are slowly getting used to the mess, the noise and the change (temporarily, we hope) in daily habits that goes with a renovation.  We eat on about a third of our dining table, 2/3 of which is filled with all sorts things from the kitchen.  The only advantage is we no longer have to walk those few steps to the kitchen to get something we need.  Everything is now within arm's reach!

 

renovation headquarters (dining/living areas)

At the Ortigas Home Depot last night, we bought the Cremona undermount sink and the faucet which we'll most probably return because we found the faucet of our dreams this morning (during another trip to the home depot).

Some pictures of the epicenter of the renovation....

Day 1: Lift Off!

Two of the 4 workers are now here to remove the old marble counter top and the tile backsplash. Haven't been back to the "site" for over an hour now for fear of seeing nothing but dust all over the living/dining areas. But now I think it's time to check the progress of the work and to see if the workers have taken their snacks.

21.52

The counter top and the backsplash are gone! I didn't think it would take just a day to remove them. But yes, the tired-looking tiles and the drab marble which have been staring us in the face for far too long are gone! And the cabinet doors will be joining them tomorrow. Now it's easier to imagine how the new kitchen would look like. Sigh! If only we could find those subway tiles that we so want! Just like yesterday, we checked out 2 tile suppliers in the Munoz area.  And just like yesterday, nothing.

Where art thou, oh subway tiles?

( image source unknown)

Kitchen inspirations...

Via Rusty Hinges

image source unknown

We've set our hearts on a dark gray granite counter top and white subway tiles, but after visiting at least 4 home depots, we still haven't found the tiles we want. Our foreman, though, told us that the tile suppliers in Mu ñoz may have them.

I love the colors in the kitchens below, but we've decided that a white kitchen with pops of bright colors would be best for us.

Via Marie Claire Maison

Via Domino