Kitchen Remodel: REJECTED!

Yesterday was our final electrical inspection. It all went fine until just about the very end.

Rejected!

What?

How?

Apparently, on the peninsula between our kitchen and dining room we need an additional electrical outlet because the top of the cabinet facing into the dining room is 6" higher than the kitchen coungtertop which backs into it. That's right, since it is 6" taller it is being considered a "wall" so it needs to have an outlet ever so many feet. (see diagram below). Although the electrician put in an outlet on the side the cabinet (at the very end of the peninsula) that wasn't enough to satisfy the inspection.

So today the electrician came back today to put in an outlet. I had to be installed into the back of the cabinet facing into the dining room....so the outlet front faces into the kitchen. That meant the electrician had to cut a hole in the new dining room cabinet (which have glass doors...ick...get the idea?) to house the outlet. Fortunately it's not that visible, but it sure is a sad thing to see the cabinet marred with this.

To top it off, the inspector asked to see our breaker/fuse box. Noticing that there is no fuse box but a nice new circuit breaker box, he immediately asked when it got replaced (our house was built in 1959/60). Paul replied about 5 years ago by electrician so and so. The inspector said he'd check the inspection on record back at the office. Good thing Paul kept the inspection card from our basement remodel (when we replaced the box).

The rejected inspection card...
...rejection is so hard to take...

The purple outlines the edges of the Silestone countertop...
...which sits mostly on the dining room cabinet...
...that is about 6" higher than the kitchen countertop next to it...

A-a wall outlet facing into the kitchen from the wall (already there)
B-a wall outlet facing out from the end of the kitchen cabinet (already there)
C-where the inspector is making us put the additional outlet

A shot taken from laying on the floor...yuck!!
As Count Floyd might say, "Vow, kids...vasn’t it SCARY vhen we had to put in that outlet?"
We'll paint it white to match...hopefully it will hide it somewhat...
...and hopefully no visitors will lay on the floor next to it and look up...

The view from a seated position...
...fortunately you only see a small piece of the flexible conduit..
...which we'll paint and put something artfully in front of...
...note the child locks...Sammy can be a handful!

Kitchen Remodel: Cool, clear water!

Much progress is being made in our kitchen remodel this week. Monday's highlight was to have the plumber hook up the water in the kitchen (the sink faucet, garbage disposal, dishwasher, and refrigerator water line).


Since work started on our kitchen before Labor Day, this is a huge event for us. We turned on the sink faucet and gazed in contentment at the water coming out for a very long time.

The plumber showed up early on Monday...

Our much beloved Kohler Essex faucet (in "Vibrant Brushed Nickel") ...
...with water finally pouring out...

Kitchen Remodel: Corian Countertop Installation

This last week the much awaited Corian counter top got installed. Earlier they had come out and done some digital photographs using tape with patterns of dots on it to make the template. The counter top came in three pieces and first perfectly. All they had to do was lay it down and attach the pieces.

Paul asked the installers how much Corian counter tops they are installing these days. The guy said something like this is the third they've done in six months. Apparently everybody wants either Granite or one of those stone dust (Silestone, Cambria, etc) counter tops these days. We like the feel of the Corian and the look of the integrated seamless sink. And Corian is priced somewhere between Formica and granite. The main thing is that you can't put anything hot directly on the Corian counter top.

We're still waiting on the Silestone top for the cabinet which faces into the dining room--it is supposed to get installed next week.

The Corian counter top arrives...

Two of the three pieces have been laid down at this point...
...can you spot the seamless Corian sink?

This gizmo pulled the two slabs together so the adhesive could set...
...it looks like something from an old 1950's Sci-Fi movie ...

This is the "user manual" they gave us...

Kitchen Remodel: New Refrigerator Arrives

Now that the electrical is mostly done, we had the refrigerator delivered (the local store was kind enough to hold it in their warehouse for a month or so). It was a bit pricey to get a cabinet-depth refrigerator (to replace a perfectly good one) just to have a clean line of wall cabinets, but we think it was worth it--the wall on the side only barely comes out past the face of the cabinets and the old fridge it would have stuck out an additional 6 inches.

Little Sammy got a kick out of the appliance cardboard box he gets to play with now.

The fridge arrives...

The electricians previously installed the wall oven...
...here is one wall that is pretty much complete now...

Kitchen Remodel: Counter Template

This past Wednesday the Corian guy came to make the counter template so they could accurately fabricate our counter top. He put tape with patterns of dots on the wall and edges of the cabinets. Then he laid down some tiles on the top with more dots on them. Finally he took digital pictures from various angles. He said that he puts the photographs into some sort of software which then can calculate the counter top dimensions (based on how he joins up the dots in the photographs). In about two weeks we should have our counter tops installed!

Polka-dot tape and polka-dot panels...

What one of the polka-dot tiles looked like...

Kitchen Remodel: You Light Up My Life...

Yesterday (a Saturday) the electricians showed up to finish most of the electrical work. The put in the furnishings on the recessed lights, installed the wall oven, put in the outlets, and the under-cabinet lights. We went with the Kichler Series II Xenon under-cabinet lights. The electricians are a father and son operation, both very friendly, did excellent work, and we'd highly recommend them.

What was once lighted by a single 100 watt light bulb is now this...
...a "pot light"ed room that Candice Olson would (hopefully) approve of...

Kitchen Remodel: Cabinet Installation Part II

The second day of kitchen cabinet installation went well. For the most part the cabinets are installed (the have to return one more time for some minor finish details). The installers really had to work on a couple of spots to get the cabinets to look right (as it would seem, most houses do not have perfectly square and straight walls). Here's some photos of the kitchen now. Note the crown molding is installed too.

From the living room looking into the kitchen...

From the dining room looking into the kitchen...

From the dining room, again looking into the kitchen...

Veto inspects the new recycle center...

Kitchen Remodel: Cabinet Installation Part I

Today the long awaited event began -- the installation of our red oak quarter-sawn Shaker style kitchen cabinets. Paul put on a quick coat of Sherwin Williams Porcelain (SW 0053) before they came (they arrived at 7:30am). We were really impressed with the two installers, really nice guys who seemed to know what they are doing. They didn't finish today, so they will be back at 7:30 come this Monday morning. The Corian guy who will make the counter top template can't come until Wednesday. But so it goes...progress!

The cabinet maker's installers arrive!

Work begins!

Piecing it all together...

Our 17lb cat Veto inspects the work...
...from where he shouldn't be...
...where the counter top will be!

The refrigerator will go in the middle...
...we feel that we made the right decision to buy a cabinet depth refrigerator...
...so all the cabinets on this wall will be the same depth...

Another view of the cabinets on this wall...

Kitchen Remodel: Floor tile is now in....

Today the tile man put in the floor tile grout. Tomorrow they start installing the cabinets. Monday the Corian guy comes to make a template for the counter top fabrication. We're getting there...slowly...but we're getting there.

The tiled floor...

Kitchen Remodel: Tile Progress

The tile man continues his progress. The floor has now been leveled and he is laying tiles...

You can see the portion of "cement" he last put down in the lower left hand corner...

Tiling commences (note we started painting the walls)...

The tile guy is kind of neat, he seems to take his time to be accurate...
...which we like...

Kitchen Remodel: Where to Stop?!?

The tile subcontractor comes over to do some final measurements and stuff. Paul starts talking to him, and gets the idea that maybe we should re-tile the bathroom floor which goes into the entryway which goes into the kitchen. Then it's like, let's pull the tile off the walls to match the tile on the back-splash. Yikes. That would be an additional $2,000. Maybe we should wait on that. So we decided to tell the tiler to buy enough tile to tile the bathroom too, but we'll just keep it in a box for the future (so it will match).

But then we started thinking, if we were to spend additional money what would we spend it on? Probably the better question is where do we stop spending more money?

Our kitchen is very small...roughly 12'x12'. With the remodel, we won't have any place to put a little table even...meaning we use our dining room full time. So we're very concerned about how things seem to flow in the kitchen, visually as well as work-wise.

One thing that really bothers us is our Kitchen Aid refrigerator. Bought in 2003, it is a huge 33" by 33". OK, not so huge, but the wall of cabinets (see bottom of diagram below in the somewhat outdated remodel plan) comes out 24" from the wall, but to accommodate the refrigerator in the middle cabinet, the cabinet legs have to jut out like 6" further. Ick. So on the way home from work Paul stopped at an appliance store and they had a cabinet-depth (24") Kitchen Aid on sale for a very good price. So we took the plunge and bought it. That will allow us to have the cabinets on that wall all be a uniform depth of 24". Anyone want to buy our old refrigerator? (It won't make it down the stairs to the basement, so we can't keep it!)

You can see the bulge below...
...the new refrigerator will get rid of it...
...was it worth the money?

Here is our current refrigerator...
...its major fault is that it is not cabinet depth...

This is what our new refrigerator will look like...
...we would have preferred to get a cabinet-depth with the freezer on the bottom...
...but we got a really, really good deal...

Kitchen Remodel: The Tear-out

Here are the tear-out photos of the kitchen this week. The general contractor made it look easy, but there's no way we could have done it so quickly. The only mishap so far was when the contractor was tearing out the sink cabinet, he hit a copper pipe and broke it. A water geyser was going from the floor to the ceiling. Luckily the basement directly underneath is unfinished. So far we are happy with the general contractor. We hope it continues that way.

A big mystery was solved. For years Paul railed about a leak he thought he could hear in the walls. Michele never heard it. But Paul was certain that it was there. He agonized with fears of toxic mold growing in the ceiling of the kitchen (underneath the bathrooms above). So we had the contractor open up the ceiling to check the plumbing. It was in perfect condition. The dripping Paul heard was expansion of the pipes when hot water first passed through them. The plumber will anchor the pipes better to cut down on the noise.

The biggest change will be opening up a portion of the wall between the kitchen and dining room. See the before and after photo below...

The kitchen sans the stainless appliances...
...which are currently stored in our living room...

The remains of our cabinets...
...headed for the landfill or whatever...
...notice the stainless sink that Paul's father installed for us at the bottom...

Our kitchen sans the cabinets...
...see the two copper pipes coming up beneath the window?
The pipes there before were replaced after the contractor broke one...
...we wonder if we will have to pay for the emergency plumber visit...

A key reason to do the full remodel...
...was so Paul could get peace of mind...
...to know there were no leaks or mold in the ceiling...
...as the bank robber said in "Dirty Harry"...
"I gots to know"

The general contractor put up some poles to hold a tarp...
...this is before they cut the opening on the wall...
...between the dining room and kitchen...
...Paul put a garbage bag over the chandelier...
...note how the chairs are arranged...

Here's the key remodel change...
...note the wall, the sliding pocket door...
...and the pantry closet on the right...

And there it is...
...the opening is wider...
...and the pantry is gone...

Kitchen Remodel: "Before" Pictures

This week demolition started on our kitchen as the remodel kicked into high gear. The main feature of our remodel is to open the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This blog entry will show what we started with.

Our first floor layout...

Years Ago...

The kitchen right before we bought the house...
...notice the lovely wallpaper, light on the right, and bisque appliances...
...and *NO* dishwasher!

Again the kitchen right before we bought the house...
...notices the sink...
...Paul's father put in a stainless one later on...

Present Day

The kitchen right before the demo started...
...through the left door is the living room...

Here's the refrigerator that we bought that resulted in us getting all stainless appliances..
...note the new window...

More stainless appliances...
...they are often victimized by Sammy's fingers...
...often making the kitchen look like a CSI crime scene...
...notice our dishwasher...
...we were married for 13 years without one!

Through that doorway is the dining room...
...most of this wall will be gone soon...

No longer will we be able to have a table in the kitchen...
...this will host the refrigerator and the wall oven...

Through this doorway from the dining room is the kitchen...
...the red line shows where the wall will be cut out...

Our House that was...in 1998

Since we plan to soon remodel our kitchen, we thought it would be a good idea to show where we started with back when we first moved here in 1998.

Shortly before we closed on our house, Paul went and took some photographs of our new estate. We've removed all of the wallpaper downstairs, pulled up the carpets, refinished the wood floors, and so on. And now...for what was...

The first floor layout of our house...

The front of the house with the for sale sign...

Another angle showing the massive tree next to the house...

The back deck and a view of our four season porch...

The two car detached garage...

A view across the living room to the stairs going up...
...Michele made Paul remove the fugly light on the wall on the right...

The opposite view from the stairs across the living room...
...Michele made Paul throw out the electric yule log in the fireplace...

From the living room into the dining room...
...this was the first wallpaper we tore out...
...it had to go...
...through the doorway is our four-season porch...

The 80's style colonial kitchen...

More of the kitchen and the refrigerator we later replaced in 2003...
...Paul's father put in a stainless steel sink about that time too...

The metallic green wallpaper and matching window shade...

A view of the porch...
the sellers removed the furniture before closing..

Looking towards the dining room from the porch...
...we removed the fireplace as it took up too much room...

The allegedly finished basement...
...dark paneling, ceiling tiles, and itty-bitty windows...
...we later gutted this all out and put in egress windows...