Kitchen Remodel: Where to Stop?!?

The tile subcontractor comes over to do some final measurements and stuff. Paul starts talking to him, and gets the idea that maybe we should re-tile the bathroom floor which goes into the entryway which goes into the kitchen. Then it's like, let's pull the tile off the walls to match the tile on the back-splash. Yikes. That would be an additional $2,000. Maybe we should wait on that. So we decided to tell the tiler to buy enough tile to tile the bathroom too, but we'll just keep it in a box for the future (so it will match).

But then we started thinking, if we were to spend additional money what would we spend it on? Probably the better question is where do we stop spending more money?

Our kitchen is very small...roughly 12'x12'. With the remodel, we won't have any place to put a little table even...meaning we use our dining room full time. So we're very concerned about how things seem to flow in the kitchen, visually as well as work-wise.

One thing that really bothers us is our Kitchen Aid refrigerator. Bought in 2003, it is a huge 33" by 33". OK, not so huge, but the wall of cabinets (see bottom of diagram below in the somewhat outdated remodel plan) comes out 24" from the wall, but to accommodate the refrigerator in the middle cabinet, the cabinet legs have to jut out like 6" further. Ick. So on the way home from work Paul stopped at an appliance store and they had a cabinet-depth (24") Kitchen Aid on sale for a very good price. So we took the plunge and bought it. That will allow us to have the cabinets on that wall all be a uniform depth of 24". Anyone want to buy our old refrigerator? (It won't make it down the stairs to the basement, so we can't keep it!)

You can see the bulge below...
...the new refrigerator will get rid of it...
...was it worth the money?

Here is our current refrigerator...
...its major fault is that it is not cabinet depth...

This is what our new refrigerator will look like...
...we would have preferred to get a cabinet-depth with the freezer on the bottom...
...but we got a really, really good deal...

Kitchen Remodel: The Tear-out

Here are the tear-out photos of the kitchen this week. The general contractor made it look easy, but there's no way we could have done it so quickly. The only mishap so far was when the contractor was tearing out the sink cabinet, he hit a copper pipe and broke it. A water geyser was going from the floor to the ceiling. Luckily the basement directly underneath is unfinished. So far we are happy with the general contractor. We hope it continues that way.

A big mystery was solved. For years Paul railed about a leak he thought he could hear in the walls. Michele never heard it. But Paul was certain that it was there. He agonized with fears of toxic mold growing in the ceiling of the kitchen (underneath the bathrooms above). So we had the contractor open up the ceiling to check the plumbing. It was in perfect condition. The dripping Paul heard was expansion of the pipes when hot water first passed through them. The plumber will anchor the pipes better to cut down on the noise.

The biggest change will be opening up a portion of the wall between the kitchen and dining room. See the before and after photo below...

The kitchen sans the stainless appliances...
...which are currently stored in our living room...

The remains of our cabinets...
...headed for the landfill or whatever...
...notice the stainless sink that Paul's father installed for us at the bottom...

Our kitchen sans the cabinets...
...see the two copper pipes coming up beneath the window?
The pipes there before were replaced after the contractor broke one...
...we wonder if we will have to pay for the emergency plumber visit...

A key reason to do the full remodel...
...was so Paul could get peace of mind...
...to know there were no leaks or mold in the ceiling...
...as the bank robber said in "Dirty Harry"...
"I gots to know"

The general contractor put up some poles to hold a tarp...
...this is before they cut the opening on the wall...
...between the dining room and kitchen...
...Paul put a garbage bag over the chandelier...
...note how the chairs are arranged...

Here's the key remodel change...
...note the wall, the sliding pocket door...
...and the pantry closet on the right...

There it is...
...the opening is wider...
...and the pantry is gone...

Kitchen Remodel: "Before" Pictures

This week demolition started on our kitchen as the remodel kicked into high gear. The main feature of our remodel is to open the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This blog entry will show what we started with.

Our first floor layout...

Years Ago...

The kitchen right before we bought the house...
...notice the lovely wallpaper, light on the right, and bisque appliances...
...and *NO* dishwasher!

Again the kitchen right before we bought the house...
...notices the sink...
...Paul's father put in a stainless one later on...

Present Day

The kitchen right before the demo started...
...through the left door is the living room...

Here's the refrigerator that we bought that resulted in us getting all stainless appliances..
...note the new window...

More stainless appliances...
...they are often victimized by Sammy's fingers...
...often making the kitchen look like a CSI crime scene...
...notice our dishwasher...
...we were married for 13 years without one!

Through that doorway is the dining room...
...most of this wall will be gone soon...

No longer will we be able to have a table in the kitchen...
...this will host the refrigerator and the wall oven...

Through this doorway from the dining room is the kitchen...
...the red line shows where the wall will be cut out...

This is Rochester!

In Rochester, MN the Holy Anargyroi Greek Orthodox church has a Greek Festival -- "GreekFest". After living in Rochester almost 10 years, we finally went this year. Accompanying us were Linda and Paul's sister Diane. Sammy enjoyed the Greek music, dancing, and food. The weather was fantastic, the conversation enjoyable...altogether a great time.

The yearly Greek Festival...

The old church building...

Sammy enjoying the Greek festival...

Realizing Sammy's presence,
traditional Greek dancers suddenly burst into spontaneous celebratory dancing...

A one-man Greek chorus...line...

Sammy takes his father for a stroll around the festival...

The sign says it all...

The food court selections...

Meat roasting...
...why is this man smiling?

Greek lasagna...or so they say...

The new church building...

A Russian Orthodox monk...
...from Alaska...
...giving a tour of the new church building...

The altar of the new church building...

Sammy and Michele enjoying the festival...

American Elm...

The other day, we heard a knock at the side door. Paul went to see what was going on. There was a very scruffy looking man, who looked exactly like Groundskeeper Willie with the only difference being the lack of a Scottish accent...and that the fellow standing in front of Paul smelled so bad he could knock a turkey buzzard off a manure wagon. The fellow certainly had the crazed aura of Groundskeeper Willie. Apparently he had been hired by our neighbor to take down her large elm tree (for a paltry $2k). He wanted to use our driveway to remove cut portions of the tree. It is sad to see yet another elm go. We'll take some photos as the work progresses.

We'd trust a Simpsons' character with a chainsaw...
...well before we'd trust the fellow that was knocking at our door...

All this set Paul in to a flashback to his childhood. His hometown in upstate New York State (a relative term depending on who you talk to in New York State, so let's just say the Central Leatherstocking Region). Like many American cities, Paul's hometown had stately elms lining the streets. When Dutch Elm disease finally devastated them, the elms in his hometown were all gone.

There was a large elm in front of Paul's parents' house when he was young. According to Paul's parents it was between the sidewalk and the street, yet it's branches reached over the house (if you've seen the depth of their front yard, that is pretty impressive). When Paul called his parents to inquire about getting a photo, they told him about when his father's parents came to visit them for the first time decades ago, they were amazed by elms lining their city's streets and the cathedral effect they had as they touched each other over the center line. If Paul's parents can find a photo, we'll put it on the blog. For now, we found this on Flickr...

Perhaps these elms here are similar to what Paul's hometown was like...
Photo by photo_martha, Creative Commons License 2.0

Color my world...

As we prepare to begin our kitchen remodel, painting choices come up again. Perhaps we might be able to switch to a Martha Stewart color scheme.

Previously, we had gone with a simple interior color theme we picked up at Sherwin Williams, called, "Streamlined Years." Admittedly, the era of the color theme is older than our 1959 house. When the day comes to sell the house, most likely we'll paint everything in sight beige...yuck.

All the wood trim in of our house is painted bright white. Accents or main colors of some of our rooms are:

• Our master bedroom - Cascade Green (SW 0066)
  
• The study - Copen Blue (SW 0068)
• The living room - Porcelain (SW 0053)
• Hallways/Stairways - Porcelain (SW 0053) (still not finished yet!)
  
• Dining room - Porcelain (SW 0053) below the chair rail, Copen Blue (SW 0068) above
• Basement - we broke and went with Sherwin Williams Friendly Yellow (SW 6680) which is reasonably close to the Streamlined Color theme of Belvedere Cream (SW 0067)

The theme we used as a model...

2003 Basement Remodel

After posting pictures of the house taken when we just bought it, it occurred that it might be a good time to recall our basement remodel and the lessons we learned from it. When we moved in, our basement had 1/2 of it finished (approximately 14x30 feet). For windows there were two small single rows of 4 glass blocks each which let in very little light. The paneling was dark. The carpet was hideous. And the tiled ceiling was terrible. So when the time came, we remodeled the finished portion.

The only surviving picture of the ugly basement that was...
...notice the small window of four glass blocks and how little light it allowed in...

We established the following criteria for our basement remodel...we needed/wanted:

1. to be able to afford it
2. to allow in much more light...in the end we wanted two 4'x'4 egress windows
   
3. the windows to meet egress conditions (meet inspection)
   
4. a tiled or Pergo floor

After looking around at different egress solutions, we decided to use Bilco ScapeWEL window wells. Treated wood tends to rot over time. And corrugated steel was not pretty at all. The Bilco ScapeWEL has a terraced opening which functions as a step/ladder out.

An exterior view of a Bilco ScapeWEL...

Since we had a large picture window which sides were almost centered on where we wanted the egress windows cut, we decided to employ a structural engineer. The trusses go from the front of the house to the rear, so the front and rear foundations carry much of the house's weight. The weight directly over the large picture window is displaced to the sides. The structural engineer had some good ideas (enlarge structural engineer the images below). The cost was a few hundred dollars but it was worth every penny.

Simple diagram of weight being displaced into where egress windows would go...

Page 1 of 3 from the structural engineer...

Page 2 of 3 from structural engineer...

Page 3 of 3 from structural engineer...

We found a young local contractor who gave us a great price and was willing to work with all our stipulations, such as:

• full compliance with the structural engineer's specifications
• full compliance with manufacturer's specifications
• no subcontractors without our approval
• no substitution of materials without our approval
• no work would start until permits had been obtained
• windows to be inspected and approved by the city for egress
  
• sufficient dirt would be over the footing to prevent heaving of the foundation during winter
  

Construction was a fun thing to watch. It took almost 6 weeks (in retrospect we're not sure why). We did learn one important lesson, never dry cut cinder-blocks!

A video Paul Made some time ago of our almost finished basement...

3'6"

Last week we had a "pool party" at Grant's condo complex. The pool was fantastic...the water was warm, the facilities were spotless, and the water was not too deep. Here are some pics...

Anne, Thomas, Sammy, and Diane singing "Who's Your Daddy?"...
...one of Sammy's favourite Toby Keith songs...

The pool...

The shallow end of the pool...

Sammy smiles in anticipation as he enters the pool...

As Sammy floats by, Grant strikes up a conversation with him...

Grant helping Thomas as Michele helps Sammy...

Grannie Annie teaching Thomas the ways of the water...

Anne glides across the pool...

Diane swims by the pool furniture...

Sammy enjoying the pool...

Wipeout!!!

Surfin' Sammy...

Sammy relaxing in the pool with his Mommy...

Octopus-boy!!!