It's been five weeks since my last update on the kitchen. I've been spending almost all my free time working on it. It was getting kind of old, but now there's light at the end of the tunnel and I'm re-energized. Plus we're going on vacation tomorrow (camping at Cape Cod for four days with our neighbors), then two days back at work before flying to Seattle. So I finally feel like I can take some time to post photos and an update.
The next phase after the last update was the wall work. I had to install drywall where the paneling wainscoting used to be and then blend that in with the existing plaster. That took a lot longer than I expected. Then we skim-coated the walls with slightly watered-down joint compound to give a uniform texture. Once that was done, Carol stayed up very late one night priming and painting because we were so excited to finally have paint on the walls.
Our original plan was to wait until the whole project was done to refinish the floor. But after talking to people about what it would be like (I'd never done it) I decided to go ahead while everything was out of the kitchen anyway. The range and refrigerator won't fit through the interior doors, and I didn't really want to put then outside for several days. So I just put them up on cantilevered platforms so I could refinish the floor well under their fronts. That worked pretty well.
Once the walls were painted and the floor done, it was finally time for cabinets. The refrigerator bay and its component pantry cabinet, overhead cabinet and plywood wall are the anchor for the whole kitchen. For example, the height of the overhead cabinet once it cleared the refrigerator determined the level for all of the other upper cabinets. It took a couple of tries to get it right, but now it's perfect.
Then on to the easy part - installing the rest of the cabinets. The Ikea cabinet system is wonderful. All of the cabinets are made out of the same parts just in different dimensions. Once you've assembled one cabinet you can assemble all the others in about 5-10 minutes each. Then the upper cabinets are installed on a steel rail. You just determine the height of the rail that will give you the cabinet height you want and bolt sections of rail to the studs wherever you can find studs. I used nice big lag bolts. Once the rail is installed, the cabinets just hang from it by sliding bolts - you install two nuts per cabinet and you're done. I didn't have to do one single bit of leveling on the uppers.
The base cabinets are also easy. They rest on legs that are big screws, so you can very easily level a cabinet by just turning its legs. Bolt them to the wall with a couple of molly bolts and
Bob's your uncle.
Finally it was time to remove the old sink and cabinet. I had been waiting as long as possible because living without a kitchen sink would be the hardest part of the project. I had to cut the supply pipes to get the cabinet out. Then drill a bunch of holes in the new sink cabinet and figure out how to maneuver it around the orthogonal supply and drain pipes. With Carol's help I got past that hurdle.
Then it was time to plumb for the new sink and provide take-offs for the dishwasher and ice maker. After literally about 90 minutes at Home Depot trying to solve the plumbing fitting puzzle and do it with compression fittings instead of soldering, I surrendered and decided to solder. But I was smart about it this time. I cut all the pipe and fitted the whole system together dry, then took each assembly separately to the garage and did all the soldering comfortably at a bench with a vise to hold the work. Easy peasy. Then just bring the assemblies back in and install them in the compression-fitting shutoff valves. It might not look like a real plumber did it, but I'm happy with it.
The next major piece is the countertops. We thought granite would be too expensive but it has come down in price quite a lot. In fact, composite quartz and recycled glass countertops are much more expensive than granite now. Plus we don't have all that much countertop. So we decided to go for it. Carol placed the order today, tomorrow we stop by the slab yard on the way to Cape Code and select our slab, Monday they are supposed to come to make the template and when I get back from Seattle in mid-July it should be ready to install with undermount sink pre-attached.
If all goes according to plan, I'll install the microwave and the tile backsplash when I get home and when Carol and the girls get home at the end of July we'll have an almost-finished kitchen.
Whew. Yes, I'm tired. But also very excited to see it coming together.
