Kitchen Progress - Report #2

My entry after day 1 had a lot of dramatic before and after photos.  While a lot has happened since then, the changes have not been as dramatic or photogenic.

As of the end of day 1, all of the old cabinets had been removed, and the line of cabinets on the sink side had been installed.

Monday night, some friends came and adopted 4 of the old cabinets, and I picked out 2 I wanted to keep for use in the garage.  The 3 that were left got put out at the curb yesterday, and they had been "picked" by  6 pm.  We purposely waited until after trash day to put them out so they wouldn't go in the trash.  My workmen said they would take whatever was left if no one picked them in a day or 2.  The two items left unpicked are the old dishwasher (which has now been rained on) and the stove hood (which we put in new 4 years ago when we got the new stove).  The workmen will haul them away for me as well if no one picks them.

Another thing that happened at the end of Monday's work session was the old countertop was put back on the sink side - just temporarily, and not plumbed yet.  Here's what it looked like when they were through for the day:

On Tuesday, the primary job was finishing backsplash removal on the stove side, and then starting the process of installing the cabinets on that side.  Here are some progress shots:

The other thing that started on Tuesday was electrical work.  We are adding wired-in under-cabinet lighting on the sink side, and then mounting a light inside the cabinet above the stove where my stained glass doors will be, so all of that wiring had to be done with switches, etc...  They also added an additional outlet at the far left end of the sink side, and had to add GFI outlets on either side of the sink (I really HATE GFIs).  

(That strange square hole was there when they took the backsplash down, so Keith made a new piece of wallboard to patch in there.  The round hole was where the old phone outlet would have been back-in-the-day.)

The base cabinets on the stove side are smaller than the previous ones, so Keith had to use some leftover flooring to fill in around the new ones.  Luckily there was half a box of that in the pantry that we inherited with the house.

In the next-to-last photo above, you will see some extra panels sitting at the right.  Those are extra doors that are being mounted at the end of each outer cabinet to finish them.  

Tuesday (day 2) and Wednesday (day 3) are sort of running together in my mind because a lot of little jobs spanned both days.  Plus Tuesday was a shorter work day because Keith had to go to the dentist in the morning for a root canal!  OWWW!

Today (Thursday, day 4), the big job was the Quartz Countertop people coming to measure for the counter.  Cole from Lang Stone came in to do that job.  He talked to us for awhile - asked a lot of questions - then got out his laser measurer.  He also took the sink with him.  They won't actually mount it before they come back, but they need to have it for measuring for the cut-out.  In order to measure, they had to take the old counter back off, and then put it back on (it's just sitting on top - not attached).  

Once Cole left, Keith started working on connecting the plumbing so we can use the old sink while we wait for the new one to come (Aug. 1), but then he realized the old faucet was part of the old leak problem, so we decided he should mount the new faucet instead because I don't want any leaks in my new cabinet!  Here is the new faucet:

He also realized that the wiring needed to be fixed where the disposer was connected to the switch because it was blowing out the GFI that is next to it, so Don came back to redo that section of wiring.  Now it works fine.

As of the end of today, the baseboards will be done on both sides.  Keith will be cleaning up his mess.  Tomorrow, Don and another guy are coming at 3 to move the stove and fridge back in place.  Then I should be back in the kitchen for the next couple of weeks.

Once the missing upper cabinets come in (next week sometime?), they will be hung, and the lighting will be added along with a decorative rail around the bottoms of the upper cabs that will hide the lights.  

Aug. 1 the new counter will be installed, Aug. 2 the sink will be plumbed.  Then backsplash tile work will be done (1-2 days).  So... maybe by Aug 3 or 4 this project will be DONE!  Stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting!  Come back again soon!
:)Amy