Kitchen Collage

Counters Installed

Here's some photos of the installed counters.  The sink is all plumbed up and working.  I'm working on getting the under counter lighting installed.  Then we still have backsplash tiles, trim, kick plate, and a few cover panels left to install.  The kitchen is fully functioning now.  We went for 3 weeks without a sink.  I'd say thats pretty good timing!  Here's the pics:

A non-kitchen blog post

Enough about the kitchen already! Geesh, don't we have anything else going on in our lives???

                                                                               Not really. No. 

Seriously though a lot of our time has been consumed by the kitchen, working in it, driving back and forth to Home Depot multiple times a day, and trying to figure out what to eat and how we are going to prepare it in a make-shift kitchen. 

We are really excited to have people over to enjoy our kitchen with us, because as we all know, people gather in the kitchen. And that's the amazing thing about food, is that it connects people and that it (should) consume a lot of our time to prepare healthful and loving meals for the people that we feed. I am thankful to know how to cook and I am blessed by blessing others with food. 

I am hoping to cook a lot this weekend in our new kitchen! I want to make a big, yummy breakfast! And bake a pie or something. ("Make a cake or something" - Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite). I am so excited to try out all the new doors and drawers and shelves!

Dang, this turned in to a kitchen post. Sorry. 

Island Finishing & Handles

Guess what we did this weekend? ..... No really, guess................  yup, i'm sure you guessed right.  We worked on the kitchen!  Saturday we spent pretty much the whole day working on it.  Didn't even quit for dinner we just worked through dinner.  We did some finish work on the island: installing side cover panels, running electrical to two new outlets.  Installing those outlet boxes.  Then installing the front filler piece and the rear panels.  Island is ready for counter!  

We also installed the other filler pieces in the kitchen.  The base cabinets are now completely ready for the counter.  After we got all that ready we decided we'd put the handles on.  I made a template from a Ritz cracker box and got to workin.  It took a loooooooong time but we got it done.  We were one handle short though so we're going to have to go back to ikea!  Cassie was a good help with the handles! :)

Oh, and it wasn't all kitchen this weekend.  Tualatin Island Greens was having a family weekend.  The mini golf was free and a large bucket of balls was $1 so we took advantage of that Saturday and Sunday!  Gotta take breaks! :)

Base Cabinet Installation

Tuesday Night my parents came over and we finished putting in the base cabinets.  It took a little while to figure out how they should go in because of the out of square wall but we got them all in and secured.  I think its really starting to come together!!  We test fit all the appliances and they fit.  The range is really tight in the opening but we kinda like the look of it snug fit.  The counter top guy will be out this week and measure and then come install later next week!

Wall Cabinet Installation

The wall cabinets went in fairly easily.  The system designed for ikea cabinets to install is very smart!  Basically, you hang up a rail, slide in these bolts, and then set the cabinets on the bolts and tighten it, secure the cabinets to each other and you're done.  The problems arise when you have an old house that isn't built perfect and you have walls that are 1" out of square over a 2' level.  Or walls that are out of plumb about 1.5" from floor to ceiling.  Those things make hanging cabinets challenging.  Nothing that trim can't hide right?

Before Mel left we got most of the wall cabinets up.  We had some issues with the pantry cabinet and over fridge cabinet though because they went from the floor to the ceiling which exaggerated the 'out of plumbness.'  In the beginning of this week Sara and I finished getting the wall cabinets and pantry cabinet installed.  Time for base cabinets!!!

The box in this cabinet is hiding that huge mess of wires that you may have seen in earlier pictures:

Completed Wall Cabinets:

Few More Photos

A close up of the texture we applied to the walls

The island base completed

Mel & I after a long weeks work

Father & Daughter

Sara and I REALLY REALLY want to thank Mel (Sara's dad) for taking a whole week to come up and help us.  This project seriously would have dragged out months without his help.  Instead its going to be completely finished in a matter of weeks.  There is no way I could have done all that work without his help.  36 cans of Dr. Pepper, 24 cans of Coke Zero, and coffee helped us work faster too.

Thank you Mel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitchen Remodel Day 4

This was Monday last week.  I think.  Well, I'm not too sure.  All the days have blended together.  Here are some photos from one of the days.  We did taping and mudding of the drywall this day as well as building the base for the island cabinets.  And then we had Italian sausage sandwiches for dinner! :) yum.

Ok I looked through the photos again and I think this slideshow actually has some of day 5 (tuesday) where we added the 3rd and final coat of drywall mud and that evening we painted primer on the walls.

Hello?

We are still alive. Our goal was to update with photos each day of the week long remodel. Well, we got busy and haven't been able to post any photos. We have a ton though and as soon as we get a chance we will post an update.

As a teaser, here is a photo I took with my phone last night.

Kitchen Remodel Day 3

Day 3: Start Time - I don't know End time - 9:30

This morning when I (Sara) left for work (6:50 am) neither Jason or Dad were awake, so I have idea what time they got up and started work. However, they did take plenty of pictures and took plenty of trips to Home Depot. They completed the drywall installation today and the end (hopefully) of the wiring. They ended the night with painting some Kilz on the subfloor which smelled like it had been marinating in cat pee for the last who-knows-how-long. I think the pictures will do the day's progress more justice than my little summary here.

Kitchen Remodel Day 1 and 2

The Day 1 and 2 in the title mark the official numbering of the days of actual kitchen demolition and consecutive days of dedicated work and progress.

Day 1 - Start time: 8 pm End time: 10 pm

Waiting for mom and dad to arrive, we emptied out all the cabinets and beginning ripping them off the walls. (Read: kitchen stuff everywhere besides in the kitchen). When mom and dad arrived, we continued what we were doing, now with 4 more hands.



Day 2 - Start time: 8ish am End time: 10 pm

After breakfast, the boys got to working while mom and I made a coffee run. After guzzling caffeine we made a lot of progress. Mom and I worked on organizing the garage and the old cabinets. We did some construction clean up as needed and then worked out in the yard when we weren't needed inside. Inside, the boys found some lovely rotted sub floor and studs behind the sink. So they were slowed down a bit there while they made repairs. It was beautiful sunny warm day so we ate lunch on the deck. After lunch, mom and I went to Ikea to get the new microwave, which was out of stock. We managed to find a few other things there that we needed, then went to garden nursery and came back home to find the boys working on...something, I can't remember now. Oh yeah, wiring stuff. Mom and I trimmed some snags left from the snow storm. We ordered pizza for dinner, worked a bit more and then called it a night around 10pm.



Not all the pictures for Day 2 are in the slideshow here. For some reason our computer is being dumb and is slow to download all the pics in a speedy fashion. No worries, I am taking a lot of pictures and you will get to see all the gory details!!

Moving a Door

Moving this door was not as easy as I thought it would be.  We are moving the door to the right about 18" to allow a tall pantry to go on the right side of the fridge.  I had to move the electrical wiring to the right and then move the door.  The wiring ended up being a PAIN!  My dad came to help on Sunday and we started moving the wiring.  Its kinda too complicated to try and explain in words what we did but lets just say, 3 junction boxes in the attic with 5 wires in/out of each  later, and we were done.

So the original plan was to have the door completely moved by Sunday night.  We didn't get that done, but getting the wiring done was a feat in and of itself.  So then Tuesday we set out to move the door.  That also didn't go as quick as I thought it would go.  I made the rough framing too small so it was really hard to get the prehung door square and level.  So Tuesday night at 10pm we decided to just set the door in the frame and put a piece of plywood over the big hole and call it a night.  Last I finally managed to get the door to fit and work.  I had to modify my rough frame to make it bigger so I could make adjustments to the prehung door frame. 

Lets hope the rest of this project doesn't go this way.  Here's some photos:

This weekend Sara's parents are coming up and her dad is going to stay until next weekend to help out.  I put together a detailed schedule and if things go as planned, we will have cabinets installed by the end of next week.  However, things never really go as planned right???