kitchen

Final touches for the kitchen renovation are now done.

June 22, 2020 Home renos ,

Today included a second coat of paint, cleanup, and little bits of detailing.  The kitchen is now fully operational, and looking pretty sharp:

I also got the 2nd coat in the front foyer done today — we were saving that painting for last since we didn’t want traffic in and out of the house messing it up, and it’s looking good too (especially having removed the “popcorn” stucco from the ceiling.)

For anybody who had seen the old kitchen, observe that there is no longer a microwave embedded in the staircase for the basement (replaced with a more sensible microwave/range-hood combination.)

The bulkheads that on the fridge side of the kitchen are also now gone, and we were able to put in awesome floor to ceiling cabinets.  This will provide the new owners with lots of space!

Kitchen reno progress: Cabinets are installed!

March 19, 2020 Uncategorized , ,

Our kitchen installers, Umair and Khazir, worked really hard for four very long days, and wrapped up their work today.  Their work was superb, with lots of attention to detail, and I’m really happy with the result.

Our cabinets (and appliances) were purchased from IKEA.  Think of this as the IKEA assembly from hell, producing enough waste cardboard to completely fill our RAV to the ceiling twice.  Here is the end result:

Here’s a little video, panning the kitchen:

IMG_1150

What’s still TODO:

  • Electrical box and outlet in the cupboard above the microwave+range hood.
  • Countertop selection and installation.
  • Plumbing (sink and dishwasher connections.)
  • Electrical connection for the dishwasher.
  • Take the wrapping off the appliances, plug in and test.
  • Clean the (drywall) dust off the fridge and stove.
  • Backsplash.
  • New casing for the window.

For the countertop selection, take a look at this view of the floor tile:

and compare that to the following possible stone:

That stone is pricey, and we have about 34 square feet of counter to put in, so the cost will add up if that’s what we choose, but it would look really classy.

Of all the stones I saw today in my quick trip to the decimated Markham Home Depot, it was obviously and immediately clear that the one above was the best match.  It happens to also be the stone that we used for our master bathroom counter too, so I can simply bring some left over kitchen tile up to the bathroom next time I’m at the house to see how they look together.

Kitchen progress, we have a floor!

February 24, 2020 Home renos , , ,

Our contractor installed the new kitchen tiles this weekend, and I think it’s looking pretty good, even without the grout:

There’s still some finicky work with the thresholds to do, but we should be able to get the cabinet installers in to do their work soon.

We spent some time at the house too. Sofia got tons of the remaining chaos under control, and I putzed away, patching up the giant holes in Connor’s old room’s closet, which we ripped the plumbing and electrical out of (there was improperly installed plumbing and electrical in there for a 2nd floor laundry.)

The holes in the floor are because the old owner didn’t properly replace the subfloor that he massacred to run his plumbing and electical (on one side he didn’t have anything at all, and just covered it up the hole with some click-together hardwood). I have some nice solid plywood that I’ll put in here to replace the missing OSB, but I couldn’t do that this weekend (at least easily) without my table saw, which was at the new-house. I’ll also screw in a parallel section of 2×6 on the right hand side of the closet to strengthen the joist, which was also massacred a bit — that’s probably overkill, but I may as well while the floor is open.

Kitchen renovation progress.

February 1, 2020 Home renos ,

We are making good progress on the kitchen renovation (a _lot_ of it over the last couple days). Here’s a couple weeks ago with the cabinets and backspash removed

then Friday with some of the tile removed:

yesterday, with the tiles, subfloor and unsavable drywall removed

and finally today, after piles of back breaking work and bruises and scratches (removing old tile is not easy!), we’ve got things cleaned up

The wall that had been butchered by the first owners of the house is rebuilt, ready for new drywall on both sides (no more microwave cavity in the stairwell.)

We’ll have to take out the electrical outlet in the stairwell, and fix up the stairwell sconce, which had been “installed” without a standard octagon box.

I was glad to see that the kitchen outlets were all run properly, so we don’t have to cut into the subfloor to run new lines back to the panel.

Next steps:

  • choose and order tile, and underlay material
  • rough in plumbing
  • drywall and flooring installation
  • priming
  • cabinet and appliance installation
  • trimwork and finishing.