Home and Kitchen Renovation

[BakerAunt]

The cabinets arrived for the kitchen this afternoon! We chose natural maple. At the moment, they are boxed and have filled up the entire kitchen area. I'm not sure when installation will start. The contractor and company have been working on the roof. They were doing shingles today, until it started raining, so they moved inside and did other tasks until the cabinets arrived.

The original Douglas Fir floors upstairs are not done yet. The floor guy started, but he had to order more sandpaper.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by BakerAunt. Reason: spelling error

[Mike Nolan]

Glad to hear some progress is being made.

Did you take 'before' pictures of the kitchen so you can post before and after pictures when everything is finished?

[BakerAunt]

I do have pictures of what the kitchen looked like before reno. Once we are done, I will attempt to post before and after pictures.

Today was very windy, so the contractor and crew arrived and realized that they could not work on the roof. They checked it, then the spent the morning unboxing all the cabinets. The lower ones have been roughly set in place. The upper ones are occupying the space where the washer and dryer will eventually be located.

[BakerAunt]

The cabinet tops were measured for templating yesterday, and we discovered that the space for the stove is 1/16th-inch off. Someone measured from the interior and forgot about the side pieces. so, the back set of lower cabinets will need to be moved over. I'm glad that they found the problem now and not later when the stove is delivered. Other than that, the cabinets are installed.

Our contractor thinks he can get us into the house by June, barring bad weather and other little surprises like the front door that was put in during the first phase of our renovation 4 1/2 years ago and has never worked correctly, in spite of calling back the first contractor a couple of times.

[BakerAunt]

It is July 10, and we will move into the house--in a way--by Thursday. On the interior, they are still working on the sun porch. A company of three people working three different jobs in three places does tend to inch forward. On the exterior, there is still a fair amount of siding to go. At least we will be able to entertain my stepdaughter in some style when she arrives on Friday for few days.

My appliances--refrigerator, stove hood, and range--were delivered a couple of weeks ago, but the stove installation had to wait, since someone misunderstood that I wanted the hood to vent to the outside, not recirculate. That was a job for our contractor, who had to order a piece from the company in California--a $6 piece with $10 shipping. It came, he installed the hood, then we had to wait until the appliance company was back in our neck of the woods. That happened today. My Wolf dual-fuel range is now installed, but our contractor needs to rotate the electrical plug 90 degrees, so that the oven will go flush against the wall and engage the anti-tip device. At the moment, the oven is doing its one hour burn-off, and then it will be ready for use. It's time to read the manual!

For the refrigerator, I chose an Amana because I wanted one with the freezer on the bottom. I would have preferred the freezer have a door, but they are all made with a drawer now. My husband misses the door slots for cans of frozen juice.

I've not chosen a microwave yet. It will be a countertop. I'm looking at Sharp because they now make at least some where the light does not come on when the door is open, only when it is cooking or re-heating. That, and longer-life bulbs should keep my husband from leaving the door open and burning it out. If anyone has microwave recommendations, please post them here.

When I finally get the kitchen together, I will try to post those before and after pictures.

A member of the oven-installing team said that he was glad that someone had bought one of these ovens who is actually planning to USE it rather than having it for show. I told him yes--I'm a serious baker and both of us like to cook with gas.

Now that the oven is in place, we can get the freestanding bookcase and buffet into place. I've started playing with what goes into what cabinet, and where the shelves should go. I was nonplussed to learn that the cabinets only came with half shelves for the lower ones. I'm not yet sure how I feel about that. I may need to get more shelves for some of the upper cabinets; I'm surprised that there are so many different sizes, so they cannot be switched between. That may be because of the space in which we had to work.

When I finally get the kitchen together, I will try to post those before and after pictures.

[Mike Nolan]

When we built our house, we had custom cabinets built by a local company that mostly does commercial work. The cabinets for the kitchen cost a bundle (around $19,000 as I recall), but 22 years later they're still in very good shape. We've made one change over the years. We had a corner cabinet with recycle bins in it, we've replaced the bins with a two-shelf lazy susan.

[BakerAunt]

Organizing the kitchen cabinets, of which there do not appear to be enough (are there ever?), will be a work in progress. I've tried some items in some spots, then ended up moving them. I still have a lot to unpack as well.

It is nice to see all my cookbooks again. However, I'm moving most of the cake, pie, and cookie ones to a bookcase in the apt., since I am still limiting butter in my diet. For inside the house, I've prioritized the bread books and cookbooks that will help me expand my healthy entrée and side dish repertoire.

So far, I am pleased with my Wolf oven. Every item I've baked has done very well and baked evenly. It has three racks, and these are not the simple ones that just slide in and out. They have an assembly that allows the rack to be completely pulled forward from the oven without tilting or falling out. (That explains why Wolf is so insistent on installing the anti-tip mechanism.) I will probably keep the top rack out of the oven, since I usually bake on the center rack, but I'm not sure where to store it, given its bulkiness. I haven't tried the convection feature yet; if I do, I'll put that shelf back. These are not the kind of shelves you want to be moving once the oven is heated.

I like the burners on the top as well, which seem to me more easily controlled than those on my old Thermador, but that may be because burner technology has advanced from 2001.

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