Category: Home Improvement

Last weekend Jim and I got (mostly) installed the salvaged cabinetry from the Before kitchen into the basement. We still need to do some electrical work (moving a plug), and some countertop purchases, but by and large it's looking pretty good, and will add some new storage flexibility into the basement area.

We're probably getting close to the end of the Kitchen Project saga. There are a few small interior things to deal with (contractor-wise, at least), and a lot of the outside remaining stuff (contractor-wise) looks to be complete this week. That will just leave us with the (literal) heavy lifting of landscaping and reorganization and getting stuff put away … but that's probably not fair to keep track of as a day count.

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We had a hell of a downpour today — 1.5" in about 20 minutes — which helped test the grading and excavation on the side yard. Besides demonstrating that we really need some grass or other groundcover, as well as extensions of the downspouts, things actually worked out well — water flowed mostly where we expected, and none of it flowed into the basement. Huzzah!

We expect to have the final inspections this week. There's a possibility that something may need to be done with the main retaining wall. We'll see.

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-08-10

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The last major gap, so to speak, in the kitchen has been fixed. The range could not be pushed all the way back to the wall because of a problem with the plywood on the floor and the position of the electrical outlet. The contracting crew was out on Friday, pulled the range out, fixed the problems, slid it back in, and it fits like a dream. Huzzah!

That largely wraps up the interior — the hinges on the doors to the dining room need to be replaced, and we need final inspection, but overall we're very good. Outside is a different matter, but that's a photo shoot for another day.

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-08-01

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Things are going a bit slowly at the moment, though there has been progress made. The fence and gates are back up, and most (but not all) of the side yard grading and walls are complete. We're waiting on some inspection on the large retaining wall before we can polish off the work back there, and in front.

Moving back into the kitchen is suffering from the 80-20 rule: the last 20% is taking 80% of the time (since it's the least necessary). That's because of needing to sequence some stuff along with work in the basement.

1. Figure out what's going where in the basement — from the boxes stacked there, and from space upstairs that is occupied by stuff that really could go into the basement.
2. Install basement cabinets (former kitchen cabinets)
3. Move shelving into basement annex.
4. Load stuff into 2 and 3 that need to be based on 1.
5. Move other stuff around between living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway storage, and basement.
5.5 Finish getting remaining kitchen stuff into the kitchen.
6. Get dining room (staging area for all the above) and living room (storage area for a bunch of stuff, still) into operational shape.
7. In the garage, now that the cabinets are moved out (see 2), figure out what to do with the scrap lumber, etc. so that we can actually park in the garage again (a novel idea, wot?)

Good thing I have time on my hands soon …

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-07-28

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Things are in the slow, final dribs and drabs aspect of the kitchen project, which is a Good Thing from a budget standpoint.

First off, the work on the range hood has finally finished, as the intact and un-masked and polished range hood picture below demonstrates. Huzzah! The kitchen looks finished!

(And, except for a few punch list details, and different door hinges, and moving the outlet behind the range (!), it is.)

Outside, the masonry guys got the retaining walls done, as well as the patio outside the back door, which is repurposing bricks that used to be on our front patio. That all looks good, except for two things:

The second of the things is grading issues on the side yard, so that water runs toward the neighbor (as it traditionally does) rather than into our basement (which we'd prefer not). There is certainly dirt there that wasn't before all the excavation, so we're certainly hoping that it's doable.

The first of things has to do with the city inspection today — which turned out the city sort of bobbled, as it was supposed to be for mechanical, plumbing, and electrical, and instead the guy was sent out who could do the first two and the final, but not the electrical.

So we are passed on mechanical and plumbing. Electrical is still to be done. Final building will be after that.

Inspector Man liked a number of the things we had done, but was concerned on the exterior, esp. about the retaining wall. This was in the original plans, but lower (because more was to have been excavated for the the deck that was canceled off the plan). So there's some review to be done of what the block manufacturer requires (which I would have thought the masonry contractor or the GC would have checked before the wall was put up), and we'll see how that goes.

The final bit had to do with an unexpected change order. The west side of the house, opposite all of this, is narrow and has a slab on it, along with a double gate — designed for some previous owner to park their RV or boat in the side yard. We don't do that, and the double gates have been a pain — and, in a moment of brilliant timing, the gate post that was anchoring the whole mess to the side of the house has torn off of that wall.

So … since we are already getting fence work done on the other side of the house, we're having them remove the two gates, and put in "normal" wood fence and a single, normal-sized gate. Which is something we've wanted for a while, but would have preferred to not have happen quite yet.

And so it goes …

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-07-14

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Yes, they said it would never happen — but today it did! We now have a range, a refrigerator, and, essentially, all of our appliances installed and (largely) operational!

The range is a big six-burner GE Monogram (ZDP366NPSS), with a humongous oven. We are inaugurating it with a pizza and cookies tonight.

(One glitch with the range install — despite being within the parameters of the installation document, the range is butting up against the gas pipe ad cannot be pushed back flush to the wall, leaving a 1.25" gap that we will need to address in some fashion.)

The fridge is also a GE Monogram (PYE23KSDSS), french doors, in-door ice. It fit perfectly in its space.

(One glitch with the fridge install — the plumber plumbed with a plastic line and the (a) the installers would not hook up to plastic, per policy, even though the fridge side of everything is plastic, and (b) the pipe was missing anything to hook it up to the fridge side, so I couldn't do it myself. Which means that until the plumber arrives, we have no water or ice from the fridge. Sigh.)

The delivery guys did move our old fridge from the dining room to the garage; the fridge its replacing is disconnected and awaiting the fridge recyclers from Xcel to come and take it away and give us a $50 rebate.

Meanwhile, various punch list items are getting completed — the range hood make-up air control should be coming in next Thursday, the cardboard is up from the tile on the ground floor, and outside the sprinkler guy is rebuilding our side and front sprinkler system.

But, for the moment, we have a pretty-well-operating kitchen. Which is a great thing to be able to say.

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-07-02s

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FLOOR! WE HAVE FLOOR! WOOT!

The installers were here for most of the day, installing the cork floor, and it looks and feels fabulous. I've already confirmed with the appliance folk that we can take delivery of the fridge and range next week.

There are a few gotchas, mostly around the T-strip for the transition between the tile and the cork. One gotcha is that I managed to not order enough (don't ask me how). The other is that it didn't come with the installation rail that the installers were expecting. I have inquiries in on both points, though neither is enough to keep us from using the kitchen.

The other thing, which happened earlier in the week, is the Miele steam/convection oven finally got installed, which will make Margie very, very happy.

Essentially, that leaves us with a couple of remaining appliances to get put in (see above), plus getting the range hood hook-up to the make-up air complete, and we're largely done except for the trim and baseboards and the like. And we can start moving back into the kitchen …

(There's also the sprinkler system and retaining walls in the side yard to be done, but that's a different challenge, and doesn't keep us out of the kitchen.)

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-06-25

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The Mechanical/HVAC sub was in on Friday. Part of what got done were the toe-kick vent grills (which openings Jim and I made a bit too wide, but we'll survive).

More important was that the range hood got (mostly) mounted. Which is to say that the hood itself got mounted, and powered up, and the ductwork rejiggered and connected. The connection to the make-up air system is not yet decided on, though; they're still looking at the best way to do it between the two methods available.

The flooring, we are assured (by the Carpet Exchange guy who was assured by the manufacturer) is on a transport of some sort or another between Georgia and Here, to arrive next Wednesday. Floor install to follow.

The sprinkler guy was supposed to come out yesterday afternoon, but the side yard was something of a mud pit after the rain and we had to halloo off to a show, so we didn't see him.

Inch by inch …

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-06-13

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So two not-insignificant occurrences the past few days.

1. Jim and I carpeted the new basement room, using carpet squares from Home Depot (Soft Collection – Tranquility – Mountain Mist, for the record). Went fast and easy, and we've bought enough additional to (over time) recarpet the basement.

Now that's done, the contractor can install the baseboards, etc.

2. The drink fridge arrived today, huzzah, and, mirabile dictu, it was the correct model this time! Inconceivable!

This will let us serve guests without sending them out to the garage for sodas and beer. It will also give us a place to stash chilled wines and champagne that doesn't take up normal fridge space.

It's a Perlick C-Series, HC24BB (for those who keep track of such things (like myself at some future time.)

Coming up this week:

– Electrical finishing!
– Range hood!
– Beginning work on the side yard and sprinklers!
– Flooring arrives Friday!

And, given that we've festooned the room with Post-Its as to what should be going where, maybe we'll even start moving stuff into the kitchen …

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-06-08

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So not much new news this past week.

The beveridge fridge was delivered — and determined to be not the right beveridge fridge, per an error at the warehouse. New beveridge fridge delivery date TBD.

The outlet for the range hood was properly installed. Range hood to be installed and properly wired some time next week.

We looked at some alternative flooring sources, but didn't see anything that wowed us enough to change out our (twice-delayed) order at Carpet Exchange, which is currently a week out from delivery.

Upon which we can then schedule delivery of the fridge and the range. Hopefully the right ones will show up, undamaged, of those.

This weekend we'll be working on installing carpet squares in the new basement room, so we can start moving stuff over into it.

Next week we expect a bunch of punch-list items to be worked on by the contractor.

My back-up order of handles (Amerock Riva) arrived and were installed, so we are all fully handled. Some of the cabinets and drawers still need adjustment, but …

I wrote up (from notes taken in January-February) a series of Post-It notes with all the categories of Stuff that go in the kitchen (and surrounding environs). These are ready to be stuck on various drawers and cabinets, so as to get ready for moving stuff in. Which, for some stuff, we could actually do at any time …

… which is actually kind of exciting!

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-06-05

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On the plus side:

– I have almost all of the cabinet and drawer pulls in place, and the remaining ones are bored and waiting for installation.

– We've started planning the move back into the kitchen, with Many Post-It Notes to identify what should go where.

On the minus side:

– Dude from Carpet Exchange called to let us know the flooring due today is actually back-ordered and not scheduled to arrive until the 12th.

Sigh.

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Oh, yeah, that would be the upper oven. The highly prized (and pricey) Miele Combi-Steam/Convection Oven, which Margie has been jonesing for a long time now.

It was delivered on Thursday. Which is cool, except …

1. The outlet installed by the electricians was the wrong NEPA 6/20. (It needed to be the regular one, not the 6/20L one, don'tcha know?)

2. The box opening is fine for the oven itself. But we bought the trim kit, so that it would look as wide as the GE microwave/convection oven below it. And, apparently and somewhat paradoxically, that requires a wider opening be cut.

3. There was glass on the inside of the oven, when they opened it, of mysterious origins, and also damage.

So, based on No. 3, they took it back for replacement. Which gives us time to fix Nos. 1-2.

Next week will be pretty zany around the kitchen after a fairly placid / maddeningly inactive time. The flooring will arrive, and be installed. The electricians will fix the range hood problems, the wrong type of lighting problems, and, hopefully, the steam oven outlet problems. The beverage fridge will arrive and be installed.

And, if all goes well with the above, we can schedule the arrival of the main fridge and the range. And ALL WILL BE RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

It's a dream I have.

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Slowly but surely the pieces are coming together. We now have operating sinks, an operating (and run!) dishwasher, and a microwave / convection oven installed. Woot!

Still to go: range hood, steam / convection oven, flooring / baseboards, refrigerator, range. Plus punch list items. Woot!

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-05-21

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The finish electrical isn't yet finished, but we made progress this afternoon. We got one of the two oven bays properly outletted (the one that's scheduled for Wednesday delivery). We got the pop-up outlet on the peninsula installed and powered up. Those were the easy parts.

The range hood remains a thorny issue. Moving the power outlet to the upper area wasn't a huge problem — take down (break) one of the designer tiles, cut a hole, reach down to pull up the wires, easy-peasy.

The complication is with how to have this arrangement work with the make-up air powered assembly down in the basement. Apparently (talking with the electrician) this is (a) a common issue, as house building codes are requiring make-up air for ventilation changes in the house; in our town, any range hood installed over 300 CFM requires one.

But, (b) the hood manufacturers aren't keeping up with that need, and range hoods sold for the home, including ones that are at a higher level (ours is significantly higher, but the range we are getting recommends at least 600 CFM) aren't yet coming with control wiring or automatic switches for that sort of thing.

So the "normal" thing to do has been to find someone in the contractor chain (usually electrical, sometimes HVAC) to hardwire the power cable in to the hood switch. Which voids the warranty, and comes with no warranty of its own not to kill everyone in the house with fire some day.

Our GC called the hood manufacturer, and they actually have an add-on kit to take care of this problem — something that neither our electrician or the GC had ever heard of, that is not mentioned at all in the hood installation guide, and that our appliance vendor apparently didn't know about either. The trick there is that it has a control cable going from the hood setup that has to go down to the basement where the make-up air opening mechanism is set up, which is not impossible but is certainly non-trivial.

We're still pondering the options, and will make a decision next week.

But, still … progress!

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-05-15

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Countertop guys returned and got the sink on the island installed. That provided an opportunity to do some cabinet work to accommodate the popup outlet that sits near it.

Based on this, we can now get finish plumbing installed in the kitchen, which should happen early next week: getting faucets and disposals and water/drain piping all installed and working, as well as hooking up the dishwasher. In another week we'll have functionality starting to return to the kitchen, huzzah!

I had a series of chats with the GC and we're working toward solutions with the range hood. We also need to adjust some of the wiring in the oven cabinet to accommodate the ovens. That's all probably going to kick off on Monday, along with some other finish electrical.

Making progress!

In Album 2015-05-15

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Really, if you want to feel what it's like to suffer from manic-depressive disorder, do a major home remodeling project, preferably a kitchen. I find my mood swings wildly depending on what went well or what didn't on any given day.

What went well today

– I finished up two pieces of trim around gaps in the cabinets based on how things had to line up. I am very pleased with myself for my 1337 carpentry skills. (Thanks to +Margie Kleerup for holding some things for me, too.)

– The dishwasher was delivered and installed. It looks fabulous. It's not actually operational yet, as the plumbing is not currently complete, but I am counting the proverbial hours. (That would likely be Friday. Well, maybe.)

That makes the first appliance installed. And, to my mind, the most important one. Huzzah!

What went not quite so well today

– The countertop guys were supposed to let us know Monday when today they were supposed to be coming to finish installation of the island countertop and sink beyond a nebulous "Wednesday afternoon." They did not. No on Tuesday. Nor on Wednesday morning. The issue may have been that they didn't actually come Wednesday afternoon (i.e, today).

This is irksome, on a number of levels, not least of which is that I need to have my contractor here when they show up so he can do some cabinet work while the countertop is off. (Don't. Ask.)

It's also irksome because, based on the island sink being installed today, we're scheduled to have plumbers in on Friday, after which we would have working sinks and a working dishwasher. Which would be a good thing. So this is a not-good thing.

– The same appliance guy brought out our new range hood, which made me happy, until we discovered:

a. The hood takes a 10" duct. An 8" duct was installed. The installer did not have a reducer.

b. That's okay, because the 8" duct is actually about an inch too far from the wall for the "chimney" of the hood.

c. Also, the electrical line coming in is about 18" too low. A new hole needs to be cut (through the tile) and the wire fished up and then turned into an outlet (which is what this hood takes).

d. Also, the second line (that powers the air supply thing that keeps us from suffocating, per code, when the hood is cranked to super-suck) doesn't seem to have a place to be connected, and the installer had no idea WTF it was for.

As a result, we now have a range hood … sitting in the dining room. And an email out to my contractor. Who, it turns out, I had actually sent a copy of the installation guide for the hood back in February, such that in theory all these placement items and such should have been known to him.

In sum

But besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Just remember, that trim I did looks awfully nice, and we have a (not quite yet working) dishwasher. Plus, I have my health, a lovely family, and some TV I can't wait to watch tonight, so … it's all good, right?

Time for my meds.

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-05-13

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Today was Backsplash Day! Huzzah!

So, for most of the backsplash we're talking a straightforward white subway tile. We had something else originally picked out — but in the gap between our finding it (back in, say, August) and our going to buy it (in, say, March), it was discontinued and vanished.

Which is a "might have been" shame, but, honestly, I have always loved the subway tile look, so I'm jazzed to have it.

The backsplash behind the stove, though, is the really cool bit — Daltile Showscape (1×2 ft tiles), in the Currant color and Brushstroke pattern (http://products.daltile.com/series.cfm?series=460). It's a huge, eye-catching color accent, goes perfectly with the counters and bamboo and all, and we're all very happy with how it looks.

(As one of the pix shows, it's not solid red, but has an embossed pattern that looks like blades of grass — or flames, which is thematically perfect for the stove.)

Most of the tile was put up over the course of the day. Tomorrow the tile guy will finish up the parts not yet in, including some pencil trim we under-estimated, and then grout things up. Nice.

We had a problem with the island sink cut-out that's been a bone of contention with the countertop folk. Essentially, it got cut in the wrong place — not where I had it templated out on the cabinet, and too close to the edge of the sink cabinet for the undermount.

Well, Margie and I and the countertop guy and the tile shop sales rep we purchased it through met today, and, after the countertop got adjusted a bit, we decided we could make it work with a slight bit of creative carpentry. It's not exactly as planned or as ideal, but it's also not worth waiting for a month-plus for another slab to be shipped, then carved. Ultimately, it will be one of those things that we'll immediately forget about after the fact, I believe.

The actual ugly part of today was discovering that the cork flooring we had picked out which was in stock a month-and-change ago is no longer in stock, and won't be delivered to the store until 1 June. That one we'd rather not compromise on (or go out and make new decisions on), so we're going to wait, and look at what else we can get done, appliance-wise and finish-wise, in the interim.

Still, compromise and delays aside, the backsplash looks freaking awesome, and we are both stoked and elated by it. Yay!

In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-05-07

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