Projects Around the House

The 2-year Kitchen Remodel

We always knew the kitchen floor was wavy and out of level to a certain extent because the kids would drop a ball and it would roll weirdly. You could also feel yourself rise and fall when walking from one end to the other. It was only after I put an 8 foot straight edge down that the extent of the problem was realized. Some spots were low by almost an inch. It was a combination of sag in the main beam of the house and joists that were too small for the span. I corrected the beam issue a few years ago because it was affecting the rest of the house. For the kitchen project, I had to address the saggy joists problem. If you care about the details, they used 2 x 10 joists, 16" on center, with a span of just over 12 feet from the foundation wall to the center beam. I corrected the sag and floor springiness by sistering a new joist next to the old one. In about half the cases, I was able to use 2x10s, 10' long. In some tight areas, I used 2x8s. I used hydraulic jacks to set the old joists just above level, then coupled the new joists with screws and nails.

Here's the thing about this kind of work. There's no instruction manual. The other thing is, it doesn't look like you're doing anything constructive. This floor correction project took about a year on and off while I was trying to keep the space usable. All the while, I claimed I was "working on the kitchen". I got a lot of strange looks.

Once the floor was 95% level, I decided to move on to projects that sort of look like kitchen work. The first was to rip out some cabinets and a soffit and replace it with a new pantry.

Sue really like the pantry we already had so she talked me into doubling its size. In order to keep the fridge close to the stove and sink, the pantry had to go to the right of the fridge. When I opened up the wall a bit, I found the typical lazy practice of running wires through the soffit. It took me two evenings to reroute and tuck the wiring away.

I built the new pantry shelves out of pine and birch plywood and coated them with 4 coats of polyurethane to stand up to abuse.

We also knew we wanted to eventually expand our deck outside so that we could enter/exit from the kitchen. We were tired of carrying our grillable food items through the family room. I'm pretty sure it was autumn 2008 when I cut the windows out and put new sliders in. I can tell because of the Halloween decorations.

Even after all the work getting the floor back up to level, I knew I had one nagging joist that was actually 3/8" too high. I have no idea how it happened but it had to be fixed. I cut out section of the subfloor across the width of the kitchen and shaved it down to be level with the two adjacent joists. This was my least favorite part of the whole project. I'm really glad the kids like spending time at grandma's house. Once I got the joist fixed, new plywood went down and the underlayment and tile quickly followed. The next few pictures show the 1/4" Hardibacker and Lowes Rialto Beige tiles in a hopscotch pattern. The grout is Laticrete's Spectralok epoxy grout in "Parchment".

The big sections of missing drywall you see here are spots where the wall bowed out. The builders decided it would be easier to tear out the drywall rather than shim the cabinets out to clear the obstruction.

We finally ordered our Kraftmaid Montclair Maple Roman cabinets from Lowes February 1, 2009. We were going back and forth on a few different finishes but we eventually chose Praline with Mocha Highlight (renamed from Butter Rum Glaze). We both agreed that it didn't look as orange in the display so we probably would have been a bit more happy with Ginger/Sable Glaze. Due to the down economy, the wait time for cabinet orders was only 4 weeks so we took delivery March 2nd.

The next big challenge came when I had to figure out what kind of molding I would use between the soffit and the wall cabinets. The previous cabinets just had a small piece of scribe molding above the doors to hide the gap. Since our new cabs were full overlay, there really isn't any room from scribe and we knew we wanted some fancier crown molding. In order for it to work, the soffit bottom had to be completely level. HOLY CRAP! It wasn't even close. Instead of tearing out the entire soffit and rebuilding, I leveled the corner bead and built up the difference with compound. I did feel like this was half ass cheating but it is a purely aesthetic thing. No, we really didn't want to keep the soffits but they hide a lot of plumbing that couldn't be rerouted.

Fast forward two weeks to a nice level soffit bottom and I started cranking on installing the cabinets. It was easily April 1st by the time the first cabinet went up. Sad but that's the way it goes.

One of the biggest changes to the kitchen is how we handle this half wall that separates the kitchen from the family room. We got some 40" tall base cabinets for more storage. On the right, you see the test fit. The wall is still a bit too tall. Below, you'll see that I trimmed off about 2" from the wall, installed the cabinets and inserted some 1/4" steel bar to support the countertop. This involved routing a slot in the face frame of the cabinet and the top of the wall.

The next step was placing the island cabinets. Our old island was 42" long and the new one is 54" in cabinets alone. We always felt like the old kitchen was a bit small for a table. Instead of leaving more floor space, we would gain counter work space. These island cabinets have nice 27" wide drawers but use double doors beneath to leave some walking space when they are open. We splurged on these and got the premium full extension pull out trays on the bottoms. The back is unfinished obviously but false door panels are going on there. Some designer somewhere talked me into ordering a veneer sheet to cover the back as seen on the left but in retrospect, it was a complete waste of money. If you were going to leave it as is, I would understand. However, once the false door panels and base molding goes on, you'll see a 1" tall strip of this veneer. I could have saved $200 and used a piece of toe kick veneer instead. UGGGGGGH!!

Everything was moving along too damned smoothly so I knew something was going to trip me up. We knew we wanted some kind of countertop overhang off the end of the island. Again, since there will be no kitchen table, we needed a little breakfast bar area. When we intially ordered the cabinets, we threw a corbel (fancy word for shelf support) onto the order. Ultimately, we decided we wanted room for three stools around this overhang and one corbel isn't enough to support the weight of granite alone, never mind and monkey-like child hanging from it. After browsing the www.kraftmaidspec.com, we decided to use a pair of turned legs that match our cabinet stain. I called Lowes and found out that a pair of legs would cost us $530. You know what? #^$%@ that.

After doing a few googles, I found www.osbournewoodproducts.com and not only did they have legs that were nicer than kraftmaid, they were only $60 each. Granted they were unfinished, but we figured it would be worth trying to color match and save $400. We bought about 6 different stains and did some testing on the back of a piece of trim. Close enough I say! I finished them off with 6 coats of hand rubbed shellac and called it done.

Rather than have the legs just shoved under the slab of granite, I thought it would be nice to have it look more table-like with a piece of skirt board. I can't really be sure if I used mortis and tenon joints because I felt it needed strength or if I just wanted to try it for the first time. Probably the latter. I also routed datos into the skirt for some steel bar to hold everything more rigid. After I saw how the granite guys throw the slabs around, I'm glad I did. The bottom of the legs are held to the floor with a dab of 100% silicone caulk.

One more thing about Kraftmaid pricing. We felt like the valence above the sink needed a little dressing up so while I was pricing the table legs, I also got quotes for Kraftmaid's decorative onlays. I had another heart attack when I heard $200. Yeah...OK. Osborne had a similar one for $50. A coat of stain and shellac and we say cheapskates unite!!

Serious kudos to my Polish friends over at All Marble and Granite Corp at www.marble.com. They have a seriously efficient operation over there and the selection and pricing blew our mind. We had the template made up on Saturday during Memorial Day weekend and the granite was installed the following Thursday. We went with Tropical Brown granite with 1/4 round edge treatment. They include a stainless under-mount sink also and this is the one time in my life where I was suprised with a price much lower than expected. That never happens. Dziękuję!!

Once someone sees that the cabinets are installed, they might assume that an hour or two of work is required to finish up but the devil is in the details. The picture of the island here is a good example. Baseboard molding was applied, corner trim and then the decorative door panels wrapped around. I've only worked with trim that was destined to be painted prior to this. Given that an 8 foot length of trim is like $100, I was extra careful. After all the baseboard and toe kick trim was installed, I put a bead of clear silicone caulk at the floor joint to keep floor washing liquid from seeping under the cabinets.

We also wanted to dress up the wall cabinets with trim so we added crown molding and "light bar" molding underneath to help hide the under cabinet lighting.

The next big project was the tile backsplash. It is a color match to the floor tile but we used 4" square due to the small area to be covered. To add some visual interest, the field was done on a diagonal and some accent tiles were inserted. We also found some matching faux stone electrical cover plates.

We chose a slightly darker grout for the splash than what we used on the floor just for some added contrast but like many do-it-yourselfers, we found that darker grout is harder to use. The cleanup process created a problem called efflorescence where a white layer dries on the surface. A mild acid scrub was needed to restore the color and it couldn't be done until after a week-long cure.

Some completed pictures:

The new bar area with storage underneath (replaced a simple half wall).

The counter goes all the way up to the new sliders in the back wall with a 45 degree end cabinet.

The sink/stove area and center island. All the trim and decorative panels are done.

LED under cabinet lighting from Hong Kong off Ebay powered by a Wii 12v transformer. I have a strip of warm white and bright white. The brights can be turned off for mood lighting.