Finally...

At long last we have a functioning kitchen and you have a blog post to read about it.  I have uploaded photos to picasa for your viewing pleasure.


Unfortunately, I have not been keeping up with this as well as I had originally planned and that results in a loss of some of the particulars of various hiccups along the way.  I will touch on some of them, but if you ever have a specific desire for a more detailed account of anything, let me know.  I don't want to bore everyone with every detail.


Well, the countertop install went fairly well.  It took the guys several hours to install the counters, but there weren't any major problems.  Because we chose to do an undermount sink, the sink had to be installed at the same time as the countertops.  It was hooked up (plumbing-wise) the following day.  Over the course of the next few days, I got the dishwasher, refrigerator and stove installed.  Of course, the range and dishwasher wouldn't just slide into their new home, so that took some extra cussing and finagling, but eventually they were in and happy.


The backsplash has yet to be installed.  My original plan was to attempt to tackle it myself, but with the impending arrival of the next generation, I think we'll pay someone to do it.  I'm dragging my feet right now because I became tired of spending money and worried about possible financial obligations associated with the family expansion.  I am finally relaxing a little and will probably get the ball rolling on that soon.   There are some other "punch list" items to which I need to tend.  I need to spray a few cabinet doors.  I have a couple of sheetrock repairs. Eventually, Jenny wants a new shelf unit built, painted and installed, but she has told me that there's no rush. 

There was a bit of kitchen sink fiasco which I don't feel like delving into.  The kitchen sink got clogged up, I tried to straighten it out and couldn't.  I called a plumber out (see previous posts to get a feel for my love of plumbers).  The plumber was friendly enough and not pushy.  He got the sink working again, but not before telling me that the cast iron drain pipe has rotted out underneath the slab.  It will eventually have to be replaced.  This costs north of $2K and will involve breaking up the slab in our dining room under our new tile floors in order to replace the offending section of pipe.  He reassured me that this is not uncommon and that he has presonally had to do this to over a dozen homes in my neighborhood because of the cast iron pipes that were used in construction 50 years ago.  Awesome.

In an effort to end on a positive note, we are thoroughly enjoying our new kitchen.  We are happy with how all of our ideas came together.  I have spent the last week and a half working on the new nursery so a blog post and pictures of that will follow shortly.  No, really, I mean it this time.  I will post again soon. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Countertops and More

Our countertops will be installed today. Hopefully everything goes well, and there's a follow-up post this evening with pictures of a nearly complete kitchen. Beau has the applicances scheduled for delivery tomorrow, and the plumber lined up to take care of some small things. After that, all that's left is back splash.

I can't wait to have my kitchen back. A few weeks ago, I was instructed by my doctor to cut-out carbs to help manage my blood sugar, which I've done before, and it's totally managable... with a kitchen. Eating grilled chicken with vegetables from various take-out places around town has gotten old.

A lot of progress has also been made in the soon-to-be nursery. Mom came over last week and helped us move furniture out of it. Beau pulled up the carpet then painted and put down laminate wood floor. Thanks to Miranda for color selection, and Nathan, Michael, and Chris will the flooring help. It was quite nice to leave in the morning for a day at the spa with Miranda and friends and come home to a room with new flooring in it! Beau put trim up in the room this week, and we've been working on filling and caulking it. For obvious reasons, the kitchen has taken priority.

Hopefully pictures will follow soon!!

Getting closer...

Although the progress isn't visible, it is real.  The slabs for our counter tops have arrived in Baton Rouge!  Jenny and I went to check them out on Friday and choose how we want the counters to be cut from them.  The fabricator was happy, maybe even impressed, with the quality of the slabs.  We are now waiting for the fabricator to cut and finish the stone and then install!  I'm hoping that we can get them installed next week, but I'm probably being overly optimistic. 

Now it's time for a pair of rants and a rave.  

I hate plumbers.  No, really.  I am thoroughly convinced that plumbing is the single biggest rip-off in home renovation.  I got an estimate to run the gas line for our stove.  There are two different lines that can be tapped into that are easily accessible in our attic and don't require any long or complicated runs.  Yes, the line has to be plumbed down the wall.  It is not that big of a deal.  Guess what the estimate was.  Most people have guessed in the $500 range given the tone of my explanation.  $1000!  That's right, a grand for maybe $200 worth of material and probably 2 hours work.  He even readily admitted that this job was pretty straightforward. 

We ordered our sink from Amazon.  Jenny had a couple of gift cards that she had been awarded through work and their prices were reasonable.  We found an enameled cast iron undermount sink that we liked.  It shipped through a freight carrier because it was too big to ship via fed-ex, ups, etc.  I tracked down the carrier to schedule a delivery (long story - amazon was very helpful).  When the sink arrived, I opened it up to inspect it before signing off on the delivery.  Good thing I did, the sink was broken in two places.  That's special guys, you managed to break a cast iron sink, twice.  I sent it back and called Amazon.  Amazon said that since I had refused delivery, they could get another on its way immediately.  I asked if they could expedite the shipment, but because of the delivery method it wasn't an option.  Because they couldn't expedite it, they gave me $75 back (thanks!) and sent me another sink.  Lesson learned - Amazon rocks!

We ordered our hood vent from Homeclick.com.  It said "in stock" and probably still does on their website.  I called customer service because the ship on date came and went.  The guy said he would have to contact a vendor and get back to me.  (Isn't it in stock?)  He didn't get back in touch with me.  The following week I call again.  "The computer says it's in our warehouse.  That means it should ship out tomorrow if it didn't go today. Let me put you on hold while I contact our warehouse."  *hold*  "Uh, they aren't answering their phone.  It probably shipped out today or will tomorrow.  Sorry you didn't get contacted after your last call, the computer must have screwed up."  Doubtful.  Amazon sent me 2 sinks via freight carriers in the time it sent Homeclick to fed-ex me one in-stock item.  Customer Service - unsatisfactory.  I DO NOT RECOMMEND HOMECLICK.

Being without a kitchen sink and counter tops has been a bit annoying, but hopefully the kitchen will be usable soon!  After counter tops, appliances go in and then backsplash and we are done!  

That's when work begins on the nursery... :)

I haven't forgotten about this!

The Kitchen remodel is still putting along.  I didn't post for a long time because most of the work that was done was little stuff (like finishing the sheet rock behind the fridge, removing cabinet doors, etc.) that wasn't really interesting.  Now, we are finally in the homestretch.

The kitchen was painted a couple of weeks ago and it didn't go swimmingly.  I think perhaps my expectations were too high, you be the judge.

When it came to painting the cabinets, I decided to call in an expert for a few reasons.  First, I know how long it takes me to paint and I knew that a professional could get the job done more quickly.  Second, I wanted the super smooth finish of an airless sprayer.  These tools are awesome pieces of equipment that require experience (that I don't have) to operate.  Third, by the time I rented all of the tools and masked everything off, it would be worth my time and money just to hire someone.

Expectations:  I got a couple of estimates from guys with good reputations. (All of the painting done on my house had been performed by me up to this point so I had to rely on other people's experiences for guidance.)  I ended up hiring the less expensive guy because he was more confident that he could get to me in less than 6 weeks.  (Apparently the painting business is good right now.)  I expected the results to be better than something I could have done myself.  I expected a near flawless, glossy, smooth finish.  I expected that they would do all of the necessary prep work (which I had pretty much spelled out when the estimates were written).  I expected the job to take about 3 days (less than 8-hour days) of work.

In order to avoid going into every detail, they didn't prep nearly as thoroughly as I do, used equipment that was in need of repair and consequently had to basically start all over.  They had to sand through the paint, primer and previous finish to get down to bare wood in many spots because they hadn't prepared the surface properly.  The work took over a week to get finished because of all of the extra work that had to be done.  The cabinets didn't come out as well as I had hoped.  I am now having to come behind and touch up (something I was really hoping to avoid.)

Things the painter did right: he was good about staying in touch with me and communicating his plan.  He never ducked my phone calls and was professional about everything.  In the end he knocked $100 off of his original estimate because he was disappointed in how the job went.  I'm pretty sure he ended up losing money on the job as a result.

Is this a case of if you want the job done right, do it yourself?  Should I have used a different painter?  Should my expectations have been less lofty?  The short of it is that I have been mulling this over for a while and I still don't know.  Everybody has a bad day, I know that.  This guy didn't react badly when things didn't go his way,  which is something that many contractors do.  He lowered the price in the end because he knew that he and I were both disappointed in the job.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he also painted the sheet rock I had just finished, the trim I had just installed, the pocket door to the laundry room and the sheetrock on the bar/peninsula; all things that were not included in the estimate.  Also, don't get me wrong, the pictures will look good.  The flaws are relatively small but numerous and noticeable close up.

By the way, I'm better at finishing sheet rock that I thought.  It did take me considerably longer than it would a professional, though.

Don't forget to check out the pictures on Picasa.

Tile!

Well, after one small headache, the tile is being finished up.  We ran short on tile yesterday which prevented them from being able to lay all of the tile in one day which is pretty impressive.  Since the tile was not something the flooring supply had in stock, I was afraid that we would have to wait until next week to get the two boxes (12 tiles) we needed to finish.  Thankfully, the salesman at Prosource was able to track down a distributor in town who had some on hand.  After being told that they didn't have any from the same lot as ours, it turned out that they did and we were back in business.

The tile masons are finishing up the grout right now and should (I think) be done by lunchtime.  Yay!  I can't express how happy I am to be done with the broken, peeling vinyl floor.  It was disgusting, ugly and a tripping hazard.  Hopefully I can get some painters out here next week to give me a quote on painting the cabinets and get the cabinet guy back out here to measure for doors.  Let's keep some momentum going!

Incidentally, I also had a small roofing repair which I was able to get done on Tuesday.  Some of the shingles on our ridge vent were damaged in a recent storm.  I probably wouldn't have noticed it if Jenny hadn't pointed it out.  Twenty bucks in materials and about 45 minutes or so of work to get it fixed.  Not too shabby.

Pictures of the new floor to come soon.

Cabinets are installed!

Well, the cabinet problem has been resolved and all three of the cabinet units we are adding have been installed. Yay!  I met the cabinet man on Sunday to pick them up.  I could not fit all three of them in the bed of my truck, but since we met here in town I brought along the trailer that I borrowed to transport the tile... with the tile on it.  Sure hauling around an extra 1500 or so lbs. doesn't seem like the best idea, but it worked out okay.

Jenny helped me install the cabinets on Monday evening.  Don't worry!  She didn't lift anything heavy or strain in any way.  She helped make sure that everything was aligned and made sure that nothing fell on my head.  No major problems to report with the install.  We are now better able to envision how our kitchen will work when we are finished and we are pleased.

The tile man is here right now prepping the slab for the tile installation which will begin tomorrow.  The vinyl flooring was installed using this nasty black adhesive to which other adhesives (like thin set, the stuff used to set tile) won't bond.  To rectify this they are using something called uniflex which will serve as the meat in a glue sandwich.  They claim that this stuff will adhere to anything and anything will adhere to it.  I will update again when the tile is complete!

First major delay...

Well, I guess it was bound to happen, we have hit our first setback.  Sure, we have had little bumps here and there, but this is a guaranteed, one-week set back.

When you are reflooring the spine of your ranch-style home, there are lots of things that you have to prepare for.  We will have to spend a couple of nights out of the house so that the tile can set.  We can't stay here because we wouldn't be able to get to a bathroom.  One of the other little things is that our washer and dryer have to be moved.  In preparation for this task, I did a massive amount of laundry yesterday so that anything we could possibly need would be clean and available.  There were a few other things to do before calling the tile mason to get him out here.  One of these tasks was installing a lower cabinet that we have had for a couple of weeks now.  When I went to set it in place, it was a half inch too short.  The cabinet guy didn't account for the overhang of the Formica (yes, it is technically a proper name) countertop when he measured the cabinets.  Now I have to get it back to him so that he can take the front face apart and make two new stiles and a new bottom rail.  Although this will probably not take more than an hour or two, it is not his main line of work, and I have to get it to Ponchatoula via Plaquemine (he's a coworker of Jenny).  I realized the mistake yesterday, will get the cabinet to him tomorrow, he will fix it over the weekend and get it back to Jenny on Monday.  This means the earliest possible day to start the tile is next Tuesday.

I guess I have to do another round of laundry.  Oh well.

In another matter, I also realized that installing the cabinet would cover up the receptacle that was previously used for the refrigerator.  After brainstorming a bit with Nathan over the phone, we realized that the refrigerator was probably on a dedicated circuit and that I could use that wiring to install two new receptacles in the backsplash on that wall.  I am really glad that this thought occurred to us.  That wall would have had no receptacles if it wasn't for that epiphany.  I also used the 220-volt circuit that previously powered the oven to create a 110-volt outlet for the new refrigerator, thus creating a new dedicated circuit to power the new refrigerator.  It blows my mind that so far Beau the electrician has fared better than Beau the plumber, but c'est la vie.

In other news, Jenny and I went appliance shopping (success) and countertop shopping (abysmal failure) on Monday.  Jenny gets a discount on Whirlpool family appliances through work, and we managed to get a locally-owned appliance store (which I have worked with in the past) to give us very competitive prices.  We will probably end up purchasing the appliances through the local guys because they have a good service department, the sales people have been very nice and helpful, and it never hurts to support a local business, right?  Here's our dilemma: we are looking at two gas slide-in ranges.  They are both good units that retail around the same price point.  The one that we both really like is the slightly more expensive one (obviously because otherwise there would be no dilemma).  The slightly less expensive one we can purchase for around $1500; it retails for $2049.  The one we really like is $2199 and there is no haggling or deal-making to be done.  The manufacturer forces its retailers to sell it for the price they set.  This means it is the same price everywhere (even on the internet).  So, if it were a matter of $150, it would be no contest.  $700 on the other hand, is a pretty nice chunk of change.  Advice/Donations are welcome.