If your appliances are not yet physically in your space, print out multiple copies of their spec sheets and make sure to shove them up in your installers' faces so many times that he starts to threaten violent retailiation.

Other than that, you just need the multiple prayers of everyone on this forum, and you'll be fine.

good luck

LC

I am happy to know everything is working out well.

If you need someone to help you to complete the odds and ends of your renovation there is somene who can help you.

His name is Gilson Dias, he is reliable and easy to get along with. His prices are negotiable.

His work is clean and he knows to do many different things.

He will even do the cleaning if you ask him.

He is a good painter.

I was the one that referred you to Lee Taylor at Tarallo Kitchen in the Bronx.

If you need to get in touch with me feel free to send an email to

modernlifeinteriors@yahoo.com

I will be happy to answer questions about Gilson after all he did work for me.

Good luck with the project.

Gilson Dias is from Brazil and his english is good.... 347-743-9206.

Don't forget to mention it is about a job.

Cheers
Susan Miller-Stern

Hi there,

Perhaps your contractor's electrician can run your wires for you? Mine did and it was only a small additional charge. . .

Best of luck!!

YEAH !!! Will look forward to lunch and a good chat as to how it is going. Don't stress...it will be great ! c

P.S.
Try Gary Williams 917-345-4846.
He ran cable and phone wires for the Hyatt Hotel.
You can negotiate the price with him.
He will give a free estimate.

He did some work for me.

Thanks, everyone! It's funny, I've been planning this renovation for about a year, and all this time I couldn't wait for it to get started... well, I still can't wait for it to be *over*!!! LOL! Actually, I can't wait for it to be six months after it's over because by then I'll have stopped noticing all the little things that went wrong and will be able to focus on the bigger picture (which is that *any* renovated kitchen would be better than the one I'm in now!!!).

Good advice here - lacuisine, I will definitely do that with the appliances. I have a looseleaf binder for the contractor with specs on all the plumbing fixtures and such, but, yes, appliances need to be there.

Fullpass, my contractor says his electrician doesn't re-run wires. I originally thought he would, so that was a disappointment.

Susan, thanks for the referrals - I emailed you.

Caroline, by the time you're back in NY it should be almost over!!!

What a thought.

Good luck Tracey!!! I wasn't aware you and the "kids" will be taking up residence elsewhere while the work's bing done! I'd say "that's cheating!" But that would be my jealousy (about not living in the middle of the reno) talking!

I hope all goes well--quickly and smoothly!

uh Tracey...you have to stay in the MIDDLE of the whole mess so that you can absorb the true ambience of the reno....cat mom is right...this is CHEATING !

I sure hope it is all over by 10/21...if not we will have big Margaritas with lunch and laugh and have a good time. c

No, no, no... if I stay in the middle of the mess, then I have to pee in a bucket because they're doing my bathroom too!!! ;-)

Caroline... they're first starting on 9/29. They say it'll take a month. (No one I know believes them.) I think we'll be having those margaritas...

WELL-DESERVED margaritas. :-)

Good, margaritas will help us pee even more!!!! LOL

gotcha...lunch and margaritas...robin you gotta come into town and join us ! ( ya'll are crude....peeing in a bucket...indeed ! :)

I have work!

Hope my upstair bath renos don't force me to use a bucket in the middle of the night.....can you spell chamberpot??? LOL

I can see the headline in the NYTimes..........New Yorkers pee in buckets!
What happened to swimming pools?
Perfect for the house and garden section.

Congrats on getting this far! I wonder how many people get so overwhelmed that they back off from a reno? Just idle curiosity!

Your cable & telephone wires...are the walls going to be open? If so, do you think you could do it? Something else to consider...how about speaker wire? Or even computer wiring (although you can also just use wireless).

You might ask around about someone who wires homes for entertainment or intercoms...they may also do phone & cable wires.

Good luck next week and the next 4 months, I mean weeks!

;-)

work....highly overrated...OK cat_mom...a Saturday then...

Congrats! You will still be stressed out plenty if you move with cats. They hate moving so don't listen to the folks on here. You will just be going through a different stress with them!

Get yourself a day pass at a local spa. That is the one item you forgot. When you have the inevitable meltdown, it will help.

Congrats! Can't wait to see before, during and after pictures!

I know people who stayed in their single-bathroom apartments while they were being renovated. One couple took 2-week trial memberships in the NY Sports Club down the street. (Makes sense for showering, but I don't know what they did at three in the morning!)

If it makes people feel any better, I'll probably be moving back in before it's finished. My sublet only goes to the end of October and it can't be extended. :-( (Bathroom better be finished!)

Am indeed worried about how the cats will take it. They're not in the best of health right now - one has early-stage kidney disease, and the other is on medication for being hyperthyroid. So far they've been fine with all the packing - they think cartons are fun. :-) But they've never lived anywhere else... I'm hoping they cope okay because they'll be with me as opposed to with my best friend (which was the plan when I didn't think I'd be able to find a sublet that would take them).

Buehl, the only thing that's kept me from backing off the renovation at this point is that I've spent too much money to back off!!! I'm tellin' ya, if I'd realized HOW MUCH WORK was involved in putting this whole thing together... Man!

Computer wire! Forgot about that!!! (Wireless doesn't work consistently in my apartment, for some reason. I think someone has a cordless phone that interferes with it.)

I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping you are going to do the bathroom first.

Tracey - yay on finally getting started. Painter? What's that? I still haven't hired a painter and my kitchen's been done for months. Have had other things, unfortunately,taking up time and energy and priorities.

I had a cataract done last week and am having the second one done next week but I hope to see you and Cat_Mom and Caroline in Nov. -- keep me posted on details.

Can't wait to see pix of the demo and reno! And yes, a stiff drink will always help.

bumpety-bump

Hope to see you, too Rayna! Hope you're feeling well after the surgeries.

Rayna! Good luck on the surgeries!! Sounds like the first went well - you're back posting. :-)

As for your not having hired a painter - what would you need to paint for? You have THE most gorgeous backsplash I've ever seen. Truly inspirational. I don't think I'm *nearly* as brave as you... we'll see what I end up with. I'm kind of exploring the glass or glass+stone avenue now, though it might still go back to some very shaded diagonal or mini-brick travertine.

Susan, thanks for bumping me! :-)

Btw, posting now from the sublet! Made a few trips by foot with shopping wagon today, and then my friend drove me for the heavy stuff - and for the rather freaked-out cats. One of them seems to be acclimating well after a couple of hours in here. The other ventures out from under the bed once in a while, then dashes back in. (Hope she ventures out again soon... I have to give her a pill. Poor kitty.)

Cabinets coming between 8 and 10 tomorrow morning, so I've got to get an early start!

Anytime.
Don't forget to kiss the kitties for me.

I will kiss the kitties and tell them it's from you! They'll like that. Further proof that everyone in the world adores them. :-)

SO - big day today. The cabinets came!!! At 8am on the dot. The cartons seem to all be in good shape - I didn't make them open them all, though we peeked inside one to see what it looked like. (They're beautiful! :-))

Then the towel bars (for the bathroom) came. Still trying to figure out if they're right style-wise, but they're pretty: Motiv Sine. I got a 24" to go on the wall at the foot of the tub - it seemed big to me so I measured it. It's actually 24" center-to-center, which means it's more like 25-1/2" overall. (Ah, 25.8" according to the pdf specs!) I think that may be a little too big and I'll have to exchange it for the 18". Just shows, you've got to look up those pdf's, even for the small stuff!!!

Anyway, did lots more packing and organzing today. Back in the sublet now. Kitties seem to be coping... even getting a little braver! (They ventured out into the world beyond my bedroom this evening! But my room is definitely home base. :-))

As for me - I plan to relax and watch the season premiere of ER tonight. If I can stay awake, that is. I am SO tired...

Bump-bump

Wow! Do you mean to tell me your kitchen is read for demo on Monday (2-1/2 days ahead)?! You're ahead of us...we were up most of the night b/f demo finishing up the packing! (Of course, our demo got moved up 4 to 6 weeks w/one week's notice...all our plans for packing went out the window as we then had to rush to get it done!

Relax this weekend...and good luck next week! (BTW...where's the picture of that peek you took of the cabinets???????)

My advice: Take pictures of everything and at every stage! Our pictures came in handy several times when our GC tried to tell us there was something that he didn't do or that it wasn't like that before...he learned not to argue with me when I kept whipping out pictures to prove I was right!

Well, *almost* ready... I still have to empty the fridge (not much left), pack the silverware drawer, empty the broom closet (again, not much), and empty the medicine cabinet. And move a few pieces of furniture. Hope to accomplish it all tomorrow... Wait, I also have to take all the magnets off the refrigerator! Okay, I may need Sunday, too!!! :-)

Your demo moved up 4-6 weeks?! How did you cope??? I would have flipped out!!!

Yes, I plan to photograph everything, every day! No matter how many cameras it takes. Seriously, when I started planning this reno almost a year ago, I started taking my camera shopping with me. It conked out - I panicked, can't do a reno without a camera. Sent it back to Canon. They sent me back a refurb replacement. Well, apparently I wore that out shopping for cabinets and tile because it died a couple of weeks ago. Ran to Best Buy and bought a new one. CANNOT do this without a camera! Unexpected cost of the reno.

Anyway, here's my first photo - my new kitchen, ladies and gentlemen!!!

{{!gwi}}

YES, those are the cabinets! Aren't they beautiful?!

(The Fedex guy came with my towel bars later. He hands me this tiny little carton and I laugh and say the big guys beat you to it, and point toward the living room. His eyes almost bust out of his head. :-))

Just happened by and saw your post Tracy. Congrats! You're going to jump into the pool next week. Very exciting. Send up a flare if you need your hand held. Funny how the camera starts to take root. I learned to use one during my reno. Indispensable!

Good luck! I'll be following your progress.

Mine begins 10/6 and I'll be out of town 10/1-10/5. so I have like 3 days to pack it all up and clean out the closet that'll be part of the kitchen.

I have no idea how I'm going to inhabit my 600sf, 1BR/1bath apt. for these 4-6 weeks. I have to see if my fridge can be moved to the LR or else I'll get a little one in the meantime. Thank goodness this is the take-out capital.

I was impressed your cabs fit! I don't think mine will have a space along with the boxes of kitchen stuff. I guess they'll have to.

LOL! My cabs fit because I got rid of my sofa!!! (It was ancient and in terrible shape - I'm planning to buy a new one after the reno's done. :-))

Are you doing your bathroom too? I was warned by many friends that I'd be *much* happier if I could actually get out of the apartment for the duration. OTOH, I know lots of people who stayed in theirs. They said it was messy and annoying, but they survived.

Mine was actually supposed to start 10/6, but I moved it up a week when I found the sublet... My contractor actually wanted to start 9/15, but there was no way I would have been ready in time. Sigh - I would have been two weeks into it by now - my bathroom would have been almost done!!!