Tile guys are here and the tile has been removed from the kitchen, mid point of the house.
We masked but that has not been great but towels at the bottom of closed doors has worked well. Roomba will be busy!
We are going with a very close match tile but with a wood plank appearance. We did not want to see a stark color change in our flooring from out entry way through the kitchen to the living room.
You can see the old tile color and the new tile color in the following pictures.
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I'll post more progress pictures as I build new cabinets and the counter tops go in, 30+ linear feet of new counter tops.
No, those in the picture are the 12 year old cabinets. We are actually keeping the cabinets under the sink all around the corner to the range including the upper around to the range.
And we are changing color. This dark brown/mocha color was the rage 12 years ago but there are disadvantages to this color and style. It was funny, the builder was building the spec homes with the normal golden oak or similar color cabinets. We built from the ground up choosing everything and went with the dark cabinets. After the builder and designers saw our kitchen they built every, remaining spec home in our neighborhood, with the dark cabinets. And then asked to take pictures of our entire house for the designers to copy for a model home in a different new neighborhood.
Ill be replacing cabinets to the left of the range, upper and lower and to the right of the sink, upper and lower.
The basic plan was to change the length of the counter top between the refrigerator and the range to 56". The current counter top is 18" long. That 18" counter top cabinet will be moved to the right of the dishwasher and repurposed to be a pull out trash receptacle holding 2,
13 gallon containers.
Then the refrigerator will be relocated to the right of the repurposed trash receptacle, on the sink side wall.
And then the additional 11' of pony wall counter cabinets.
This is where we are headed, the table and chairs are for illustration.
Why not turn the island 90°, lengthen it, add an overhang and build/buy some nice stools (with backs)? Have them facing the window wall, so guests can talk to the cook.
Maybe even a prep sink in the island. I'd love one of those but my kitchen is too small.
Yes! Those were gone yesterday. The crew did a great job. Down here the builders lay the tile up to the preinstalled baseboards. The baseboards are about 3/8" up from the foundation. Then they grout the gap at the baseboard, caulk over the grout at the baseboard, and paint. The crew yesterday left me little to do. It already looks finished.
On 2/7/2023 6:49 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote: > On Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 10:59:36 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote: >> On 2/6/2023 2:04 PM, Michael Trew wrote: >>> On 2/6/2023 12:46, Leon wrote: >>>> We have begun our kitchen re-do. >>>>
The island top is going to shrink to 24" x 48" and only cover the island vs. over hanging 12". This gains us 12 inches of room for the table and chairs. Additionally the island is moving about 8" closer to the range and about 5" sway from the sink. We mostly used the extra island space to serve food. With the pony wall cabinets and the 36" x 127" counter top we will have a much larger serving area and the island will only be used for food prep. We will be adding a larger sink, 33" long vs 30" and it is likely going to be a Rivati work station sink. Single bowl with lips to slide cutting boards, colanders, draining racks, etc.
I just finished putting wood-look vinyl plank down in the kitchen and we're getting quotes on counter tops. We have stick built cabinets, original to the 1956 house, and we're keeping those. It's a relatively small kitchen and the interior openness of "one-big-box" stick built cabinets would be lost if I built the typical individual box cabinets. I already built/installed drawers for the lower cabinets and plan to restart the shaker door project that's been stalled for a few years.
Regarding islands, my daughter had an apartment in Vermont for a few years, with really big kitchen but literally no counter space. I converted a $100 thrift store hutch into island which made a huge difference. The bead-board slats from the upper portion were used to dress up the back of the lower piece. I'm pretty sure that I used your favorite levelers - the ones with the through-the- base Allen wrench adjustors.
So about October of 2020 we were going to build a home with a cook top centered on an 11' long counter. Opposite, an island that was going to be 11' long. About 6' more actual counter space than we had in 3 locations. Now we will have about 30'
So I am repurposing an 18" counter cabinet that was on the left side of the range and moving to the sink side wall and will make that a pull out trash receptical. I have spent the better part of today fitting that cabinet in under the current counter. I have had to modify the bottom to be shorter to sit on top of the tile vs. on the slab where it originally was. And the floor guys said that they could not put tile under the dishwasher. The pulled the old tile out. ;~( And of course it was adjusted with the front feet that prevented removal. So down flat on the floor to reach under there and make quarter turns of both leveling feet about 1/2". And I was able to get it out with out too much trouble after that. But then I decided to unload the dishwasher and boy did it stink. The soap dispenser had opened but did not wash the dishes. I turned it back on and heard no water running. I then thought 12 year old dishwasher coincidentally stopped working after the floor guys replaced it. Hummm, how did they get it out as the hose was too short. Soooooo i began digging under the sink to locate the hose and after removing about 50 lbs of cleaning products, plant fertilizer, electronic leak detector, and who know what else, Oh, furniture polish...... I saw the shut off valve. I grabbed it and turned it back on. Turned the dishwasher back on and away it went. Whew! I saw another $1K on top of everything else for s new DW. Those poor guys emptied the cabinet to turn the water off and disconnect the water and the reverse steps.
But seriously, your after pic of the cabinet looks great!
Thanks. It got sold when they moved to Denver, taking only what they could fit in (and on) their cars. They loaded their Subaru to the max and I paid to have it shipped to Denver so that they could drive together. There was barely room for the trucker to get in and drive it onto his hauler. When they loaded the car they didn’t consider that the trucker might be a lot taller than either of them. He wasn’t happy when he realized he couldn’t move the seat back. :-)
Why wouldn’t the installers put tile under the DW? Liability? I would have tried to get them to put a clause in the contract relieving them of any liability or maybe leave enough tile to have done it myself. What was the issue?
It is one of those "got'cha" things that come up. Initially, before the job started, they said that they would not remove the tile under the dishwasher. I did not care, you never see it. And then they did any way as access to the DW was open in front and on the right side. And there were half tiles, the old ones, that went 7" under the DW. They felt that the new tiles would be too tall for the DW to go back in. And down here most "skilled labor" and I use that term loosely, does not have a command of English. I was assured that I could remove the DW if they left the tile out. I was not so sure of that statement and made it a point yesterday to remove the DW. It came out easily once I adjusted the adjustable leveling front feet to the mostly up position. And then I cut 3 of the left over tiles myself and simply set them in the spot that the DW fits in to. Fit was fine less the mastic that holds the tile.
Ultimately it was probably a good idea to leave the permanently laid tile out, the extra 1/8"~ 1/4"clearance makes stuffing the insulation wrapped around the DW easier.
AND THEN, I discovered that the DW water had been turned off after pulling it out and opening it up to dirty dishes, it is a separate line. I was thinking what are the chances that the DW simply quit working, until I found that the water had been turned off. So I ran the DW where it sat, outside the hole it fit into. Great! No new DW!
Whew!
But not so fast. After relocating the DW in its hole I discovered a water leak. Of course! It did not leak while out in the open, only after I stuffed it back in its hole.
The leak, as best I can tell, is coming from the flexible water line that attaches to the DW. That line is similar to a garden hose fitting on the DW end. There was a drip forming every couple of seconds that did not seem to becoming from the upper part of the hose nor the screw fitting, just at the back end of the crimp/swivel fitting.
So back out again with the DW, tipped on its side and I removed the supply line. I will be getting a new one to replace this 12 year old one this morning. And hopefully that will be that.
I have done about 22 kitchens, many clean installs on new homes when Swingman and I used to work together on the homes he built.
Hopefully I will fix the leak with a new hose and I can proceed to non water related work and repurposing cabinets. New construction from this point, I hope.
So Back from the hardware store with the new hose. The helpful hardware guy measured my hose as I stretched it out and he measured 47". I bought the 48" one. Got home and uncoiled the new hose and it was a foot too short. I measured 58" on my old one. I opted for the 72" the second time around.
I "think" I mentioned repurposing one of or existing kitchen cabinets, and relocating it elsewhere in the kitchen.
And we relocated the refrigerated from the left side of the picture to the right side.
Here it is, our new pull out trash bin and location. I used a Rev-Shelf brand that uses a pneumatic piston, like those that hold the car hoods up, to aid in opening and closing. It holds 2, 13 gallon bins.
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AND we repainted the walls and baseboards. My wife did the walls, same color, and I painted the baseboards, same color. I thought we did a good job. I masked the new floor with 2" blue tape exposing about 1/16" of the new floor between the base board and the tape edge. This also covered the grout between the tile and baseboard. Then I used a fast drying DAP brand caulk and with a wet finger smoothed it out. I made sure that I wiped any caulk off of the upper side of the base board with a wet paper towel. Then I painted. I eye balled the line between the wall paint and the top of the base boards, no masking tape there.
Apparently it is pretty common to not caulk and just use shoe molding. The builder painted the same way in the picture and that has held up very well for the past 12 years.
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And on another note, we are thinking about replacing our refrigerator with a counter depth vs. regular depth model. I believe we will save approximately 6~8" of protrusion. Our current model protrudes 12" past counter top. So we are looking at another Samsung, the Bespoke models and those get poor ratings for customer satisfaction and reliability. We only had a single incident with the ice maker on our current Samsung model about 10 years ago. We want to eliminate the door ice and water dispenser. The Bespoke models that we are looking at have the ice maker in the bottom freezer and auto fill a water pitcher inside the unit itself. Has any one got a Bespoke model and what are your thoughts? And or what did you buy? FWIW my wife's sister has a Bespoke model and really likes it.
Something also interesting, refrigerators seem to be about the same price as what we paid 13 years ago.
I love the way you left the top open for easy access. ;-)
But seriously...
We have a relatively small galley kitchen. U-shaped counter on one wall, fridge and range on the other. To the right of the fridge is "wasted space", required so that the door to the garage/basement can swing open.
Between the fridge and range is a 24" wide cabinet, giving us some counter top next to the range. The previous owners (family of 6) lived here for 30 years, with, as far as I can tell, just open space between the fridge and range. That's just one of the many things in this house that has often made me say "The solution is so simple, why did they live this way for so long?" I built that cabinet within a month of moving in.
Anyway, we keep our garbage can in that cabinet. The door comes up the top of the 13 gallon can, leaving 10" of open space for access. Go ahead, call us slops for leaving our garbage exposed, but we have never been fans of having to open a cabinet door to throw something away. The short door was my compromise between "fully exposed" and "easy access".
I hate painting. Unfortunately I'm too anal to sit back and let SWMBO do it.
We just put Vinyl plank in the kitchen and attached office. We also added a shiplap accent wall in the office. All new floor trim in the kitchen, all new
1x3 and 1x4 flat trim in the office. 2 large openings, 1 window and of course, the floor trim.
As noted above, the basement and garage are accessed from the kitchen. There's a landing one step down from the kitchen, so we decided to do the landing with the same flooring. As I was getting ready to do that section, I realized that it had been a really long time since we painted that area, so out came the brushes and rollers. I painted the landing and the walls/ceiling down to the basement. A PITA and a delay in the main project. Did I mention that I hate painting?
For the 10 x 13 office, I painted all the trim and the shiplap before installing it so all I had to do was touch up my nail holes, etc. SWMBO is happy, so it was worth the trouble.
The wall, in process and the finished product. (Just hung the drapes today)
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Close up of flooring...
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Time to shop for a new recliner, lamps and other miscellaneous furnishings.
There are 2 genes that I wasn't born with:
The caulking gene and the drywall mudding gene. I hate those tasks almost as much as I hate painting.
I can't speak to the Bespoke line (NPI) but I can complain about my new Samsung washer and dryer. $1400 for the pair (on sale) and apparently the most popular pair they sell. We bought them in August so they are still under warranty.
About a month ago the washer starting making a loud tapping noise during the spin cycle. This washer has a filter down near the floor that you're supposed to clean every now and then. It turns out the screw that holds the filter housing to the frame had come loose (probably never tightened to spec). Whenever the washer went into the spin cycle, the housing would tap-tap-tap against the frame. The tech had to take half the washer apart just to get to that one screw. If that screw was loose, I wonder what else is loose and is going to come back and bite me after the warranty has expired.
The dryer has had an intermittent problems since day 1 and I'm about to pull the trigger on a warranty service call. The way this unit work is that you touch the power symbol on the digital display to turn it on and then select your settings. Sometimes, randomly, like maybe once a month, the dryer will not turn on. Doesn't matter if it's been sitting for days or just turned itself off after the last use. Nothing happens when you touch the power button. I have to unplug it and then plug it back in to get it to work. I mentioned it to the tech that fixed the washer and he ran some diagnostics on the dryer, but of course, being an intermittent issue, it work just fine and passed all of his tests.
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