jgarner53's Kitchen Remodel

[jgarner53]

Did you get enough 1$'s for the ceiling?

Huh? Forgive me; it's been a long day and my brain is frazzled. I have absolutely no idea what you mean.

What colors you are using? I am assuming you are using Marmoleum. Can you tell me who you are looking to have do it and how much it will cost?

I'm using Butter (#795) and Coffee (#784) - two perfect colors for a kitchen! It is Marmoleum, sheet. The inlaid strip will be 1-inch wide and relate to similar strips in the living and dining room floors. Our installation is at least half the cost (or more), mainly because of the inlaid strip and we are continuing the floor on down the adjacent stairs (which currently has about 60-year old linoleum (albeit painted over) on it and desperately needs to be replaced). The price per square yard comes in around $36, I think. If you did the floating floor or tiles and DIY'ed it, like MelissaH did, you could do it for much less. I think there are fewer colors available in the click and tile, though.

you didn't get rid of the cougar I hope..nice car..mine really kicked ass

Nope. I'll keep that Cougar forever. It originally belonged to my aunt - the only other owner, and she gave it to me a few years ago, in darned near perfect condition, which is why it lives in the garage. It has an 8-track in it.

[jgarner53]

I have the perfect kitchen floor to race Hot Wheels on.

They finished the kitchen floor today, though they still have to do the metal edging along the edges of the stairs (adjacent to the kitchen). But the kitchen is done and came out just about as I'd imagined. It really adds a lot with the feature strip, though I guess I can never move the cabinets!

First - a shoutout to my Photoshop skills. The first pic is the rendering I did; the second is the actual floor.

The feature strip mimics the ones we have in the living and dining room, though the are narrower (1/2" vs. 1" in the kitchen).

And if you were 5, wouldn't YOU want to race your Hot Wheels around this?

Next week: more paint, cabinet doors (maybe now I can finally order the glass for them!), and appliances in through the window!

Meanwhile, it's Friday, it's sunny, it's time for a beer (and pizza for dinner)! Sooon, soon I will be able to make my own again!

Though I do worry that after 3 months of microwaving, I'll be totally uninterested in cooking. What do you mean I have to COOK it?! And clean up, too?!

[Abra]

I just read this great post all at one go. I love that you've documented the thought process as much as the results, and I've gotten several wonderful ideas from your work. The only thing is, after years of thinking of you as your avatar, I can't get used to the new, grownup you!

[jgarner53]

I can't get used to the new, grownup you!

Well, I haven't looked my avatar since I was about 4, but you can keep on thinking of me as my 4-year old self. I don't mind. Just put me in Willy Wonka's taffy puller to make the 4-year old me tall enough to enjoy this new kitchen!

[Rebecca263]

Sorry, Jennifer, but you'll always be that tongue reaching 4 year old to me, too. Only now, we'll be racing our HotWheels in your cool kitchen!

[jgarner53]

Nothing earthshattering (or stove, house, or refrigerator shattering) to report. I had to be at work today when the appliances made their epic journey through the window. Part of me would have wanted to watch. The other part would have my fingers over my eyes like in a scary movie!

Yesterday I removed the grates, burner rings, knobs, racks, broiler pan, and oven door from the oven. I wanted to do it so I knew where everything was and could be super careful doing it (this after a grueling 12-hour shift). I also finished moving the rest of the food out of the fridge and down to the garage keg-o-rator, cramming things in willy-nilly, around and behind the keg of oatmeal stout that's in there. I left the ice cream in the freezer upstairs, though, for after dinner. As a testament to how wiped I was, I tried to open a beer (belgian) with the ice cream scoop.

The painter's put another coat on the cabinets, and GC has been trimming out the kitchen: baseboards with a matching profile to what's elsewhere throughout the house, molding at the top of the cabs, reinstalling trim around the doors. I was flabbergasted, angry, and terribly, terribly sad to come home Wednesday and see that he'd hacked up the trim for the existing windows to install on the new window! I had a feeling that something, at some point in this whole adventure would make me cry, and this was it. Of course, not until I was trying to go to sleep. I was screaming, sobbing, apologizing to the house for what we've done to it , and generally unconsolable. I wrote GC a long note and he did apologize profusely.

The stairwell is painted now - boy, is it really a lot of green in a narrow space. I guess I can always repaint it lighter later. I need to strip the red paint off the concrete floor at the bottom of the back stairs anyway.

So I went off to work this morning, praying that I wouldn't get some phone call from GC that my stove had a big dent in it, or they'd dropped it on the window sill. He called around 10 to tell me that they were done. Done? Already? That's it? He said it all went smoothly, and he was starting to take apart the platform he'd built out in the driveway. Huh. Well, that was sort of anticlimactic, but relieving all the same. I did go over the stove with a fine-toothed comb when I got home, and it seems unscathed. He plans to come back Monday to install the stove & fridge. Electrician Dave needs to complete the wiring to make the fridge & stove outlets live first, though. I asked that we get the lights live, too, so that we could install the lighting and switches. You know, most people like to have light when they cook...I know, I'm picky.

Monday, I could have a working stove! No sink hooked up yet. The counters won't be installed until the 26th, so we'll be coming in just under the wire for the end of the month. Next week will be all about tying up loose ends - finishing the stair nose, reinstalling the last window, electrical, appliance install, finish painting, hanging the doors on the cabinets, installing the knobs & handles, installing the ceiling speaker, finishing the insulation (over the kitchen and under the floors), lots of little things.

So what should be the first thing I make on/in the new stove? I'm not sure where all my pots (or any of them are) are, but I do know where my sheet pans are. Can I heat a can of beans on the stove? Without opening it?

[jgarner53]

Readers, I give you the First Grilled Cheese. Also known as the Best Goddamn Grilled Cheese On The Face Of Planet Earth.

And why is this grilled cheese so special? Is it imported Normandy butter? Is it handmade artisan bread lovingly kneaded by blind nuns? Is it cheese made from cows grazed only on organic pasture?

Hell, no. It's Trader Joe's sprouted wheat (no flour!) bread, TJ's butter, and TJ's sliced cheddar. What makes this sandwich special, my friends, is that it is the first food to feel the heat of the new stove (can I get a big musical flourish here?)

A stove lit by hand (electrical isn't connected yet - that's Friday), cooked in the dimming light of early evening (again, see electrical reference above), and eaten off a paper plate.

But look at the rest of my dinner!

OK, so it's not some fancy gourmet meal, or exotic morsel designed to pamper my palate after 3 months of (admittedly homemade) frozen dinners. But DAMN it feels good to cook something!

Though I have to say that I feel kind of like I've moved into the land of the truly jumbo with this stove. On my old stove, my cast iron skillet fit the burner nicely, looked homey and old-fashioned. On the new stove, I barely had the flame above "low" (sealed burners probably contribute to this), and the skillet (same one) almost feels dwarfed by the size of the burner grates. The other main difference that I notice is the height of the range. I imagine that the very act of not towering over my pots and pans will take some getting used to. Is this what the rest of you work with?? People (OK, women, mostly) of "normal" or "average" height? Wow.

But to repeat - I cooked!

[chromedome]

That's a good feeling.

I've never had the opportunity to remodel a kitchen, but I have moved more times than most people would in a few lifetimes (my lifetime average per location is about 16 months, and I'm 43...do the math). On that first day, no matter how frazzled things were, I always made a point of having a bit of time in the kitchen. When my wife (now ex-) and kids smelled the bread and soup coming together, they knew that they were home.

It was a minor ritual in the midst of a major upset, but it made a world of difference. I'm moving again in a couple of weeks (long story), and bread and soup will be the first things I make in my new kitchen.

[jgarner53]

bread and soup will be the first things I make in my new kitchen

Bread and soup? Wow, you're ambitious. I don't think I could even find my flour after a move, much less the soup pot, knife and cutting board.

Any time I've moved, it's usually pizza or we go out. In the case of one move, we went to my 10 year high school reunion for dinner. (We did shower first).

[coquus]

Just read through the post, that stove looks bitchin, and those are nice cabinets. I think I missed that part, am I to understand they were repainted or new, and if so, where did you get them? Not much longer now, a week or so?

[Kouign Aman]

Lookin' good!

Remind me, please, how tall are you? Memory tickles and says 6', but I'm too tired for a detailed reread of this great thread.

[jgarner53]

am I to understand they were repainted or new, and if so, where did you get them?

The cabinets are new, custom built by Boicelli cabinets in Redwood City and painted at the painter's shop. They shot the boxes again once they were installed, to deal with the inevitable nicks and dings from installation. I noticed yesterday, though, with the doors installed, that the doors are a lower sheen level than the boxes. So off they'll go, and back to the shop for another coat, I guess. Sigh. Yet another delay.

Remind me, please, how tall are you? Memory tickles and says 6'

I'm 6'1" if I'm standing up straight (constant posture issues, probably from stooping over too-low counters! ), and Husband is about 6'2".

GC installed the hood on Friday, though it needs some adjustment. As it starts up & winds down, there's a flp-flp-flp sound like the fan blade's hitting something inside, sort of like a playing card in your bicycle spokes when you were a kid. (The orange trim is old trim taken from something else and is just there to hide the 1/2" gap between the top of the hood and the bottom of the pipe surround - I'm not sure what to do here, maybe just some 1/4 round trim that's a little less obtrusive.)

I was able to get salvaged glass for the new window next to the stove and the cabinet doors. Looking at the new window, it's easy to see the waves in it. I love the fact that this has been salvaged from someone else's old house, even if it means that that house likely has brand new ugly (to me) vinyl windows with the cheesy muntin bar strips that mimic real muntins with about as much success as margarine does butter.

Here's the fridge, with the door reversed and the panels installed. I don't think the fridge is quite level yet because the door tends to want to swing open on its own, once you open it even a little bit (and no, it isn't filled with too much stuff!). The octagonal shape is the reflection of the window in the entry door, behind me.

You can see my spanking new light fixture, too! Going fully authentic for that 1920's feel...

I have to admit that I am getting quite frustrated with the hours that GC works. If I'm lucky, I get out of work after a 10-hour day. He seems to barely fit in 3-4. And being a single parent really isn't a valid excuse in my book. There are millions of single parents out there who work 8 or more hours 5 or more days a week, simply because they have no choice. (So does that make him a better parent for being able/willing to work shorter hours, even if it means dragging out a client's job, so he can spend more time with his son? I guess that's a subject for another non eG thread, unless we're debating how he feeds the child).

Anyway, I go to work, having heard from him the laundry list of things he's going to accomplish that day, and come home (usually shortly after 3), to find he's already gone, and maybe only a fraction of that day's list has been accomplished. Does he have a poor sense of timing and how long things take? I know that Husband generally does. Maybe it's just my remodel fatigue setting in deep. At this point, I just want it to be over.

Now that the stove is fully installed and electrically functioning, I started up the oven for the first time. They tell you to run it on "BROIL" for a half hour or so to burn off the manufacturing oils. Boy, was that ever stinky! But the part that worries me more is that after I'd turned off the oven, the bullnose beneath the knobs, and the faces of the knobs themselves, grew quite hot. This appears to be where the range vents as it cools, but something that makes the knobs that hot doesn't seem either sensible or that safe to me. The knobs grew hot enough that I could hold my (battle-hardened, "asbestos" as my mom used to say) hands to them for only a second or two before removing them. This is not "pleasantly warm." This is f*&%#g hot! Is this just a design flaw, or is there something wrong with my range?

I also need to get a thermometer for the interior. We made dinner in the kitchen, with our new-fangled electrical light last night (I hesitate to even admit here what it was), and while the preheating light went out on the oven (wow, that's nifty! The old oven was all a guessing game), our dinner (OK, OK, cheese-filled hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough, known as "cheesy weenie crescents" in our house (please, commence the shunning ) took at least 6 minutes longer to bake than the package directions would indicate (19 minutes vs. 11-13 on the package). Perhaps the bigger oven space needs longer to preheat than just enough to trigger the "ready" light. I want to get a tray of cookies or something in there to test out how even it is, too.

But the oven, so wide! So spacious! So easily accessed (remember, my old oven was at best 14 inches wide, requiring a half sheet pan to go in the long way, and also crammed into the corner with a cabinet just a door's width away, requiring kitty cornered access). So bright inside! (who knew they put lights in ovens!) The racks, they slide so easily! So smooth! So SHINY!

After the oven was off the knobs and bullnose grew quite hot again and stayed so for at least an hour or more. I really hope there isn't something wrong with my stove!

The center light fixture for the ceiling also arrived yesterday, and while I want to show it to you, the batteries in my camera died, and I can't download the photos until it's recharged. So you'll have to wait. But come back because I want your opinion on it!

[Marya]

About your DCS getting hot on the exterior: Go to the Appliance Forum on the GardenWeb site. I've read several posts where owners have complained about that same problem. I did some further checking when I was buying appliances for a new home and decided against the DCS for the very same reason. Apparently, a hot exterior is not unusual with some pro-style ranges.

[jgarner53]

OK, I fixed the playing-card-in-spokes noise (and my hood got remarkably quieter, too!) myself yesterday. I took off the casing around the fans and noticed that there was a little plastic flap (about, oh, the size of a playing card! ) that was down and should have been up behind a little barrier. Flipped them up (there are two), and no more big noise! OK, that was one easy fix. Now the bigger one is the niche area behind the stove, which GC apparently did not build to my specs (it's too short by about 4 inches). I'm going to try to find a workaround for this because the only alternative would be ripping out most of that section of wall and completely reframing the niche, redoing the drywall, and we'd be finishing the kitchen sometime next March.

I'm writing this as I wait for the arrival of the soapstone installers. I'm very excited to see my slabs installed. They will be a harder soapstone, named Belvedere by the soapstone company, and soapstone is all they do. It seems that in some cases people get soapstone from granite fabricators who want to do all number of things (seal it, try to polish it up shiny) or who try to discourage the customer from getting it at all. Strange, since soapstone is easier to fabricate (it's softer and can even be worked with woodworking tools) than granite!

So here's the light fixture for the center of the kitchen ceiling. The old one had been about as wide, but was only about 4 inches deep/tall. So when I was measuring how big this fixture would be, I was concerned that it would hang so low from our 100" ceilings, or be too big for the size of the room. But I wanted a 150W capacity (the old one was 150W, and while it was the only light in the room, provided adequate light). Much easier to put a less powerful bulb in if 150W turns out to be too much.

Here's Husband modeling the light fixture (looks a lot warmer than he did the last time you saw him, no?)

I think the size is fine, but I'm a little nervous about how olivey the darker green bands are. The middle one's fine. Here's the shade, held over the bare bulb to demonstrate how it will look when it's on:

And, lastly, sitting on the "counter" closer to the green wall color than it ever would be when installed.

What do you think? Is the green OK, or should I exchange it for a plain white shade (the other color options are blue, red, or tan). The other option would be to get a painted shade from a different company that might be a better green. The problem is that the shape of the shade in the kitchen matches the one in the back stairway. While you can't see them both at the same time, would that be a problem if they didn't match?

[ludja]

If possible I'd wait until the kitchen/painting were more complete before making a decision in order to get a better feel for how it fits in. From what I can tell right now I think it looks great... I like the darker bands and it seems like it will really contribute to the retro feel you are going for.

[Megan Blocker]

If possible I'd wait until the kitchen/painting were more complete before making a decision in order to get a better feel for how it fits in.  From what I can tell right now I think it looks great... I like the darker bands and it seems like it will really contribute to the retro feel you are going for.

←

Ditto...they also play off the hood a bit...

[snowangel]

Jennifer, we had a few of those same shaped light fixtures in our former (circa 1950 1.5 story house) and they looked, well, quite industrial and cheap.

I love the color and sure wished I'd known that color was available -- I love it!

[jgarner53]

Jennifer, we had a few of those same shaped light fixtures in our former (circa 1950 1.5 story house) and they looked, well, quite industrial and cheap.

You should have seen what was there before. I think it was the definition of "industrial and cheap." As opposed to the dangly, pseudo-brass mini chandelier with most of the crystals missing that was in our upper stairway when we moved in. That was just cheap!

[jgarner53]

My soapstone counter is in! It's just gorgeous, more green in spots than I would have thought (or remembered when I bought the slab). The veins are mostly dark green and add great depth to the stone. It's charcoal grey before oiling, and the oil brought out all the depth and darked the stone considerably.

Here's the baking center before:

and after a coat of oil:

a closeup of the right corner:

The fridge corner and sink:

After oiling:

and a detail of the corner (with seam):

It's so pretty! Is it wrong to want to hug my counter?

[memesuze]

thanks for the soapstone pix - I'm lusting after some for my next counters

[jgarner53]

The tile is going in (well, OK, it's in, and being grouted). Who knew there were so many different colors of grout available? It seriously made my paint choice for the cabinets seem easy by comparison. I went back and forth between two off-whites: a cooler one and a warmer one, ultimately picking the warmer one (but it was close). Ultimately, the decision was made for me because the warmer one was only available by special order, so it's the cooler one. The faint hint of color should just set off the pattern in the tile and not scream "dirty" instead.

But I decided to hold off on pictures until the big reveal! Let you all just imagine how it's coming together.

The tile is really looking good and finishes off the kitchen nicely. Now if I could just get my freezer to stop frosting up! GC says he's trying to get the electrician and plumber here tomorrow to wrap their things up, which would mean light fixtures, plugs, a working sink and dishwasher. Wow, that's like a complete working kitchen! I could actually do a whole dinner in there! Now, where was that saucepan again? And where's the pasta? And my utensils?

The tilers are also going to regrout my shower, floor, and countertop in the bathroom. Just before putting the house on the market, the previous owners redid it, did it themselves, and did it poorly. Even when we moved in, the shower already looked horrible, and it had only been finished a few months! Now add eight years of daily use, non-daily cleaning, and you have a really icky looking shower, even when it's just been cleaned and the grout scrubbed within an inch of its life. No wonder people don't stay with us. This will mean showering at the gym for a couple of days, but no biggie; it's only a couple of blocks away. Husband's work has showers, and he can shower there.

I bought shelf liner over the weekend, too. All those pretty new cabinets, gotta protect 'em with something! Clear Lifeliner for most of the shelves, but cork for the pot drawers and pullouts that will have cookware on them. Part of that is because those are all natural wood tone, not painted, part of it is for the damping effect the cork will have on the pots. OK, I'm crazy.

So as I started cutting out the shelf liner this afternoon (since many of the shelves are in my living room and out of the way of the tilers), I came across a shelf I can't place. It's about 16 inches wide (along the painted edge), painted, but about 30 inches deep. What on earth do I have in the kitchen that meets that dimension??? I still haven't figured it out, even after going in there to look.

After some further research on the heating problem on my stove, it appears that this is typical of the range, within UL limits, and just the way it works. I guess I will have to get used to it. Good thing I have those "asbestos fingers" I inherited from my mom.

With some of the key elements (plumbing, electrical) not complete, it's kind of hard to believe that we are truly almost done with this remodel. There are things to finish outside of the kitchen, of course: painting, wall patching, more painting, installing things like doorknobs, but it will be a little bit strange when I come home from work and there's nothing new to look at (or freak out over). I guess then it's time to start cleaning. I've let the living room and dining room get into quite a state.

[Lori in PA]

I have been enjoying following along with you, Jennifer. I'm excited to see "the big reveal."

[alanamoana]

i really like that light fixture. i think the cheap and industrial looking ones don't have the color/stripe detail and that's what makes this one perfect for your kitchen. i wouldn't worry about the color. i think it looks great!

congratulations on finally having a kitchen! i can't wait for the big reveal either...(do they have a waiting with bated breath emoticon?!)

[snowangel]

A working kitchen sink? Be still my beating heart! I have had one backache in my life, and it revolved around doing the dishes in the bathtub (easier, with 5 in the family, than hauling them downstairs to the laundry sink). It'll be a whole new world!

[Abra]

It's so fun to see this all coming together, and the soapstone is indeed beautiful. My take on the light is that in the daylight shot I think it looks great. In the night shot where it's lit up I do think it clashes a bit, but it seems like the sort of thing one would get used to pretty easily, especially when you stop focusing on it critically, as you inevitably do at the beginning. Plus, if I'm remembering correctly, when lit it should look very comfortable with the floor color, so that's a thing in itself.

But I am SO not a designer!