Okay, a lot has happened in the past 12 days. I am not quite sure where to begin. I left off with us installing the cabinets. It only took 3 days total. Two days to set the cabinets and one day for us to install moldings, panels toe kicks and put all of the shelves, doors and drawers back in. That alone took several hours. All in all, everything went in pretty well, which is good since my wife was starting to get tired of the dust and is ready to be done. I was a little short on crown molding, and had missed a shelf on one of the base cabinets.
All in all, anything addition I had to order would not prohibit us from moving forward. Once the cabinets were set, the tops were measured and we waited. While we waited, I installed hardware and only mis-drilled one drawer head. We cleaned the cabinets what seemed like a dozen times and kept staring in amazement of our new space. After 4 weeks, cabinets were set, and we were waiting on countertops. That weekend I bought and painted the base molding and door and window casing, so I would only have to touch up nail holes once it was installed, as well as finishing any painting I had left to do.
Week 5 started off slowly. The guys were to come Monday to install the moldings and start on the appliances but got tied up on another job. Since nothing can really progress until countertops get installed, it didn’t slow us down any. Tuesday they came and put the trim on. It’s amazing how some pieces of wood can make such a difference in how a space looks. Wednesday brought not only the installation of our granite tops, but the delivery of our double ovens and refrigerator. At the request of our contractor, they were set in front of their openings, so he could get them hooked up and installed. My wife was excited to get the pictures I sent of the granite tops and her double ovens. I believe she said it brought tears to her eyes to see the ovens sitting there. That evening, our oldest son bellied right up to the side of the peninsula top is and pretended he worked at McDonalds. The wires hanging down for the under counter lights were his microphone, and he was ready to take orders. It’s funny, I never thought about how our boys would react to the remodeling. Our youngest doesn’t seem to really care, but our 6 year old has really taken an interest. He’s opening cabinets and checking things out. Thursday brought the installation of our Corian top and the hope we’d have everything hooked up that night. Unfortunately for us the Corian installers didn’t get to us after lunch, so by the time they were done, it was too late for the plumber to come. No matter, we had all of our counters and now we could see the light. We did have a minor hitch with the installation of the Corian, but we were able to solve the issue, and in the end it did not slow us down. Friday brought great joy to our house. The plumber came. By the time we got home on Friday, we had running water, a working gas cook top and our new refrigerator was hooked up.
Now that we had the plumbing hooked up, we could start to unpack. Unfortunately the dishwasher wasn’t working (something the electrician would have to address). But that didn’t stop us. We started unpacking boxes and putting things away. We had made a list of what items were going into what cabinets. While a nice guide, it didn’t get updated to reflect the final plans and we had to make adjustments as we went. Even with a guide, it has been hard. While we have a lot more space than we did have, it is taking time to figure out where to put some things. We’ve lived with our old kitchen for 9 years, so adjusting is going to take a little time. The biggest surprise for my wife is to see how much space we loose because of the inset hinges. They stick into the cabinet a couple of inches, and that is prohibiting her from putting some things where she had planned. Also, we went with 42” high cabinets for the storage, but she’s only 5’-2”, so anything above the 2nd shelf of the cabinet she will need a stool for. And since the electrician did not make it out to our house on Friday, the double ovens are still sitting on the floor in front of where they go. This is prohibiting us from putting our pots and pans away, as well as accessing a couple of other cabinets. We did what we could, and hopefully we’ll be able to finish soon.
Monday morning, the electrician is to come, so all of the appliances will be hooked up, cover plates put on the switches and outlets, and recessed and under cabinet lights will be installed. All that we have left to wait for is the tile installer to come, hopefully this week too, so we can fully move back in. Anything left after that is for me to do. I still have painting to touch up, and things to hang on the walls. Plus, once we get unpacked, we have to give our living room, dining room and sun room a thorough cleaning. Dust is every where, and even thought we’ve done what we could to contain it, it gets everywhere. We are looking forward to getting our house back to normal. We were even discussing who we should have over first to break in the new kitchen.
Stay tuned, hopefully by the next time I write, we’ll be all done. Check out the new pictures now that we have counters and appliances.
Andrew,
PS. I do have one confession to make. While I checked and double checked the height of the backsplash area and my wife’s Kitchen Aid Mixer, I did not check a fruit stand/tray she has. It won’t fit. She reminded me about it, but I just forgot. So I have to find a new home for it somewhere, and figure out where we are going to put our fruit. If that’s the biggest mistake I made, I can live with that.
