Weekend of Feb 15th - Cabinet Installation

Finally time to put together our new kitchen!  All the cabinets are assembled except for one of the 12" wall units, which came without the locking cams on the side wall...a little bit of a challenge to figure out 'what' to replace.  Joe from CTG/Indy was originally going to order in a new cabinet (an extra 10 days or so), but after speaking with their HQ in S. Cal, they are just sending me the new locking cam plastic fittings.  We're going to put up the wall cabinets first, and just work around the 'missing' 12" cabinet; since it's going to be 'open' next to the refrigerator.




This side panel was supposed to have the cam  insert pins,
instead of these two holes  (brown plastic insert like next picture)

This side panel was O.K. and included the cam lock/pins















Saturday, 6:09 pm, only one cabinet up!  It took quite awhile to get up the first cabinet, but I created a challenge with my design of the corner cabinets extending out beyond the adjacent wall cabinets, and within the constraints of the available corner cabinet sizes from Cabinets to Go vs. the original Menard's Schrock design.  You can see on the left side that we used two 2x4's to push this cabinet out away from the wall 3".

Saturday, 10:25 pm, O.K., now we're making some more progress...

 

 

 

By Sunday evening 2/17 (11:36 pm), the weekend is over, but we've now got all the main kitchen area upper cabinets installed, with the exception of the 12" cabinet with the missing part (goes on far left end (where ladder is).  Also, we'll need to add the 'fill'/trim strips (to cover the extended corner cabinets and some upper spaces).  I only ordered 3 fill strips, and we're estimating that we'll need more like 5 (so, I'll be calling Joe on Monday to order 2 more).

 

 

We've also finished setting the cabinets in the other half of the kitchen, though we haven't fully installed the pantry unit yet, but have it set into place. There's our friend Louie supervising Doug's work on the pantry placement (had to remove some of the flooring to get this unit into place).

 

 

 

 

That's all for now!  Base cabinets next, countertop installer scheduled to template soon after...



Late Jan. - Mid Feb: Drywall Finishing & New Kitchen Cabinets

Big news, I ordered my cabinets from Cabinets to Go on January 23, and they were delivered to their Indianapolis store/warehouse on the following Wed., Jan. 30.  We drove over to Indy to pick them up on Sat., Feb. 1 (that's Doug trying to fit all the cabinet boxes into his truck).



With the truck bed topper removed, and back seat filled, we got everything loaded!

In the meantime, our drywall finisher Lloyd gave us his quote, and came in during the week of Feb. 3, to do the drywall finishing. The next weekend (Feb. 8-10) Doug and our friend Louie painted the kitchen. 





Newly painted kitchen ready for cabinets!

While they painted, I worked on assembling our new cabinets.  During the weekend and several week nights, I put together a total of 12 upper cabinets, a pantry unit (with some help from Doug), and 8 base cabinets.  The cabinet assembly wasn't too complicated, a system of locking cams and screws, with the single wall cabinets taking only about 20 minutes or so each, to assemble.  The base cabinets and pantry unit took quite a bit more time to assemble...



That's all the unassembled wall cabinet
boxes in one bedroom

That's the pantry unit and the unassembled
base cabinets in our other bedroom

 

 





Wall cabinet assembly in progress....

Kitchen Tear Out - Phase II

 

Now that we got the ceiling back in, unfortunately, we had to rip-out most of the upper walls, because of the old tile backsplash being well adhered to the drywall.  By removing the upper portion of the walls it also made it easier for the electrician to do their work of adding/moving outlets, adding lines for under-cabinet lighting and moving the 220 line for the range from the left side of the kitchen to the right side of the kitchen

Doug and I did most of the drywall hanging work ourselves for the walls.  He was the 'cutter' and I did the measuring for the 'holes' for the outlets, and then was the holder! 

In the span of about 10 days we got the old drywall out, the new drywall up, had the electrician in doing the lighting and outlet changes, made the cut-out opening to the dining room.  Now we're ready for the drywall finisher.  I also got the final kitchen cabinet layout completed, posted our old range and dishwasher on craigslist, and started shopping for a 'cheap' slide-in range.  Doug and I also made the decision to go with the Buckingham Sienna Rope style cabinets.
 


Before removing the tile backsplash drywall



After removing the wall drywall, before electrical work

 

Our dining room wall, before we opened the
pass through to the kitchen




New view of the dining room from the newly
framed kitchen pass-through

 





View of kitchen with first round of electrical work
including new can lighting, outlets and wires for
new under-cabinet lighting

That's all for today!
Marianne & Doug

Kitchen Tear-out - Phase 1

Left side of upper cabinets out, moving our way around the room

Starting later that evening, my husband Doug and I removed the upper cabinets in the main half of the kitchen, so that we could clear-the-way to remove the drop ceiling/soffits.  We're saving these cabinets for him to use in his basement kitchen at his office.  By the following Saturday (1/19) , we had all the upper cabinets out, as well as the range and side walls of base cabinets.  Doug lined up some extra help to help tear-out the soffit/drop ceiling, and put up new ceiling drywall.  Our friend Louie and Doug's son worked for most of the afternoon tearing out and loading the old materials into Doug's truck. 

Doug's son Zach tearing out the front of the soffit

Doug & Zach pulling down the soffit framing

 

The kitchen was already looking bigger with the soffits/ceiling removed!  But now we ran into a new 'snag'.  The wiring to the upper fixtures and wall outlets was strung through the soffits, but was too short in several places to lay it flat for the higher ceiling!

We had to call-in our electrician to pull a couple of electric wire lines up into the attic, put in a junction box and disconnect them coming down the side walls, so that we could put up the new higher ceiling drywall.

Ceiling drywall all up with wiring notched out and moved to attic boxes

 

Next, we've got to make more drywall mess and remove much of the walls, because of the old tile backsplash being firmly adhered to the side walls drywall...

 

 

Best,

Marianne

Cabinet Solution! - Week of Jan. 7

Well, based on my last posting, you'll understand that I am concerned about the cost of new cabinets.  I want new cabinets and that are step above 'stock' and have some upgraded features.  I remembered seeing advertising for Cabinets-to-go on HGTV www.cabinetstogo.com  I looked them up online and found that the closest locations were Cleveland (2.5+ hours) and Indianapolis (2 hours), and ordered a brochure (which they said would take 10 days to 2 weeks to receive), not a positive start.  But, I decided to call the Indianapolis location on Wed. afternoon (1/9), and I had a great conversation with Joe, and emailed him our layout and cabinet needs on Thursday morning. 

St. Moritz Cherry Kitchen

He explained that Cabinets-to-go carries about a dozen door styles in a limited number of cabinet configurations to keep costs affordable.  He said that he might have to modify my cabinet selections slightly to work within their available sizes.  The great thing is that these are the quality level of cabinets that I was pricing at Menards and Lowe's (and even a little more), with full overlay hardwood doors/frames including cherry, oak and birch.  The drawers are dovetailed and the cabinet boxes are plywood, not furniture board (particle board), and they are available for pick-up in one-week from a Wed. order date!! 

Now I have to select a door style and get a quote, to see if we're OK.  There wasn't a door style exactly like our favorite Shrock Parker Whiskey Black Cherry Cabinet.  Their cherry choice closest to our door style was called St. Moritz Cherry, however this is in a lighter natural finish that is less dramatic and detailed than the Parker style we liked. 


There was another cabinet style called Buckingham Sienna Rope with a more detailed face panel and an added rope trim that made it quite dramatic, and it had a warm brown finish with black accents (liked the Whiskey Black finish).  This cabinet isn't made of cherry, but another hardwood, birch. 

Buckingham Sienna Rope Kitchen

On Friday, 1/11, Joe sent a layout for the kitchen using the available cabinet sizes that closely matched our layout.  I asked a few questions, and he said he could pull together quotes for both cabinet styles fairly quickly.  He also told us that the showroom in Indianapolis had all of the cabinet options in kitchen layouts, so that we could see them in person, and that they were open on both Sat. and Sun.  Doug and I decided we should take a road-trip on Sunday to see them in person, if we were happy with the price quotes he said he'd send on Saturday.

Saturday morning 1/12, Joe sent a quote for the St. Moritz Cherry for...

$5,761.89   

YEAH!  Finally a quote in the same ballpark as my budget!  Based on the detail of the Sienna Rope cabinet, we figured it was probably more expensive, but Joe said no, it was less, as it isn't cherry.  That quote came back at $5,252.58 (even better for the budget).

 

St. Moritz Cherry Door

On Sunday, we made a road trip to their showroom, in a commercial office park on the west side of Indianapolis, not too far from the airport.  It was a cold day with pouring rain, and when we first got there around 1 pm, we were the only ones in the showroom, and got to ask a lot of questions, and check everything out.  We spent about an hour there, and also were impressed with their selection/pricing of bathroom cabinet/vanities (as our bathrooms are the next remodeling project)... In person, we actually preferred the Sienna Rope cabinet to the St. Moritz cherry, in person, but took samples of both door styles, as well as one other more traditional dark cherry/mahogany color, that was also quite impressive in person.



Buckingham Sienna Rope Door

St. James Mahogany Door

 

The awesome news from this week/weekend, is that we can move forward with our plans for tear-out and the kitchen remodel, I'm back on budget, and our project is back-on at full-speed ahead!!

Best,
Marianne

Cabinet Sticker Shock - January 5, 2013

The Menard's kitchen team put together a cabinet list, based on the designs I showed in my prior post (main view here). 

The first project quote for a total of nine (9) base cabinets, eleven (11) upper cabinets and a 15" wide pantry, with the upgrade for the Parker Whiskey Black finish (+15%), Ellington Stained Glass inserts (in pantry/table area and over sink), matched stained interiors and five piece drawer fronts, with an estimated delivery date about 2-3 weeks out.  OK, drum roll please, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:

$10,566.18 

Yes, note this cabinet total is $566 over my ENTIRE kitchen remodeling budget, just for the 'non-custom' SALE cabinets, including a 'free' sink base....OUCH!

Needless to say, I reviewed the cabinet options and add-ons and made several trips back to the store in the coming days, and after three attempts, I was able to get my budget down to a more 'modest' $8,800, but still way over my plan for the cabinets (estimated around $5,000 of my $10,000 total).

Next, I made a side-trip back to Lowe's, explaining my situation, and asking their kitchen designer's advice regarding a similar line that might be more cost-effective.  She worked off my revised cabinet listing and priced my kitchen using the Shenandoah line using their Winchester Cherry Square cabinet door, cherry wood overlay doors in a Spice finish.  Lowe's had a combination of a 'tiered' discount off kitchen cabinets through January (10% off) plus free internal cabinet upgrades and sink base (about $1,000), but a more lengthy 4-6 week deliver timing, for a total of, drum roll please...

$7,759.54

Yes, still almost $3K over my budget!

O.K., now I spent several sleepless/deprived nights feeling sick to my stomach....wanting to start this project, yet not feeling good about compromising down to stock cabinets.  Thinking there's got to be something between stock cabinets at Lowe's and Home Depot, with their particle board boxes, and no 'fun' features or finishes (probably costing about $3K) and these Menard's and Lowe's options at $8K+.  Where are the well-made $5K cabinets, that are in line with my budget???!!!

Stay tuned, as I actually found my answer...Cabinets-To-Go!

New Kitchen Planning - Early January 2013

 

 As I mentioned in my first post, we had planned to remodel our circa 1974 kitchen since we moved in last February.  During December and early January, I worked on layout ideas that would allow us to open up our kitchen to our large L-shaped Dining Room/Living Room and to the front of the house.  It was also a priority to get rid of the old soffit/drop ceiling lighting that made the main kitchen area ceiling only 7' tall, instead of 8' tall.  My planned budget was to keep the total materials and paid labor costs under $10,000 including new cabinets, countertop and appliances, as well as updated electrical and plumbing work.


Our current cabinet/appliance layout looks like this on paper, with a picture of the current working half of the kitchen.



The things I don't like about my current kitchen (besides the obvious cabinets, worn-out formica counters, avocado green sink and black appliances) that I want to change include:

• Drop ceiling and lighting
• Closed-off/dark main kitchen (no window)
• Base corner cabinets (called blind-end) which are impossible to get into and even see what's stored in them
• Cabinets that run all the way up to the soffit/ceiling

I went to Menard's, based on the recommendation of a friend who recently re-did his kitchen using their Medallion line, which offered some custom features, without 'custom' cabinet pricing.  I was looking for natural wood cabinets (light/medium cherry color), and to get some of the upgraded cabinet features from our last kitchen remodel.  We used Lowe's stock natural maple cabinets (American Woodmark), with a few special order cabinets.  After reviewing the cabinet displays at Menard's we decided we liked the Schrock line, which was on sale through mid-January.  The line had the full overlay hardwood doors, soft close hinges and dovetail drawers.  We really liked the Parker door style with a custom finish called Whiskey Black.

 

 
 
 
I worked with the kitchen designer at Menard's to come up with cabinet layout, to allow us to add an opening into the dining room area (over stove on right hand wall shown below, by rearranging the refrigerator and range to opposite walls from their current placement.  New views are shown here.

Stay tuned for the next updates in a day or so...

Best,
Marianne