Day 12. Screws Happen!

So just when you think everything is going smoothly, something always goes wrong. We get a call from our contractor and they can't find any granite slabs on hold for us. Turns out our slabs were released and some of them already sold. Luckily we were able to find some other slabs that we liked.


And today we just noticed that the screws used to hold the undercabinet lighting up were actually just a tad too long for some of the cabinets. You can see here a screw punching through. You'd think they've done this enough to know which length screw to use so this doesn't happen.

Day 11. Now you see them, now you don't

Chester rolling in the future home of the dishwasher.

Some people have actually thought that I've done most of this work myself. One thing that I've learned from school is that outsourcing is the preferred operational strategy when you don't have the capabilities internally. I did however do some very handy HVAC work.
So in case you didn't notice, there are no more wires hanging from the walls. The undercabinet wiring was installed.
Here you can see the light modules installed on the wire track. No bulbs though.
Here's just the wire track. The granite fabricators came and did a template of the countertops. Essentially they just retook measurements so that they can fabricate the counters.

Here' s a picture of the Omega cabinets. You can see the double undermounted roll outs.

Day 8. Cabinets part Deux

All of the cabinets have gone in including the toe kicks, light rails, and crown molding. The glass doors and hardware still need to be installed.

There should be glass in the upper boxes.

A picture of the island before the rear panel and trim.

Completed island.

Day 7. Cabinets

The morning started out with painting the drywalls with a primer. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to paint the walls before the cabinets were hung.

Junction box on the floor of the island.

Cabinets Finally!
and to think it only 1 person was needed to hang these.
Cardboard counters are to prevent the cats from using the cabinets as expensive kitty condos.

Tomorrow, the remaining cabs, toe kicks, and trim will be installed.

Day 6. The art of texturing

Most of today was spent applying another coat of drywall mud and then texturing the walls. Hopefully the walls will be painted before the cabinets go in.

You can hardly see the nail holes from before.

Our new dining room light fixture with its 7'6" extension rod. We managed hanging this one on our own as well as painting the old hole in the ceiling. It helps to have a tall ladder. Also it really does pay to have a shopvac if you are cleaning up drywall dust. Regular vacuums except possibly a dyson clog up within minutes of vacuuming. Actually a quick google on dyson shows that even a dyson clogs up.

Day 5. Drywall

Today all of the walls were supposed to be ready, textured and all, for cabinets on Monday but the cabinets were pushed till Tuesday. The drywall only received one mud layer. More mud and texture for Monday.

You can see in this picture the soffits have been removed and drywall now covers the spot. All of the little holes to fish wires have now been covered up. Even the little rat hole is gone.

Here's a shot of the larger soffit on the exterior wall. You can't see it but there's a wire running from the outlet on the left up and over to the corner where the upper cabinet is going to go. This is so that if we ever decide to install puck lights in the upper cabinets, we can draw power and install an outlet above the cabinets. This "feature" was removed from the work request in order to try and keep costs down. Overall it really doesn't add much additional work to the job.

This is what happens when you have a nail gun.

Here you can see additional framing for the lowered wall. Also I had them put some insulation in the walls where the dishwasher is going. This combined with the new dishwasher should make it quiet as a mouse.

The wall with its mold resistant drywall

We had our contractor move our dining room light junction box over a little. The old light doesn't fall on the center of the table we ordered especially with the new buffet we just got.

Day 4. Lights please

Today was another relatively light day. The holes for the recessed cans were cut and the cans were installed. The pendant junction boxes were installed too. The sink plumbing has been lowered as well to adjust for the deeper sink and the lower wall height. Another 2 wall cabinets were delivered. I also added some more foil tape to my duct work after some consulting from Maui Land and Pineapple.

Below are some of the pendants that we were thinking about. We picked one of these and when they are finally installed, you'll know which ones. Can you guess what we picked?

Day 3. Let there be light.....well almost

Today was all about electrical. The track lighting was pulled down from the ceiling and locations were marked for the recessed cans. In one of the photos you can see the ceiling holes for the pendant lights. The photo with the ladder shows the previous wires neatly tucked into the walls and the wires for the undercabinet light. That same photo also shows a new outlet box for the wine cooler. The telephone outlet needs to be moved down and out of the way. The picture with the broom also shows wiring for undercabinet lights as well as the new pendant light switch on the column. If you notice carefully there's also a small opening near the bottom of the wall. That's a little door for our pet mouse that our cats like to play with. Actually that was used because a drill bit fell in the wall and needed to be retrieved. The picture of the sink area shows some new electrical and lower plumbing.


Besides all of the kitchen work, we've started to finally buy furniture for the house. Here's one of our first additions. Luckily just in time to store all of our displaced kitchen stuff. We also got a new light but the junction box needs to be moved slightly. Hopefully they'll be able to squeeze that in along with the rest of the work.

Day 2. The real work

I on the other hand decided to do a little of my own work. Arizona in the summer gets a little hot if you didn't know and we have a pantry closet that is against an outer wall that gets hot enough to melt food.


With the soffits gone, there's now an opening directly above the closet. And look at this. You can see the existing air conditioning that I could easily tap into to cool off the closet. So some guidance from a neighbor, $80 and an hr or so at Home Depot, I had all the stuff needed to make my own vent.















And to think this was going to cost me an extra $500 to add it to the kitchen remodel. The real question is what am I going to do with another 20 feet of insulated tubing and 30 yards of metal tape. One word, Craigslist.

Day 2. The workers rested...

Expecting to see some holes in the kitchen walls, we were instead greeted with a living room full of kitchen cabinets. Someone has been busy here. Luckily we don't have any furniture in the living room.

One problem we noticed with the cabinets was that the appliance garage had a crack in on both sides. Luckily the garage goes on after the countertops go on so schedule wise it shouldn't delay anything.


In the kitchen however was a different story. No holes. Nothing. Instead electrical wire and wire nuts.

Obviously today wasn't a busy day.