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Remodel Finished

Todd — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:00:47 +0000

The last time we talked about our remodel was way back in September, after the new floor had gone down. I’m happy to say that we’re done – at last!

I need to do a true “before and after” shot but this will have to do for now.

All of our appliances were in and functional by late September so Marla was able to get back to cooking indoors, which was a blessing after two full months of eating off of paper plates and cooking on the grill three meals a day. (We were doing scrambled eggs and pancakes on the griddle by the end.)

Appliances were tough for us. We made many, many trips to the show rooms at Pacific Sales trying to envision ourselves using the various makes and models for years to come. (The San Juan Capistrano showroom is by far the best of all those in southern Orange County, FWIW.) In the end we decided Jenn-Air was for us and got a convection/microwave oven, range, dishwasher and refrigerator all in the same line to keep things matching.

So far everything has been a delight, though we’ve yet to try out the convection bit on the microwave and haven’t really used the convection setting on the oven, either. The dishwasher is totally silent, thankfully, so visitors on the pull-out sofa downstairs will be able to sleep peacefully at night.

By the first of November we were largely done with major (re)construction and had only “little” things to do like painting, trim work and getting new furniture. You know, all the things that we could do ourselves during our copious spare time…

Just before we left for Thanksgiving we got most of our new furniture in and needed just a few more things to complete the room. The first week of December our new mirror and lighting arrived.

A year after we first seriously sat down to start researching what we wanted, nine months after visiting and interviewing our first contractors, five months after tearing down walls, two months after getting a new floor and a month after putting the final coats of paint on we can say, at last, that we’re done…

And I’m already wondering what’s next!

Stellar Meadow

Todd — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:01:05 +0000

Though we loved our wonderful plywood countertop we’re happy to report that the real thing has now arrived, along with a fancy new backsplash. Oh, wait! And what is that? Our sink has returned… though still no water.

Picking a countertop was really hard for us. Our previous countertop was Corian, a solid-surface acrylic. It held up well but I was always terrified of sticking a hot pan on it and melting it so this time around we were looking for something a little less sensitive.

We looked at a dozen marbles and none caught our eye, not to mention it is fairly porous and thus stains easily and is susceptible to acid etching. Granite doesn’t suffer from these problems, though it does require periodic resealing. We looked at two dozen granites but, again, nothing jumped out at us. They were all a bit too busy for our taste.

We then turned to some “engineered stone” tops. Good ol’ concrete was actually a pretty solid alternative, if a bit plain, and then there were several quartz lines we looked at.

We happened upon a Silestone top called “Stellar Meadow” that was a pleasant shade of green and had small bits of mirror incorporated to give it some extra sparkle and shine. Both Marla and I commented on it and joked that it was the kind of thing you talked about but would never buy…

So, of course, we did.

I’m absolutely in love with it. The green is unusual enough that it really adds some interest to the kitchen but not so wacky that it is a turn-off. Everyone who has come into the house has commented on how cool it looks, especially the extra sparkle from the mirror. The pictures don’t really do it justice. A simple green stripe in the backsplash ties it all together.

Next up: new bamboo floors!

We Gots Us Some Cabinets

Todd — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:41:21 +0000

Hallelujah! While having walls was nice and all, having cabinets is even better. I returned home last week after a quick jaunt to Cary, NC to find that our formerly barren kitchen now had a full suite of beautiful cabinets installed and ready to be trimmed.

We’d picked Dynasty cabinets by Omega. (They’re owned by my brother’s company, MasterBrand.) I was very picky about construction quality, given that most of our beef with the old cabinets was shoddy materials. All wood boxes, dovetailed drawers and other little features made me happy.

Another big goal was maximizing usable space given the small footprint. As you can see from the pictures the previously dead corners in the kitchen are now fully usable with cool corner cabinets with full lazy susans. No more crawling inside the cabinetry to get to a distant pot.

We also opted to go for heavy-duty full extension trays in most places instead of deep drawers. It should be easier to stack items and pull them out to reach this way. There are some built-in vertical slots for storing sheet pans and cutting boards above the refrigerator and a nifty little pull out thingy next to the dishwasher.

We’re still a week or so away from having a counter top but this is progress! Marla and I can’t wait to start reorganizing our stuff in a few more weeks.

USG Sheetrock 400

Todd — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:14:29 +0000

So we’ve got sheetrock now. In a few short days they closed up all of the exposed walls and ceiling, properly mounted the light cans amd receptacles. Texturing the ceiling and walls was done shortly thereafter.

The kitchen feels huge compared to the previous space. Knocking out that wall and corner pantry made a world of difference. As an added bonus the family room seems bigger, too, even touch we haven’t done anything there other than move furniture.

We should have cabinets soon…

Wouldn’t You Like To Be A Soffit Too?

Todd — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:16:16 +0000

So we’re all done with the destruction and we’re starting to see things go back together. After about four days of hauling things out of the kitchen Sea Pointe started bringing new materials into the kitchen to build a new soffit above the cabinets.

To make the kitchen feel larger we were hoping to take the ceiling up to nine feet, matching the family room. Unfortunately the plumbing from the master bathroom upstairs just wouldn’t allow us to take the ceiling all the way up. The drains travel below the joists to the wall we share with our neighbors. Running through the joists wasn’t an option given the size of the pipes so we moved to Plan B: a soffit.

With the soffit in place the middle of the kitchen is nine feet and open to the family room. The U around the room is eight feet and the cabinets will run up to the bottom of the soffit. Plan A would have had a one foot gap between the top of the cabinets and ceiling.

We also got some new windows this week. I’ve been unhappy with the paper thin, single pane windows since the day we moved in. They leaked air like a seive, creating a 5-6 degree temerature difference between the outer edge of the room and the middle of the room. It’ll be great this winter to have the gas-filled, double pane keeping our precious heat inside.

We can already tell a big difference in noise, too. With the new sliding glass door in place and closed at night we can barely hear cars pass by on the road. Good stuff!

Destruction

Todd — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:14:55 +0000

The last entry was “Deconstruction” and I wondered where the smashing and breaking and destroying were. Just a day or so later and we had all the dust and exposed framing and electrical you could ask for. It’s kind of cool seeing how your home is put together, though it can be kind of disturbing, too. For example, what on Earth could posses a builder to put eight 2 x 4′s together in a wall?

Emma and Henry continue to enjoy playing in their “ballroom” with the latest game being putting on high heels from Emma’s princess collection and stomping their feet in a circle. After going in the circle a few times they race to the front door and then turn around to go at it again. They never cease to amuse!

I’m in Japan on business right now and can’t wait to see what progress has been made while I’ve been away… and, of course, enjoy a show in the ballroom.

Deconstruction

Todd — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:42:39 +0000

It is amazing to me that it can take 8 weeks to rebuild our kitchen but only a day to deconstruct most of the existing one.

On the first day of our remodel two guys spent approximately 4 hours removing cabinets and counters. I suppose I expected reciprocal saws and sledgehammers but when I arrived home it looked like controlled and methodical use of pry bars was more like it. Not nearly as satisfying, if you ask me.

In addition to a neat deconstruction job they have also put up plastic barriers to keep dust and dirt out of the rest of the downstairs. Emma loved the new look, calling the now-empty kitchen her ballroom. Princess Emma and Prince Henry spent much of the evening dancing and parading through the house.

One thing that immediately struck Marla after having the cabinets removed was just how small the kitchen seemed. I expected that the room would feel larger. We do, after all, now have an extra 2 feet in each direction of “usable” floor space. Maybe the extra tall cabinet doors made the room feel taller that it really was?

We have another two days of demolition scheduled before they begin roughing in plumbling, electrical and cabinetry. If they did this in four hours I can’t imagine what we’ll be looking at after 16 more!

And So It Begins…

Todd — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:58:26 +0000

When we moved in in 2001 we lived with original appliances for a few months before we just couldn’t take it anymore and replaced them with newer, though still “budget”, appliances. Tomorrow we begin the nearly two month project of bringing our 16 year old kitchen into the modern era. Our garage is now half full of stuff other than cars as we took delivery earlier in the week of our new kitchen cabinets.

The current cabinetry is awful builder stock, built on-site using the cheapest materials possible. Shelves were nailed straight to the wall, drawer faces attached with staples… absolute bare minimum of quality. We had it painted in 2003 to buy us a few more years cosmetically. Money well spent, to be sure, but we still have lots of dead space. In a small kitchen like ours (~ 10′ x 10′) every inch counts!

The pantry will be demolished and half of the adjacent wall removed, opening up the kitchen to the family room a bit more. We’re also planning on taking the ceiling from 8′ up to 9′ to match the family room. We’ll finish things off with new appliances (Jenn-Air all around) and then replace the well-worn, stained carpet with bamboo throughout the downstairs.

Here are some “before” pictures after we’d cleaned out all of the cabinets and pantry. Keep an eye out for progress reports as the project advances.