The Mudroom

Cabinets were installed in the mudroom today. These will have the same counter top as those in the kitchen. It will create the effect of having a continuous set of cabinets along the north face of the house from the kitchen through the mudroom.

More Cabinets

The base cabinets went in today. (North Wall)


South Wall and visitors.

This is one of two cabinets containing hidden trash bins that will become the recycling center. The space inbetween the drawers (left) and the cabinet is were the beverage center will be located.










This cabinet is positioned to the left of where the range will go.
Check out the thin cabinet for the storage for trays and the like.


This cabinet is located to the right of the range position.
It has shelves for pot and pan storage that pulls out.


Corner unit with Lazy Susan.


Looks like two cabinets; is really one.


Looks like a filler panel but is really for additional storage.

One other cool thing. The drawers close themselves if you push them in within 1/2 an inch of the unit!

Progress

Left - Picture of the south side of the kitchen where the refrigerator and range will be placed. Look closely at the cabinet on the left. It is a triangular cabinet that smooths the transition into the kitchen from the back door.
Center - Northwest corner of the kitchen and north wall. This is where the sink will be placed.
Right - Picture of the north & east sides of the kitchen from the west.

What is that in the center of each picture? A super fancy high tech laser level. It extends from the ceiling to the floor. The laser is adjusted to the proper height and used to align the cabinets.


Left - South side cabinet (over the stove) with built in spice rack. I didn't get a lot of built in bells and whistles, but this was a "must have".
Center - North side of the kitchen, just to the right of where the sink will be.
Right - Northwest corner cabinet, three shelves, a lazy Susan on each shelf.

Late Night Edition

Tonight I post the first ever late night edition of the blog. I typically get in early enough to benefit from daylight to take pictures of the kitchen. Tonight there were work activities that kept me out a wee bit longer than I anticipated. With that, this is what I came home to. CABINETS ALL OVER THE PLACE... and that's a good thing!







This set of cabinets is a great example of what most of the upper sets will look like. We'll have one set of 30 inch cabinets topped off by a shorter set of 15 inch cabinets. This allows us to make use of the entire wall; no air space above the cabinets thereby maximizing the use of space for storage purposes. Check out the cabinet on the upper left. Notice that the insert is missing. That's going to be GLASS! Also check out the wine right on the right-hand side. Nothing fancy. We're not really wine drinkers. But for the occasional sophisticated guest, it wouldn't hurt to have a bottle on hand.





Finally, notice how the "holes" in the wall are a bit more squared. This is an indication that a lot of the dustier sanding is now complete. Now we're ready for paint, plugs, switches, and covers.

Surprise!!!

I took the picture on the left and below on Thursday. The team had moved all of the old stuff out of the garage to make room for the delivery of the cabinets. To my surprise when I looked in the garage, nothing was there. So I figured that the cabinets would show up on some other day. It didn't really look like much had happened, so I posted the expose on the world of construction.




When I got home on Friday it didn't appear that much had happened. I figured that the team took the day off. They've been here three weeks in a row. Maybe they needed a break or some other job had pulled them away. I wasn't worried or bothered. Alan is the best, so I knew that what ever the cause it was a good reason. Well, it turned out that one of the guys, Ryan, welcomed his fourth child into the world! Sounds like a damned good reason to me! Since it appeared that nothing happened on Friday I didn't bother to look in the garage again.


Well Duuhhhhhhhhhhh! I should have looked in the garage. Alan and I were corresponding via e-mail this weekend and he mentioned that this would be a big week because the cabinets were delivered. I thought to myself "of course they were... I just finished paying for them. John (the cabinet supplier) said that they were sitting in the warehouse." But then I had a major brain-fart this morning. Why would Alan tell me that the cabinets were delivered? He knows that I know that the cabinets are at Star Supply. Unless....

Well, what do you know. The cabinets had been in the garage since Friday! Since the house didn't look different I never bothered to look in the garage. I am so excited. This is going to be a big week as these babies start going up.

Of course I couldn't wait for them to start bringing them in; I had to open a few of the boxes. This is exactly what I wanted! Something warm in color, somewhere between mission, traditional, and contemporary in style.

Tools of the Trade

There really weren't significant visible signs of progress today. More taping and patching of the drywall was completed. Therefore I've decided to give you a peek in to what goes on behind the scenes in a kitchen remodeling project. No one has ever been allowed to know how these things really happen. I'm busting the doors wide open to the world of remodeling and sharing all of the "secrets of the trade". After my sizzling expose', the construction world will never be the same. I risked life and limb to take pictures of the tools of the trade. If I had been caught, I dare not think of the horrible things that could have happened to me. Here's what I discovered.


Apparently a broom, stilts, and a really long carpenter's level are vital to any remodeling project. Who knew?

Considering the earlier picture of the stilts, the presence of 2 ladders on the site confirm what we've always suspected. Remodelers are all short! The picture on the right is that of an air compressor. I think that they use this to increase the level of oxygen in the room as they work higher and higher. I have absolutely no idea what that thing in the middle picture is. It appears to be some very high tech gadget. It looks a little dangerous. I'm certain that some sort of certification is required to use it.



Oh, I definitely know what that item on the left is. It's a wet and dry vacuum. How do I know? Well, there was this one time in the office right where the cubicles are that... never mind, you don't want to know. Look, lots of trash cans. There a big one in the middle for disposing of things like refrigerators and tiny little ones. Those are for all the little things that won't fit in the big one. Finally, the thing on the right appears to be a sophisticated long-armed mixer. I think they're having frozen dacari parties on their breaks. Why else would someone have a mixer at a job site?

Well, I hope that you found my report informative. Tomorrow, we'll get back to the serious blogging.

It's Done!

... the drywall, that is. All of the walls are covered and patched. I think that the wires sticking out of the walls are for the under-cabinet lighting. Alan and his team are making great time. Keep in mind that just 4 business days ago these walls were all open.


Now for the really messy work... sanding! This is really the only part of the process I've been dreading. We had the mudroom gutted and repaired last year. The amount of dust created from sanding the drywall in that small area was unbelievable. It made its way through most of the house. The one saving grace this time around is that the central AC is on now (the mudroom repairs were in the late fall last year; no AC). It does a pretty good job of filtering the air. So while downstairs has gotten pretty dusty through this project, I think that most of the dust that would drift or be tracked up stairs is getting drawn in to the interior air intake vent that filters and recirculates air through the system.

In earlier pictures you saw the duct work for the stove's ventilation system. This is the vent that has been installed on the outside wall. I missed that yesterday.












Finally, a surprise for the next person that renovates the kitchen. Enclosed in the walls is a time capsule. I placed it there this morning in an area that hadn't been drywalled yet. It is a small plastic case similar to the one pictured on the right. I enclosed a letter to the "new owners", a brief bio of myself - nothing too telling, just where I grew up, where I worked, age, my love of gadgets (the iPod got a mention in the letter), blah, blah, blah. I also made reference to where I was on 9/11/2001 as that has probably been the single biggest event to occur in my lifetime that I can remember. (I was alive during the race riots of the 60's and Dr. King's assassination, but of course I don't have personal memories of those events... I was 2). I included the first section of this past Sunday's newspaper (folded as small as I could get it; luckily it wasn't too thick), a pocket watch, a few coins, pictures of the dogs and, of course, pictures of what the kitchen looked like before I began this project. Maybe when I'm 80 years old I'll get a phone call from a young family that is in the midst of a renovation project who stumble across the time capsule!

Day 12

No witty titles today. I got home and most of the drywall was up. The ceiling was completed (they just have to reinstall the ducts for the AC). It looks like a room again, not a run down tenement. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be posting pictures with cabinets in them. They are at the warehouse and read for delivery.

Dry Wall

A lot of progress was made last week, but it was on the electrical system. While that took a lot of work, the visible signs of progress aren't as obvious. A new box here, a few wires there. But today, the drywall began going up and part of the ceiling was installed. Now we're really cooking with gas!