Weeks 4 and 5: The calm before the storm

The fourth week of the project was pretty quiet except for the first day.  A big crew of plasterers showed up and coated everything.  It was fun watching the lead guy walking on half-stilts while he was doing the ceiling.  Here's the scene from the dining room side after they were done:

... and the view from inside the kitchen:

It's starting to look like a real room again!   But then we had to leave it alone for a few days to let the plaster dry.  Not very exciting blog material.

This current week has started slow but is rapidly picking up speed.  There was a delay in the shipment of our cabinets (probably our fault due to a change in decision), so we're trying to check off a few things that can be done before the cabinet boxes show up.  The first thing is to trim the windows and doors and start work on the baseboards, and the final thing is to rip out the old floor.  They were keeping the old floor as long as possible to absorb all the abuse.  Plus, without it you can see down into the basement which is a bit freaky (and a bit sawdusty for the basement). 

 Here's the current state of the window trim and the old floor removal.  You can see where the old addition starts because the subfloor suddenly changes directions.

The back steps also got an upgrade today from the temporary treads to nice thick (5/4) oak treads.  The trim is mostly done around the steps, and the new hardwood floor is going to com up to meet this area.  We're also building in a shoe storage box through the wall to the right.  (not cut yet)

Also today a big pile of hardwood floor boards showed up.  The floor is scheduled to go in next Monday, and then half the appliances show up (the ones that need to get integrated into cabinets), and then the cabinet boxes hopefully will be in by the end of next week.  Fingers crossed!