Major kitchen remodel

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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

The original 1975 kitchen is getting gutted and remodeled. Company chosen is KCCNE (Kitchen & Countertop Center of New England) which has a very nice showroom up in Pawtucket.

Attached renderings which have the following discrepancies from the actual final kitchen:
• Floor tile (doing a 12x24 in a medium gray pattern)
• Backsplash (doing a 4x16 ceramic in marble style, and not going up to ceiling)
• Refrigerator (keeping stainless side by side)
• Range (fairly similar)
• Microwave (fairly similar)
• Dishwasher (scoop handle rather than large grab handle)
• Sink (single, not double as shown)
Kevin Moore Render1.pdf
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Kevin Moore Render2.pdf
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Kevin Moore Render3.pdf
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Day 0:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5lt1BKvFKdqNA3nacHfO6JFg2-3A
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Construction Day 1 (begin demo):
https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5lt1BKvFKdqNBU8n0zGC9YFdsJIg
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Demo started around 9:30. Ended by 3:30. Mostly 3 guys and then 2 toward the end. Everything was loaded into a box truck and is gone. No dumpster. Oh, there was an engineer here looking at the wall we opened up. Good news: it is not load bearing.

Some fun facts:
- Many dead mice in the walls. They said this is common. But wait.
- They chewed through some wiring that goes to the dining room dimmer. He said one was right to the conductor and sparked when he touched it. They taped it up for now. Now I wonder how many houses have burned down because of this.
- The downstairs bathroom shower uses a copper shower pan. One of the guys was all impressed - I guess this is no longer common. He was also impressed with my dutch door that leads onto the deck that is being removed by the carpenter. He marked it to keep. At least someone is getting use. I probably could have tried to sell it I guess.
- Newman escaped once. One of the guys ran to grab him and he didn't put up much of a fight. He's never really explored the outside so he doesn't just bolt because he doesn't know the area I guess. All three of them seemed to like cats so that's something.
- The demo crew was pretty awesome. They rolled out paper the whole path to outside and covered everything in plastic that was necessary to do so. They even ran a wet rag over the floors and put down new paper for the next crew. Pretty efficient operation.
- The vinyl floor tiles and top layer of plywood was removed leaving the subfloor.
- Good news: no pipes or anything hiding under the soffits. They did it for "style"

Check out the OneDrive links for pics and a couple videos.

Here is what it looks like now:
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Just got a note from the operations manager:
Hi Kevin. Demo was complete today. The rough plumbing will be Friday, the rough framing will be Monday and the rough electrical will be early next week, just not certain the day yet.
We still need to pick hardware for the cabinets and drawers, which I find very annoying.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Here is the mice-chewed electrical.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

No work but first meal made in the great room. Boiled water and used the electric frying pan.. Result: Not too bad. Washing dishes is the worst part.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Day 2:

Plumber was here for about 2 hours. He didn't have too much to do. Sink hot/cold water, new PVC drain (joins the original ABS in the basement), and a fridge water line.

The next time he will be here the tile floor and cabinets will be installed. He'll take care of the sink, dishwasher and fridge hookups. All of the shutoffs for the sink, dishwasher and fridge will be under the sink, which is nice (as opposed to in the basement).

Again, next week is electrician and carpenter. I would like to be here for both. I need to move some crap out of the way in the attic area above the kitchen so he can, I guess, tie into the existing roof vent.
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Side note: I could have easily done the plumbing on this job. Even though the sink is moving, it is still within the cabinet so they can stay where they are in the floor.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Day 3:

Two electricians and the carpenter are here. Fair amount of work today. Rough electrical and the door and window removed. Not sure what else yet.

Pictures and video from today.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5lt1BKvFKdqNEcmilmLobrIcsiUA

The two electricians were here for basically an 8 hour shift. The carpenter was maybe 7 hours.

All of the rough electrical is done - a significant amount of work. Three new breakers will go in the panel, and they will be GFCI. The old dishwasher circuit went unused so I could use that for something. Maybe just put an outlet in the basement in that corner.

A lot of the rough framing got done. The door is gone, window rough framed and some plywood to cover the opening for now. He finished opening the right side of the doorway into the kitchen. He'll have to do the other side tomorrow. He put down a lot of plywood on the floor but ran out. He will do the window removal and reframing tomorrow. The windows are probably at least a week or two out (went with Harvey casement/crankout for over sink and double hung for the other one).

That is a nasty drill and bit.
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The party.
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Some notes:
- For boxes that go on the backsplash area, they gave me adjustable boxes. They are adjustable for depth to adapt to any thickness backsplash.
- Keeping the ceiling fan. Ended up with it between the first and second row of recessed lights so the blades interact with the light the least. 6 cans plus one over the sink. Plus the fan. Plus the under cabinet lighting (which is 24V). This will be extremely bright if I want it to be.
- One of the electricians complimented my fan install. That was cool (no he wasn't being sarcastic).
- The main convenience outlets will be on two circuits, and they alternate circuits along the wall which tends to help avoid overloads. Fridge, microwave and dishwasher all get their own circuit.
- I asked if I could remove the old central vacuum wall mount since we don't use it and the drywall guy is going to patch that. However, I underestimated the amount of painting that will be required - mainly due to the dining room wall just outside the kitchen, which was touched. Inside the kitchen will be hardly anything as the wall will either be backsplash, cabinet or window, with a very small amount of painted drywall around and above the windows. And a little bit on the wing walls as you enter the kitchen.
- We looked into the floor situation with the mysterious 4x4 post in the basement. I am still not sure why they did that. There is some springyness on the hardwood floor just before entering the kitchen. The carpenter thinks it is because there is a missing ~foot of underlayment at the end of that run, so the hardwood boards tend to spring board there. It is weird. Hopefully the floor guy can do something with that.
- I think I proved my worth as a supervisor. I was watching the electrician wire up a 3 gang outlet just inside the kitchen on the other side of the dining room chandelier dimmer. Eventually I asked - is that permanent? Because I think this stud has to go. He looks at the carpenter who said "shaun [the lead demo guy] told me the wall was all set - I didn't even measure." So he looks at the plans. Sure enough, yeah, that stud had to come out (wall had to be opened another 1.5" per plans).
- Mostly I don't think I annoyed them as I got along with all of them. There were other calls I had to make like where to put the fan, and some other details that would be a lot of work to redo later.
- Tomorrow I will remind him about opening up the other side and also make a final decision on header height for the entryway into the kitchen. This entryway was cased on both sides and it will just be drywall with the finished product, for a clean look that helps tie the kitchen into the dining room.
- I replaced both hinges on the refrigerator so the doors open and close like new. Ordered a new door bin (one got cracked). And got a 3 pack of water filters - I've never had a fridge with a water dispenser before.
- The finish carpenter is going to have a lot of work to do aside from the cabinets. Well, two in particular: the vent for the microwave and the HVAC ducting under the cabinets. What he said will probably happen is the vent will be ducted to the toe kick and a grate put on it. The return will probably just suck from the cavity under the cabinet through a similar grate on the toe kick. This makes sense to me.
- Other than a table saw outside and the screw gun, the carpenter had all battery power tools. Makita. He had a particularly nice circular saw that took two batteries and was a worm-drive style just like the high end corded saws. He was pretty sure it was more powerful than many corded saws.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Day 4:

Carpenter finished his work. Probably put in 5 hours or so. He finished laying the second layer of plywood on the floor, removed the window, boarded it up and added wrap to both to give us a little weather protection until the windows come in and are installed. He also finished opening the wall. It is pretty wide now which is sweet. We ended up doing 2 2x4s as a header which will give the opening height a few more inches than before.

Also decided to eschew lights on the ceiling fan. I didn't remember if the fan came with the light delete cover but I couldn't find it anyway. So I called some Home Depot/Hampton Bay customer support number and I gave her my UPC number from the unit. They do have one. She took my info and said it will arrive in 5-7 days. I'm like, uh, how much? Free. Sweet! It was an $80 fan that I bought 1-1/2 years ago. So I will need them to wire in a fan speed control switch. I think the lights will hang too low and I also think the light is unneeded.

Pics and video from today:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5lt1BKvFKdqNFOuehIM-R7vhREcg
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Day 5:

No work was done on the kitchen but they made a trash run and picked up some junk that was hanging out (and the door the demo guy wanted).

Day 6:

This is really the first work I am missing. I understand they are doing drywall today. Jamie said there were 4 guys at the house shortly after 7am. They can probably finish in a day unless they have to come back to sand or something tomorrow morning, which is possible. I'll take pics when I get home.

I was told cabinets would be delivered and installed Monday and Tuesday but the floor issue has not been resolved (nor has the floor been tiled) so I can't see how they can start cabinets until that is done. They are moving incredibly quickly.

I can't believe they did all this in one day. They left before 2pm. I actually regret not being here. Not because I needed to play foreman, but because I would have loved to watch how they do this so fast, technique, tools used, etc.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5lt1BKvFKdqNFlLx8jEbEho5NN4Q

I also can't believe they were able to match the ceiling texture but it looks pretty damn good to me and will probably look even better once painted. The darker areas are the new drywall. The whiter areas are the old ceiling, still painted. This would have taken me weeks and it would still be much worse.
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Looks even better after the plaster dried (lighter color). That said I do notice some surface blemishes so maybe in my zeal to proclaim 100% perfection, they will in fact have to follow up with a light skim coat in certain areas. Nothing unreasonable about that. More pics at the above link.
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Here is the new opening dimensions. Nice and big. Looks like 53-1/2" by 86" high.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Looks like it was opened about 16" on one side and 3" on the other. You can look at the floor and see how narrow it was before.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

Tile was delivered, uh, Thursday or Friday. Forgot to post.
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Major kitchen remodel

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14 wrote:Day 4:
Also decided to eschew lights on the ceiling fan. I didn't remember if the fan came with the light delete cover but I couldn't find it anyway. So I called some Home Depot/Hampton Bay customer support number and I gave her my UPC number from the unit. They do have one. She took my info and said it will arrive in 5-7 days. I'm like, uh, how much? Free. Sweet! It was an $80 fan that I bought 1-1/2 years ago. So I will need them to wire in a fan speed control switch. I think the lights will hang too low and I also think the light is unneeded.
Got my light delete cover. Super easy install.
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