Dat da da dah

It's done!  Our kitchen project is done.... this phase is complete.  We are really happy with how it came out and glad to be done.  Getting the stone into the house was a little scary but we were too busy to get any photos of that.

The counter top is really pretty

The top arrives

Cutting the stove hole

looking from the dining area toward the work area

and from the opposite corner

Click here for more photos of our kitchen

These are before photos....

Before this phase photo

The kitchen when we moved in, 17 years ago.

Kitchen Island Status

We are nearly done.  Just need our counter top and our stove top.  I am more than ready to be done.  I miss having a life.  It's great having a husband who is such a great craftsman.  Sometimes I wish he wasn't so driven by the project and was a tad less opinionated.

Island has drawer fronts and hardware

But I STILL can't use the drawers.  I have to wait until they are painted and have the rest of their screws.

Monday they come to do the counter top template.  And then John will start working on the Vent A Hood.  That scares me a little because he has to get on the roof to put in the roof jack.  Our roof isn't that steep but people do fall off roofs, and a fall can be very serious.

I am also worried about how the counter top will look.  I haven't seen the granite since we picked it out in March.  And I have never seen it in our kitchen context.  If I don't like it, I guess I will have to cover it with a table cloth.  Hah!

John says I should get out my worry beads.

The New Island (but not finished)

It's not finished but it is starting to look like a single unit.  The island has its kickspace radiator installed.  The cabinets are in position and the side panels are clamped on.

This is looking directly at the side panels.  You can see how the back to back cabinets are joined together by the side panels.  The empty spaces will have three drawers on each side.  There will be a dead space in the center, about a foot square.

This is a corner view, showing a cabinet front with its nine drawers and the side panel with its three drawers.  The small cutouts near the top of the sides are for electrical outlets.  The cabinets sit on a pedestal that is set back to create a kickspace.  The corner legs make it look like a piece of furniture.  The kick is set back more than normal and we are painting it black to make it disappear more.

I think it looks like a cross between a chemistry lab table and old fashioned kitchen cabinets.  We decided not to have any seating.  I wanted symmetry.  Besides, it's better for us to stand more and sit less.

Moving the island cabinets to the kitchen

The new island cabinets were moved from the basement where John built them into the kitchen today.  It's a pretty exciting day at our house.  John is so proud that they are dead level!  You see, the floor is NOT so level and he had to adjust the lengths of the cabinet legs to accommodate for the uneven floor.  He did this while he was building the cabinets from careful measurements that told him ...he adjusted the legs by a quarter inch or so (snicker).

Now he starts installing them... adding their drawers and side panels and such and getting them ready for the countertop.

Coming from the basement

down  the alley

up the front steps

In place

The island is constructed from two back to back cabinets with a space in between them where side panels and drawers will be installed.  There will be 24 drawers in the island.

The silver handles on the sides are temporary, just to make the cabinets easy to move during construction and installation.

Dead level!

Demolition Day

Wednesday is Demolition Day for our kitchen island project.  That is the day the old island goes away.  Our cats aren't going to like demolition day.  We hope the noise is over quickly.

The new island is part of our 20 year kitchen renovation, which I talk about in this post

Twenty year kitchen project

This part of our project also includes replacing the failing vinyl floor with marmoleum.  But that won't happen till the end of the month and the new island can't go in until the marmoleum is installed.  Until the new island is installed, we won't have a stove top so we will be cooking in the back yard with our camping stove.

Here is the old island in all its glory.  It's so big and has such an awkward unattractive shape.

That is its (relatively) good looking side.  Here is the part I hate most about it.... that cut off corner.

I've lived with it for seventeen years and never liked it.  As long as it was reasonably functional, we kept it.  Now it is really showing its age.  The igniters on the gas stove haven't worked in years.  We have a burner that goes out on low (pretty scary).  John hates the tile and especially the grout.  It's a pretty poor tile installation.  The cabinet itself is cobbled together from cheap components with doors that never worked right and lots of dead space.  Much of the particle board is warped now and the drawers won't stay closed, even though John is a wizard at working on such things.  

Home renovations generate so much trash and we've done a lot of those in our life.  I feel guilty about making more trash.  When I was young and lived on the farm that my grandparents homesteaded, we had our own private dump with all the things that wouldn't burn.  As kids, we used to dig around in it for treasures like old glass bottles.  If I had my own private lifetime dump, I wonder how big it would be?  I imagine it as being huge and I hate that imagined pile of my own private trash.  This time a demolition company is handling that part and I know they will recycle everything they can.  Still, there will be trash, I am sure.

I am so looking forward to the new island that John is making.  

Kitchen Project Progress

John finished the drawer boxes and is making the drawer fronts.  That means he is nearly through with the drawers.  It's astonishing that 50% of the time making the drawers is devoted to plugging the screw holes with walnut dowels, adding a walnut strip to the top edge of the drawer, and preparing for/applying finish to the drawers.

Here is what they look like with the walnut strips and dowels and the finish applied.  Pretty snazzy, huh?  I hope he lets me use them!

The project time line had to slip a little because our marmoleum guy hurt his shoulder.  I feel bad for him but there is a good side to the slip. It helped John feel less pressure.

Production Drudgery

There will be 24 drawers in our new island and making 24 of anything is production work.  The finish work is definitely drudgery.   With the fumes and the need for a respirator, it's a real labor of love.  Too bad John isn't into pretending he is Darth Vader.

         

Drawers, drawers everywhere!

Progress continues on the kitchen island.  Now John is building the drawers (24 of them).  We have a spreadsheet with time estimates for all the tasks.  The total time for drawers is estimated at 118 hours.  He is now assembling the boxes.  According to the spreadsheet,  John is about 38% through the drawer construction.

Then comes all sorts of finish work on the boxes (walnut strips for the top edges and dowell plugs for all the screw holes @26.5 hours) and then applying the  finish (4 coats on each drawer @32 hours)... but wait! We aren't done yet with the drawers.  The drawer faces still have to be made and applied to the drawers @16 hours.

Here are some drawer photos. He uses blue tape for notes about top and bottom, etc.

 Drawers in clamps

Stacked drawers in every cranny.

Kitchen Island progress

Here is one of the two cabinet cases that will become our island.  There will be two of these placed back to back.  They are both done.  He is working on the side panels now.  The sides will have beadboard with another small set of drawers between the two cabinets.

The drawer boxes are next.

I am getting excited!