The Pantengliopolis House of Phat

On Monday I had the honor of performing the wedding ceremony for our friends Andy and Mica. The service was held on the beach near Blue Ridge, north of Golden Gardens. The small wedding party walked down the train tracks to a locked set of steps. Undeterred, the bride and groom (and the wedding party dogs) stemmed across the gap in an oddly symbolic transition into the rest of their life together. Anastasia had me all weepy with the words she shared and we celebrated with a four hour meal at El Gaucho. A fantastic day.

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It’s tough being so far from the family sometimes, since it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day stuff that keeps us all busy. Happy Father’s Day Dad! Love you.

It’s remarkable how long the “little things” take. It’s been a couple of weeks since Keith finished up and we’re slowly chipping away at the detail work that we saved for ourselves. Tiling the backsplash — the last big project — is finally done. We still need to grout it, but thanks to a full day’s help from Mica, we got it all mortared to the wall yesterday. Continue reading →

Apparently it’s much easier to maintain daily updates when someone else is doing all the work. Here are photos of the latest, to include finished floors, new fridge, new dishwasher and some potential paint color choices. Continue reading →

Today was a day of small projects and touch-up details. Having finished all the major pieces yesterday, Keith cut baseboard, tweaked cabinet doors, hooked up the final plumbing and electrical connections, etc. Basically, we have a completely functional kitchen now, with only a few exceptions. Continue reading →

Keith finished up at 7:30, 12 hours after he got here. He worked his butt off today. The list that remains is awfully short. Oven and cooktop — done. Hood — done. Cabinets — done. Sink et al — done. It’s just about finished, despite still having a plywood floor. Continue reading →

Not the whole shebang, of course, but some bigger pictures since everything’s starting to come together. Doors are all on, handles are on, the counter is darn purty. There’s one more cabinet to install and the appliances should be going in on Monday — Tuesday at the latest. After that, it’s in our court for the floor. Trips to the tile store are on the agenda this weekend, as is a trip to look at new cookware — a requirement that you’ll understand soon enough. Continue reading →

Today was an odd one. With countertops on the way, Keith was here early to get as many cabinet doors finished as possible before the counters arrived and took over the kitchen. When I went to work I knew I wouldn’t get to see it until late tonight, since I had a heli flight in the afternoon and a classroom session for our rigging class immediately after. Continue reading →

Upper cabinetry is in and we continue to add new bits and pieces to the future kitchen-state. Anastasia decided to replace the dispenser for our Insta-hot (which will be making a return in Kitchen 2.0) with a different style. Continue reading →

There wasn’t a ton of new work done in the kitchen today, but the base cabinets are pretty much done and the countertop subcontractor was here to take his measurements. He left with a pile of cardboard cutouts in the shape of our new kitchen. Continue reading →