Kitchen Progress in the Last Week

Surprise! There was good progress in the kitchen this week! The hood's installed, and we have shelves in five cabinets.

Hood

Another view of the hood.

Shelves on far side of kitchen.

Close up of shelf (yay a place for cookbooks).

Center section of cabinets on far side.

Right side of cabinets on far side.

Cabinet to the left of the wine and beer fridge in the baking area also has a shelf.

 Stay tuned, we're hoping for more progress soon!

Kitchen Frustration

The problem is the range hood. The hood itself is fine and works great, but the chimney, that is, the pipe that goes from the hood to the ceiling, appears to be way too long with little or no hope of changing it. We can lower the hood... which would be kind of ludicrous... but we (meaning a team of electricians and a team of hvac guys) cannot raise it higher. The electricians advice was to call the hvac guys... the hvac guys say call an appliance specialist, like Sears or Clark's.

So for now, this is how the hood looks. Not so pretty...

That's the bracket that's anchored to the truss in the ceiling. We figured there was no sense in re-installing the hood. This way the next person to potentially help solve the problem will be able to analyze the situation without doing a lot of fussing first.

The problem may be that we purchased the wrong hood (or, more likely, the hood with too long a chimney, but the instructions say it should work in rooms with ceilings as low as 7'8". Ours are 8'.)

Kitchen Progress July 2010 Part 2

Oh, excitement today in the kitchen! We had a nice visit from our friends, the electricians, and here are the great projects they completed:

The hood is installed!

I was in such a hurry to take the first picture, I didn't clean up first. Here's a nice shiny picture:

Much less visible, but still important, we have an outlet inside the island - which will make using the cooktop that much easier. No more extension cord for us! (We only needed it when turning the stove on, to make the spark to ignite the gas, so it wasn't in the way all the time.)

And we have a new "charging station" (aka outlet) inside on the back door, on the top shelf of the pantry. I'm already using it to charge my phone!

Not everything went smoothly, though. We discovered the fan casing inside the microwave is cracked, so we need to get a new one. Not a new microwave, just the part. See what I mean? 

It's inside a panel - so we never would have known! Though the electrician said it would rattle. He took it apart to switch the fan around so it would exhaust from the front, since we're mounting it up under the cabinet. 

Kitchen Project Underway - June 15th

More cabinets in the kitchen today!

As you see, there will be a drawer below the double oven. There will also be cabinets above, and panels on the right and left sides of the cabinets.

Kitchen Progress...

This week's progress so far. We'll have more to share this evening (or at least that's the plan!).

Sunday, we installed our new disposal and hooked up all the pipes under the sink. Monday the beverage fridge arrived! Here it is just out of the box:

Also on Monday, Dylan installed the new faucet:

Wow it's nice having running water in the kitchen. Read more about the faucet in this previous post. I have to share that it is awesome and totally works as advertised. It's like magic to just touch the faucet and have the water come on!

Wednesday the electricians came and hooked up the double oven:

Right now the oven is sitting on a temporary box while we decide if it's at the right height. And right now it's perfect for me - the display panel is right at my eye level - but we think it'll look nicer (and still be easy to work / not up too high) if we raise it up 3-4 inches. That'll also put it more in line with the top of the fridge. This whole section will have cabinetry built around it. That's the last part that'll be built.

So far I'm really pleased with the oven, and Thomas loves it. As it preheats it shows the temperature inside the oven on the display... he loves to watch the numbers go up. Even the inside is pretty:

Crazy that it's blue, huh? Little things make me happy. :)

While the electricians were here they also hooked up the outlet for the beverage fridge:

And now it lights up all pretty inside. And chills the beer and wine. It's a victory!

Also on Wednesday afternoon the guys from the city came by and marked up the yard for our gas line.

Soon we'll be cooking with gas!

Today (Friday) we'll get the last of the cabinets... next week doors and drawers... stay tuned!

Wine & Beer Fridge

The quest to get a twin for our wine fridge came to an end this morning when I learned (after much googling and a few phone calls) that the model we have was discontinued last year. On to plan B... and really, I should know by now that the more expensive plan is always the better plan. LOL.

Here's plan B:

It's one integrated unit with two cooling zones - one side for beer and beverages, the other for wine. Looks pretty nice under that counter, too, huh? :)

I ordered it this afternoon... hope to see it by the end of next week. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Specs on fridge here.

Fun fact: The company that makes it is based in Findlay, Ohio.
To see where this will live in the kitchen see this post.

Kitchen Project Underway - Cabinets Day 1

Much excitement today at our house as the first of the cabinets were delivered and installed!

(Here's the island. The sides and back are not finished - they'll have door panels covering them and there will be baseboard all around the bottom (including under the "kick" there in the front. This isn't anchored to the floor yet. We're still deciding exactly where it should sit permanently.)

(The section with the sink. Notice I got all the wallpaper taken down! I still need to prime and paint the wall... The space on the left will house the dishwasher.)

(This is the start of the baking center. The rolling area will extend out perpendicularly from the panel on the top left. The space on the right will be home to the wine fridge and a new beer fridge under the counter.)

(The island with a temporary top so we can a. figure out more easily where we want the whole thing to be installed and b. have some work space... which is divine after having almost none for so long!)

(The sink section with the new dishwasher installed and the old counter top and sink set up for temporary use.)

(Close up of the new dishwasher. It still has the protective plastic on the stainless steel but is otherwise hooked up and ready to go.)

Tomorrow we attach the island to the floor, unpack the double oven and see how it looks in the space we have for it, and maybe see some more cabinets. Also, the countertop guy is coming to take the measurements and make templates to cut out the counters. Very exciting. Stay tuned, hope to have more pictures soon!

Kitchen Project Underway - Appliances Arrive

It's been a back and forth with the appliance delivery. The online tracking said they would arrive on Wednesday, March 17th but when we called, they said that was the day they'd get to the warehouse in Atlanta and that they'd be delivered Thursday, March 25th. Tuesday, March 23rd the delivery company called to say they were coming Tuesday, March 30th. Today at 5:30 we got a call saying the truck was on its way. In the middle of a rainstorm. Oh well, we weren't complaining! It was great to get them finally.

(here's the space we cleared to put the boxes:)

(here's the truck that brought the boxes:)

(and here they all are in the kitchen:)

Going around clockwise, in the front left is the double oven, above that the range hood, way in the back the microwave, then the dishwasher and in front on right the gas cooktop. I put the green painting drop cloth down to keep the water off the floor. some of the boxes were pretty wet!

To see what they'll look like out of the boxes, check out this post from Jan 31st.

Coming next - hoping to have some cabinet installation on Monday and Tuesday. Cross your fingers!

Kitchen Project Underway - Day 28

(FYI I skipped day 27 - still have to take photos of the rest of the baseboards and shoe molding that is now pretty much all installed... coming soon)

Today our new fridge arrived! Here's the truck:

Here's the fridge in the house (still in the box):

Out of the box it looks good:

but oh, no there's a surprise...

The top is dented! (Those little white spots are styrofoam from the packing.) We talked to the vendor about whether we should return it, and finally decided to keep it... after getting a 20% refund and a promise: "we are guaranteeing that the unit you received will work in perfect condition." 


The top and sides will be completely enclosed by cabinets so the damage won't be visible.

Here's how it looks from the front, after all the wrappings are off and the stainless steel is shined up:

So a little bit of a stressful day, but alls well that ends well, right?

Kitchen Project Underway - Day 25

Good day of spackling, sanding and painting in the entryway, and we have our appliance order ready to go for tomorrow! Everything is set as described here except we moved to a different hood:

KitchenAid KICU465SSS

and added a microwave:

GE Profile PEB2060SMSS (except it will be in the upper cabinet, not the lower)

We're hoping the refrigerator will be here middle of next week so it can be up and running when Mom arrives for her visit on Thursday!

Appliances...

Refrigerator: current pick GE Profile GSCS3KGYSS (this is essentially the same fridge we have now (it's 12 years old) in stainless instead of white)

Dishwasher: current pick Whirlpool 24" GU2275XTVY

Double oven: current pick KitchenAid Architect Series II KEBS208SSS

Gas Cooktop: current pick Electrolux EW36GC55GS

Hood: current pick Broan Elite Series E549OSS 36" Chimney Hood

Still looking for a built-in microwave and an under counter beer fridge... both should be fairly easy!