Labor Day weekend, Kathleen Grossman and her husband, Bill Biegert, began emptying out their kitchen cupboards. The refrigerator was moved to the small den, along with the microwave and a hot plate, creating a temporary cooking area. After the make-shift meals, dishes would be hauled to the basement for hand washing.

The long-awaited, monumental kitchen remodeling project had officially begun.

By New Year’s Day, they were restocking the newly built oak cupboards that fit the Craftsman-style house like a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed glove.

But four months of finish work still lay ahead for the remodeled eating space and kitchen.

The project at 3318 Randolph St. will be complete in time for the Tour of Remodeled Homes on Saturday and next Sunday — but just barely.

Standing barefoot in the kitchen, wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt, Grossman contemplated staining the baseboard.

Her friend, Karna Cronn, is finishing priming the recently drywalled breakfast/study area. She gingerly applies a test spot of apricot-colored paint to make sure it covers well.

Yes, this is the right color, they agree. The other four color finalists, applied to various spots around the room, have been eliminated. “I have a Master of Fine Arts and studied color theory,” said Grossman. “You’d think this would be easier.”

Remodeling projects are routinely filled with endless decisions and often some revisions.

Andrea Ruliffson, kitchen designer at Lincoln Cabinet, has been impressed by the research and skills Grossman and Biegert brought to this project.

They arrived at her office with a specific question: Could she order cabinet fronts with insert door hinges made from quarter-sawn oak?

The answer was yes, and they invited her into their kitchen and into their remodeling project. It had been their dream and they were ready to get started.

But Ruliffson was amazed at the amount of work the couple was prepared to tackle. “Most couples want to do some of the tear-out to save some money,” she said. “This was above and beyond that.”

Ruliffson took down the dimensions and offered some design ideas for the space.

In the meantime, Grossman and Biegert tore out two walls that made up an icebox room, butler’s pantry and a breakfast nook.

The icebox room was just that — a room with a separate door for the ice man to come in and deliver his ice. The butler’s pantry was for food storage and the original family probably took most meals in the dining room, not the tiny breakfast nook.

All of these chopped-up rooms weren’t working for the Grossman/Biegert family. Their vision, which Ruliffson helped design, was making that area into an eating area/desk for homework and office space consistent with the rest of the house.

She designed a 46-by-77-inch work space that was inspired by a mercantile table from the 1800s. “It’s right out of a general store,” she said of the concept.

There is room for six stools around one end, perfect for the children to do their homework and have breakfast. The computer for Grossman’s Down Under Pottery business has its own separate desk against another kitchen wall.

Keeping the integrity of the house was important. The couple has spent the last nine years converting it back to the single family home it was designed to be.

Ferdinand Fiske, a prominent Lincoln architect, designed the house, which was built in 1916 for N.Z. Snell and his family. It had electricity — a fairly modern concept then — and sat on a large expanse of land on the corner of the Liman Park district.

The Lincoln Roman Catholic Diocese owned the house for several decades between the Snells and the Grossman/Biegert family. During that time it had been set up to house priests, Bishop Glennon Flavin and a group of nuns from Mexico.

The home’s oak woodwork was in fairly good shape and Grossman even found an original painted motif in the dining room under layers of wallpaper.

But the woodwork around the kitchen windows had been painted. Grossman’s charge was to strip six coats of paint and restain them.

Biegert set up his workshop in one stall of the garage and has used it to organize and cut the boards for the oak floors in the room. He pieced and laid them over the radiant heat tubing system he installed.

The heat in that room hasn’t been hooked up to the boiler yet and it made for a drafty room last winter, Grossman said. That was one of the worst things about the remodel.

On the bright side, they found some leftover oak in the attic, along with the original blueprints for the house, Grossman said. Biegert used the wood to change some of the pine window trim.

Considering the amount of work they did themselves, from drywall to electrical, things have gone pretty well, Grossman said.

Like most remodels, there were a few tense moments. Like when the 400-plus pound Wolf stainless steel stove was delivered to the driveway, not the kitchen. Eventually, they convinced the driver to move it into the house.

But now that the end is in sight, Grossman couldn’t be more pleased. She shows off an entire wall of Craftsman-style oak-covered refrigeration — the built-in Sub Zero units include two side-by-side refrigerators, two freezer drawers, a crisper drawer and another drawer for milk and sodas. All of which is invisible behind the cabinetry.

The remodeling timeline, which Ruliffson calls remarkably ambitious, worked. Grossman said it is because “having a day to just work on the house was like a vacation.”

But, she’s quick to add, when this project is finished, they are going to take a break before starting another one.

Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.

Tour of Remodeled Homes

The Tour of Remodeled Homes will be held Saturday and next Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for all of the homes. Children under 12 are free. Tickets are available at any of the homes on the tour:

1. 6745 Stonebrook Parkway, sunroom. Hostetler Patio Enclosures Inc.

2. 3630 Doral Lane, a three-day kitchen, GoodeGuy Construction

3. 3318 Randolph St., kitchen, Lincoln Cabinet

4. 1525 Crestline Drive, kitchen, Lincoln Cabinet

5. 521 Hazelwood Drive, kitchen, GoodeGuy Construction

6. 1620 Devoe Drive, kitchen and dinette, Fulton Construction

7. 7618 Myrtle St., second story master suite addition, Christo Design Build Inc.

8. 3301 Timberview Court. basement finish and master bathroom remodel, Advantage Remodeling/LifeStyle Basement Finishing.

9. 4120 S. 78th St., kitchen addition, Reese Construction

10. 9401 Pioneers Blvd., addition/remodel, Frontier Builders, LLC

11. 7900 Forbes Court, basement finish, Willet Construction Inc.

12. 9249 Foxen Circle, basement remodel, Odbert Built Construction

13. 6240 Lucys Court, basement finish, GoodeGuy Construction

14. 5317 Starling Court, family room/dining addition, Willet Construction Inc.

15. 5821 Robin Court, sunroom, GoodeGuy Construction

16. 4136 Boulder Drive, kitchen remodel, Reynolds Design & Remodeling

17. 7441 S. 48th St., sunroom, Hostetler Patio Enclosures Inc.

18. 5845 Woodstock Ave., kitchen, Lincoln Cabinet

19. 2800 O’Reilly Drive, kitchen, Lincoln Cabinet

20. 3009 Sheridan Blvd., kitchen,  CS Kitchen & Bath Studio

21. 3140 S. 24th St., sunroom addition, McEwen Construction