Next Steps

While the rough-in work was going on, it was time to make additional finish selections in the kitchen. We had selected the door style and finishes for the cabinets when we ordered them. We also needed to find countertops and flooring. Then, we already started the process of selecting the paint color for the kitchen and the fabric for the treatment on the sliding glass door.

Here are some of our initial selections, some that we stuck with, others that we changed our mind on:

Door style is represented by the door on the right and that finish would be for the island and the bar wall. The finish on the door on the left, but not the style, was the one selected for the perimeter cabinets and pantry cabinets. Flooring choice is on the bottom. Countertop choice for perimeter cabinets is the little square. Paint color is the chip on the bottom of the center fabric swatch. Center fabric swatch was choice for sheers on the sliding glass doors. Fabric swatches on the left and right were options for the solid drapery on the sliding glass doors.

Flooring needed to be ordered right away, so that commitment was made early. One criterion for flooring is that it is dirt-colored. That's right, floors that look like dirt. Because if you can't tell if the floor is clean or dirty, you don't have to clean it that often. I can't stand floors that show dirt. I don't have time to clean them every day and some floors require that to look clean. Not my floors. Out of sight, out of mind. I highly recommend dirt-colored floors to everyone.

Fabric and paint could wait. We did use the fabric on the left ultimately, but selected a different style of drapery that did not pair with sheers, so we didn't end up using the sheer fabric at all. I'll show photos of the finished back doors when we get to that.

Countertop would need to coordinate well with the movement stone we wanted for the island and bar wall. We considered the type of stone we had in our old kitchen, Capella, but we couldn't find it. Turns out it would have had too strong and too large a pattern given the size of our island and bar. So, we found this stone instead, Golden Crystal, and it is truly spectacular:

You can see the scale in this photo.

This photo provides a tighter view of the pattern.

The original little square sample of the countertop selection for the perimeter cabinets looked a lot like this, but it was quartz. Turned out that little sample didn't look like the larger material it would have been made out of. Our countertop contractor, Constantino, who was a true craftsman, noticed this and brought it to our attention before we made the mistake of ordering it. This photo represents the granite we actually bought, Tropical Brown. It really worked beautifully with the Golden Crystal granite for the island and bar.

While we were making selections, drywall was being installed over all the rough-in electrical and plumbing work that was now nearly complete.

They started with the ceiling and unfortunately had not yet moved that copper supply line you can see running vertically on the left side of the photo. This would have to be patched later.

Drywall up, but seams still need work.

View looking toward the eat-in area.

It was about this point in the project where some things started to go awry. The subfloor, for some reason, was not all on one level. It had to be for the radiant heat and ultimately the tile. The contractor wrote in the specs that the subfloor would be removed as necessary, but when they found spongy areas they felt needed to be replaced, they also felt that was a "change order". In the contract such change orders had to be estimated in writing. Well, we were all friends, right? No need for such formality. Not so much.

We had to argue about this point over and over, not just on the subfloor issue, but about 4-5 other issues as well and it was emotionally a turning point for me in the project. I had to demand that any time they thought an item was out of scope I did have to have that in writing and agree to it, and the estimated additional charges as well, before any work could be done. This proved to be quite difficult for them to do as it apparently cramped their style. We had to haggle over several items, none of which was technically a "change order". Mike Holmes on HGTV will tell you that when you change your mind as a customer about the specifications, that it is a change order and you have to expect to pay more. When the contractor doesn't do a good job of estimating, however, that is his problem. I stuck to my guns, but it made for a miserable experience for me from this point forward.

Meanwhile the radiant heating tubes went in and the mud that makes the finished floor ready to tile was also installed. Both of these subcontractors did a great job. It was a little tricky with the mudding because every entrance to our house was touched by this. That means that while it was drying we wouldn't be able to get in and out of our house. That wasn't going to work. So, they organized the work so that the front door area would be done first and have the most time to dry before we came home. Then, it would also have a ramp that would get us to the stairs so that we could at least access the bedroom and bath.

Since we couldn't easily get in and out of the house while this installation was taking place, we did not get many in-progress photos. Here you can see the kitchen mudding is finished and the back hall is not yet mudded. Those white tubes are woven back and forth throughout the floor to carry hot water to heat the floor, and the entire room, evenly.

Kitchen ready for tiling.

Entry hall looking into dining room. Those are pieces of drywall on the floor. That was our ramp to get to the stairs from the front door while the mud was drying and curing.

Here is the view from the entry hall into the living room on the left and the kitchen at the top.

Another stressful event was the delivery of the tile. The contractor could not supply the tile, which was fine, so we had to go direct to the tile store, which was also fine. Then, the tile had to get to our house somehow. Well, neither the tile store nor the contractor expected to do this and we were not informed that there was an issue until the day before the tile was needed at the house to be installed. You might not be able to imagine this, but three full rooms and a hallway of tile is a lot of tile. It is heavy and takes up a lot of room. The two vendors pointed fingers and cast aspersions on each other, neither of which was going to get tile to our house. You know, if someone had actually acknowledged the miscommunication, treated me like a customer, and provided me some time and options I might have made delivery arrangements myself and paid for it. But, the entire juvenile exchange coupled with no time caused me to finally suggest that there was no other solution than for us to pick up the tiles ourselves and that it would take many trips. The contractor agreed to participate in this and so with two vehicles we delivered all this tile in two trips. But, what a friggin nightmare. And completely unnecessary.

I always want to end on a positive note. So, here are some photos of the floor nearing completion. The tile selection was perfect. The design worked fabulously. And the tile contractor did a terrific job installing our design. Take a look:

View from upstairs down into the entry hall. Tile is not all set yet and it is not grouted.

View from entry hall looking toward the living room on the left and kitchen at the top. Tile is completely installed and grouted.

Finished flooring in the kitchen.

Closer look at the kitchen tile pattern. It is a combination of the large squares used in the entry hall with large rectangles and smaller squares. We really love the random pattern over such a large space.

Laundry room floor. Notice we switched here to 13" x 13" squares in a running bond pattern. This was a less expensive pattern for the laundry and back hallway. Using the same tile in different sizes and patterns is a great way to define individual rooms and save money too.

Next time we make an exciting transition from pure construction to cabinet installation. Look for the next post.

On Second Thought

One of the great things about the planning process is that you get to change your mind. In the original plan for the kitchen, we didn't even consider tackling the laundry room, which we hated. But, as I thought about it, there would be no better time to do that construction. Plus, what was nagging at me was the flooring. The gray/pink oddly shaped tiles continued through the kitchen down the back hall and around the corner into the other back hall that contained the closet for the washer and dryer. The room we were using as an office was at the end of the back hall and it had a closet. Of course the closet had some stuff in it, but that room was never going to be useful as a bedroom, so we didn't need that closet in that room. So, it just made sense to blow through the laundry closet into that other closet and make a real laundry room. Likely the best decision of the entire renovation. Here is what that started to look like in the early stages of construction.

The door was removed and would be replaced with a window.

The wall between the two closets has been removed. Plumbing and electrical would also have to be moved to accomodate the new layout with the washer and dryer on the outside wall.

Window being installed.

Finished window and siding replaced. We actually found extra siding in the basement, so we used that. Of course even when you have the same material it won't match because the siding on the house was out in the weather for 25 years. But, close enough and no matter what we did it wouldn't match. This is on the back of the house.

Inside view with new window and electrical rough in.

Framed doorway leading into new laundry room. Door to right leads to powder room.

Putting the washer and dryer on the outside wall was required to make this layout work. We really wanted the sink with the cabinets and that would have to go on the outside wall also. Having plumbing on an inside wall in colder climates is preferable, but we figured our kitchen sink plumbing was on an outside wall, so why not?

Progress continued to be made. Here are some shots of the next steps.

Rough in plumbing in place along with insulation. The white box to the far right with the yellow hose is a gas line. We do not have a gas dryer, but the owners before us did and they are quite popular in this part of the country. So, whenever you are doing construction consider the options and put them in while the walls are open and the additional option costs incrementally nothing.

Sink would be positioned under the window.

It is a great day when drywall goes in. Makes you think it is getting finished. Of course, that is when the project really starts to slow down because drywall is no where near the finish line.

Even unfinished, this view is far superior to the door that was there with laundry piled in front of it.

While the laundry room was getting done, so was the kitchen. Next post we will look at that along with some of the finish options we chose along the way.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

You know you hate your kitchen when you think it looks better after demolition. Here is a reminder of what we started with:

This is from the first night we owned the house, looking into the kitchen from the eat-in area.

Closer into the kitchen.

Looking from the kitchen into the eat-in area.

Daytime shot of kitchen. We originally thought this soffit was just 80's decoration. Turned out every last line of plumbing and electrical in practically the entire house ran through there. We dealt with that in the master bath renovation, which left our ceiling gutted for months.

While there are quite a few odd elements to this kitchen, the pantry closet in the middle of the wall was a real space stealer. It was also unattractive.

Looking into the kitchen from the family room. The little wall covered in flowered wallpaper wasn't that great of a view.

Looking into the eat-in area. You'll notice the door to the garage on the right just on the other side of the opening into the hall. Yes, it faces the other way. So, you are always in your own way going in and out of the garage from the kitchen, which would be the primary path.

With our roof all finished and new skylight in place, demo of the kitchen was the next step in the construction process. But first, cabinets and appliances needed to be on order. The cabinet order was placed based on our final design selection, which I shared in a previous post. Cabinets take 4-6 weeks. And the type of appliances we were ordering would take nearly as long. We had done our research long before we decided to move forward with the kitchen project, so we were ready.

We really missed our Five Star range from the old house. The fully enclosed gas burners that went from very low to very high heat were perfect for a home chef. We could not fit the 48" model we had with six burners, a grill/griddle and both electric and gas ovens, but the 36" with 4 burners, a grill/griddle, and one gas oven would work great. Some of our fondest memories with our grandchildren was making pancakes on that griddle on Sunday mornings.

The single oven Five Star range gave me an opportunity to have two ovens that were both full-sized. The electric oven would be a wall mounted KitchenAid with many baking features such as bread proofing and steam baking and the one we selected came in a combo model with a microwave. I was really looking forward to using all these cool features.

At the advice of the sales person, we selected the KitchenAid french door refrigerator/freezer with freezer drawer. We really struggled with selecting the refrigerator. We had a SubZero in the old house, which was great, but these were topping $12,000 now. By selecting a counter depth unit, we could save over $9,000. That is a ton of money. We were nervous, but we went with this unit and hoped for the best. Sneak preview: we really love it.

We liked our GE dishwasher at the old house with cabinet door on it and Smart Dispense. Smart Dispense is where you can put an entire Costco sized container of liquid automatic dishwasher detergent in the dispenser and it dispenses each time you wash. Perfect for the lazy homeowners we are. So, we got one for this house.

We already had a GE ice machine from our first failed attempt at purchasing a home here in NY. See one of my first posts for more on that. It was the same model we had in our old house. Alan really likes a lot of ice and this machine makes really cool little restaurant style cubes. I can't find it on the web anymore, so maybe they don't make these now. Doesn't bode well for repair or replacement parts, but these are pretty simple machines. Other brands do still make an ice machine unit for the home.

The new kitchen design allowed for two new appliances that we did not have before: beverage center and warming drawer. Because we had selected the KitchenAid oven/microwave combo and the warming drawer would go directly below those, we opted for the KitchenAid warming drawer. I never really thought I needed one of these, but it would fit and I figured we should put it in while we were at it. Seemed like an item that would be expected in a kitchen like the one we were building. And, it turns out it comes in pretty handy after all. I've used it more that I ever thought I would.

We also selected the KitchenAid beverage center. The reason we liked this one is that it was designed for soft drinks and beer as well as wine. And, it boasted three temperature zones. It was the only one I saw that had that feature. We are very pleased with it, but I did learn that the three temperature zones are not separately controlled. The unit is designed to be colder at the top where the soft drinks go and warmest at the bottom where the red wine goes. All three temperatures are measured and displayed on an LED screen, but you can't control each of them. A stickler for exact wine temperature would not appreciate this. But, we couldn't fit three units in our kitchen, so this was way better than one temperature for sure.

Demolition day was here. I was stunned at how big a space it really was with that closet taken out.

Where sink was and where new sink would go.

Pantry closet was now gone. It is hard to see, but there is yet another copper pipe that was hidden in the wall. It is right in front of the black drain pipe, about a foot into the room. It would have to be moved.

This is looking into what was the kitchen. I was really happy with this space and could see how our vision would begin to take shape.

Another view of the wall where the pantry closet was and where the new refrigerator, ovens, warming drawer, and ice machine would go.

This wall is where the new pantry cabinets would go. You can see the baseboard heating unit. Those would all be removed in the kitchen, entry hall, and back hall since we were going to use radiant heat.

This was an exciting time. The old was out and the new was beginning to take shape. Next post I'll show the laundry room portion of the project and some of our other early design selections. Stick around!

When It Rains, It Pours

Just as we were finalizing our kitchen plans and getting ready to sign the contract on the project, a long and powerful storm came through. Heavy rain pelted our house for over a day along with high winds. And then, water started to pour into our entry hall. It was coming from the second story ceiling at the edge of the chase for the skylight. We knew that if the roof started to fail it would need to be replaced. But, what we did not know was that what looked like a scratch on the skylight was actually a crack. So, we had to get a new roof and a new skylight.

The faint of heart might have pushed back the kitchen project, but we are not faint of heart. And, a roof is maintenance, not renovation, in our minds. Boring. But, necessary. We got a quote from the company we were going with for the kitchen. And that is when this other person, a co-owner come to find out, appeared out of nowhere at the contractor. But, I must admit, the roof project went well, so we had no red flags at that point. It got done within a week and considering it included the skylight and UV film installation on the skylight, the price seemed in line.

Here are some photos from the installation:

We like the look of the new roof with the architectural shingles. And the skylight is much better than the old one, which had that domed top. Next up, kitchen demolition.

Bigger Plans

In one of my earlier posts I stated that I cannot write blog posts while in the midst of doing actual renovation work myself. I reached that point in January of this year and have been busy ever since. But, let's go back.

As we were getting closer to finishing the master suite, we were heading into the Fall and that meant Winter was not far behind. So, with our kitchen ceiling completely gone to allow access for all the electrical and plumbing rerouting, we faced a choice. Either get going on the kitchen project, or wait until Spring. I've also mentioned before that patience is not my virtue. Plus, I didn't think I could stand looking at that open ceiling and working in the kitchen such that it was with only one single bulb for light.

We would have had to have lived with this from October to April if we didn't decide to move forward with the kitchen right away. I couldn't do it.

We jumped into the kitchen design process. When we designed our last kitchen, we had a small catalog of KraftMaid cabinet specs. That was really helpful. I had given it to a friend because at the time I had no idea I'd need it again. And, I didn't think it would be difficult to get another one. Well, I was wrong. Not only did I need it, but it would be impossible to get another one. Customers were simply not allowed to have that information anymore. You were supposed to work with a kitchen designer at a distributor and they would design your kitchen. I tried that before. It does not work. I'm a really good designer and I just can't stand trying work work through someone else. I guess I would have had to sign up as a distributor of KraftMaid to get access. I couldn't figure out how designers got access to this stuff and since I'm only designing for myself that might have been difficult also. But, my husband, Alan, came to my rescue. He arrived home one day with the complete dealer catalog. That store will never miss it.

Here is the first design we did. We refined it many times as we were creating this design and tried a number of placements for the refrigerator, but kept the range and sink in the same spot since we were not open to moving the window and there was only enough room for certain items to be in certain places once the sink was set under the window. The pantry cabinets filled an otherwise unused space and allowed us to get rid of the pantry closet that was in the middle of the kitchen. You can see that on the left side of the photo above.

We started the process of looking for a contractor at this point. We had been pleased with the work of the subs we had used thus far, but both the plumber and the carpenter were doing our projects on the side. And, business in their day jobs had really picked up. The kitchen was a big project and we didn't see how we were going to get the work done as a second or third priority. Our design required replacement of everything, so going down to the subfloor and studs, not only in the kitchen, but the back hall and laundry area as well because the floor continued through to those rooms. Kitchens take a long time anyway and we didn't want to be completely without one any longer than necessary. That turned out to be longer than we thought, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Being new to the area really made trying to find resources difficult. We looked at two turnkey contractors and one that did KraftMaid, but only could do the cabinets and countertops. We liked KraftMaid, and had used that brand in our old kitchen, but the fear of taking too long and trying to balance subs we did not know made us lean to the turnkey companies. We had worked with Lowe's before and did so on the master bath, but that was a small project in comparison and we did find it painfully slow in the design and ordering process. Remember, I did not have my catalog then, so I was stuck working with person at the store. Painful. One day I thought I was going to have to take some medication. I was ready to leap over the desk and start entering stuff on the computer myself.

We did what research we could on the selection of vendors we had gotten estimates from and ultimately went with a company that we learned had done a colleague's kitchen, and they were very pleased with how their kitchen turned out. This company also had a lower estimate, by a little bit (way under would have been a red flag) than the other turnkey company. They also seemed very optimistic about turning the project around quickly, our deadline was before Christmas because I did not want to be without a kitchen for two holidays, mostly because I figured we'd be responsible for getting ourselves a meal on those days given we would likely be home.

While we were getting these estimates, we rethought the design a couple of times. First, we determined that we did not need an office space in the kitchen since with the price of this renovation we were not going to be repurposing the office we already had right down the hall. At first we thought we might put a master suite downstairs. Not sure the market will ever support that level of investment, so our office was going to stay just as it was. I had seen a lot of banquettes in magazines and thought that would be a space saver and allow for seating in the kitchen. I decided that eat-in was a good feature and more valuable for resale than an office space.

Then, after we had selected the contractor, I had one other idea. If we were going through all this expense, I really hated the laundry area and this would be the only time I could make the necessary changes at the lowest possible cost. So, this lead to our final design. This gave us a real laundry room and I could get rid of that useless back door that I piled laundry up in front of. I also gave up on the banquette. Seems like I'd have to figure out how to build that myself, since none of the contractors had a clue. And, I decided a table against the wall would be more comfortable for four and would look very NY loft. Sometimes the easiest solution is the best.

Here are the final renderings we went with:

You'll note the bar that is in our original drawing is not here.  Turned out the contractor didn't know how to do that and we ended up having to outsource that ourselves.

Perimeter cabinets would be midtone finished maple and island would be expresso finished cherry.

We really liked the farmhouse sink style and planned for this one to be copper.

This wall would be all expresso finished cherry.

Pantry cabinets would be midtone finished maple.

Laundry room required opening up into the adjoining room's closet and replacing the exterior door with a window.

We also had a folding table and small closet for vacuum, mop, and so forth.

We selected off-white inexpensive cabinets for the laundry since it was not a public room and we could save some money. Plus it would brighten up this small space.

And we were off and running on the new kitchen. One of my favorite pieces of office humor is the five stages of a project:

Enthusiasm
Disillusionment
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Innocent
Praise and Rewards for the Non-Participants

Little did I know at the time that while we had been relatively lucky in our work up to this point, the kitchen would be the project that followed the five stages very closely. Stay tuned!

But let's close on a positive note. While we were deeply embroiled in a difficult kitchen project, the finishing touches came together in the master bath.

We just love this space! It gave us a happy place to go during the kitchen project.

The vanity has its own mirror and adjustable under cabinet lighting.

Large mirror is great to check your outfit and looks great from the bedroom.