Remodeling the Kitchen

a reply to: snowspirit


From yesterday, the tile is just about complete now:

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

good day AugustusMasonicus and all other folks. i have been following your endeavours with heaps of interest from the start.

augustus, that kitchen is going to be so fabulous! floor heating, how more comfortable can you go. i love the old stove in that old nook. the work you have done is super. congratulations on such good work.

my interest is specific, because i will have a kitchen remodeled also. it's going to be a little kitchen, but fine nevertheless. i ordered it from a professional kitchen maker with a deadline, which threatens to run out before they even started. we have still a few days left, i wrote them an email this morning with no answer yet.

the kitchen is so small, they will be able to install it in one day. so, nothing really compared with augustus' or flying's job.

a reply to: lucia2389


That's the reason I went with Home Depot. The District Manager has been involved from the outset and has been on top of the contractor relentlessly. The contractor also doesn't get paid if they screw up, which they did when they mis-measured the square footage for the floor heat and I got 200 square feet for free (what a screw up). It's also guaranteed for as long as I won the home and they would need to get someone over hear to repair any work they did.

I looked at some kitchen/bath only contractors and services and I was not comfortable with their fees and guarantees. 1-2 years was not going to cut it, I needed more considering how much work and money was going into this.

in my case, i felt very intimidated, the kitchen of the bigger company i approached first looked good but was expensive and they left me hanging without an installer. then, the smaller company, worked with scare tactics "we constantly get calls to fix their (the bigger company) cheap materials, we don’t work with their suppliers”. at the end i chose that company though because they included installation and removal of the old kitchen.

i rang them this morning in regards to the deadline and they had the best news. they will be able to install the kitchen 3 days earlier, so this suits my plan. the urgency from my part was to get it all done and ready for overseas friends from back home who arrive exactly after those 3 dyas. What luck !

this is the plan of the kitchen to be. it's going into the separate little guest house which is all built of hard wood.






can't wait to post pics of the finished product.

a reply to: lucia2389


I like the under-counter microwave, I went with the same thing.

a reply to: lucia2389


Tile is almost completely in:







Next up is plumbing, electrical, ventilation and sheetrock.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus



yes, i thought since the microwave is also the oven, that's where it belongs. i like to have the top of the fridge free, where it is now.

i'm looking forward to see how your kitchen develops.

tomorrow i'll start with emptying the kitchen. i have some tiles on the wall, they have to come off. and the electrician will arrive and prepare the cables for the burner. ah yeah, and i have to go and purchase the burner and the mixer for the sink. i fancy a black one.





oh, i just see you have progressed. the tiles look great.

still i admire you to live in such raw circumstances. where do you do your meals now? going out a lot?

originally posted by: lucia2389
still i admire you to live in such raw circumstances. where do you do your meals now? going out a lot?

I'm in Chicago right now, sucking it up at The Drake. Room service is your friend.

originally posted by: lucia2389
oh, i just see you have progressed. the tiles look great.

Grouted and cleaned up a bit:

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

I'm in Chicago right now, sucking it up at The Drake. Room service is your friend.

that sounds too good! why finish the kitchen at all (sarcastic remark)

the floor is fabulous, starts looking good, your kitchen.


the electrician has been and banged a few holes into the wall of the old kitchen where now cables are sticking out.



and i have more good news. the installer phoned early this morning and offered sierra coloured high gloss luxury boards for the kitchen cabinets and doors he has sitting around abandoned in his workshop for the same price. whether i would be happy with that. you kidding me - glossy cupboards are so easy to keep clean !!

a reply to: lucia2389


Always nice to get a unexpected bonus like that due to someone else's screw up.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: lucia2389


Always nice to get a unexpected bonus like that due to someone else's screw up.

yes indeed !!


and i might have come across an other bonus while i started to dismantle around the sink.



i had never noticed this logo before. but now i think i will take the sink to market

nor have i actually heard of the UMI label before. maybe a reader here can add something about this brand ?

a reply to: lucia2389


Some rough laying out of the cabinets:

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

gee, AugustusMasonicus, you are nearly done !

but i think i did beat you to the finished kitchen

it all happened yesterday

the workers arrived late because it was a rainy day
so, yesterday, approx 10 am, this is how it looked like



then approx noon



at this point the boss noticed, that he forgot the drain bit from the sink. he and his very young, tall and too skinny offsider left the site to go into town to get the part and returned 3 hrs later.

so, at approx 16 hrs, the product was finished



today i'm waiting for a good friend to come and help to detail the thing and the surroundings

er

originally posted by: lucia2389
gee, AugustusMasonicus, you are nearly done !

That was just a test fit to make sure the floor plan will work.

Plumbing and electrical are this week. Spackle and paint are next week. Cabinets, countertops and appliances the week after that and hopefully the copper ceiling right after that's done.

Such fun....watching someone else get cool kitchens!!!!!

AM, you've done a great job capturing what you've done.

It seems like a very nice upgrade to your house.

Kitchen remodels are hard...I know, as I'm sure you do as well.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
er

originally posted by: lucia2389
gee, AugustusMasonicus, you are nearly done !

That was just a test fit to make sure the floor plan will work.

yes i got that. it is a step that the my designer had done in the beginning in computer simulation. still you are nearly done, i think, considering all the work that you already have done, but maybe i'm too optimistic. i wish you all the best till the end of this project.

thought i show a last picture of the finished kitchen, the granny cave is ready for the guests.



in hindsight, i will admit that a cheap kitchen also has its little mistakes, but nothing too bad. some lines don't line up as perfect as they could. i just had to laugh about the fact that the installer did not cut the splash back in a straight line. so what. we had fun. i think this particular cabinet maker does his job as a sideline, it looks he is more into buddy building.

mainly i recommend to everybody to get several quotes. a nearly didn't. but now i am so happy about the outcome.

and it was fun sharing it here.

i wish we had seen Fyingclaydisk's kitchen and i'm sure looking forward to see AugustusMasonicus' finished kitchen !

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
AM, you've done a great job capturing what you've done.

Thankfully I did, it helped resolve a couple contractor screw ups since I had plenty of photos. Like the most recent where they put the island plumbing/electric 1' away from where it was supposed to be.

a reply to: lucia2389


First coat of paint, cabinets start going in today: