Kitchen Remodel - Finished enough for pictures

Rennie your posed to build the new ones before you rip out the old ones. :thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:lurk::lurk: Thanks Vaughn
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I got the first round.:thumb:

Than
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ks Vaughn and Chuck, second round is on me.
 
Sorry gents, the cabinets have been stacked up in the living room for weeks courtesy of the fine people at Thomasville. Yes, looking at them I might have built a better cabinet, but I just could not take that on right now.

I think the first big decision will be what to do with the sub floor. Currently 40 year old 1/2" particle board with vinyl floor glued to it. I tried tearing up some of the vinyl, it will not come up easy. What I think I will do is tear up the particle board (only fastened with staples and it squeaks) and put down 1/2" ply with screws and construction adhesive. The sub floor below it is 2x6 T&G on 24" centers. hence the squeak.
 
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Well at least you have the cabs all ready.:thumb::thumb::thumb:
I was thinking you had gotten all gun hoe and ripped out the old kitchen first.:thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl::doh:
 
Day 5

Not much accomplished over the last 3 or 4 days - company and all.:D However, today was a good day. Took out the old fluorescent fixture, installed the new switch box for the new cans, brought power to the new box, put in the new circuit for the fridge, and cleaned up some bad wiring from the original contractor. Codes change :rolleyes:

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with a few friends and then Jan and I head for the flower & garden show in Boise. Saturday the goal is to have all the new cans installed and working and maybe start on pulling out the soffits.:thumb:
 
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Hey Rennie, any chance of you changing the title of this thread?? Kind of afraid Lou Ann will see and and you know,,,,,,, it could cause someone to have this desire of a real kitchen in her own home!!!! :doh::eek::huh::dunno::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Got the cans (pot lights for those of you north of the border) installed in the kitchen. What a dirty job! 40 year old blown in insulation is no fun at all!:eek::rofl: Took an extra trip to the electrical supply since the dimmer switch did not work properly. The replacement seems to work just fine. So, after crawling around in the attic and getting insulation dropping in my face when putting in the cans, I can say that today's goal has been reached. (The wall wash cover on one can was just a test - it won't be in the kitchen)

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I had planned on getting rid of the soffits tomorrow, but I'm hitting a snag. Jan wants under cabinet lighting and outlets - nothing in the back splash. This means moving all of the outlets and eliminating some as well. The problem is that the wires in this house go all over the place. Tracing down circuits has been hard enough. Figuring out the sequence they are wired in is near impossible.

I think it will be easier in the long run to just take out the sheet rock on at least two of the three walls, and rewire everything. The original wiring leaves much to be desired and I really don't want to do this half way. It just seems to make sense to strip out the walls, do it right, and then cover it back up. In reality, there will be less sanding that way than to fix all the holes I'm going to have to make otherwise.

Anyone want to talk me out of it?:dunno::rofl::rofl:
 
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I'm hitting a snag. Jan wants under cabinet lighting and outlets - nothing in the back splash. This means moving all of the outlets and eliminating some as well. The problem is that the wires in this house go all over the place. Tracing down circuits has been hard enough. Figuring out the sequence they are wired in is near impossible.
...
It just seems to make sense to strip out the walls, do it right, and then cover it back up. In reality, there will be less sanding that way than to fix all the holes I'm going to have to make otherwise.

Anyone want to talk me out of it?:dunno::rofl::rofl:

Under cabinet outlets? :huh: I've never heard of that. So the outlets would be surface mounted under the cabinets and facing down? Really? :bonkers: I've never heard of that. On the one hand it seems like it'd be a clean look. But on the other hand you can't see the outlets which means I'd always be bending over to look up+under the cabinet when I wanted to plug something in. And the kids couldn't reach at all. Am I completely misunderstanding this?

But regardless.... rip it out. Drywall is cheap. You're already making a mess with ripping out the soffits, and with patching in that doorway. Just take it all down. It's quicker, less fiddling, less headscratching.

...art
 
Yeah, Drywall is cheap and easy. I'd suggest putting the outlets where you can see them, and the under cab lights where you can't...
 
We have the undercab outlets. Thought it would be a nice clean look. We really don't like them. To plug in something you have to do a bend over and twist to find the outlet. On appliances like the toaster that stay plugged in all the time there is always a wire hanging down. Not the 'neat and clean' look we were shooting for. This summer we will be replacing the back splash and moving the outlets to the back splash!

In a kitchen ready for a photo shoot they work great. In a real-world working kitchen, not so much.

Good luck!
 
We have the undercab outlets. Thought it would be a nice clean look. We really don't like them. To plug in something you have to do a bend over and twist to find the outlet. On appliances like the toaster that stay plugged in all the time there is always a wire hanging down. Not the 'neat and clean' look we were shooting for. This summer we will be replacing the back splash and moving the outlets to the back splash!

In a kitchen ready for a photo shoot they work great. In a real-world working kitchen, not so much.

Good luck!

I'll second this statement remember as you age it doesn't get easier. Also why riput the soffits? Are the cabinets going all the way to the ceiling? if not they become a dust catcher think about climbing to clean it & as I said before it doesn't become any easier as we grow older.:wave:
 
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I'll second this statement remember as you age it doesn't get easier. Also why riput the soffits? Are the cabinets going all the way to the ceiling? if not they become a dust catcher think about climbing to clean it & as I said before it doesn't become any easier as we grow older.:wave:
Yes, the new cabinets are 36" tall and go all the way to the ceiling in our house, with ceilings at 94 1/2" +/-.

We have the undercab outlets. Thought it would be a nice clean look. We really don't like them. To plug in something you have to do a bend over and twist to find the outlet. On appliances like the toaster that stay plugged in all the time there is always a wire hanging down. Not the 'neat and clean' look we were shooting for. This summer we will be replacing the back splash and moving the outlets to the back splash!

In a kitchen ready for a photo shoot they work great. In a real-world working kitchen, not so much.

Good luck!

Great advice and we've been talked out of this.

Here's the new challenge. Jan is thinking that maybe someday (I think that means this summer:rofl::rofl:) that the back splash might go from painted to tile - specifically a 3x6 subway tile. So, she thinks the outlets should be installed horizontally like they were in may older kitchens. No problem, no code issues I can think of. Oh, wait. One problem. How do you do it?:huh::huh: All new installation boxes are set up to install vertically. Anyone have any ideas?:dunno:


Here is our progress for today. All the walls that will have changes in wiring are out. The insulation and soffits will come out tomorrow or Tuesday. I think this was a good idea as I can already see how it will make my wiring easier because I now know how most of the circuits were run.

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One last thing. I think I now have justification to buy that impact driver I've had my eye on.:rofl:
 
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