Okay, a lot has happened in the past 12 days. I am not quite sure where to begin. I left off with us installing the cabinets. It only took 3 days total. Two days to set the cabinets and one day for us to install moldings, panels toe kicks and put all of the shelves, doors and drawers back in. That alone took several hours. All in all, everything went in pretty well, which is good since my wife was starting to get tired of the dust and is ready to be done. I was a little short on crown molding, and had missed a shelf on one of the base cabinets.
All in all, anything addition I had to order would not prohibit us from moving forward. Once the cabinets were set, the tops were measured and we waited. While we waited, I installed hardware and only mis-drilled one drawer head. We cleaned the cabinets what seemed like a dozen times and kept staring in amazement of our new space. After 4 weeks, cabinets were set, and we were waiting on countertops. That weekend I bought and painted the base molding and door and window casing, so I would only have to touch up nail holes once it was installed, as well as finishing any painting I had left to do.

Week 5 started off slowly. The guys were to come Monday to install the moldings and start on the appliances but got tied up on another job. Since nothing can really progress until countertops get installed, it didn’t slow us down any. Tuesday they came and put the trim on. It’s amazing how some pieces of wood can make such a difference in how a space looks. Wednesday brought not only the installation of our granite tops, but the delivery of our double ovens and refrigerator. At the request of our contractor, they were set in front of their openings, so he could get them hooked up and installed. My wife was excited to get the pictures I sent of the granite tops and her double ovens. I believe she said it brought tears to her eyes to see the ovens sitting there. That evening, our oldest son bellied right up to the side of the peninsula top is and pretended he worked at McDonalds. The wires hanging down for the under counter lights were his microphone, and he was ready to take orders. It’s funny, I never thought about how our boys would react to the remodeling. Our youngest doesn’t seem to really care, but our 6 year old has really taken an interest. He’s opening cabinets and checking things out. Thursday brought the installation of our Corian top and the hope we’d have everything hooked up that night. Unfortunately for us the Corian installers didn’t get to us after lunch, so by the time they were done, it was too late for the plumber to come. No matter, we had all of our counters and now we could see the light. We did have a minor hitch with the installation of the Corian, but we were able to solve the issue, and in the end it did not slow us down. Friday brought great joy to our house. The plumber came. By the time we got home on Friday, we had running water, a working gas cook top and our new refrigerator was hooked up.

Now that we had the plumbing hooked up, we could start to unpack. Unfortunately the dishwasher wasn’t working (something the electrician would have to address). But that didn’t stop us. We started unpacking boxes and putting things away. We had made a list of what items were going into what cabinets. While a nice guide, it didn’t get updated to reflect the final plans and we had to make adjustments as we went. Even with a guide, it has been hard. While we have a lot more space than we did have, it is taking time to figure out where to put some things. We’ve lived with our old kitchen for 9 years, so adjusting is going to take a little time. The biggest surprise for my wife is to see how much space we loose because of the inset hinges. They stick into the cabinet a couple of inches, and that is prohibiting her from putting some things where she had planned. Also, we went with 42” high cabinets for the storage, but she’s only 5’-2”, so anything above the 2nd shelf of the cabinet she will need a stool for. And since the electrician did not make it out to our house on Friday, the double ovens are still sitting on the floor in front of where they go. This is prohibiting us from putting our pots and pans away, as well as accessing a couple of other cabinets. We did what we could, and hopefully we’ll be able to finish soon.

Monday morning, the electrician is to come, so all of the appliances will be hooked up, cover plates put on the switches and outlets, and recessed and under cabinet lights will be installed. All that we have left to wait for is the tile installer to come, hopefully this week too, so we can fully move back in. Anything left after that is for me to do. I still have painting to touch up, and things to hang on the walls. Plus, once we get unpacked, we have to give our living room, dining room and sun room a thorough cleaning. Dust is every where, and even thought we’ve done what we could to contain it, it gets everywhere. We are looking forward to getting our house back to normal. We were even discussing who we should have over first to break in the new kitchen.

Stay tuned, hopefully by the next time I write, we’ll be all done. Check out the new pictures now that we have counters and appliances.

Andrew,

PS. I do have one confession to make. While I checked and double checked the height of the backsplash area and my wife’s Kitchen Aid Mixer, I did not check a fruit stand/tray she has. It won’t fit. She reminded me about it, but I just forgot. So I have to find a new home for it somewhere, and figure out where we are going to put our fruit. If that’s the biggest mistake I made, I can live with that.

It’s amazing what can happen in a week. Last Friday the cabinets arrived, and boy did they. We had boxes everywhere. In the kitchen, dining room, living room, sun room. I almost put some in our boys rooms, but they wouldn’t be happy with that. I was able to get the kitchen painted prior to the cabinet delivery, and then again after they arrived. The color that was agreed upon turned out to be a little too blue for my wife. She was looking for a greener color and what was on the wall was not that. After a last minute review of the color chips we had, a new color was selected and by the end of the weekend, my painting was done, (at least everywhere cabinets touched), and a few of the cabinets were unboxed, and staged to be installed. My wife happily helped do a little of that, just so she could get a glimpse of her new cabinets.


While we have entered week 4 of construction, and consequently dirt and dust everywhere, Monday was the day we were waiting for. It was the day we started to set cabinets. It is the proverbial home stretch. According to her, it was the equivalent of my wedding day. Apparently Sunday night I appeared anxious, constantly fidgeting with the cabinets, unboxing what I could and moving them around. By Monday morning, I had set up an area that had all the different hardware we would need (screws of varying sizes, washers, shims, tape, pencils and markers, etc). I also grabbed some drinks and snacks to munch on while we worked. I guess she was right, what has been months in the planning comes down to the day that cabinets get installed. Of course running through my mind is all of the details and little things that I hoped I accounted for when I designed the kitchen and ordered the cabinets.

They guys showed up and after unloading the tools, we got to work. It didn’t take long to find our groove, and we made pretty good progress. By the time we stopped for lunch, on section of the kitchen was finished and my wife was jumping up and down with excitement. She was sky high, and we had only just begun. By the end of the day, all of the cabinets in the main part were installed. The funny thing about installing cabinets is that it is truly and art and skill. Yes, anyone competent enough with tools can do it, but it truly takes a craftsman to install them the right way. Sometimes the cabinet goes in rather quickly without any problems, and sometimes it doesn’t. The key is it’s not about speed, but precision. If you take the time to make sure each cabinet is level, it makes installing the next one that much easier. And it shows in the final product. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop. We hit that point Monday afternoon with our oven cabinet. It was late in the day and we had to figure out a way to stand it upright. It would have been easier if I ordered the cabinet the right way, but we were able to solve the problem. After everyone left, I swept the floor yet again, and we had a picnic dinner on the kitchen floor. It was actually the cleanest place in the house at the moment. That night our oldest son played with some of the boxes, and even had a “restaurant” that he served us our dinner from.

Day two got off to a slow start, but once everyone got there, we found our rhythm and kept moving. At the end, we had installed all of the cabinets and the kitchen looked good. I could see the design come together and now the space was really defined. It’s amazing how in two days we went from having an empty room to what looked like a kitchen again. While everything went in right, I did have a few oops moments. I ordered two wine cubbies too tall (part of that had to do with the ceiling and floor not being level) plus an accessory here and there that was in the wrong spot.

Overall, we are happy with how it’s turning out. It will take a bit to get used to the fact that the kitchen is a little smaller, but nothing time won’t take care of. My wife is anxious to start putting things back into the cabinets and start to clear out the living room of boxes. However, we informed her they were not her cabinets yet. We still had work to do and until the doors and drawers were back on and the moldings installed, she wasn;t allowed to put anything in them. She’s waited this long, what’s a few more days.

Hopefully by the next update, we’ll have countertops on. Stay tuned.

Go to the photos...

- Andrew

View photos of my kitchen remodel currently in progress. The most recent photos are at the top of the page.

















































Before any work began

Well, Valentines Day came early to our house. Last week our contractor called and asked if he could start our project sooner than we had planned. Originally he was to start on Monday, Feb 14th. That would allow us a week to clean and pack after the baby shower my wife was hosting. After talking to her, we decided why prolong the inevitable, so we decided that Monday Feb 7th would be D-Day. as soon as the party was over Saturday night, we frantically started packing up our kitchen. While plates, dishes and breakables were carefully wrapped and boxed, the kid’s plastic plates and Tupperware went flying.
We continued into Super bowl Sunday clearing things out (yes I did stop to watch the game) and by 10:00pm, my wife was done. Unfortunately we still had a lot left. By the end, I was done boxing things up as well and what was left ended up on the dining room table. We were proactive enough to set up a small temporary kitchen area to hold the essentials that we would need to feed our boys and ourselves. Cereal, plastic plates and cups, and the coffee maker. During our packing, we came across several items that will not make it back into the new kitchen. We found spices that had become petrified, pieces and parts to items we no longer have, and even 2 cigarette lighters (we don’t smoke).

Monday morning came with an urgency and rush to finish moving furniture out before the workers showed up. In the end, they helped me move out a few things, before really getting to work. Surprisingly, the demo happened quite fast. The cabinets and soffits were torn out first, and they were all out of the house before lunch, as was some of the drywall. After lunch the 2 layers of vinyl floor came up. That’s where the real gem was. Apparently the original floor in the kitchen was vinyl parquet flooring. I wonder why the previous owners had covered that up! Also in the outside wall was an old vent that had been covered in drywall. Other than that there weren’t too many surprises. By the end of day 1, everything had been stripped to the sub floor and studs. We put baby gates up to keep our boys out, and constantly gazed in amazement of what had been our kitchen the previous day. The only disappointment my wife has was she did not physically get to break up something herself, primarily the pantry door and laminate countertops. We did go out to eat Monday, as we still needed to finish organizing our mess and setting up a temporary eating place.

Tuesday brought more work, noise and dust. They cut into the kitchen wall and framed the new bar and pantry areas, and started laying the new hardwood floor. Water lines were run for the new under counter ice maker and oven (yes it has a steam feature built in). Tuesday night, my wife and I reviewed the electrical plans, and discussed the things we still need to decide on.

Wednesday came and more progress was made. The installation of the floor was finished, most tools cleaned up and drywall was stacked in a nice pile. The plumber came and did his thing, and all that was really left was the electrician, and then they could do the drywall and finish the floor. In talking with the contractor, it sounded like we were moving ahead pretty well, and we might be able to start setting cabinets sooner than we thought.

Thursday came, and those plans went out the window. After reviewing the work with the electrician, it would take more than a day to do everything (since he was there, we decided it made sense to have him address electrical issues in other rooms too). Unfortunately for us, he can’t get back to our house until next Monday (Valentines Day) and as a result that bumps everything else back a few days. Oh well, there isn’t anything we can do about that. In the end, it is probably good as we still need to pick out a faucet and light fixture over the window. I’ve got the paint, so as soon as the drywall is done, I am ready to go. The cabinets are in our warehouse in Baltimore, I have the sink, and I picked up the cook top, hood and microwave. The appliances have been paid for, as well as the cabinets, and deposits on several other things have been made.

While there is a level of stress associated with doing a project, I have to say I am also having fun. I love to see things built, and how all the pieces fit together. That’s probably one of the reasons I am in the building industry. My brother-in-law who is living with us is amazed at the transformation already. He’s a mechanical person, and seeing the remodeling from the inside has given him a new appreciation for what we do. Our 6 year old always makes sure he has his shoes on so he can “come into the kitchen”. He’s getting a crash course in construction, learning about studs, sub floors and ceiling joists. I am sure today he will have more questions about what the electrician has done. Our youngest just sees all the tools and supplies as new and exciting tracks to drive his trains on, and gets upset that I put up gates to keep him out. And for my wife, every day means she is closer to getting the new kitchen she has wanted since we bought the house. The few weeks of dirt, dust and upheaval we’re living through will be well worth it when the project is done. Stay tuned, and enjoy the attached pictures. We took some pictures of the kitchen Saturday night, and then Monday afternoon. We are taking them everyday, but haven’t downloaded them from the camera yet. We’ll try to do that soon for the next update.

Go to the photos...

-Andrew

T-25 days until work officially begins on remodeling our kitchen. Given that we have been in our house 9 years, my wife can hardly wait. While we have talked about it for years, the funds to actually proceed with the project as well as my urge to do it came to reality about six months ago when I made an innocent little comment. Something about “if we are going to spend X amount of money on the house, I’d put into the kitchen before I spent it on flagstone steps and landscaping.” That of course led to the question of how much will our kitchen cost? Well, four months and about a dozen designs later (yes it took that long to figure out my own kitchen) we finally had a plan and idea that we both love, and it fits into the price range we could afford. About mid December the cabinet order was placed, and on January the 4th, the cabinets went into production. Since that time, my wife has done holiday baking, birthday cakes and treats for our two young sons, and we entertained her family for Christmas, (as a fitting send off, my brother-in-law cooked a fabulous Prime Rib in our old and aging Hot Point oven) and at every step she was imagining where things would be in the new space.


While she is excited to get started and more importantly finished so she can start using her new double ovens, I am the one who is stressed. Where will we store things, how am I going to get all the painting and touch up finished after the drywall is installed, where will we eat breakfast, is the cabinet order right, how will we keep our 3 year old from driving his trains on the exposed electrical wires? Anything can be a train track to him. While the big items are decided (cabinets obviously, hardware and counters) we still need to pick a faucet and paint color for the kitchen. The only thing holding us back now is she is hosting a baby shower for a friend on the 5th of February, so the house can’t be in disarray. However as soon as people are gone, everything begins getting boxed up and packed away. So as Valentines Day approaches (yes the contractor begins demolition on February 14th) and couples are planning their romantic dates, nothing will say “I love you” to my wife more than seeing our old kitchen torn out.

Check back to see how we are progressing on the project, and as I offer my thoughts not only as a kitchen designer, but a customer as well.

Go to the photos...

- Andrew