Kitchen Projects

Last Sunday my parents unexpectedly watched Lillian for the day.  What a treat! Instead of slothing around like we usually do, I wanted to get some kitchen remodeling projects wrapped up.  Our Japanese guest Kayoko arrived to stay with us Thursday and that motivated me to get a lot of things done last week!

After a delicious, inexpensive, large portioned lunch at Lavash Cafe, Alex and I measured, measured, measured, then cut and installed the toe kicks.  I can't believe we waited so long for this little finish job.  It was pretty quick and makes the cabinets look much more complete.

Then I was inspired to cover the gaping hole above the stove.  I tested whether a piece of cork would fit.  With a little modification (cutting off the 'tongue' on one side) it did!  Alex pulled out the finish nailer and fastened it into place.

That only leaves two projects: countertops and trim.  Alex has the Concrete Countertops Made Simple book out of the library again and I overheard him telling Kayoko that he will build them this summer.  I'll believe it when I see it.  ;)

Where the kitchen remodel stands

You'll notice something about this blog. The moment the kitchen became usable, all posting switched to food and gardening topics. That's not because we love writing about food and gardening more - it's because we haven't done a damn thing to finish the kitchen! Back in February, when we went to Florida, I took a slew of pictures documenting what the finish work remaining. I hoped to have time to blog there, but between the slow as molasses internet connection and exhaustion from vacationing, I didn't get a chance. Sadly, the pictures still reflect what is done and un-done.

Here's the rundown:

Cabinets, sink, and appliances installed!

Hole above the stove, still there:

Painting done!

Trim around floors, doors, and windows, not so much:

Flooring installed and finished!

Hand built concrete countertops, not yet:

I think that is all we have left. With the warming weather and growing garden it is difficult to discipline ourselves to do housework instead of yardwork. Maybe it would help if I give us a deadline and y'all can hold us accountable. How about June 15? The countertops will take time but I think 45 days is reasonable.

Thanks for all of you who have asked and/or visited to see progress. Maybe after it's all done we'll hold a kitchen grand opening party!

Label yer Boxes

We moved out of our old kitchen so fast that we just threw things in boxes and stacked them around the basement.  (Which was already filled to the brim with Baying Hound stock, of course.) We labeled one box KNIVES because I figured it was important that no one cut themselves accidentally, reserving two knives for use while we were without a kitchen.

After the cabinets were installed, we started moving things back in, but not everything because we are sorting as we go.  It went like this:

Find a cabinet for wine glasses, look through 47 boxes in the basement, then carry wine glasses upstairs.

Get interupted by Lil for 10 minutes.

Find a cabinet for mixing bowls, look through 46 boxes in the basement because by now we've forgotten which one had mixing bowls in it.

And on and on and on.

Two weeks into the moving in process, we still couldn't find our regular use spices.  Fancy and odd spices we had in spades: all the whole seeds to make fresh curry powder, whole allspice, 2 varieties of mustard powder, vanilla beans.  But nothing everyday like cinnamon or basil.  Our dinners were tasty but missing those comfort additives.

We tore out our hair looking for the spices but they were not in any boxes!

You know by now where the story is going, right?

I finally pulled up the knives a few days ago.  Tucked right in with them were all the everyday spices.

The one box I labeled was not even labeled well.  Sigh.

Cabinet doors, drawers and first meal!

We have been plugging away at all the little tasks that add up to huge advancements in functionality. Appliances came in the late afternoon Tuesday.  Alex worked on the dishwasher first because dirty dishes were piled up and clean dishes no where to be found.  It installed pretty easily.

The fridge ice maker and stove were another matter.  The handy installation kits failed to include critical parts in both cases, so another trip to Lowes was required.

(Aside: I counted on our credit card bill how many times we've been to Lowes recently.  Drumroll please: a whopping 22 times since 12/22/08.)

By Wednesday afternoon, appliances were up and running.  We made our first meal in the new kitchen Wednesday night.  The menu wasn't exciting because we didn't have much prep time, but it was so much fun to cook again.

In every spare moment, I have been building cabinet drawers, drilling holes, and attaching handles.  Finally this afternoon I had the whole wall of lower cabinets completed under the pass through!

Alex worked on upper cabinets today and now those are completed too.   We had another delicious home cooked meal tonight of chicken, goat cheese twice baked potatos, wilted local kale (from our CSA), and brownies.

Delays and Fixes

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I've actually been doing most of the work and haven't had time! Saturday, my Dad came over and we started to hang the upper cabinets. We realized we needed some hardware, and Alex needed a faucet to complete the sink project. Off to Lowes for the millionth time.

We finally had a 10% off coupon, so we bought appliances, lights, faucet and everything else we thought we might need. Appliances will be delivered tomorrow! Exciting!

So we came home and resumed hanging the upper cabinets. It is a pretty quick job, even with my Dad's obsessive leveling. He and Alex installed two new lights (of four) next.

On Saturday evening, Alex finished the sink plumbing. Look - it works!

Yesterday we took the day off to go to IKEA and return cabinets. We even returned one wall cabinet that was spared by the last revision in plans. The return was painless and pickup of new cabinets was a piece of cake too. I was surprised to find out that other than used bedding, cut fabric, or mattresses, everything is returnable.

We managed to keep other purchases to a minimum: two pot racks to flank the range, dish drainer, and an ice cream cone.

Starting to look like a real kitchen

Today Leonard and Alex worked on plumbing and finishing up electrical work. Then they installed the range hood, a Broan 'Best' 36 inch. It is quiet yet really powerful. It will be so nice to get heat out of the house instead of hearing the fire alarm go off every time Alex cooks.

I worked on cleaning up after the boys and building cabinets. The first three boxes (including the sink cabinet below) were easy peasy.

Then I dug in to the skinny (12 7/8 inch deep vs. standard 24 inch) cabinets to go below the pass through on the kitchen side and opposite the range.

I was really confused because everything we had left looked like a wall cabinet. Digging into our order, I realized everything ordered was wall cabinets. I did some research on IkeaFans and found that indeed skinny cabinets are wall boxes. Fine.

I opened up one of our 5 18 inch skinny cabinets to start building. It wasn't quite lining up as I thought it should. Finally when I got to the back, I called Alex in to consult on the direction of the back. We realized that the whole thing was the wrong orientation. Instead 30 inches tall and 18 inches wide, it was 30 inches wide and 18 inches tall. With a lot of work we could modify this to work, but it didn't seem right.

I called our localish (Cincinnati) IKEA and talked to someone in the kitchen department. He confirmed that we should have received 18 x 30 cabinets and the ones we had were all wrong. He said to take the cabinet apart carefully and we could return for the right cabinets, which they have in stock. Great.

So now we'll spend Alex's last day off work driving to Cinci to exchange cabinets instead of building and installing cabinets. At least we can see our good friends Kevin and Maureen while we're there.

To end the day on an up note, Lil helped me build three doors for one cabinet so we could see the whole thing put together. Looks good, don't you think?

(I apologize for the spotty quality of the photos. I'm using my phone (T-Mobile G1) because it's easier than the camera to upload to the web.)

Cork flooring!

After a slow start due to last night's celebrating, Len and Alex began installing Expanko floating cork flooring. They struggled through the first third until they eventually decided to brace against a different wall. Then things moved more quickly and the whole room is now corked!

We each left marks in the room, our own 2009 time capsule of sort as pictured below.

Sand and Paint, Sand and Paint

Today I sanded, primed, and painted while the guys finished electrical. It was a Homestead Resort Tea Room Yellow kind of day.  The color was really bright and I hated it at first, but now that the whole room is done it looks pretty good.  The dark floors and medium tone cabinets should mellow the yellow.

We had intended to lay the cork floors last night, but we wimped out around 10:30 and decided to celebrate new year's eve instead.  We drank and watched videos until the ball dropped.  Happy 2009 everyone!