Outlets up high is a great idea. It requires exact design of kitchen way ahead of time to know exactly where bottom of cabinets are. I usually am not that organized:)
There isn’t a built in desk in the kitchen. Its a small counterspace for coffee station and the open cabinet below is where the microwave drawer goes.
No neighbors stopping by. Inspector officially signed off height a month ago so I am past that hurdle. The height is measured from highest point of property which is the front of the house. As you can see from photos we are really only 2 stories when viewed from the front so it was a no brainer for him. A lot of owners have to pay a surveyor for an official height certificate
Of course!!! Took the exact dimensions of double oven to cabinet guy. :Don’t worry, they are all standard" he says. My carpenter has spent all day cutting the gorgeous cabinet to a much larger hole and rebuilding the support structure for the bottom of oven.
No appliances in and another day wasted
Since scafolding is being removed on Monday I have two guys going around the entire house touching up paint, cleaning stucco overspray and washing windows. Probably a little early but it is going to be much easier with scaffolding
My kitchen is now a big awful mess because my carpenter’s middle name is Pig Pen and there are tools and trash everywhere
Go back and yell at the cabinet guy. Tell him his laziness cost you $XXX to have your carpenter fix this.
It’s looking more beautiful every day!
I’m not sure if he meant that the cabinets only come in one standard size and you have to modify or he meant that all ovens are a standard size and it should fit into the cabinet. I know that Kraftmaid has the largest selection of shapes and sizes of any of the cabinet companies so I’m not sure why we couldn’t get one with a much bigger opening. However, it’s much better that we have to cut it bigger than try to figure out how to do some hack trim job to make the opening smaller 
Speaking of hack trim jobs… I have an issue with the stove vent. The drywall is sticking out as a lip 1/4" outside of the stainless vent. It looks awful with a cut edge of drywall hanging over the side of the vent. We are working through solutions which will involve some type of trim
I loaded some photos of the small amount of progress today
I found CB’s next flip: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/24-Brentwood-Dr-Avon-CT-06001/59011376_zpid/
Make sure you look at the pictures. 
Here’s the story behind it: [The Most Appalling Zillow Listing of All Time Is Also a Distillation of the American Dream](Appalling Zillow listing is also American dream.)
Not so sure about the beautiful part.
Too bad it’s in Connecticut… 
Yay!! It’s in Connecticut!!
ETA: OMG, I just flipped through the 51 photos. That is the ugliest house I’ve ever seen. Every single surface needs remediation!! OMG. I’ve never seen anything like that!
Ugly or art, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
I guess you are not a connoisseur of fine architectural art. :))
Wow that is a mess and I’m not sure there’s any buyer who will appreciate all the homeowner artwork. The rooms are so dark I’m not sure it can be salvaged.
And it says original asking price $1.5 million down to $399k. I’m surprised some flipper hasn’t picked it up. Maybe owner has a clause in contract that you cannot destroy the artwork? How did his wife let him do that to the whole house?? Well maybe its her artwork also. But really??? That kitchen would make me sick
Wow–that sure is an original CT home. I don’t think you could pay most folks to take or rent that place–very off vibe.
Another problem with it is that the house itself is nothing special. So once you’ve removed all the horrible artwork, you’ve got a very ordinary home. Unless the house goes to a bargain basement price, I don’t see anyone buying it. Ever.
ETA: I just looked up 5-bedroom, 4-bath homes in that town. This house is already the least expensive.
For a flipper to take that project there would have to be good bones (roof, plumbing, electrical, layout) and then it would have to be at least 40% off price from the other homes of same shape and size and lot size.From the photos I think the house is all chopped up and needs to have some layout changes which add to the cost of renovation.
There are some key issues that would stump me personally. How do I sand off all the stuff on the stairs? Would I have to replace the stair risers because there is some kind of stuff on them? Do I have to just tear off all the drywall and start all over again with new drywall and texture?
I do not think they really want to sell that house. Maybe they were told to list it for sale for some reason. But really…if rheynwanted to sell, the LEAST they would have done was clear off all the surfaces of their junque.
That house is, underneath all the bizarre “art,” just a very standard lowish end 1960s builder’s “colonial.” It has cheap windows, cheap shingles, a cheap shallow roof line, and all the other markers of the type. Builders of spec houses threw them–and the split level equivalent–up all over suburban CT in those days. Most of them were 4 br, 2 1/2 baths. It looks like they may have converted the original garage to living space, or maybe they put an additional BR in the basement.
that place is a tear down. period.
In many parts of CT, $399k will get you a piece of ground. I’d agree with tear-down, esp if the other houses in he neighborhood are significantly upgraded or rebuilt. I say this as the owner of a mid-60s split level that needs a lot of love!