AW - 5 day kitchen remodel thread

hoffse

Well it begins.  Today is day 1 of our (supposedly) 5-day kitchen remodel!  We're excited, but I'm also nervous.  It's going to go so fast that there's no changing our minds about anything at this point!

I've attached some before photos.  All of the appliances are staying where they are except for the fridge.  That's being moved to the opposite end of the run it's currently on so that it's closer to the garage and out of the main traffic path.

They're taking out that horrendous ceiling fan and installing canned lighting.  You can see my H under the fan - his head brushes the pulls...  We're also getting task lighting put in under the cabinets because our kitchen has just one small window, and it's a very dark space.

We are having new cabinets put in - they will be white shaker style, which should also help lighten the space.  Our contractor has a cabinet guy who works for him, and they offered to do ceiling-height uppers and lowers with big drawers for no extra cost.... so we are taking them up on it!  They're going to be custom, and the entire kitchen is costing about the same as the quote for semi-custom cabinets from Home Depot.  So excited!

Our breakfast nook has a pantry that we are closing in.  The room on the other side is a small bedroom (that we currently use as an office), and we're going to use that space to expand the closet there at a later date.  In the breakfast nook we're doing an 18" deep pantry/butler's pantry combo - floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets on the end and then a 60" run with glass uppers next to it that will be wired up for lighting/display.  It will be in a great spot to serve food in both our breakfast nook and the dining room.  The "butler's pantry" is totally a thing where we live, and I am STOKED to finally have that in our house as well!

Finally, we are taking out that "L" at the far end and just straightening out the run.  We'll hang some artwork later to balance out the door, but it should make that space feel MUCH more open, and it will make access to the new fridge much easier.  They are also removing that totally useless "hide the fridge" wall that separates the kitchen from the breakfast nook.  That should open the space up as well.

They are doing everything in 5 days except for paint.  We're going to handle the painting when we get back from our trip at the end of the month.

Here are the before photos.  They don't look too bad until you get to the close-up at the end.... all of the cabinets are this beat up - it's going to be a great change!

jessica490

Wow, you have a great space and plenty of cabinets to work with! Can't wait to see the progress! I LOVE white cabinets!

blondie42107

What a crazy week it'll be! Awesome that it will be done in a week!

juliebeannn

wow. 5 days!! so jealous.  demo alone took 5 days on our down to studs & subfloor kitchen renovation.  we started exactly a month ago today.  at our current rate, we'll be done around 2 weeks before our projected Labor day finish. 

your current kitchen doesn't look so bad as is.  can't wait to the after shots!!!

hoffse

Yeah the kitchen looks deceptively fine in photos... and then you get close and see how beat up everything is.  The finish is coming off of much of the cabinets, we have doors that are cracking, the drawers literally fall out when we pull them because there are no stops, the shelves on the inside are very warped and literally bend.  It's pretty bad.  Plus there is red fingernail polish everywhere.  All I can figure is a toddler managed to grab a bottle and went to town.  You can see a little bit in that last photo around the bottom drawer pull.

There's also some serious water damage around the sink from a prior flood (before we moved in).

We've done a lot of work to the rest of the house, and at this point the kitchen looks like the drabbest space in the house.  We can't wait for the changes!

They aren't taking everything down to the studs/subfloor, and we aren't having them remove any loadbearing walls - it would be a longer timeline if they were doing that much.  Today, however, the old kitchen should be removed, the walls should be patched, and I think they are going to try to get the lower cabinets installed so the granite people can come make templates for the counter tops.

cbee817

Looks like so much fun- you have a good space. Can't wait to see when it's done! 

brij2006

Can't wait to see the finished product!

And that ceiling fan with that low of a ceiling is horrendous!  My H is 6'5".  That would be comical in our house.  

TravelJunkie1234

Can't wait to see how it all looks in the end! I can't believe that it will all be done in less than a week--that's awesome!

formerlyGDaisy09

looks like you've got "good bones" to work with there. Can't wait to see the finished product. 

our kitchen looked the same from a distance when we moved in, but when you got close you could see the finish on the laminate counters was wearing off. we refinished the counters and I've been toying with the idea of painting the cabinets, unfortunately all the trim in the house is stained wood, I fear white cabintes would look off. 

short+sassy

Sounds like you are getting a great deal!  It's such a nice space to work with and I also think changing to white cabinets will really lighten up the space.

Good luck!  Can't wait to see the finished kitchen.  Hopefully it will truly only take 5 days.

FirstMate06

Great space to work with!! Five day renovation sounds amazing and ambitious, I'm excited to see your finished product. Good luck with everything!

dragonstarjk

Woohoo, exciting!  I can't wait to see after pics!  I love home improvements

hoffse

brij2006 said:

Can't wait to see the finished product!

And that ceiling fan with that low of a ceiling is horrendous!  My H is 6'5".  That would be comical in our house.  

It's horrible!  The whole house had fans like that, and we have eliminated all of the others. We replaced the bedroom fans with flushmounts that do not have lights on the bottom.  That pretty much saved us a foot of vertical space.

We finally figured out that the fan in the kitchen was designed to be a substitute for a vent.  Yeah, that's not even close to sufficient.  If we burn something, the fan just blows the smoke through the rest of the house.  We are sticking with an over-the-range microwave for space purposes, but our contractor is going to vent the microwave out through the roof properly. 

TravelJunkie1234

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

Can't wait to see the finished product!

And that ceiling fan with that low of a ceiling is horrendous!  My H is 6'5".  That would be comical in our house.  

It's horrible!  The whole house had fans like that, and we have eliminated all of the others. We replaced the bedroom fans with flushmounts that do not have lights on the bottom.  That pretty much saved us a foot of vertical space.

We finally figured out that the fan in the kitchen was designed to be a substitute for a vent.  Yeah, that's not even close to sufficient.  If we burn something, the fan just blows the smoke through the rest of the house.  We are sticking with an over-the-range microwave for space purposes, but our contractor is going to vent the microwave out through the roof properly. 

We saw a lot of that when we were house hunting too. We thought it was so weird! I wonder if it's a regional thing, because I don't recall seeing that out in CO while I worked in real estate.

I'm glad you guys are getting a proper vent. I think our kitchen originally just had a ceiling fan, which was then replaced by this awesome fluorescent light fixture, but the fan was never replaced with a vent. If I wanted to add one (even one of those small microwave/vent combos or a simple flat vent), it would involve having to replace an entire section of cabinets because the cabinets that hang above the stove are too low to allow that. Luckily we have a giant kitchen window that I can open on the rare *cough* occasion that I burn anything!

Good luck with your project!

als1982

How exciting! Can't wait to see the end result!!

AprilZ81

You won't regret taking the upper cabinets to the ceiling!  The extra storage is great (we keep things we only use 2-3 times a year up there) and it eliminates the collection of dust and grease on top of the cabinets.

Good call on venting the microwave to the outside, ours didn't have a vent before either.

hoffse

TravelJunkie1234 said:

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

Can't wait to see the finished product!

And that ceiling fan with that low of a ceiling is horrendous!  My H is 6'5".  That would be comical in our house.  

It's horrible!  The whole house had fans like that, and we have eliminated all of the others. We replaced the bedroom fans with flushmounts that do not have lights on the bottom.  That pretty much saved us a foot of vertical space.

We finally figured out that the fan in the kitchen was designed to be a substitute for a vent.  Yeah, that's not even close to sufficient.  If we burn something, the fan just blows the smoke through the rest of the house.  We are sticking with an over-the-range microwave for space purposes, but our contractor is going to vent the microwave out through the roof properly. 

We saw a lot of that when we were house hunting too. We thought it was so weird! I wonder if it's a regional thing, because I don't recall seeing that out in CO while I worked in real estate.

I'm glad you guys are getting a proper vent. I think our kitchen originally just had a ceiling fan, which was then replaced by this awesome fluorescent light fixture, but the fan was never replaced with a vent. If I wanted to add one (even one of those small microwave/vent combos or a simple flat vent), it would involve having to replace an entire section of cabinets because the cabinets that hang above the stove are too low to allow that. Luckily we have a giant kitchen window that I can open on the rare *cough* occasion that I burn anything!

Good luck with your project!

When my parents built their house they initially forgot the vent, and their cabinets don't hit the ceiling (tall ceiling).  The actual vent pipes are pretty small.  My dad actually just brought the upper bit of the wall forward by a few inches to hide the vent stack without replacing the cabinets.  He said it was like a $50 project when all was said and done.  You can't tell that the upper bit of the wall is slightly forward compared to the lower bit.  Actually, it's been that way for years and I had no idea he had done that until he told me about it in the context of our current remodel.

I've also wondered if the ceiling fan thing is a Southern phenom that harkens back to the pre-A/C days.  Nearly every room in our house had one, even the rooms that were kind of random (ceiling fan in the dining room...?)

I still want a whole-house attic fan.  My parents have one and in the fall and spring they can cool their 3000-sq ft house in a few seconds with that thing.  It's awesome.

hoffse

UPDATE: H just got home and is texting me pictures.

They have demo'd everything that needs to be demo'd, patched some of the walls, and they have installed ALL of the cabinets!  The shelves, doors, and trim aren't there yet, but the layout is in place!

Photo 1: the "pantry pantry" (as H calls it) to the left and the butler's pantry to the right

Photo 2: the sink side with a very confused cat wondering what the heck happened today...

Photo 3: our new fridge cabinet on the far end with the stove/microwave space

Photo 4: the other side of the stove - with the small wall removed and some spaces for big drawers in the lowers!

I can't believe they got this much done today...

AprilZ81

Don't mind me, I'm just sitting here crying because you had demo done and cabinet boxes up in one day.  It took us about 2 weeks to get to that point.

Those cabinets are going to be beautiful!

vlagrl29

It already looks a TON better.  Will you be staying with the black appliances or going to a different color.

ETA - nevermind I read that you are keeping them

abrewer5

AprilZ81 said:

You won't regret taking the upper cabinets to the ceiling!  The extra storage is great (we keep things we only use 2-3 times a year up there) and it eliminates the collection of dust and grease on top of the cabinets.

Good call on venting the microwave to the outside, ours didn't have a vent before either.

Can't wait to see the finished product @hoffse! Wow 5 days doesn't seem like long at all, that's great! And loving the white cabinets too!  

Fun tip for anyone that doesn't have cabinets to the ceiling, if you put a sheet of wax paper on top of the cabinets it will collect all the dust and grease then once or twice a year just throw it away and replace. It really helps with cleaning up there!

Xstatic3333

That's crazy! Wow. Does your contractor service RI? It's not that far!

hoffse

AprilZ81 said:

Don't mind me, I'm just sitting here crying because you had demo done and cabinet boxes up in one day.  It took us about 2 weeks to get to that point.

Those cabinets are going to be beautiful!

Thanks!  Sorry yours took so long!  Honestly I was super skeptical they could do it, but he's all about the timeline.

@vlgrl - we had to replace the fridge to move it (we needed counterdepth).  And we figured we should replace the dishwasher while they were replacing the countertops since it was going to be out..... so at that point all that was left was the stove and microwave.  So yeah, we ended up replacing all the appliances, and we are going with stainless.  H also let me splurge on a double oven range, because I grew up with one and love having it.  I got a smoking deal during Memorial Day at Lowe's with bundled pricing, 10% off, 4% back at ebates, and then another 10% off the ORIGINAL price of the fridge when it showed up with a teeny dent on the side (that's going to be hidden anyway).

The only big issue we've run into so far is that the floors were more damaged than expected after they moved the fridge.  They are going to feather in some new boards today, but our contractor says it might be smart to just refinish the entire kitchen area to get the color right.  That will probably be a bit more money, but I think we will try to make it work.  There are pet stains in the breakfast nook from the previous owners, and we've talked about having the whole space refinished at some point anyway.  If we do that, he said the timeline will probably go from 5 days to 6 so they can do the staining/poly on Monday after people are done walking on it.  I'm ok with that, and I think I'd rather just get it done right.

@Xstatic, not sure if they will go to RI or not!  I think I'm the only regular in the greater Birmingham area, but if any lurkers want info on these guys, feel free to PM me.  We've been super happy with them so far.

I'll post more photos after we see what they do today - I think electric is the big agenda item.

vlagrl29

sounds like a good call on the floors - might as well do it now.

formerlyGDaisy09

Oh your kitchen is going to be lovely! I share the hatrid for ceiling fans. there's one in our dining room, the house was build with central air...I really have no idea why any of the ceiling fans are there. 

So exciting about the new appliances too! I'm looking forward to replacing our stove, sometime...I'd love to do a dual-fuel one (propane range, electric/convection oven) having lived with both propane and electric, I very much perfer cooking on the propane top, but the electric oven is so much better for baking cookies and breads. unfortunately the dual-fuel stoves are wider than standard ones...so installing on will require some demo in the kitchen...waiting until I can afford to replace the counter tops too!

short+sassy

Interesting and surprising (to me) to see the hatred for the ceiling fans, lol.  Where I live, ceiling fans are considered assets.  It's not unusual to see rental ads or homes for sale that advertise "ceiling fans throughout" (or something like that).

With that said, homes built before the 1940s or so...and there are a LOT of them in NOLA...tend to have really high ceilings.  My house was built in 1911 and it has 12' ceilings.  Yes, I have four ceiling fans on my side of the house and three ceiling fans on the tenant side, lol.  And I want to put one more in our kitchen.

They don't cool the house down as much as I expected, but they do help.

hoffse

short+sassy said:

Interesting and surprising (to me) to see the hatred for the ceiling fans, lol.  Where I live, ceiling fans are considered assets.  It's not unusual to see rental ads or homes for sale that advertise "ceiling fans throughout" (or something like that).

With that said, homes built before the 1940s or so...and there are a LOT of them in NOLA...tend to have really high ceilings.  My house was built in 1911 and it has 12' ceilings.  Yes, I have four ceiling fans on my side of the house and three ceiling fans on the tenant side, lol.  And I want to put one more in our kitchen.

They don't cool the house down as much as I expected, but they do help.

If we had high ceilings, I don't think I would care - but our ceilings are 8-footers!  We definitely have fans in the bedrooms, office (which is technically a bedroom), and the family room.  We use them quite a bit, and they do help us keep the A/C turned up higher (and save $$ in the summer).

But with ceilings that low, we need flushmounts.  Having them hang down and then having lights hang down even further just emphasizes how low our ceilings are.  The flushmounts don't feel like they are in the way at all.

formerlyGDaisy09

short+sassy said:

Interesting and surprising (to me) to see the hatred for the ceiling fans, lol.  Where I live, ceiling fans are considered assets.  It's not unusual to see rental ads or homes for sale that advertise "ceiling fans throughout" (or something like that).

With that said, homes built before the 1940s or so...and there are a LOT of them in NOLA...tend to have really high ceilings.  My house was built in 1911 and it has 12' ceilings.  Yes, I have four ceiling fans on my side of the house and three ceiling fans on the tenant side, lol.  And I want to put one more in our kitchen.

They don't cool the house down as much as I expected, but they do help.

In rooms with vaulted ceilings, there's a definite advantage to having ceiling fans. you can change the direction of the fans to suck hot air up in the summer and blow the warmer air down in the winter. however in a house with 8' ceilings throughout they're unappealing, at least to me. 

vlagrl29

our living room has a vaulted ceiling so we have one and use it a lot during the summer time.  Our master is 8ft ceiling and we have one in there too.

juliebeannn

wow wow y'all work fast!!!! already looks amazing!!!

dragonstarjk

abrewer5 said:

AprilZ81 said:

You won't regret taking the upper cabinets to the ceiling!  The extra storage is great (we keep things we only use 2-3 times a year up there) and it eliminates the collection of dust and grease on top of the cabinets.

Good call on venting the microwave to the outside, ours didn't have a vent before either.

Can't wait to see the finished product @hoffse! Wow 5 days doesn't seem like long at all, that's great! And loving the white cabinets too!  

Fun tip for anyone that doesn't have cabinets to the ceiling, if you put a sheet of wax paper on top of the cabinets it will collect all the dust and grease then once or twice a year just throw it away and replace. It really helps with cleaning up there!

I totally never thought of this--brilliant!