e stove... gone. The oven... gone. It is going to be messy for a few weeks, but at the end of the project we will have the kitchen we have always wanted. Last week, I ordered the appliances from the GE Employee Store. As we empty a cabinet, we mark the door to the aoforementioned cabinet with a red X. This lets us know that we have cleared everything out of the cabinet. I am starting to think about our "Last Supper" in the old kitchen. Most likely, it will be on Saturday night as we need to have the kitchen ready for demolition Monday morning. Updated and photos to follow as conditions warrant.
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
X marks the spot
We have begun removing items from our kitchen in preparation for next week's demolition. Yes, that is the word used by our friends at HWC: demolition. All of the cabinets will go. Th
e stove... gone. The oven... gone. It is going to be messy for a few weeks, but at the end of the project we will have the kitchen we have always wanted. Last week, I ordered the appliances from the GE Employee Store. As we empty a cabinet, we mark the door to the aoforementioned cabinet with a red X. This lets us know that we have cleared everything out of the cabinet. I am starting to think about our "Last Supper" in the old kitchen. Most likely, it will be on Saturday night as we need to have the kitchen ready for demolition Monday morning. Updated and photos to follow as conditions warrant.
e stove... gone. The oven... gone. It is going to be messy for a few weeks, but at the end of the project we will have the kitchen we have always wanted. Last week, I ordered the appliances from the GE Employee Store. As we empty a cabinet, we mark the door to the aoforementioned cabinet with a red X. This lets us know that we have cleared everything out of the cabinet. I am starting to think about our "Last Supper" in the old kitchen. Most likely, it will be on Saturday night as we need to have the kitchen ready for demolition Monday morning. Updated and photos to follow as conditions warrant.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
On deck: The Kitchen
In January 2001, we purchased our home in EGR. It was the first "used" home Deirdre and I had ever purchased. Both of our previous homes were new construction and we were the original occupants. This home had great potential as well as an amazing back yard, and little by little, Deirdre and I put our own touches on the home. Now that we have decided to make this place our death house, we have started to truly customize the house. In the course of the past few months, we have had both of our bathrooms remodeled, 
replaced every window (save the one one in the kitchen), installed a new front door, and completely rebuilt and replaced the sliding glass doors in our back room. Our next assignment: The Kitchen. The extant kitchen serves its intended purpose, but it is tired and needs to be replaced. It was apparent when we bought the house that the previous owners began a remodeling project on the kitchen, but when they decided to sell the house, the project sort of stopped. The strange thing is that they installed GE Profile appliances, which do not come cheap, but they skimped on the lighting and the cabinets. The current kitchen is shaped like the letter L, and it is a typical design from the 1950s, when this home was built. The kitchen is long and narrow, and it also suffers from a near fatal design flaw: the clearance between the counter tops and the cabinet above is a mere 14 inches. This does not allow for much of anything to fit in the counter top, so the work space is quite cluttered.
Now that the window and front door project is complete, we are in the final staged of
working out the details of the plan to remodel our kitchen. Once again, the professionals from HWC Homeworks have stepped up and created a great plan to better use the existing space. The plan is represented in the images in this posting, but we still need to make some critical decisions about the size and type of appliances we will purchase for the kitchen, as the appliances will drive the overall design. We know that we need a new refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave oven and range. One thing that we want to add is a beverage center, which is essentially a small fridge that will be installed underneath the counter to the left of the range. You can see the beverage center at the left of the image left of this text. We have always had a hard time storing the foods and beverages we want to in the refrigerator we have, as it is a 21-22 cu. ft. model. We would like to replace it with a larger model, perhaps one with a 25 cu. ft. storage capacity, but the current opening for the refrigerator is too small, we believe, to fit a 25 cu. ft. model. Thus, our new fridge will be 21-22 cu. ft., but we think that the beverage center will alleviate the storage problem we have right now with the existing fridge.
With a little work on my part, I will get the dimensions of the appliances together and send them to our planner, Rachel, so we can settle on the detailed drawings, sign the contract and get the ball rolling on our kitchen project.
replaced every window (save the one one in the kitchen), installed a new front door, and completely rebuilt and replaced the sliding glass doors in our back room. Our next assignment: The Kitchen. The extant kitchen serves its intended purpose, but it is tired and needs to be replaced. It was apparent when we bought the house that the previous owners began a remodeling project on the kitchen, but when they decided to sell the house, the project sort of stopped. The strange thing is that they installed GE Profile appliances, which do not come cheap, but they skimped on the lighting and the cabinets. The current kitchen is shaped like the letter L, and it is a typical design from the 1950s, when this home was built. The kitchen is long and narrow, and it also suffers from a near fatal design flaw: the clearance between the counter tops and the cabinet above is a mere 14 inches. This does not allow for much of anything to fit in the counter top, so the work space is quite cluttered.Now that the window and front door project is complete, we are in the final staged of
working out the details of the plan to remodel our kitchen. Once again, the professionals from HWC Homeworks have stepped up and created a great plan to better use the existing space. The plan is represented in the images in this posting, but we still need to make some critical decisions about the size and type of appliances we will purchase for the kitchen, as the appliances will drive the overall design. We know that we need a new refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave oven and range. One thing that we want to add is a beverage center, which is essentially a small fridge that will be installed underneath the counter to the left of the range. You can see the beverage center at the left of the image left of this text. We have always had a hard time storing the foods and beverages we want to in the refrigerator we have, as it is a 21-22 cu. ft. model. We would like to replace it with a larger model, perhaps one with a 25 cu. ft. storage capacity, but the current opening for the refrigerator is too small, we believe, to fit a 25 cu. ft. model. Thus, our new fridge will be 21-22 cu. ft., but we think that the beverage center will alleviate the storage problem we have right now with the existing fridge.With a little work on my part, I will get the dimensions of the appliances together and send them to our planner, Rachel, so we can settle on the detailed drawings, sign the contract and get the ball rolling on our kitchen project.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
HOW CAN A GAL GET SO LUCKY?
As some of you know, Dee and I have been suffering through a few plumbing problems the past few days. Our dishwasher has been leaking a small amount of water from somewhere. Our expert plumber Dave came by to see us the day after Christmas to snake out the drain line from our sink, but the dishwasher continued to leak a little water whenever it was doing it thing. We purchased this Whilrpool dishwasher in the fall of 2001, so we have had it a while and it never gave us a lick of trouble. This morning Dave returned to see if he could isolate the problem and allow us to use the dishwasher. Dave pulled out the dishwasher and discovered a seal might be leaking, so he made a quick adjustment to the connection and it appears that the leak has been repaired. However, if the leak returns, Dave suggested that we purchase a new dishwasher as the repair cost would most likely be almost as much as purchasing a new appliance. So if we have to get a new dishwasher, Dee will be the luckiest girl in East Grand Rapids. Not only did she get new tires for her car for Christmas, but if this repair does not take, she will get a new dishwasher, too!
One things that Dave discovered during the course of his repair work was
an uncapped drain line underneath the dishwasher. At some point in the past, the previous owner of this house must have used either an unlicensed or an incompetent plumber. Instead of properly capping off this unused drain line, the plumber just stuffed it full of insulation and wrapped the top of the pipe with black electrical tape. Our plumber went right to work, cutting the pipe in the basement and properly capping it with a PVC stub. See his expert work in the photo to the right. Dave, a consummate professional, said to me, "I can't imagine what the plumber was thinking. You can't just stuff a drain line with insulation and expect it to work." So for at least the last 7 years we have been in this house, we have had an open pipe in our kitchen. Yet another reason to rehab the kitchen in the spring!
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