Carpet is a big step! Once we have all the flooring down we feel like we can finally start moving some stuff over! We chose the this carpet made of 50% recycled bottles to get some green building credit. It has pinstripes–so fancy. We chose a recycled carpet padding as well–bring on the recycled content credit! We purchased and installed through home depot.

Home Depot install services were pretty straightforward, but we started early on this so not sure how it would work if you were in a rush.

1. Call and set up a measurement. (This costs $50, but will go towards the final carpet payment if you end up installing with them.)
2. The guy comes and measures everything (it only took about 30 minutes).
3. That guy submits his numbers to the Home Depot ordering folks and they email me a quote that expires in a couple days.
4. It took me another couple weeks to confirm the order (by making a payment) so they had to requote me (luckily the cost stayed the same).
5. Once I made my payment, they send my info off to their subcontractor carpet installers.
6. The subcontractors gave me a call to schedule the install. They were able to get an install appointment within 7 days.
7. Subcontractors came and did the install!

Note: we installed carpet on the entire upstairs and down the main stairs so it was actually a pretty big job. The carpet installers were also dukeing out their territory with the stair railing guys so in the end they were not able to finish the stairs on the same day as the upstairs. This actually worked out really well though, because we had movers coming between the upstairs carpet install and the stair carpet install which means we didn’t have to worry about them dirtying up the stairs while they were lugging up furniture.

We had two quick tile jobs to knock out– ADU Kitchenette and the main kitchen.

I was ready with a bunch more cheap white Home Depot subway tile… but hubs said we needed to mix it up a little. It’s much harder to pick tile when you don’t just go with cheap white subway tile! I finally decided one some gray ceramic tiles. The ADU kitchenette tile was from Floor and Decor. Pretty cheap, easy to install, no special edging needed.

The main kitchen tile was from Wayfair, but they also sell at Home Depot. It was a mix of these decorative white flower print tiles and a medley of grays.

I purchased from Wayfair because it was much cheaper, but I had some much left over, I probably would have been better just ordering from Home Depot so I could easily return the remaining tile. I was nervous because this was special ordered and took a few weeks to arrive. I needed to have more than enough on site because it would take a long time to get more. The gray tiles have a crack glaze. It adds a cool vintage feel, but does require a tile sealant prior to grouting. (We did a quick sealant spray the night after install, but I’m actually not sure it would have mattered that much. We only let it dry about 12-18 hours before he started grouting and I haven’t noticed any issues with the crackle glaze. )

couldn’t put my fireclay farmhouse sink together again. So close, things are finally looking like a real house, cleaned up and ready to go. Faucets are in, appliances are in, outlets are in… and I JUST happen to notice a small crack in the fireclay farm house sink we installed a couple weeks ago.

It has barely been used because the faucet was just installed a few days ago. The sink itself is <$400 so I would just say, get a new one and “pop it in”.

But no, when deciding to put in an apron front farmhouse sink, I failed to understand the finality of it. I have been told that we cannot replace the sink, without replacing the whole cabinet AND countertop. Please just shoot me now. I am so done with this project.

It’s tricky because all the people involved play the blame game… who’s fault is this?

• cabinet installer, the plywood support might not be high enough to provide adequate support?)
• countertop installers, they actually set the sink into the cabinet and glued the countertop over the top
• plumber or electrician, they were both tinkering with the undersink area in the last few days

At this point I don’t really care who’s fault it is, I just want someone to tell me that I can fix it without redoing the whole kitchen.

I ALMOST bought a KOHLER cast iron sink (in fact I ordered and returned TWO that were the wrong size before finally deciding to just go with this Houzzer fireclay sink from Home Depot because it was nice and deep and had good reviews and I could save myself $500). Can’t help but regret that decision. Surely the cast iron sink wouldn’t have cracked.

Update: Houzzer expressed apologies and sent a replacement sink. That sink is in my garage. I was too sick of contractors to deal with another project amid the pandemic so I let it go. A fancy ceramic repair man confirmed that the crack is irreparable, but that someone might be able to slide in the new sink if they are up for a challenge and some cabinet rework. If it ever leaks I will start calling around, but for now it is just cosmetic.