Kitchen update

So everything is going pretty well so far. We had an extra expense for the plumbing that made a lot of sense to do. We were disappointed that the floor couldn't be recovered, but we're excited to have in place the nice flooring we've picked out.

One thing that I noticed Thursday night last week, after they had finished the cavity that will hold the fridge, is that it did not appear to be wide enough. I measured it and compared with the specs on the fridge we've ordered and indeed, it was too narrow by two inches. There is no easy way to gain those two inches, either we need to eat into the corner of the dining room which is a big challenge because we'd need to rearrange a heating duct/vent, or we'd need to eat into the corner of the closed off hallway. I think doing the latter makes the most sense as we need to do something in that dead end hallway anyway, so eating into it can be part of the design of whatever we do there.

So this week I expect the old floor to be torn out, the new floor put in, the fridge corner to be resolved and the joinery compound to be all complete. I have no idea if this matches the project plan, but it means that early to mid next week the new kitchen cabinets will come in. This is when the new kitchen will really start to show itself.

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So the drainage pipe in the corner has been mostly closed in, and some of the joinery has had their first coat of joining compound.


Here we can see the pipe enclosed. It seems quite a bit wider than I thought would be necessary.


Here they've finished the gap that runs along the ceiling on the exterior wall and have started the joinery.


More joinery.


And more.


And the ceiling.

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So my family along with two others were in Lake Placid this past weekend, staying in a house we rented on Hillcrest street. Below are some photos.


This is the best angle to capture the essence of the house we rented. The patio door to the right of the flag led into the dining room which was open to the kitchen.


The property was adjacent to a field that at one end had a park that the kids enjoyed immensely. I went with them and sat and read on a park bench as they played as V-8 is only 4yo and I didn't trust yet to leave her in the care of the older kids. If she was one or two years older, we'd have let the kids go to the park on their own and I could have napped more.


This is the front of the house with a sagging staircase leading to a front veranda.


This is the front veranda up close. Those two chairs were hardly used.


As it is a corner lot, the side of the house was more like a back yard than the back was. It was a wide lawn.


Looking at the lawn from the back veranda you get a different angle.


Looking in on the back veranda we can see the hot tub, the BBQ and the patio door.


Here's the kitchen. Part way through our weekend the sink stopped draining, and then it drained but onto the floor beneath the sink, and then the dishwasher stopped draining. We called the owners who came to try to fix things on three separate occasions, but by the end the dishwasher still wasn't effective. With 13 of us, that was a bit of a pain.


Here is one of the two living rooms. In the closest corner on the right you can see a roulette table, that was a combo table that had roulette, blackjack and craps. We had a really short casino night where G-bot was dealer for a blackjack game involving all of the adults. The 'house' won most of the time.

It was a nice time for everyone, the kids all played together nicely and the adults all interacted well.

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More closing off of the unfinished walls with the gyproc.


That narrow strip across the middle of where the patio door used to be was finished.


The beam was finished.


The supporting pillar on one side was finished.


The left side of the fridge cavity was finished.


The cutout in the ceiling where the plumber replaced the pipe from the bathtub was finished.

The inspector came this morning and approved all of the work. I am guessing that tomorrow they will close off the pipe area to the left and above the window.

My family along with two others are going to Lake Placid, leaving tomorrow, for our annual May Long Weekend trip away where we rent a house with those two other families for an extended weekend. So there won't be a kitchen update tomorrow as I won't be home to photograph Friday's progress.

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Finishing of the large surface areas.


The wall where the patio door used to be with just a narrow strip left to be closed off.


Electrical work finished - 'A boucher' - close it up.


At counter level in this post hiding the pipe and support beam will be an electrical outlet and a phone jack.


The hallway doorway now closed on the kitchen side.


We had a tough time figuring out what to do about lighting - the original plan was to suspend a hanging light over the counter, but the suspending would have had to have been hanging from the beam, which would not have worked out. So we decided to put two potlights on the living room side that we will angle to the center of the counter, and we'll put one on the kitchen side that we will angle to the center of the counter.


They also widened this opening by the inch it needed to accommodate our new fridge.

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I guess getting the patio door out took a lot of effort and time as today, that is all they got done - getting it out and putting the framework in to replace it.


Here's the new wall where the patio door used to be.


Here's a closeup where you can see that in the original exterior wall, it wasn't plywood that was the outer structural wall, it was slats of hardwood.


I didn't take a before photo of this angle (too bad), but here it is now - the patio door from the outside. Perhaps if I dig in some past photos of parties we've had I'll be able to find a patio door photo.


It looks like maybe George and Alex will be the ones to rip out the old flooring if this is any indication - two boards taken out to see how hard it is to take them out.


An addendum to the work - we'll be ceramic-tiling this entry way, so this is the before photo from the top.

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Lots of visible progress today - all of the beams in the wall are now gone, the plumbing has been totally replaced, the doorway to the hallway has been closed in and the gyproc has been put in place on the living room side of the opening.


So come in from the side door of the house and we can see clear through the kitchen into the living room.


On the kitchen side, the new wall that closes off the hallway to the front door is not finished, this is because, I believe, they still need to work out exactly where to put the outlet for the microwave.


Here's all of the new plumbing in place.


Here is the pipe from the bath tub that runs along the corner of where the ceiling meets the wall; it is much closer to the corner compared to it's predecessor.


This is the view from the piano into the kitchen. You can see that where the beam was and the posts supporting the beam, everything has been gyproc covered in preparation for finishing.


This is a view from the front of the house part of the living room.


This is the hallway that used to lead into the kitchen from the front door. We'll probably put coat hooks along the furthest (new) wall.


The floor where the wall used to be is quite open in terms of holes and gaps and such.


In fact through one of them, the one where the vent used to be that leads to the second floor, we can see clearly into the basement.

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So here is the temporary wall that was put up on the living room side since the beams that support the second floor are held up by this wall. The beams that support the second level above the kitchen run parallel with the supporting wall we are removing, so there was no need to build a temporary wall on that side.


Here you can see that the original wall is gone, the temporary support wall is still there to hold everything in place while the glue sets.


Here you can see that the 2x4 used to hold the molding in place is still there but now instead of being screwed into the original wall supports, new 2x4s were put in place to hold it up. The beam is made up of two 2x10 pieces glued together, and the beam is glued to the wall where the molding is, so the molding and the wall it is attached to is glued to the beam to help keep it in place.


Here's a closeup of the beam and the plumbing in the corner that we found out today, and decided today, that would be replaced. The plumber told the main worker guy that the pipes were in poor condition on their insides as evidenced by the slow draining of our upstairs bathroom drains. At this point of the project, since the walls are already opened up, now is the best and perfect time to change out these old pipes for modern ones that will encounter fewer problems. It is an added expense outside of our contract with the company, but we feel it is an important change that must be done given this opportunity to do it.

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The electrician came.


This yellow wire is for the wall oven.


This thick grey wire is for the induction cook top, the white wire for an electrical outlet.


This electrical box will have an outlet or two and a switch for the lights.


The red wire is for the dishwasher.


This white wire is for an outlet inside the cabinet where a microwave oven could live.


The ceiling pot-lights were also installed and hooked up so that they are operational.

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My garden update.


The bigger raised beds has no action on the strawberry plants or the parsnip seeds, but the Dwarf Sunspot sunflowers have mostly all germinated and made their appearance.

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Here are three of the Dwarf Sunspots close up.


I deweeded this decorative bed somewhat after I took the photo, all along the closer edge there is a row of weeds that I mostly removed. Otherwise everything here is fine.


Here the right of the two smaller beds there are carrot seeds that have sprouted as well as one of the two lettuce.


Here are the carrots that will eventually need to be thinned.


Here are the lettuce sprouts that will also need to be thinned.