Kitchen Remodel Day 10 (Elapsed Day 16)

 Well, 7 o'clock came and went.

And 8 o'clock.

9 o'clock.

10 o'clock.

10:30 the granite guys came!

Bird is the official inspector.  She has to check out everything.

You can barely see them, but they laid out these thin balsa wood strips, maybe 3" x 8'.  They started at the center of the sink, and glued them with a glue gun across the front, hanging over like the granite will, across the back, along the edge by the door (there is an angle there, it comes out 16" and then angles in for 10").  Then they glued on cross pieces about every 3 feet.

Repeat for the stove side.  Repeat for the pass through.  And, gee, do you want the windowsill done?  Sure.

When they got it all done, they just popped it off the "ply"wood, and carried the pieces out to their truck.  Along with our new sink.  And they dropped off a piece of granite for Saul, and a small sink for him also.

11:10 bye bye!  See you in about a week.

11:45 Saul arrived.  Much earlier than yesterday, I must admit. 

I thought this was a good picture of Saul mudding the wall where the big hole was.

Saul:  OK, I need to talk to you guys.

You know I'm not one to add on things to my budget, but a few things have happened.

We added lights and a switch to the crawlspace (so he could see what he was doing).  $100
Jerry added the 220v receptacle for the heater we don't have yet.  $120 (not done yet)
Wallboard and a whole day fixing the wall that wasn't planned.  $100
Granite window sill:  TBD
Plumbing leak fix:  TBD
Final electrical parts costs:  TBD

OK!  But how about the threshold into the bathroom?  And a new gas service line for the stove?

I still feel like we're getting our money's worth.  Tomorrow (or maybe the next day) he's going to see if he can raise the fan (see that little stub between the ceiling and the fan?)  If he can move that up, then the wall cabinets can be taller.

Since I want my cabinet doors inset, they won't have the soft close hinges.  That's OK.

Meanwhile the floor guy has called twice, and I tried to call him this afternoon to see if he could do the floor tomorrow.  He's gone for the day.  Guess not.

Kitchen Remodel Day 9 (Elapsed Day 15)

My new kitchen!

Wednesday is Art Class day, and Jo and I were just leaving as Saul drove up at 4:45.

I THOUGHT both he and the granite guys were coming today, but I knew we weren't ready.

When I got home from class, this is what I saw.

 Saul delivered.  He and Jerry wrestled the big cabinets in through the front door.  Well, after both the door and the screen were removed from the hinges.  The only way to get them into the kitchen was through the pass through!

The board on the stove is the little bit of cabinet for the door side of the stove.

They look huge.  It's hard to get a good picture of how big they are.

Yep, the back door still opens.

The insides are all papered off, but it's a nicely finished plywood.  Very smooth.

Along with the cabinets Saul picked up and delivered our new HUGE sink.

Along with all the goodies that came with it.

Racks, cutting board, colander.

Woohoo!

Just one little ooopsie.  The gas line is too close to the cabinet.  It needs to be moved over 2 inches.

But the floor is level!  He didn't have to shim the new cabinet, it fit flat to the floor the whole way back!  Yeah, Saul.

So Saul left about 7:30 p.m. saying that the granite guys would be here early.  Between 7 and 7:30 a.m.  And he would be back early.

Kitchen Remodel Day 8 (Elapsed Day 14)

Today I took advantage of Jo's planned "garden day" to go to the nursery with her to get some new kale plants, and some others I couldn't pass up.

Much more fun than waiting for Saul.

But he did show up about 2, and got this side of the kitchen dry walled.

Notice how all the electrical boxes line up!  Way to go, Saul!

I must be misunderstanding something, because I thought the base cabinets needed to be installed before the granite could be measured, but I must be mistaken.

According to my calculations two walls need a second coat of mud, the plumbing needs to be fixed and at least the under sink electrical needs to be finished before the cabinets go in.

Saul says he'll be here tomorrow afternoon, when the granite guys come.  It may be a very interesting day!

Today I got to figure out how to cook without a sink.  I used a recipe I learned at Healthy Taste of LA on Sunday.  You just throw everything in the slow cooker.  I mean everything.  Well, you do take the skin off the onion first, but it goes in whole, the carrots go in whole, the celery goes in whole.  I peeled the sweet potato before it went in whole.  I added some black eyed peas and some water and a can of tomatoes and set it to cook.

Jerry rigged up the big water cooler on the little table by the front door.

After the soup cooks, you take the immersion blender and moosh it all up!  And then I threw in some brown rice for good measure.  Sure smells good!

Kitchen Remodel Day 7 (Elapsed Day 13)

After waiting all day, Saul showed up about 4 to remove the sink.

Too bad when he did that, the plumbing decided to leak.  One more thing to fix.

Wonder why the floor under the dishwasher and the old tile is wet?  Could that have been leaking for a long time?  Also has a very weird smell...

AND, when he took the wall cabinet down, there is a huge hole in the wall that now needs to be dry walled.

The sink plumbing leaks.

The switch is taken apart to change the garbage disposal switch to a chrome push button!

Jerry the Genius figured out some temporary counter space.  Makes it much easier to cook.

This is what our kitchen outlets look like now.

Kinda hard to plug things in.

Kitchen Remodel Day 6 (Elapsed Day 10)

 OK, now there is something to see.  Saul got the dining room wall dry walled and mudded.

Maybe you want to see it closer up?

Saul decided to leave the sink operational through the weekend. Thank you, Saul.

He'll be back Monday to put on the second coat of mud.

Kitchen Remodel Day 5 (Elapsed Day 9)

Can you see the progress today?  Saul dropped off Saul Jr. to finish wiring the electrical boxes.  Not a lot to see!

Saul Sr. spent the day driving out to Anaheim to take possession of the granite slab.

The plan is to get ready for granite measurements Wednesday, Nov. 5.

Kitchen Remodel Day 4 (or is it 6?) - Drywall Pass-Through

I missed this shot on Friday of the condition of the entire kitchen for the weekend.  Yes, I had a workable stove, but not a whole lot of cabinet space.  

Below is a picture of the floor after I picked at it all weekend. 

First I tried the water trick, where you just get it wet and it curls up and peels off.  But that didn't work.

Then I tried soap and water, and that didn't work either.

The problem was that it was sticky, and everytime you walked through, your feet would stick to the floor.

Jerry found some super-duper adhesive remover out in the garage that you spray on, so I tried that.  It smelled like solvent and I worked with a face mask.  It said to let it set for a minute, but a couple of hours worked better.  Then I took one more pass at it with the putty knife.

Jerry also found some super-duper cleaner/degreaser, so when I was done with the putty knife I sprayed that on and scrubbed with a scrub brush.  That got lots up, but how long do you want to scrub?  Next was the broom and a bucket of water, while Jerry vacuumed it up with this shop vac.  This is the result.  It doesn't stick when you walk on it anymore.

I don't know if it was the floor, solvent or degreaser, but I was sick on Sunday.  Slept almost all day.

So should I count work days or elapsed days?

Monday became the 4th workday for Saul.  He got the drywall around the pass-through finished and mudded. 

He's coming back on Wednesday to apply another coat of mud.  And to install Jerry's 240v heater plug. 

The plan is to demolish the rest of the cabinets Friday, and start in with the new Monday.  We talked dimensions today.

And what goes in what sink hole.  The compromise sink Jerry ordered is huge, bigger than the current one, but only has 3 holes.  I count faucet, filtered water, hot water.  But Saul thinks we need a garbage disposal air vent (I'm still not sold), and Jerry wants a soap dispenser (I'm not sold on that either), and we both want a air button for the garbage disposal, so those aren't' all going to fit. Maybe the hot water dispenser will have to be returned for a combo hot water/filtered water version.  Bigger mess under the sink.  We'll see.

Notice the stove doesn't have any burner grates, oven knob or broiler handle?  I found a place that will refinish them for a small fortune.  All I have to do is mail them away with a check!