Kitchen Re-do

[DerbyDad03]

Thanks. I’ll look into it.

[Leon]

Yeah, me too. My wife will likely want the new counter to be 7" longer. ;~)

Our previous Kitchen was a galley style. The inner sink side had an "L" at the end and that portion was a single door cabinet. I got rid of the "L" and extended the counter top and that side of the kitchen to include the cabinet storage that we lost when the "L" disappeared. BUT that opened up the walk way into the kitchen. The "L" blocked the straight through entrance to the kitchen so you had to walk closer to the outer wall of the kitchen to enter the kitchen and then zig zag. Our oven was on the outer wall and had a 32" cabinet on both sides. To the right of the range I removed the 32" cabinet and built in a new microwave tower that also became additional pantry. To the left side of the oven I removed the 32" cabinet and replaced it with an 11 foot cabinet. extending past where the "L" on the other side used to be. Getting rid of the "L" literally allowed us to double the counter space and bottom cabinets. Our present kitchen was considerably smaller. It will be much larger as far as lower cabinet storage and counter space. The builder gave us 5 drawers, 2 in the island and 3 smaller ones in carious spots in the kitchen. The larger of those 3 was in the new garbage reciptical unit. I added 6 drawers to the island, behind the cabinet doors 11 years ago. With the new lower cabinets I am loosing the

3 small drawers to be replaced with 18 considerably larger drawers. And we are gaining about 15' of counter space and 2/3's of that will be 36' deep.

Back 20 years ago I helped a dear friend paint rental houses, probably

20 or so. I learned to paint then. ;~) He did the wall paint, I did the oil based trim.

All of that looks great, good job. I have been pondering doing that same type wall on our back wall.

It is always something.

Caulk is easier "if" you start with a small bead, 1/8" max. Then a wet finger from a wet paper towel. Even then the 1/8" bead may be a bit much as witnessed by your finger build while smoothing the bead. Don't over work the bead.

But yes that becomes an art. Now for me it is a matter of learning to not get caulk all over every where. The caulk does not absorb into the paper towel so it is ready to transfer from the towel to everything else. ;~)

I have had to repair drywall where out Great Dane would pop holes in the wall. She would get excited and spin in a circle and fall into the wall. I got very good at doing the repairs including texturing. I have never installed drywall, that stuff is too heavy.

We replaced our Lady Kenmore washer and dryer about 3 years ago. We went with LG and so far.....not going to jinx it.

Of course. My 2019 F150's passenger door handle does not always unlock or lock by touching the handle and button on the passengers side. Intermittent. At first it was only in pretty cold weather. Then that progressed to always. Then lately it worked all of the time regardless of temperature until yesterday when it got cold again. Woopee!

[DerbyDad03]

On Monday, February 20, 2023 at 9:20:09 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote: ...snip...

I've added drawers where I could in my kitchen. I also put drawers in all the lowers at my daughter's house. Lower cabinets have been used in kitchens for hundreds of years. Way back then, there were no drawers, just doors. I'm sure that when someone first said "Hey, let's put a row of drawers right under the counter", the world was thrilled. What a great idea! I've always wondered why it took so long for us to realize that lower cabinet doors were the worst idea ever. I mean, how long has been - maybe

20 years (less?) since drawers in the lower cabinets became common? What took us so long, considering that the top drawers were staring us in that face all that time, while we were crawling around on the floor looking for that wayward pot lid?

During a project, totally unrelated to my kitchen, I found a found a huge void in the pipe/wiring chase that runs from basement to the attic. In this image of your kitchen you have a wall on the left side

I have a pipe chase in a similar spot. As it turns out, it's mostly empty. I built a 18" W x 11" D x 60" H box and inserted into the wall. That's about

7 cubic feet of extra cabinet space, essential in a small kitchen. The tall door on the far left.

As I mentioned earlier, I plan to finish building shaker style doors when I'm done with all the other stuff SWMBO has me doing.

...snip...

Thanks. We didn't want any seams in the 13' boards at the top, so I notched the 3rd board down to hug the trim. Rough cut with a sabre saw and finished with a top bearing flush trim bit in my Rocky-30 router. (If I recall correctly, you pointed me in the direction of that tool.) It's a nice snug fit. No caulk required. ;-)

You want a something? Here's a something...

SWMBO spend several hundred dollars on the curtain rod, rings, drapes, etc. for that wall. The rod is adjustable for 48" to 88". They do this by supplying a 48" long 1.25" diameter rod and 2 slightly smaller diameter rods that slide out of each end to the desired length. Those "internal" section have threaded ends so you can screw in various types of finials.

The problem is that the curtain rings get caught on the ledge caused by the transition from the small section to the large section and you can't close the drapes without lifting the rings over the "hump". When you grab the drapes to push them upward to get the rings over the hump, the drape pins fall out of the drapes. The whole system is a terrible design.

The transition point:

A snagged ring:

I called customer service (Pottery Barn) and explained the problem. I told them that I need another 48" long 1.25" diameter rod which will allow me to create a full-length smooth rod. Now, get this. They don't sell/supply "parts" for this item. The only thing they can do is sent me a replacement which will include the outer rod, the inner rods and the mounting brackets. Since it's a replacement, I *technically* I have to return the original one. By

*technically* she means that she is going to put a note on my account stating that all I have to return is the inner rods and the mounting brackets. IOW, open the box, take out the 48" rod and send the rest back, on their dime. She says that that is only way she can get me what I need to make this system work.

She also promised to pass my complaint up the food chain so that their buyers know that the system they offer doesn't work very well.

OK, so I took your advice, bought a new tube of caulk, cut just the tiniest part of the tip off and used a very, very small bead. Huge difference! Thanks. I use a small bowl for finger dipping. That's always worked fine. I did learn long ago about the paper towel issue. We use the half sheet paper towels and then I cut a bunch of them in half again. Once I use a small square to wipe up even the tiniest bit of caulk, I never use it again. That solves the transfer issue.

I've installed lots of drywall, but I learned a long time ago to pay someone to mud it or get my son to do it if he's available. I've been told by the pros that I do a damn good job of hanging it. It's the mudding that I've just never figured out.

...snip...

[Leon]

Cost savings is why the builders only put in the top drawers. In more expensive new builds buyers can opt for cabinets with drawers over doors but that comes at a significant increase in cost.

This space is 3.5" deep. Maybe a spice rack...

Good for you! We have a similar space in the back of our coat closet. Too much trouble to access and the gain would be about 2x2 foot.

WE kinda sorta have the same issue in our bedroom. We never open the drapes so this is not an issue. If there is not a track and hangers that travel in the track this situation can become an issue.

[DerbyDad03]

I get that, but AFAIK opting for drawers at a higher cost is a (relatively) modern day thing.

I've never had a house built. In your estimation, how long ago did the option begin to be offered on a regular basis, in the general housing market? Today, I can walk into Home Depot and buy a drawer base cabinet right off the shelf. I don't recall when that started, but in the long-term history of base cabinets, it's a relatively new thing.

I did a quick search on the "evolution" of the kitchen, and it seems that it hasn't been much more than 30 years since drawers began to replace doors on a regular basis. That's makes drawers essentially a newborn.

I recall my grandfather's house, which he built in the early 60's. (He was a mason). His base cabinets had doors, but most of them had pull-out shelves using wood-on- wood sliders. I consider those to be the pre-cursor to the drawers with sides and drawer fronts like we have today.

I think my point is still valid. Even if the occasional drawer base cabinet appeared in the 50's or 60's, it still took humans a very long time to realize what a huge convenience they are.

...snip...

[Leon]

Well I did day in the higher priced homes. Our first home, that we had built in 1980, was a starter home and there was no option. But remodeled a kitchen in 1996 and put in drawers under the counter top cook top. Our present home offered drawers had we wanted to pay a few thousand extra. That would have only been on our island cabinet. Our bath room vanities have drawers top to bottom beside the plumbing. And the home that we "were" going to build in Oct 2020 offered the mulit-drawer cabinets. We were going to have a couple of those added, it came with one as standard. And that was a few thousand dollars too. The builder was offering $25K in upgrades so I was not reluctant to do that. We did not even use up the whole $25K.

I would say that the all drawer cabinets have been around for a few decades down here. You can get much nicer cabinets, as an upgrade, through the builders suppliers, when building a home.

I think disposable income may have played a part too.

[DerbyDad03]

A couple of decades. That’s my point. Base cabinets have been around for centuries. It sure took a long time for drawers to become common. Even if we ignore the upgrades available when choosing cabinets for a home build, woodworkers have been building their own kitchen cabinets (and vanities, for that matter) for a long, long time. Until recently (i.e. a couple of decades) I’m pretty sure that most base cabinets (and vanities) were built with doors.

Considering all the other inventions that happened in that same hundreds of years time frame, it just seems strange that drawer base cabinets in kitchens took so long to make an appearance when they make so much sense.