Kitchen Video

98% completed.

Over the past few months a great deal of progress has been made in the kitchen. A blog that started as a daily occurrance has trickled down to a few posts a month.

Most of the work has been completed, the granite countertops are in, the fixtures have been installed and all the appliances are working.

We just had the floors done in the last couple of weeks which involved moving all the items out of the dining room and living room so the floors could be done. This was a bit of a problem because of the amount of stuff to be moved out of the way.

This process requires a number of days to complete. Starting with sanding the floors, which includes the new wood and the existing wood so they match in height and color. Then the floor is swept to get all the sawdust out of the way. Then the floors are stained. My wife chose the stain she wanted by buying multiple options and staining extra pieces of floorboards to choose.

The one that was picked was a oil based stain.

Oil based stains take longer to dry than water based, and the floor guy wanted to use water because it would be easier to him, but oil stain will wear better in a high traffic area.

After the stain is put on they needed to let it dry and then put 2 coat of polyurathane, that then has to dry. This whole process took about 4 days. It was another 2 days before we put the stuff into the dining/living room.


The items outstanding include the hood over the island, which was just delivered and some finish painting (that's my job) and an outlet box for the heat on the main floor. The electrician came by on Wednesday last week and was prepared to install the temperature gauge but there was no outlet box, so he didn't do it.

Backsplash anyone?

This past weekend we picked out the tile for the backsplash (ok, my wife picked it out).

She had been to the Cancos Tile place and picked out 2 or 3 different ones she liked and brought back one for me to see. When I saw it I liked it a lot and told her to order it. Unfortunately, she wanted me to take a trip to the store with her to see the other stuff as well, and to finalize the purchase. I acquiesced and went.

She was complaining to me that the salesman she had been working with was not very good, and she had hoped that Jimmy was back, because she likes him much better.

Jimmy, was in fact back.

I can understand why she liked Jimmy and not the other guy. The other guy had the personality of wood. Jimmy on the other hand was very nice. A aging rocker type who makes his customers feel like they are making the right choices and just makes them feel comfortable. He was a very likable guy. Apparently, Jimmy had used the same tile in his house, and even showed us pictures of it. From this point, my wife was sold.

I was sold too until the price came in. All in all it wasn't bad, but I was expecting a number in the $300 range, it was about double that. In actuality the space is pretty large that it has to fill. Not a whole wall, but it's very long.

When we left I teased my wife that she was very happy her new boyfriend was back to help service her.

Granite countertops are cool

Yesterday the granite counter tops were put in. This puts us one step closer to a finished kitchen.

It is amazing how much more finished the job looks when the counters are in. The colors for the two counter areas compliment each other as well as the cabinetry and the tile floors.

We had even asked the granite place to save the piece they cut out for the big sink and they offered to cut it round so we made a lazy susan out of it and put it on the island. It really looks great.

The only thing they screwed up was my wife's desk area. Apparently they are really good at measuring everything else, but when it comes to measuring a 3x2 square they have no idea how to do it. This piece (which isn't connected to any of the other pieces) was 1/2 inch short. They offered for us to keep it, but I'm not sure what to do with a really heavy piece with a small hole in it for cables. Maybe I'll make a table, or just let them take it back.

My wife thinks this is all a tease because she can't actually use the kitchen yet. The plumber (who is on vacation this week) needs to hook up the sinks, stove top (which is still not in yet), dishwashers, garbage disposals and hot water dispenser, as well as finalize the radiant heat floor and my hookup to the BBQ outside.

The contractor needs to put in the tile backsplash (after my wife picks out the tile), do some small finish work including hooking up an electrical box and putting in drawer handles.

After that we can get the wood floors stained and sanded, and I need to do some touch-up painting.

Then I can clean up the remnants of construction. I think we're looking at about 2-3 weeks more before it's all done.

A Kitchen made out of Wood

Right now the kitchen is in a holding pattern.

There are no workers streaming through the house.
There are no materials strewn about the floor.
There are no trucks parked in my driveway.

Right now everyone is waiting for the granite to be delivered and installed.

The men from the granite place showed up with 1/8 inch boards that they cut up with utility knives to measure out the areas for the new counter tops. This is precise work, if they screw it up it's not like they are going to take 1000 pounds of materials back to the office for a re-do. Not to mention that if they put a hole in the granite it's not like putting a hole into a wall or cabinet that is easily patched. You can't really patch stone.

So they measure and make a template. Then they go away for 2-3 weeks and cut it out with some kind of Kryptonite saw.

This Tuesday the countertops are due to be delivered. This leaves only a few items to go:

- hook up remaining appliances
- tile backsplash
- sand/finish hardwood floor (we are responsible for)
- touchup painting (I am responsible for)
- touchup cabinetry
- hook up range hood

Cabinet Installation

When we last left our fearless homeowners we had cabinet woes. While the woes continue, things are not as horrific as you may believe.

Woe #1:
The original cabinet woe can have the center of the cabinet replaced to make it a slide-out pantry cabinet. This is one crisis that has been averted. Now if the granite place had not been on vacation all this week, someone might have cared.

As is stands, since the granite place is on vacation, we wait anyway. But there are plenty of things to do for our worker guys to get things in place. Currently they have just installed part on the island, and hopefully complete it today. This involved putting the base cabinets in place, adding the doors and hardware, cutting, fitting and installing the bottom panels, and building a place to receive the small refrigerator on the end where there is no cabinet (my only part on this oasis), as well as providing a bit of stability for the granite. This brings us to the next world or woe.

Woe #2:
As you can see from the photo there is no door where there is no cabinet. While I believe this is fine (why would you need a door when there is no cabinet), my wife thought this looks strange and wants a fake door there.

The other part of the island she did not like was the way the bottom kick plate looks. When there is a cabinet, under the cabinet is an area that dips into the cabinet (think of the space under a mushroom). This area is not translated around the whole thing since the void does not exist on the sides of cabinets. The wife thought this was horrible. I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, not being a mushroom fan in the first place.

Eventually, she relented. Because, as they said in the Shawshank Redemption, “How often do you look at a man’s shoes”, I believe this applies to cabinet bottoms as well.

Woe #3:
Communication is a wonderful thing. Miss-communication is not. To make a long story even longer…
a. We had a cabinet above the refrigerator area.
b. Wife changes mind about refrigerator.
c. Appliance dealer informs cabinetmaker of the change.
d. Cabinetmaker denies ever getting a change (we have a dated fax saying it was received).
e. Cabinet is too big for the space.
f. Refrigerator doesn’t fit – or does it.

The fridge fits in the space but the cabinet doors do not open because the hinges are too high. It is unclear whether we can raise the doors (contractor’s suggestion), re-make the cabinets (cabinet-maker’s suggestion), make new doors – there is an extra 2 inches behind the doors (my suggestion) or nail them shut (best suggestion).

Cabinet Woes

Last Friday the workmen began putting in the kitchen cabinets. Friday went flawlessly and we expected to have the cabinets in by mid week (Thursday, because of the 4th of July holiday) based on the progress they made on Friday.

Unfortunately as the boxes were unpacked and the cabinets set up there was one cabinet that was wrong. More unfortunate for us is the fact that this cabinet is almost all the way to the corner, which makes setting up the other cabinets next to it a real problem.

Without the cabinets secured we can't get the granite place to take measurements. This delays the construction.

To make matters worse, the cabinet place is closed on Monday, so my wife will be on the phone this morning to give the KitchenScapes guy an ear full and have it expedited so we can continue work.

There is still a number of items to do, and with the appliances coming in soon there is work to be done, but nothing can be finalized until the cabinets are correct.

The cabinet in question is to the right. It is supposed to be a pull out pantry unit, and it is just a plain cabinet.

Tile and Cabinets, oh my...

In the last couple of days the workers have installed the kitchen floor, which means finalizing the cuts on the replacement wood floor area and the cabinets were delivered yesterday.

The floor looks great, a whole sight better than the mess that it was before. I could get used to a floor that isn't all cracked and wavy like a roller coaster.

The workmen were putting in the grout yesterday afternoon and they ran out of grout. I don't know how you run out of grout and not run to the store to get the rest of it, but the part that they did looks great. It will look fantastic after the polish off the film over the top, but even with the film it's leagues ahead of the last floor.

The cabinets also came in. They were delivered in big boxes except for one corner cabinet that was uncovered. They look great too. In looking at the cabinet construction it's nice to see that the semi-custom cabinets we bought are not made of particle board and crap, they are nice and sturdy wood.

The wife is now in the process of finding knobs for the cabinets. The ones she found are $5 each. At first glance that isn't a problem, but we need a lot of handles. Her job is to search out for nice handles that might be a bit cheaper.

How Robin Williams and I painted the kitchen

This weekend was spent painting the kitchen/dining area. From Saturday to Monday I engaged in various painting activities including priming, sanding and painting.

Most of the help I got this weekend was from Robin Williams, my wife, not so much help.

Saturday morning began by cutting in on the walls. Cutting in is the process of putting paint in the corners so the rollers have a easier time getting paint on to the walls. After a couple of hours of this I was able to begin priming the bare walls.

Up to this point my wife was a trooper cutting in along side me and doing the priming. After this, it was just Robin and I.

Now, I know what you are saying. What compromising photos of Mr. Williams would I need for him to come to my house and get up on a ladder with a roller.

Sadly, I have no photos and he was just there in spirit. The kids by Saturday afternoon were pretty fed up with the whole painting thing and sat down to watch some TV. At this point I put in a DVD I got from Netflix of 'Mork and Mindy', a late 70's sitcom I fondly remembered and figured I would watch again, and maybe the kids would get a chuckle.

After about 20 minutes the kids had declared Robin a comic genius, on the same level with Pachino, Speilberg and Adam West. They were fascinated by this show, having only known Robin Williams as the voice of the blue guy from Aladdin.

This let me get back to my painting, and painting and painting.

All in total about 18 hours of painting, 6 cans of primer, 2 cans of ceiling white and 3 cans of wall color, and over $700 back in my pocket.

Cleaning Closets can be fun

OK, not fun but definitely necessary.

Part of the construction project's "might-as-well-do-this" projects is removing the metal casing around the closet door that is adjacent to the kitchen/dining area.

Removing these metal things is a BIG pain in the butt. I had done this to the upstairs closet and without the right tools you're trying to manhandle metal that just doesn't want to be removed. These door frames are secured on both sides and the floor so removing them is not an easy task.

Plus, since we're having the floor repaired where the old kitchen tile was it is logical to remove this ugly thing and fix the floor. It does however go on the list of projects I need to do. While they will repair the floor around where they remove it, I still need to hang a new door, and then repair the wall around it (plus re-paint it). This is ok though.

This brings me to my problem of too much stuff in the closet. This sucker was packed with clothes that needed to be removed to do the work, so logically the clothes need to go somewhere. What better place than the cedar closet downstairs.

Unfortunately, this closet was packed with other clothes that would now need to be displaced.

In going through this closet there were only 3 items (2 of which my wife said, 'that's ugly and ratty, don't keep that') that I elected to save. The rest goes to good will today.

Based on this I offer a piece of advice: THROW OUT YOUR OLD CRAP AND GAIN VALUABLE CLOSET SPACE!

Getting Stoned on Long Island

This past weekend I needed to take a little ride to the Cancos Tile Stone Quarry and pick out the granite for the new kitchen.

Why I needed to go was a bit of a mystery, because my lovely wife had already picked out the stone that she wanted earlier that week, but I guess she just wanted confirmation on the one she picked out.

The stone place is an interesting place to visit. It's all outside except for a little office. The place is lined with big slabs of stone placed at an angle so you can get a good look at the material. Each slice weights hundreds of pounds, so it's not like you can go flipping through the sheets to get a good one.


We had done this little trip about a month back and had picked out some stone already, but then we found out that the stone my wife picked out was a 'premium' stone and all in total would cost about 18-19 grand. This, was a bit out of our budget (3x out of our budget), so the wife went back to pick out some not-so-premium stone and came to the conclusion that the place the cabinet store sent us to was way too expensive, even for the non-premium stuff so she went looking for a better deal.

At Cancos we found some nice stone that will cost in the 7g range, right where I want it to cost.

The current plan is to do 2 colors, one for the island and one for the main counter top.

Every day I get a present

We are into week 3 of construction and the progress is good.

Every day when I get home I am pleased to see something new has been done, it's like opening a present every day, you're not sure what you're going to see.

Yesterday the workmen started installing wonderboard on the floors. Wonderboard is a wallboard used in wet areas. It's made up of concrete and mesh and can take a lot of abuse. Unlike the floor the old neighbor put in, this stuff is a nice flat surface for tile.

Below is a recap of everything they have done so far:
01. Remove all the old cabinets
02. Remove the existing Sheetrock
03. Take down the wall between the two rooms
04. Raise the ceiling in the new kitchen area
05. Remove old windows & install new windows
06. Remove the old floor tiles (3-4 layers of it)
07. Run new plumbing & gas
08. Run new electrical & wiring
09. Install hi-hat lighting and switches
10. Insulate the space
11. Sheetrock the walls and ceiling
12. Mud and tape the Sheetrock
13. Install wonderboard on the floors (to prepare for tile)

How to make tons of money at a second job.

Construction is a big sinkhole of expenses.

When the 'experts' tell you to put aside 20% more than you budgeted for, you can rest assured they are not kidding. I wrote in a previous column about how to avoid the incremental costs of home construction add-ons, and this article is not a repeat of that one, but it is how I am combating the "geez that's not included" costs.

The first cost is the cost of attic insulation.
In my mind if you take a wall (or a ceiling in this case) down you put in insulation, thus reducing your total cost to heat the house. Apparently, my contractor deems this an "extra" in the case of attic insulation. I can sort of see his point, given it isn't really part of the job, and doesn’t abut the outside, but it would be stupid not to take the opportunity to insulate.

As luck would have it, the previous owners left 2+ rolls of R-19 insulation. This was top of the line stuff that they never used and has been sitting in my attic for 5 years. So boom, I'm doing insulation. Putting the insulation would have cost me about $250+ materials from the contractor. My cost: $40 for the extra insulation I needed to purchase.

The second add on was running phone line.
How this is an extra, I don't know. There was a phone line when we started; I expected one to be there when we ended. It's like saying adding electric was extra, because he had to rip off the sheetrock. (Luckily, we both agree electric is a necessary and included part of the construction). But, I digress.

Since I ran the phone line myself after the "why doesn't the phone work in here" incident of '02 when the phone company in removing the 2nd phone line from the previous owner, cut the main line instead of the secondary, making the built in kitchen line dead, I needed to run my own line. So this was not a tremendous problem. Adding about $100 to my savings by doing it myself.

Addition #3 was entirely my brainchild, the addition of speaker wire to the deck.
We had speaker wire run around the baseboards to the outside, and this was a fantastic opportunity to run it correctly through the walls while they were open. This did mean crawling around in the attic and snaking wire through walls we weren't touching, and adding a nifty box on the wall to receive these wires, but at least it would be done right, and not get in the way while cleaning. Savings: $200+ materials.

Adding lights outside was entirely my wife's doing, and brings us to addition #4.
We had a perfectly serviceable (ugly) light on the outside, and the contractor was perfectly prepared to hook that light to a brand new switch. My wife had other ideas, so now I put on my electrical hat and hooked up 2 new outside wall sconces. The trouble with this had very little to do with electrical work since the walls were bare to actually do the work, but since the old light was really big and the sconces a nice delicate (nice looking) illumination option I needed to do some siding to replace the old light, plus had to make some nifty holes for the second sconce that did not originally exist.

The wife had purchased these lights last year, and I had dutifully put off the entire job since last summer, so the materials cost was nil. The cost of the work would have easily been $300 (we priced it last year).

This takes us to #5, cable tv hookup.
This one has a bit of flavor of #3 and some of #2, being there was cable in the room, but it was going to be entirely on the wrong side of the room. This one has a story sports fans, one that leaves my hunting with flashlights at 11pm to get internet connectivity back up.

Running the cable wire was no big deal. The actual cable is expensive ($88), but doable. I also purchased a cutting and crimping tool, a good one for $12. I can't say enough how having the right tools makes your life sooooo much easier.

After snaking the wires to two different locations, the main location and an extra one on the other side of the room, just in case I hooked up the cable to what I thought was the dead line going into the kitchen. The cable worked like a charm on the first try, and I went about my business until I needed to connect to the Internet.

The long and the short of it was that there were two lines running around the deck, the first one for TV, and the second one for Internet. The Internet one was added a few years back, because we were not getting a reliable signal to the Internet.

Now, the dope that hooked this up thought it would be a smashing good idea to run the cable over to where the first one was, and then snake it 1/2 way around the house to where we wanted it to go. This bit of work, was long forgotten when I unscrewed the incorrect cable line to hook to the new kitchen area, thus disconnecting the internet connectivity.

Luckily for me, I did not cut these wires, and the connections were in the same general place, so fixing the problem did not mean re-wiring. Savings: $150 of wiring.

Now, the sheetrock is almost hung, and I am no longer in the workman's way, but as a happy note by my estimation I have saved $1,000 + materials, some of which I had.

Good for me, now I can give up my second job. At least until the painting begins.

Don't look behind the walls

Once the sheetrock is off of the walls it is very interesting to see how much of a jumble of items is actually hiding behind there. There are (live) electrical wires, water piping and wood framing. Once they put back up the rock I'll be afraid to drive nails in it for fear of hitting something.

While it's open however it's a good time to run some cables behind the walls. I am hooking up some exterior lights (the wall abuts the deck), running speaker wire, cable (TV) wire, and phone.

I'm not sure how I am responsible to run phone line, since it was there before they started and now it's not. But that is a post for another day.

Last night I ran the electrical for the outside lights. This little task took approximately 3 hours.

I needed to replace siding where the old light was, wire the light and then proceed to add a new electrical box for the new light, and then wire that.

Hopefully when the contractor comes in today they will take both of the new lights and hook them to the house electric and a nice dimmer switch.

I suspect he will see my shoddy workmanship and just re-run the whole thing himself.

Eating while a house is under construction

As I sit here writing this, there are workmen crawling through the crawlspace and crawling on the roof and in the new kitchen. As construction goes smoothly, there is no better opportunity to write about what we are doing with no kitchen with two kids and two adults living inside of a construction zone.

Luckily for us, our laundry room is a floor below the construction so what we did was set up a hot plate, a toaster oven and my wife went out and purchases as $40 microwave, that was small enough not to get in the way of everything else. We also have a slop sink in the laundry room for dish washing, but most of what we eat are off of paper plates.

In the four days of construction I've eaten hamburgers made on the grill, fish made on the grill with french fries made in the toaster oven, and I've already eaten at 7-11, and McDonalds. On the bright side my wife made up eggs this morning on the hot plate.

I've also taken this opportunity to pick up a couple of books on grill cooking, since this will be our main source of cookery.

Removing beams

We are at the end of day 2 and I am continually impressed by the speed of the demolition. Today the workmen removed the ceiling, wall drywall and a whole bunch of beams so the ceiling can be exposed. It's amazing how they put together the addition to the house back in the late 60's. You can see where the old roof ends and the new one juts out. All of the old materials (other than roof shingles) is still there.

One of the odd things is the lack of supports in the middle of the room. Originally, there were room dividing arches that we has assumed were load bearing. I guess since there isn't anything up there they are not as load bearing as we thought, at least I hope they are not.

Tomorrow I belive they are removing the tile on the floor.

It is very interesting to see the crappy craftsmanship of previous work. In some areas there is still carpeting where the previous cabinets were placed and there are two levels of old linoleum tile below the existing floor, which would explain why the floor had all the cracks and was not level. There are also several layers of wallpaper in areas that were behind the cabinets. While the additional wallpaper isn't a big deal, it does mean that previous owners were laying wallpaper over wallpaper during at least part of the house's lifetime.

First day of construction

Yesterday the workmen actually came and ripped out the old kitchen. While the floor and some of the walls are in place the majority of everything else has been removed.

What I was most impressed with is the tidiness of the place when I got home last night. I guess I expected more kayos.

The one thing that did not arrive yesterday was the dumpster, so the workmen piled the garbage on a tarp and covered it so it would not go all over the neighborhood.

Our house is a split level so it was interesting to be able to see the bathroom pipes behind the exposed wall. If I was more gung-ho I would use this opportunity to remove the tub trap and clean in out since I won't get this opportunity again.

Shown to the right is what it looks like after the demolition has been started at the end of day 1.

Lights are green, up is go.

After an extra month of waiting the workmen and their associated dumspter should be showing up today before 9am.

This is a fantastic opportunity to see the current kitchen and dining room without all the associated garbage and such. Shown next to this post is the dining room on the left and the kitchen on the right. These are in actual proximity to each other in the layout from the house.

When completed the kitchen will span the area of the two photos along the back wall, and the dining area, now a formal dining area will be an informal dining area in the front area of the photos.

The two windows on the left (marked with an ‘A’) will be going to Habitat for Humanity. These are the new windows I put in about a year ago. The bay window (marked with a ‘B’) will also be going to the same place. The last bay window (marked with a ‘C’) will be replaced with a new bay window. And the dividing wall between the two rooms will be removed, and replaced with a beam.

We spent the better part of last night cleaning out the cabinets and moving furniture out and setting up our secondary kitchen in the laundry room, where it will be for the next three months.

Now lets see if they show up.

Scope creep in contracting jobs

Yesterday we met with the contractor and the plumber who wanted to survey the job before beginning sometime in the next century.

After answering some of his questions and poking about we asked them some 'wouldn't it be nice' questions, and this is where the problems begin.

Controlling costs of a kitchen upgrade is a problem. If you hear or think any of the following run the other way:
a) It's only a small change
b) Since you're doing this anyway
c) I didn't think about that
d) What's another few dollars
e) Hey that's a good idea
f) Can you estimate this

All of these are trouble and should be avoided to control the costs. That being said, the first two items have already hit the bricks - The bay window and an external gas line.

Under the "can you estimate this" category is the bay window.I hate this thing, it leaks air all winter and since I have 2 other windows (really good windows - only a year old) that we are not going to use I thought put one of these there.

My wife will have none of it, she wants a bay window. So, right now we're estimating the cost of fixing the existing one.

The other item is admittedly mine, the external gas line. This one falls under the "since you're doing this anyway" category. All the gas pipes are moving and the deck is right off the kitchen, so logically why not have an external gas line for the BBQ put in since the whole wall will be open anyway.

We will be getting cost estimates on both.

How to turn 3 weeks time into 10 weeks

Apparently contractor time is not the same as human time.

Here we sit waiting for the kitchen job to begin and we are still waiting on the cabinetry to be completed. All I can surmise is that people are generally stupid and cannot adhere to timetables. Such is the case with kitchenscapes.

Our order was placed before the new year to take advantage of pricing before a new year's increase and was finalized at that time. Our Start date for beginning work was early April. The contract knew this, the cabinet guy knew this and we knew this. But I guess it's too difficult to understand your business enough to know how long it takes to build cabinets and then count backwards to finish on time.

Four months sports fans, and our contractor says its going to take another 3 weeks to complete the cabinets.

Ebay and the Kitchen sink

My lovely wife, who is always looking for a bargain for her new kitchen to be has taken to scouringInternet for deals on things like sinks and faucets and has done a pretty good job finding what she wants and then finding it for a better price.

As a result the first two things to show up at my door are sinks. Since we are going to have two sinks it would behoove us to get two basins, since the alternative are big holes in the new countertop with water running down them.

The good thing about the sinks, the one in the island in particular, is that I actually got my way. That's right sports fans, men 1, women 0. Ok, so it's probably more like women 459 and men 1, but I got my way.

Originally I thought it would be great to get a rectangular sing for the island. It would be smaller, and cooler, and I could fill it with ice and beer for all the parties I don't have. The wife, did not think staffing for parties I don't have would be the best reason to get a long rectangular sink, so she went off on her merry way getting whatever she wanted.

But, months down the line when it came time to find the sink for the island, I snuck the little chestnut in that it would be a good thing to be smaller and have more island space (for the palm tree). She actually went for it and I'm the new owner of a new rectangular sink.

It's even an undermount sink, which is prefferable, but caused all sorts of gyrations from the wife, since she bought it on auction and didn't remember the exact specifics.

So, the moral of the story is save some cash (about $200 per sink) by finding this kind of stuff on auction. Just be sure it's what you want, because otherwise you might be doing the selling on eBay.

Counter tops

In anticipation of getting the kitchen done we needed to go and pick granite for the counter top, so Saturday morning I was in a warehouse with about 60 different types or granite and marble arranged in large slabs that could crush you at any moment.

Apparently the way this works is you actually pick not only the type you want but the actual slab(s) they will use to craft into your counter. It reminds me somewhat of the 'pick your own cow' before they take it and slaughter it for you.

The only problem with all of this is that they don't actually move the slabs on Saturday (apparently there are only 2 sales people on Saturday) so what we ended up picking was the top pieces we saw. One for the island and a darker piece for the other counter.

My wife has had enough of this counter top stuff and has been subjected to a wide assortment of stone, so she would have gone with the pink polka dot marble had I insisted.

The sales guy who helped us said that you only pay for the part that they use, a fact that I don't really believe. One good tip I had heard was to ask for the extra pieces since you paid a premium for it. I figured I would use the extra for a cutting board. It would make a good contrast on the island with the darker cutting board.

Windows on my mind.

The new kitchen moves around the entire layout of the area and because of this many of the windows need to be removed or replaced.

There are 4 windows in the kitchen area, 2 bay windows that are kind of older and sagging a bit and two brand new windows that were replaced a little over a year ago, long before we decided to re-do the kitchen.

These new windows are great. The ones they replaced were awful, they were the old metal casement windows, plenty drafty and made the room cold. The new ones are triple-e glass, with enough Kryponite gas between them to stop Superman. When I put these in I decided to get really good windows since the room was cold already because it is over the addition to the house and not well insulated.

The unfortunate part is the new kitchen is smack dab in the middle of these two new windows, as well as one of the older bay windows and as such need to go.

This pains me greatly, because a) they're new and b) they were expensive.

The only upside to this is that my wife has contacted Habitat for Humanity who not only will take the windows and re-use them but also find new homes for our refrigerator and stove.

Faucets, the long and the short of it.

Apparently faucets come in various sizes shapes colors and functions.

Personally I never gave much thought to the faucet, and I guess most people don't, mainly because, well, it's a faucet. But since we have two of them in the kitchen not only does my wife have to find one that she likes, she needs to find a complementary one to go with it.

She began this quest online and spent a great deal of time pouring over Google and the home sites to find something she liked. When she did, she dutifully went to a local home store to see it for herself. What she found is that you do not have any concept of size on the Internet. Without seeing is that the thing is big.

Lets put aside the problem of finding a complementary one, which appears to be a concept that faucet makers don't quite understand.

So if looking for a new faucet, remember the old adage: Items may appear bigger (or smaller) than they appear.

Tile Floors

The tile floor in my current kitchen is one of the main reasons we want to redo the kitchen. As you can see from the images on the right the floor stinks. This floor was never put in correctly in the first place, but we bought it this way.

Apparently the previous owner's wife had the floor put in while the husband was away on business, and was too meek and mild mannered to complain about the shoddy workmanship. This was strange given she was always very outspoken in our dealings with her.

This floor was put in so poorly that there is mud (tile mastic) along edges of the room, big globs of it (image on the left side). The tiles were laid on an uneven surface, leading to the poor specimen on the right, where tiles crack and break. This occurs in numerous places on the floor.

Now, if the husband or relative had put in the floor and it turned out like this, I guess you pretty much live with it to keep peace in the household, but a contractor? No way. I would have been on the phone with the better business bureau before the grout had set if I couldn't get resolution.

If I could find out who these people are, I would certainly credit them for the work, but alas I don't know any more than I have said.

I've laid tile in the past, and truthfully it can be a big pain in the butt, especially cutting them for the edges. It takes a lot of work and scrubbing to make sure the tiles are clean of mastic and grout before it sets, but if you don't the tiles will look dingy and dirt will collect where you don't want it to.

Kitchen Layout

One of the most dramatic things we are doing with the kitchen is revising the layout. I've included the new layout to the right (click on it to make it bigger).

My wife tortured the folks at kitchenscapes to get just what she wanted.

The kitchen is big. As you can see from the layout there is an island that four people can live on for a month (given enough water) and a wrapping L shape that contains all the counter, cabinet and appliance space.

What you don't see from the layout is where the kitchen currently is, which is the long empty space on the right. Yes, we're not just moving the kitchen we're sending it out of town.

This isn't as bad as you think. Back in the late 70s there was a kitchen addition added to the space which dramatically opened up the space. If you picture a vertical line right where the left side of the island is, that's where the original kitchen stopped. Everything to the left of that imaginary line is part of the addition, to the right was kitchen. So it made perfect sense having the kitchen stuff along the top left, with the bottom left being a formal dining area.

Our new layout is a semi-formal dining area (the big chunk of white space on the right 1/3), which really means "no walls". You can see from the kitchen to the dining area to the living room (to the right of the entire layout that you can't see).

Hopefully this won't be a problem for my wife who is the consummate pack rat, messy person (Messypersons of America, member #0067, Long Island Division), and piles of crap don't start to appear on the various counter tops and on her desk area which is in the bottom center of the cabinet layout.

The order of things.

The contractor was supposed to start on the new kitchen on Monday and I'm still at a bit of a loss as to what exactly they are going to do and in what order.

I say, "was supposed to start on Monday" because as I began writing this blog I got a call from my wife saying that the cabinets are delayed by two weeks, and I don't understand fully how that impacts them starting on Monday.

By my estimate this is how I think it will go for the 3 months they say they are going to be around:

1. Demo the space
   Remove all the existing cabinetry, appliances wallboard, existing floor tile.
2. Add Framing
   Since we're moving the layout around a new structural beam needs to be added and some walls need to be moved around.
   
3. Run Electrical/Piping
   Rough in all the stuff that's behind walls and under floors.
   
4. Size the floor
   Make the floor flat, getting rid of existing mud and putting in plywood floors to work on.
5. Replace the windows
   Some windows are going, some are being added.
6. Lay radiant heating
   Since the radiant heating is going to be under the floor tiles, this needs to be done earlier than later.
7. Lighting
   Put up new lighting options for recessed lights.
   
8. Sheetrock walls
   Cover up all of the stuff to get ready for cabinetry
9. Tile Floor
   I assume this gets done before the cabinets are hung.
10. Install Cabinets
    Rough in the cabinets and make room for appliances.
11. Install Appliances
    This all needs to be in to do the counter tops.
    
12. Install Counter tops
    Stuff needs to be measured for the appliances and the actual room.
13. Tile Backsplash
    Now that the counter tops and cabinets are in we can do some cosmetic stuff.
    
14. Install Fixtures/Water
    Once the counter tops are in, the task of connecting all the parts begins.
    
15. Finish Electrical/Lighting
    Put boxes in where the roughing was done for switches and appliances.
16. Lay Wood Floors
    Part of the space has wood flooring in the dining area.
    
17. Paint Walls
    This is my part of the whole job, and will save about 3 grand from the construction price if I do it myself
18. Finish floors
    After all the construction guys are gone, it is our responsibility to get the wood floor finished. This is an additional few hundred dollars that are not in the estimate.

So, the question becomes, if the cabinets are step 10, why is there a delay in starting, and what can we do to minimize other delays.

To Pod or Not to Pod

In order to redo your kitchen you need to first move all the crap that is in the current kitchen and either throw it away or put it somewhere.

If you have a garage, this is relatively easy, just haul it out there and you're good to go. But if you are like me and your garage has been converted to living space then you must consider other alternatives such as a pod.

For those of you unaware, a pod is mobile storage unit that they put on a flatbed truck and they bring to you. This saves you taking your boxes and furniture to the local storage place, which requires a truck anyhow, plus it is a real pain in the butt to move your stuff anywhere else.

Now, the problem with a pod is the expense. For 3 months of on-site storage it will cost a bit under $1000. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a big nut, but since it is one of the only things I have control over right now, I am trying to avoid this thing.

Doing this requires me to take all of my stuff and put it somewhere else in the house or leave it with relatives.

The boxes of dishes and cookware are mostly in the attic, a glider/rocker is going to my sister (for good) and the current kitchen table/chairs which we won't need after the new kitchen are going to my mothers. This leaves a big couch and chair, dining room set and assorted crap which now goes from 3 rooms down to 1 (the living room) which is not going to be touched.

So, right now no pod for me, and $1000 back in my pocket.

Financing your kitchen.

Through the miracle of modern technology my lovely spouse submitted a virtual application for a home equity loan this morning. At this point however it makes a better story to back up a about a month.

One month ago:
The wife was bothering me about getting the home equity line of credit to pay for this new kitchen, so I relented and walked into the local CitiBank and asked to speak to a representative, because of course, this is what you did when you wanted a loan, you walk into a bank and say that you are a good person and you promise to pay them back if the give you the sack of cash with the $ on the outside.

I thought this was true, and most of all my wife thought this was true.

Apparently CitiBank does not think this is the way things work anymore, because they were really happy to give us the line of credit, but for the best rate you needed sign up online.

We felt really bad for the guy in the bank because his honesty lost him a "sale", but 1/2 point is a big deal when you are borrowing a chunk of cash.

Additionally, you get 1/4 point reduction for the first 2 months you use the line of credit.

Now, I don't know but this seems a little dysfunctional. I need to sign up at home and not plan on having the loan until the last minute, because by the time we start to use the line of credit it will be about the time of construction and wouldn't want to waste the 2 month discount.

In a normal world you would think you line up the credit long before you need it, and can do it on a handshake.

The end of the story is that you STILL need to fax your signature over anyway, because eLoans only goes so far, but now at least we have a loan.

Why does a kitchen cost so much.

I don't know why a kitchen costs so much.

You get yourself a drink, make a sandwich that's pretty much it. Apparently though it costs a lot for the mayo.

But seriously, I was as crazed as you for the cost of getting a kitchen done. The first time I heard the 80 grand number I though they were kidding. Then I thought they thought I was a sucker and promptly walked out the door. But then I did some research. I started pricing things out with different people and places and the number from the high end place I walked out of was eerily similar to Home Depot, Lowe's and the contractors we spoke to.

I was stuck. But for you appreciation I'll break it down a bit in cost order.
I'll also revise this as time goes on:

Labor & General Supplies: $40,000
There's no getting around it, its expensive to have people rip up your walls, put new ones in and move plumbing around. This is also where a large part of the differential is for replacing in place and moving the kitchen layout around.

This also however includes general supplies such as 2x4s, wallboard, tape & joint compound, plywood, grout and mud for the floors and piping stuff.

Counter tops: $15,000ish (still unknown)
Depending on what materials we use, this can increase the cost of the job. Stone or a composite materials are our choices.

Appliances: $15,000ish (still unknown)
There are a host of appliances including a stove, double oven, microwave, two dishwashers (it's a kosher kitchen), small drink fridge (my only part of the kitchen), 2 sinks, and 2 garbage disposals.

Cabinets: $17,000
Cabinets are where we saved a bit of money. While 17k is a lot, we also have a very big space. Kitchenscapes which does semi-custom cabinets was a great find. Because they are semi-custom (not true custom) it can be mass produced at a good quality. (Not the 80's crap that is in all the kitchens today).

Windows $5,000ish (maybe less)
Its unclear if the new windows and skylight is included in the cost especially the Pella windows my wife wants and not the Anderson windows the contractor wants to put in.

Floor Tile: $5,000
Not included in the general supplies. We have yet to pick it out.

Fixtures: $1000
Also not included are fixtures for sinks and knobs for drawers.

Grand Total: $98,000.00

The new Kitchen.

A number of months ago I relented in letting my wife get a new kitchen.
At the time we had a number of options including:

• Leaving the kitchen as is.
  This was not a popular option but it would save me the most money.
• Re-doing the kitchen in place.
  This was the most cost effective option. It would get me a new kitchen at about 1/2 the cost of the last option.
• Moving the kitchen layout around.
  The most expensive and time consuming option.

Now, if I went for the sensible option, we were talking about 40-50 grand (close 'dem mouths, this was the GOOD option), if we went with the most expensive option, then it would be 80-100 grand.

From my perspective my choices were pretty clear cut. If I go for the less expensive option then my wife would not be happy, and in the long run I guess I wouldn't be. The more expensive option was about 50 grand more, but at least she would be happy for a long time (so I hope).