Well, the demolition is done.  They came through and ripped the whole thing out in about 3 days.  Then they dug the hole for the new post in the kitchen to support the post.  Other than that, there is, as Zoe likes to say "No Kitchen!!"  (see the mpg status report.)

 
Here are a few pictures.  The wall which is now studs (below) is coming out.  As a result, they've dug a 3' x 3' hole for a footer for a post to hold the beam we'll eventually get.  Note Zoe's foot in the photo.  She inspects everything!

By the way, this is approximately day 18 of a 45 day project.  Right now, the big holdup is that they didn't get the right plans signed off.  The plans they submitted didn't have any work on the exterior windows, which has put us in "hurry up and wait" mode.  They're going to be hard pressed to make the 45-day completion clause in the contract...

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"The best laid plans of mice and men..."
August 2000 One might rationally hope that after an entire month, there would be big news to report.  I'm sorry to say, that's not the case.  On August 15th, the city finally signed off the plans for the back wall, which meant we could move forward with the rest of the work in the kitchen.  Don't ask what one has to do with the other- our contractor goofed, and goofed BIG.  The kitchen plan made certain assumptions that weren't really true, and they got stuck waiting for the city to approve some revised plans.  Ugh!  What a headache.  Major Milestones in the past month:

August 7?        City approves revised plans for back wall.  This allows us to really begin cutting into the ceiling
August 15        The major supporting beams have been put into the ceiling.  Load bearing work is mostly complete.

August 29        Rough inspection passed!  We had to rework the post at the back wall.  The back wall will change from
                        being a 2x4 to 2x8.  Long story.  Doug spent the evening of the 28th pulling down left-over sheet rock so they would
                         put all new rock up, rather than try to work around stupid seams to save $.05 in materials.

August 30-31    Sheet rock guys came, put up all the sheet rock.  I'm assuming that the texturing guys will cover the flaws.

By the way, if you thought I was getting off easy to have someone else do this (allowing me to play in my shop), bad news- there has been no workshop for the past two months.  The cabinets were delivered the day the job started.  This is what my shop looks like right now:

Yes, those are boxes in the entire shop.  I climb OVER them when I need to get a hammer or a drill for silly little projects.  Damn, I'll be glad to get the shop back.  Next time, the GC has to store this crap somewhere else!

George has been working mostly on the weekends.  In fact, we suspect he's here almost entirely on weekends.  (He's not the sheet rock guy)  Oh well- he does good work and I'm grateful he's willing to trade his weekends to finish my kitchen.  Our GC is really overbooked.  George will be in here over Labor Day to install our cabinets.  It might start to look like a kitchen soon!

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"I'll see you... In September..."
(to quote the Beach Boys)

Progress comes slowly, but it's better than not at all.  I've had "the talk" with our contractor.  They are now anxious to get this done.  They're already into the penalty phase, so it's in their best interest to finish.  The penalty clause doesn't apply to the windows, but that should be done by the middle of October.
 

Sept 5.    Over Labor Day weekend, George installed all of the cabinets (by himself!)  Pretty amazing.  It's also pretty cool how open the room
                feels with the new wall (instead of the old one)  Here's a pic:

Sept 11    Unfortunately, we have been sitting still for another week and change.  I called Ray (the owner of the business) and raised a little bit of polite
                heck.  (Ask Kath- I really did hold my tounge!)  He understands my frunstration, which was primarily driven by (1) the tendancy of the job
                to "stop" between work, and (2) the lack of communication.  That should be under control now.

Sept 18    They spent last week getting the Corian installed and fixing up the pony wall.  A quick pic of Cole cutting out the stove insert.  He just drops
                the template in, and runs the router around the template.  pretty easy...

Over the next 5 days, they should tile the backsplash, texture the walls and ceiling, and get the finish plumbing out of the way.  The following week it should be the flooring and appliances, and get us down to the punch list.  There's a schedule... we'll have to see if they can stick to it!

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