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