Here's where we're starting:

And here's the results of day 1: complete removal of everything, down to the gray berber carpet. We found buyers for the cabinets and appliances, and gave away the carpet on freecycle. We took a sawzall to the backsplash drywall and shifted the sink plumbing. Also screwed the floor squeaks to prep for tile.

We did get a jump start a couple weekends ago, demo-ing the tiny built-in pantry, and adding a cutout to push the fridge back into (the wall backs onto the stairwell, so we'll get a counter-depth fridge without a counter-depth price!)

(Don't let us waste your time...we can wait for replies and maybe daily summaries ;-) ...you can later use this as a journal of the realization of your dream!)

What is the size of your kitchen? Looks similar to mine- mine's 10'4" X 15'4".

I always find it interesting to see how different people work the same space!

How much are you DIY?

So far I'm impressed!

Rae

Day 2 is over, and on the surface it doesn't look a whole lot different.

DH had to move 4 outlets by 6-12 inches each to accommodate the different sink placement and a tambour. Sounds simple, but it took him all morning. He said he'll never hire out as an electrician unless he's paid by the hour. Then he ran some plumbing for our pot filler, moved an HVAC vent out from under our future penninsula and got the floor by the sink buttoned up. In the meantime, I cut up the old countertop and took a load of kitchen detritus that no one on freecycle even wanted to the dump, selected a paint color and painted the edges of the room (I hate cutting in, so am a big advocate of paint first and then attach things to the wall).

I laid out the outlines of the cabinets and we started the radiant floor heat wire (the red lines on the RH side), but had to quit at 5 for an evening obligation. I had hoped to get all the wire laid by the end of today, but thanks to the electrical taking so long we didn't quite make it. Alas, no time for a bath tonight.

Oh, and the cabinets got delivered today. They completely fill up our 10x14 foyer and spill into the adjoining rooms. We've got our work cut out for us!

Answers to some of your questions:
-yes, we have an invite to Thanksgiving, from a kind friend. Unfortunately we couldn't volunteer to bring much of anything because our appliances aren't being delivered until Friday.
-The granite is (hopefully) Terra Brazilas, but one of the 2 slabs we picked out a few weeks ago got reserved by someone else, and they've been trying to get ahold of the person to see if they still want them. Plan B is to see if they can get some additional slabs in, but don't know timing on that.
-We're 98% DIY, as only the counters will be installed by someone else.
-The kitchen is 13'x13', but we're expanding the footprint out another 6' and adding a penninsula (old breakfast nook). We're then going to bump the exterior wall out and put the nook there. Here's a view looking towards the nook/future penninsula:

Laurie

I'm with you....paint NOW! (I also hate cutting in and having to mask!) All we're DIYing is paint and, possibly, backsplash and Org Closests & "desk" in FR...I'm hoping the contractor lets us paint b/f hanging cabinets & putting in base & crown molding...we haven't talked to him about it yet.

Are you DIYing the exterior bump-out as well? I can't imagine you'll be able to do that this week as well??!! I wish DH or I had the skills to DIY like you are!

Good luck tomorrow! (I hope you're getting plenty of sleep tonight!)

We got the tile started, and then they had to leave for an appointment. Here's them, just before they left.

I started laying tile like a fiend, and my DH was the perfect helper, keeping me supplied with thinset, cutting tiles for the edges, running to Lowe's for supplies. We switched thinsets mid-day, and let me tell you, I'll never use anything but Laticrete again. It spreads so much more easily, even the non-modified stuff we were using. Forget that $5 a bag stuff I got at HD, the Laticrete was worth every penny of the $8 it cost, and then some.

My back felt the toll. Here's a shot of me, towards the end of the day, giving my back a rest while we were letting a new batch of thinset breathe.

And here's how far we got by the time my body called it quits.

The paint color is Sherwin Williams something. I don't know off the top of my head, and I'm too tired to crawl back downstairs to look at the paint chip. Tomorrow...

On the bump-out, HEAVENS NO, we're not doing it this week. We originally had a contractor lined up to do the shell, but he disappeared (luckily not with any money), so it wasn't done pre-kitchen remodel like we had planned. We'll get there.

The whole thing is costing around $30K.

My back hurts, my knees are sore, and my pinkies are tingly (?!?!?!) So right now, I'm taking your advice and heading for a long soak in this:

Talk to you tomorrow.

Thanks so much for everyone's support...it really helps at the end of the day to see people cheering us on.

The paint is Sherwin Williams "Nomadic Desert."

And now back to the tiling.....Think of us when you're getting your tryptophan comas. :-)

Laurie

Here's the view back from the dining room, where you can see what a difference grout makes.

A question: what is the paint, if you can remember, in the room through the door in the back of the kitchen? I know you're busy and bushed, but if by any chance you can think of it, I'd be so very much obliged...thanks.

Susan

This is like our own private DIY network kitchen remodel (minus the commercials and annoying hosts)

i am thoroughly enjoying watching your progress. thanks for sharing with us.

buffetgirl: "This is like our own private DIY network kitchen remodel (minus the commercials and annoying hosts)" LOL! I had the exact same thought! :)

Meanwhile DH did his final round of drywall sanding and mudding. He's a perfectionist, and determined to make every wall perfectly straight. :-p Then he went down in the crawl space and ran the electrical to hook up the wall oven.

Then we FINALLY started on the cabinets. This is where it gets fun, perhaps mostly because it's done standing up. :-) We started on the "pantry wall" which has all the full- height cupboards, hoping to knock down some of the space hogs in our foyer. We sorted out the 4 cabinets we needed from among the 87 boxes there, and maneuvered them in.

While cabinet hanging isn't rocket science, we're not exactly pros. That leads to exchanges like this:
DH (opening and closing the pantry door): This door drags on the ground.
Me: Yeah, that's not very good design. I guess we'll just have to shim it a little so it's off the ground.
DH: If I designed this, I'd put a couple inches at the bottom so it was off the ground further.
Me (suddenly connecting the dots): Oh, that must be what this is for (pulling the contraption pictured below out of the cabinet).

We proceed to heave the pantries and oven cabinet up onto their bases, and screw them in. Then we've got an over-fridge cabinet to suspend between two pantry cabinets. We debate how best to position it up on the wall. We can't nail a 2x4 like you normally do for base cabinets, because there's a hole in the wall that we're recessing the fridge into. Our final solution: I put a stepstool where the fridge goes, climb on the first step, bend over slightly, and DH lifts up the cabinet and sets it on my shoulders/back. He then directs me "higher" or "lower" and I bend/unbend my knees accordingly. He adjusts the tilt so that it's level, puts the screws in, and I'm done. Well, not quite. We had some shimming to do on the backs of the cabinets to make the faces flush. But you get the idea.

DH then went to work on the oven cabinet, breaking open the oven box to get dimensions and instructions. Here's a shot of my good-looking better half.

While he carefully marked the needed opening size and meticulously cut the hole larger, I went to work on the roll-out trays in the pantries. I sat down on the floor, laid all the parts out, read the directions and step by step got the first tray installed in about 20 minutes. Once I knew the routine, and that half the plastic parts and screws weren't used in our configuration, the next 3 went a lot faster. And I whipped out the entire 2nd pantry's trays in 20 minutes total. Yeah, I could do this for a living. NOT!

So here's wall #1, our "pantry wall." Oven needs to be inserted, and final wall cabinet (for the microwave) added to the end.

It's finally starting to feel like a real kitchen!

laurie

Happy Thanksgiving from Canada!Keep up the good work.
It looks beautiful.

Anyhow, we did finish our insulation step yesterday so hope to enjoy the rest of the weekend luxuriating that we're done until the painting stage.

Meanwhile good luck with your project. Like plenty others, we'll be watching and cheering you on.

Paint color in dining room: If you're talking about that greenish color, it came with the house, so I don't know what it is. We're going to repaint it another shade of green when we get to it, and add hardwood floors.

Sound track: It definitely makes the work less laborious. We've run the gamut: a CD changer full of Green Day, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Avril Lavigne, and Love & Rockets (my collection); a country station on the radio (DH's choice); classical music that was on after NPR's Morning Edition that we were listening to; Christmas tunes on some random station, until I heard 3 versions of "White Christmas" in 4 hours and decided that was enough.

Cabinets & Counters: Cabinets are Kraftmaid maple with Vanilla Bean Glaze (actually a cream color). The counters will hopefully be Terra Brazilas granite. The photo below shows 3 samples: TB from a slab that's too gray; TB from a slab with more golden brown in it, which we like; and I forget the name of the 3rd, but it's our plan B if we can't get the slabs of TB we want (someone else has one of them reserved and they haven't been able to find out if they're really taking it or not).

And now a question of advice for all of you: This door goes from the kitchen into a garage entry/mud room, with a laundry room (going to make it into a walk-in pantry) and powder room beyond. We're going to continue the tiling, but haven't decided whether to just continue the kitchen pattern or put a little border on the doorway threshold and do a different (probably plainer) pattern on the other side. Opinions?

All the very best,

Keep it up--you guys are amazing!

I think I would keep the tile pattern the same.

Laurie

Laurie

I'm just amazed how quickly you're coming along. Looking forward to seeing the next pics.

I don't think you can go wrong with the tile either way. It's beautiful.

Congratulations on a GREAT job, and what looks like it will be a beautiful kitchen. Like so many others, I love following your progress and it's been the first thread I look for when I check into the forum this week!

Re the tiling, if you're trying to make the kitchen very separate from what's beyond the threshold, go for the transition (you can buy door jam tiles, btw). That gives you an "ah" moment when you transition from the lesser areas into the kitchen proper. On the other hand, continuing your kitchen tile into the mudroom and beyond will tie the spaces together and elevate the mudroom and pantry to being part of the kitchen space.

We installed the wall oven, and DH found out he had strung the wrong wire (10/2 instead of 10/3), which bummed him out. We put the fridge into the pantry wall, sunk back under the stairs, and I absolutely LOVE how it looks (counter depth look without the counter depth price or loss of cubic footage).

So here (drumroll, please) are the photos:

Our punchlist:
Counters (measuring Monday)
Backsplash
Install dishwasher (have to wait until sink & disposal are hooked up, and the faucet, which we bought online last week, hasn't arrived yet)
Install potfiller (again, waiting for its arrival)
Put panels around island (using doors like you see on the wall and base cabinets around the end)
Install penninsula cabinets (they go where we just grouted today, so need to wait until the grout is cured)
Install the 3 doors that were missing from the cabinets when delivered (with nice polite note saying they'd be shipped separately)
Crown molding
Light rail

We could have continued on for a few more hours and done the crown and light rail, but we contemplated for about 5 seconds and decided at 5:30 that we deserved a relaxing evening out. So we're headed out for a steak dinner. And, of course, a stop by HD to pick up some supplies.

BTW - is that the new GE Profile double oven range with the small oven on top? It looks like it might be but I can't see for sure.

Wishing you a day w/no problems....smooth sailing!

Leasa

PS If you don't have anything to do over Christmas vacation.....just kidding! Our kitchen will have to wait until next summer....

Thanks, you guys are awesome and your new kitchen is beautiful!

Congratulations to you - it's BEAUTIFUL!

Thank for sharing your project with us...keep the pics coming!!!!

We're both going back to work tomorrow, so we'll be back to our normal routine of DH, who works afternoon shift, doing house stuff in the morning, and me doing house stuff in the evening. We'll keep you updated, but our progress won't be quite as fast since we can't work 12 hour days (alas). And hopefully the faucets will be here soon. I miss my sink!

In the meantime, I've got some catch-up to do on your notes above.
Here's a better shot of our range. Yes, it's the GE Profile double oven. I had wanted a cooktop, but my DH fell in love with this range (thinking of all the chocolate chip cookies he could efficiently bake in the smaller top oven), and since he rarely has strong opinions about things like this, I try to accommodate him on the rare occasions that he does have them.

Here's the fridge from the front, straight on...

and from the stairwell, looking up at the RH corner of the fridge.

We built the "hole" about 12" deep (we framed and drywalled back 12" from the front of the wall), and the fridge fills about 6 inches of it, plus a little for the tubing stuff. If you scroll up to some of the earlier photos on this thread, you can get an idea of how we did the hole.

We're using birdcage pulls, like this:

I'll spray paint them bronze, because I got them free with my cabinets, and they only came in one color. Because we've got tons of drawers, some of them quite large, I'm toying with the idea of using handles on them instead, something like this:

Advice/opinions welcome on this one.

How do you become a DIY-er? Well, my DH grew up working on stuff with his dad, he worked for a short time after HS wiring houses with a guy, and is by trade a mechanic, so he's done that kind of stuff for ages. I'm more of the "self-taught" variety. I think it starts out by not being afraid to take on this kind of stuff, as basic as assembling a piece of furniture or a toy for your kid. You just read the directions and dive in. When you want to do a project, there's a wealth of info out there to teach you how. I've bought books (Black & Decker has some really good ones), and that's how I learned to do things like tile and build a deck for our whirlpool tub. The people at the big box stores are great too: many are former installers of some kind and are happy to tell you how-to. So don't be afraid to ask them all your stupid questions. The Saturday classes aren't very helpful; they're more like general overviews. A few years ago I took a continuing ed class on basic wiring, and then switched a few light fixtures and rewired a lamp.

And of course there's the internet. Gardenweb, which I only discovered a month ago, is great, and I've posted a couple "how do I fix this weird problem" questions in various forums and gotten great help. Or google what you want. We've got stomp ceilings and need to do some repair where we took down a wall, so I googled "stomp ceilings" and found a couple links that explained how it was done, then went to Lowe's and asked a clerk for the tool (I could also have asked him how it's done and he likely would have given me a brief tutorial).

I'm also an HGTV addict, and while the shows can sometimes focus more on the drama than the how-to, I've learned a lot and gotten some great ideas from them.

Final advice is invest in tools. You don't have to buy the most expensive ones (my mitre saw and table saw were $100 each and they're great workhorses), but there are tools that make just about anything way easier, invented by the pros who do this stuff all the time. Even things like a plastic template to use to get all your drawer and door pulls in the same place to a little rubber spatula thing that's great for making caulk smooth in the joints.

On the subject of tools, my favorite tool of all, has to be this:

With our tools, we found buying the mid-level tools for most things is worth it - the cheap ones break/die - and you can find good deals. I found a great deal at the Sears Outlet/repair center on our band saw (my husband needed it to match the miter saw and table saw).

How is that Paslode? We need a framing gun as we only have brad guns for our air compressor and were debating something like that vs. one that goes with the air compressor. My husband wanted something that can handle stronger nails but those were $$$ in less you can find a deal.

We got rid of HGTV and cable - too many bright ideas... put that money into tools .

Your kitchen is lovely!!!!!!!!!!

Here's our final shot of cabinets: our penninsula at the end of the room that will have a counter extending 10" beyond, for bar seating. This kitchen is feeling HUGE...can't wait to throw a big party.

Thanks
claire

BTW...the missionaries who helped tile the floor...where are they from? We had a "Missions Sunday" today to talk about our church's missions in Honduras, India, South Africa, and here in Maryland...it got me thinking about your helpers!

Will going back to your other jobs :-) seem like a rest after this past week? Good luck w/the measure tomorrow (Monday). We all can't wait to see the next installment...it's better than Kitchen Renovations on the DIY network!

The tile is and Italian porcelain (impressed yet?)....sold at Lowe's as "Rialto Beige" for $2.25/sq ft. :-)

The backsplash is undecided, other than tile of some kind. If we get the Terra Brazilas granite, we'll let it be the focal point and do a simple backsplash. If we get the other, we may kick it up a notch. I like smooth surfaces, so we won't do tumbled marble or slate. Probably a solid color of subway or 6x6 tile, with a decorative strip through it and something a little more interesting over the sink and range.

One of the missionaries is from California and the other is from Idaho. I bet they never thought they'd be tiling a kitchen as part of their service!

Thanks again for all your ongoing support and comments. It helps keep us going.

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain how you got yourself educated in this DIY thing - much appreciated! I'm not sure I'll ever reach your lofty heights of amazingness (I am SO impressed!) but this journey into remodeling has really taken the mystery out of it for this previously-only-rented-and-never-done-this-before gal, and I'm really interested in doing more for myself. Some of it is just so obviously common sense once you've seen it done, and I feel like kind of a dufus for not having done it before!

Again, congrats on a great job - seems like you accomplished pretty much what you had hoped in the time allowed, so I hope you're pleased too! Can't wait to see the completely finished kitchen :)

Can you tell us more about your radiant heat system? What is the manufacturer? Did you buy it on-line? Any other info you can provide would be great. We are looking into putting radiant heat in our bathroom.

Thanks so much for posting your progress with pictures. It is much appreciated.

We are DIYers, too. Love those power tools. Right now I am using an electric staple gun to upholster a chair. Really saves the wrist, especially my AGING wrist. lol!

You're going to have a beautiful kitchen! Keep sharing those pics!

Diana

angelcub: I'm 42 and DH is 49 (I always say "a young 49"). Old enough to get a stiff back, that's for sure.

bbtrix: the kitchen is now about 13x19 to the end of the counter that will go on the penninsula. It was about 6 feet shorter. Though even before we put in the penninsula it felt like it had about twice the space of the old kitchen.

And now for today's installment. As I warned, we both had to go back to work today, but DH got the wall oven rewired with the right stuff, and reported that he successfully cooked a pizza in it. (Yeah, we're gourmet). It's a convection oven, as are both units in the range. He also attached two of the missing doors that have arrived late via UPS. One is 1.5" too small. :-(

My job this week is all the trim. I started with the toe kicks, and knocked those out pretty fast. We're waiting to finalize the island location and trim it out until we live with it for a couple weeks and make sure that the spacing we've set it up at is ok.

Then I decided to take on the crown molding. Problem #1 surfaced: Out of the 8 lengths we got, only 4 of them have the proper glaze, so we're going to have to return them. The others look like they missed the step. Here's the contrast:

Anyway, I went ahead and put up a straight portion and a corner portion, then got stuck on the part over the sink. It's only 6" from the ceiling, and my handy Paslode nail gun won't fit into that small of a space. I'll have to consult DH in the morning about how to tackle that one. So here's all I've got.

The granite people are hopefully coming tomorrow to measure. Still unsure whether we can get the slabs we want. In the meantime, we'll keep plugging along.

Keep up the great work and we're all waiting to hear more as you have the time and energy!

Today my DH outran me: he taught himself how to stomp ceilings and repaired the part where the built-in pantry was, and was having so much fun he went and fixed a section in our master bath and closet too. He worked on some cabinet aligning and figured out how to attach the crown molding holders to the tight-reach cabinets (with screws), but I had cut the pieces a tad too short, so he didn't actually do it.

When I got home, I attached the valance over the sink, did the section of crown molding over the stove, and was ready to put in the pantry wall portion, but ran out of nails. I couldn't find the box of them upstairs in our "workshop" (this is typical: I organize everything, and DH uses it and puts it somewhere else). I tried to reach him at work, but his cell wasn't working, so I had to humor myself with cutting some pieces of light rail that I'll have to install when he tells me where he put the nails. So no photos tonight. :-( This was so much more productive when we were working 12 hour days together!

The granite people stood us up...don't know what's going on. Tomorrow I need to make a run to HD to do some exchanges: a door that has an unmatching matte finish, a replacement door that's too narrow, 4 pieces of crown and 2 of light rail that aren't glazed. Sigh... We didn't have any problems with our bathroom cabinets; I don't know if this is typical with a large kitchen. Our potfiller arrived, but sink faucet is still AWOL.

I think you did great if those were your only problems. Oh, for our main order we also got a particle board for one that was supposed to be plywood. But, Kraftmaid replaced it. If you read on here others have had horrible problems.

My DH got the potfiller installed today, but really all you can see is a hole in the wall, because he's doing his famous 10-step drywall finishing. I had to work late and then had an evening commitment so I accomplished zilch, other than phone calls to HD and the granite place, and neither issue is resolved yet. Sigh...

BUT, on the positive side, we've come up with a collaborative solution to getting the crown molding and light rail attached that should minimize the corner gaps. I'm going to try it tomorrow, and then, I promise, I'll take photos and reveal our secret (if it works). In the meantime, I need advice on a few things. I'll post in a separate thread.

The granite place confirmed that someone else is taking the slabs we want. Now waiting for them to tell us how long it would take to get new stuff in, and we'll decide whether to go wait or get the 2nd choice stuff (it's called Desert Brown).

Tonight could be called "fun with crown molding." Since there are a few DIY-ers lurking, I'll toss in all the gory details for your reading pleasure (or pain).

Crown molding is very simple in concept, but (so far, IME) difficult to execute. The simplicity: cut 45 degree angles in the stuff (upside down on the mitre saw), and nail it to the cabinets. But when you're nailing it together, albeit with a fabulous Paslode finish nailer, if the piece you're holding shifts ever-so-slightly, the gap at the corner is magnified and, with all the dimension to it, looks bad. On the first couple corners I did this week, DH took some heavy duty construction adhesive to the gap, smashed it together, and taped it until it dried.

What a pain. So, after bouncing ideas of each other and developing another way, we decided to glue the stuff together at the corners BEFORE attaching it to the cabinets, then attach it as one piece.

Here's my first trial, with some light rail. When it dries, I'll just hold the whole thing under the cabinet, align it like I want, and nail it in.

With the basic concept proven, I moved back to the crown, which is a little trickier, because it has 2 parts, which theoretically makes it simpler to do. Piece 1 is a flat thing that you nail to the top of the cabinets. It has a notch in it that matches an indentation in the crown, so you just nest the crown in it and it goes in straight. The piece on the right shows the flat strip nested into the crown, as it would look gazing upward at it from below.

So I precut the 6 pieces needed for the 54" of cabinet over the sink and the side strips.

Then I nailed the crown to the flat strips in each (way easier to do it on a countertop than balancing on a ladder, holding a nail gun at eye level and trying to keep everything lined up). Finally, I propped it up and glued the corners of the crown together with the construction adhesive. There's a lot of precision involved to get it all aligned (note the 2x4, the shim, and the tape), but it wasn't too hard.

The final step on the tallest cabinets will be to GLUE the whole contraption to the tops of the cabinets. This stuff is seriously as strong as nails, and it's not like people are going to be beating on it or anything. That gluing was DH's idea, and spurred mine about assembling the whole thing before attaching it.

I did the final bit: a corner cabinet, and just as I was gathering up the 6 pieces to bring them down and assemble them, I had a DOH! moment, when I realized I had cut everything on 45 degree angles and the corner cabinet has 135 degree angles on it. ARGHHH!! I had to recut everything. (That's for those of you that think we make it look easy. As DH says, "the way you learn to DIY is to make mistakes and learn from them.")

Anyway, I did finally get everything cut right, and glued together, so here are the two assemblages, awaiting DH's gluing to the cabinets tomorrow.

Speaking of mistakes, DH (who didn't make any progress on his list due to a couple meetings and having to go in early to work) realized he put the flange for the potfiller behind the drywall when it needs to be in front of it (you can see it back on the stove wall in the above photo). So he's going to have to cut a hole and move it out.

My husband did the same undertile warming system as you did. He laid it himself over a thin layer of cork since we are on a slab. He tested it and it worked. The tile layers laid the tile over it. This was in June.

A month ago we tried to turn it on. It didn't work! He called the company and they sent out a system that could detect where the problem was. Then he had to remove a tile and sure enough, the wire under it was messed up. We think the tilers did it and just covered it up. Anyway, he was able to fix it and all is well now.

The floor is wonderful and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Thanks so much for your thread. We are also DIYers, only we are doing about roughly 80% DIY for a whole house......and working. Your post came at a good time for me because last night we were outside with a spotlight in 30 degree weather putting up cedar siding, and I'm thinking what the heck are we doing?? Then today I saw your post and it gave me encouragement to know others DIY too. We are going at a much slower pace than you are. We have a few more years on you guys, 49 & 56. I must say the satisfaction at the end of each phase is fabulous. I know you will be rewarded with that in the end.

We installed our cabinets, appliances and wood flooring. I'm not good at cutting. I leave that to DH. I do some of the drywall taping. Some of that we do contract out because it takes me so long. I do all the painting/staining and hope to master doing trim work.
We don't have our granite yet either. There was a bit of a "Mars vs Venus" thing going on with that so we are at a standstill. I'm in love with Crema Bordeaux. We have a sample and I catch myself fondling it often.
I love the way you staggered the height of your cabs. I wanted to do that but the man from Mars wanted it all the same height....HE won on that one.

GOOD LUCK!!! We are cheering for you.

Keep the pics and the tips coming!

This IS definitely better than TOH or anything on HGTV...LOL

Today we finally had a full day to work again. The faucet arrived Thursday, so DH hit the plumbing like a fiend, and when the dust settled, and after two more trips to the hardware store, we now have a working sink, disposal (with air switch) and dishwasher. Yay, we can actually do more than cook microwave food in our kitchen now! He got the hood in and wired up as well.

I set out to work on the desk area. I ripped out--I mean gently removed--the wall cabinet and the desk area, and all the jury-rigging attached. That left some wall damage behind, so I did the first round of drywall patching, but DH will add his finesse to finish it up. I painted what I could, and we'll install the cabinets later. Here's where that stands.

We attached our pre-fabbed crown molding and light rail too (easy as glue). And I spray-painted a bunch of the knobs bronze. This is how they started out looking. The egg-carton painting trick I picked up on HGTV.

So here's one wall, complete with crown molding, light rail, and knobs. We need to add light rail to the cabinet on the right, but we're going to put a tambour in there, and can't do that until the counters are installed, and then can cut the light rail precisely. And we're still waiting for a couple replacement doors. Other than that, this whole side of the kitchen is done!

So now we are quite literally finished until the replacement cabinet pieces come and the granite gets installed. I won't bore you with the saga of where that all stands, but I'm rather frustrated with it all. The important thing is that we can use it now. Oh, and I still have to decide on and order the drawer pulls.

Dumb question- how are you hooking up your sink without the granite in? We are on month 7 without a kitchen cuz we're waiting for the granite to be installed before we put in the sink and thus attach the DW.

raehelen: we put a piece of plywood over our sink base, cut a hole for the sink, and dropped it in. It's an undermount sink, but for now we set it up like a drop-in. Then we attached the faucet like normal, as well as the disposal and dishwasher. We'll have to disconnect everything and reinstall it when the granite arrives, but in the meantime it's functional.

I think your kitchen is a perfect example of an okay before kitchen and a fabulous after kitchen. I have seen some pretty awful before kitchens but yours wasn't awful. But you had the vision to see how much better it could be.

Had not decided about hanging cabinets.

You have obvioulsy put a tremendous amount of thought into your design.Do you have a layout with measurements? How much room do you have around your island? (Your layout looks to be quite similar to one that we are working on, though we have a bit more width but not as much length.)

Hopefully our granite is coming Tuesday, so I won't bother asking hubby to connect sink now- and I think I don't even want to contemplate why we didn't connect it a couple of months ago (but probably cuz we THOUGHT granite was coming any day...SIGH!)

I have one more question- where did you find ORB spray paint? I've looked everywhere- and I'm going to kick myself if it's available at Lowe's- cuz was just there last week, after enduring an hour wait at the border- but didn't think to look.

happyladi: No, our kitchen wasn't horrible (except for the carpet and the sink), but it was ugly and didn't have enough storage space. I don't know when the granite is coming; we've been going back and forth with the granite place for 3 weeks on what granite is even available. They're 2 hours away, and the original guy we were working with left mid-stream, so we've had to do a lot of starting over and redundant communicating.

dcwesley: The cabinets really aren't hard at all to put in. If you can do basic carpentry and understand how to screw, align, and shim, you can do it. I thought we had put a lot of thought into the design, until I discovered GW and encountered people who planned it for a couple years. Our process started in late August, when we were in HD and the KD, who had helped us with our master bath vanities said, "Wanna buy a kitchen? They're 10% off if you order by Oct 15th." 6 weeks later we were done. I have a design with measurements, but I don't have a scanner to post it. It's 13' wide, though, our island is 24" wide, and right now we have it centered between the walls, with 41" walk space on either side. We're testing that spacing out right now, and will decide whether or not to adjust it before the granite comes.

raehelen: The spray paint is bronze, not ORB, so the sheen is slightly different, but unless you take a knob and put it right next to the faucet, you don't really notice it.

help......

So we'll probably be kind-of quiet on this thread for a couple weeks, but will resurrect it again when we get our counters.

Yippee!!

Congrat's on the granite - I'm impressed on how fast you all are pulling this together.

I have a question about the light rail--are there pieces behind the visible rail or are they attached directly to the bottom of the cabinets?

Our remodel won't be as incredible as yours (nor as fast) but DH is getting out all his hidden electrical and plumbing desires. It's fun to see what you have tackled so successfully.

Keep us posted on the granite.

Cheers!

In the meantime, jesemy, here's a photo of a cross section of the light rail, showing how it gets nailed into the cabinet frame above.

We have determined, after living in our kitchen for a couple weeks, that the island and penninsula placement are ok, so this coming week we'll screw them together and add the trim. That'll be worth some photos. And it should be just in time for the granite....

First, we put in the desk area stuff. We took your earlier advice and pulled the upper cabinet away from the back wall by 6", but that added a lot of complexity in fastening it, as it had to be screwed to the side walls. We had to build up about 1.5" on either side, so we did it with plywood and some shaved-down pieces of a pallet. It looked like this:

We got the wall cabinet screwed in, and the desk placed (at counter height), but not fastened yet, because I can't remember how far from the back wall I told the granite guy to go with the counter. So we'll wait to do the final front-to-back positioning until he brings the slabs back.

I still need to add the fillers and the crown to the wall cabinet, but I'm using the filler around the tambour, and need to use it there first, and use the remnants on the desk.

DH worked for 4 hours on the island electrical. We mused, discussed, and brainstormed to figure out what to do on this. We've got decorative panels everywhere, so an outlet in the middle would detract from that. Plug mold (our original idea) would have required one side of the island counter to be a couple inches more overhand, plus it would cover up the top of the decorative doors. So our KD (thanks, Dan!) had this idea:

It's unobtrusive and simple in concept, but to execute my DH not only had to drill the holes in the precise place in the 3/8" plywood skin, but then chisel out a rectangular area behind it, so the outlet could be flush with the outside of the plywood. Whew! We've got one on either side of the center panel, and the entire island is shown here in the finished shot.

I also did the penninsula trim: more plywood, decorative door panels, and corner bead.

We're waiting by the phone with bated breath for our granite guy to call saying they're ready to bring it. They did send us photos of the template, so we know they've got our slabs. Here's one (sorry, don't know how to make it bigger).

And our backordered drawer handles should finally be here on Monday.

Could I vote for opening a second thread?