Cabinets Installed

The kitchen really began to look like it would one day again be a functioning kitchen when the cabinets started to go in. First, our garage was filled with boxes.

Little did I know that it would be months before even one car could be put back in here. And winter was on its way.

Then, some of the boxes were moved inside.

Once installation got started, it went pretty quickly.

On the bar wall, there were problems with the fit of the cabinets. The original solution was to rip down my door casings. I was not open to this. Those door casings were in place when the kitchen was measured. So the small cabinet you see to the left of the large one with three openings was ordered in a narrower size. That solved the problem. Unless you have a top notch contractor, never accept their solutions. There is always a better one. We also didn't know at the time that the cabinet above the refrigerator, far right, was too tall. We noticed that when they tried to install the refrigerator. Another replacement had to be ordered.

Pantry cabinets. Doorway goes into dining room.

Sink wall. Sliding glass door is to the right.

Range wall.

Once the base cabinets were all in place, the perimeter countertops could be installed. You'll note all the light is coming from work lights. Why at least some of the can lights could not have been installed remains a mystery to me. The countertop fabricator had to work virtually in the dark since he needed to do our install after the sun went down.

Plastic is on the cabinets because they were still trying to get the ceiling smooth. While I protested this obvious illogical order of tasks, I was told "this is how we always do it". Likely my most hated phrase in the English language.

The cabinet crown molding was partially installed and it was completely wrong. Yes, I ordered it, but I didn't have a good reference for scale. The fact that I wanted something simpler than what the contractor normally does didn't go over either. We argued about this for months. We finally agreed on replacement at cost and I was eventually able to get a full sample kit to select the very best option the manufacturer offered.
I continue to be frustrated by the inability of an amateur designer to get access to the manufacturer materials for designers or distributors. Just because someone does something for a living doesn't mean they are any good at it.

We really love the large copper farmhouse sink. Turns out it is a bear to keep clean, however. And we do use it constantly, so it is not just for show. We did get it for a very good price at Van Dykes Restorers.

We put a prep sink in the peninsula. We just love this. While not in yet, there is a glass high bar planned for the back of the peninsula. So, I can be prepping dinner and guests can be seated right in front of me.

This is where the high bar will go. It will stop to the left edge of the cabinet door on the far right. This cabinet actually works, while the others are just door panels. It made sense to me to put this cabinet facing this way for the grill tools since the sliding glass door leading out to the deck with the grill is right there.

We opted for the chimney style hood. It has to be vented outside and this was another curious "change order". Apparently the contractor had no clue how to vent outside. The hood specified had to be vented. So, our solution (which was how to vent it) was "extra". Had it been more than they quoted I would have fought back, but it was cheaper to just get it done. By this time I seriously wanted these folks out of my house.

Notice the ceiling is still not finished. But the ceiling crown is in place. That was another price compromise. Apparently, "finish trim to match" was vague enough for debate. The trim work throughout the house was in place and this crown would be "to match". Why else would I not have gone to the ceiling with the cabinets? Because I specifically wanted the crown I selected for the entire house to continue into the kitchen. Only part of it had cabinets, so using cabinet crown in the whole room would not have looked like I wanted. Plus, I can't reach the top cabinets as it is. The others to go to the ceiling would have been expensive and inaccessible.

We are big fans of disposals. Even in the little cabinet under the prep sink you can fit a 3/4 horse disposal. We like the ones with the cap that acts as the switch. Seems safer and you don't need to find the space for a wall switch.

Meanwhile the laundry room cabinets were also put in place. Here again they must have used that defective tape measure from China. We had to have the cabinets moved further to the left and the garage stop trim at the bottom of the baseboard removed to fit the washer and dryer, which was existing in the old space when measurements were taken. Now I'm gritting my teeth every time these guys are in my house.

The metal rack will hold 4 cloth laundry bags. We purchased it and had the short wall placed to just fit. On top of that will be a countertop that lifts up on a hinge. So, we get a folding table plus full access to the laundry bags.

At this point in the project we are closing in on Christmas, the original deadline. Doesn't look like we will make it, does it? Check out the next post and see what happens.

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!