Kitchen Reno Floors & Counter Delays – ORC Week Five

Yikes!  This is Week Five as a guest participant of the Spring 2022 One Room Challenge.

Here’s what you missed, if you’re just tuning in to this 8 week challenge:

• ORC Week One – My Kitchen Design Plan
• ORC Week Two – Drywall & Tile Samples
• ORC Week Three – Drywall & Subfloor
• ORC Week Four – Cabinets & New Appliances

Here’s the progress we’ve made since last week’s check in:

Things look like they went a bit backwards, lol, because the appliances are in the dining room – but that’s just because we installed the kitchen floor, which looks soooo good!

Hubby and I installed the new flooring (courtesy of End of the Roll) last week, and then let it cure over the weekend.  It’s a glue down Luxury Vinyl Tile that was really straightforward to install.  It took us about a day and a half – after a little bit of prep.  I’ll share a detailed tutorial, but basically we installed a subfloor (just to build up the height to match with the existing hardwood), and then a plywood underlayment, which we nailed down.

We covered seams of the plywood underlayment with a floor leveller, which took some time to dry.  Then we dry fit the tiles, and, once we were happy with the positioning, glued them in place, one by one.

We tried to catch any glue squish with a damp rag during installation, but I could see some areas with glue residue once it dried (you can see along some seams in the photo below).  Earlier today I tested mineral spirits (that’s what the glue manufacturer recommended) on a scrap piece of flooring and it worked perfectly to remove the residue – and it doesn’t look like it affected the tile at all, so yay!

Here’s what it looks like after my clean up:

We’re installing the integrated dishwasher this week, which will be so exciting!  I am SO OVER washing dishes in the laundry room.  Sometime after the dishwasher is installed, the cabinet installers will return and install the toe kick.  Hopefully the missing door will materialize too!  It was damaged before shipping, so the manufacturer didn’t send it.

The hand hammered sink, provided by Thompson Traders, has been set in place (wow, it’s gorgeous!), but not yet installed, because we need to make a little tweak to the panel on the front of the cabinet.  But here’s a sneak peek:

If you’d like to see a video of the new sink, in all its glorious glitteriness, check out this Instagram Reel I made.  You can also spot the beautiful edge pulls (provided by Emtek).  A closer look at those soon!

My fancy new light is shipping this week so I’m hoping we can get it installed this weekend.  I cannot WAIT to see it in person.  This kitchen reno progressed so swiftly through the first four weeks, and even the last week we got quite a bit done, but I think progress might slow down because I can’t get any info on when my stone slab for the countertops will arrive.  Maybe I’ll get an email tomorrow?  Maybe August?  In the meantime, check out this Instagram Reel to see my tile choices.

I’m sharing real time updates in my Instagram stories (saved to highlights called “Kitchen 1” and “Kitchen 2” after the stories expire) if you’d like to watch this renovation “live”.  Do you think I’ll get this done in time for the Week 8 reveal?!?