Finally, there is noticeable progress to report! Was sidelined for about a week and a half, since my daughter was sick, and then me. She's feeling much better now, and I'm almost 100% again.
The top cabinets are now all hung. My husband helped me hang the two corner cabinets, and I was able to do the rest. Of course, the suspension rail had to be installed first. Since I did that myself, I figured out a couple tips and tricks to made the job easier (i.e. possible) for one person to do. I'm going to elaborate on these in a separate, future post.
I read a good e-book that a man wrote about redoing his kitchen with IKEA cabinets. He said "For the love of God, don't try installing the top cabinets by yourself." Well, I only partially agree with this. If only my arms were long enough, I could have done it all myself. If my arms were longer, I could have picked up the corner cabinets by myself. My six foot three husband had no problem picking them up, and he said I would have been able to, too, if only I were taller. Take all these insights with a grain of salt, as I pride myself on finding ways to do things independently. I once spent an entire day installing a bottom seal on an MGB windshield. It took about seven hours, but I did it, all by myself.
Drawing the level line for the suspension rail was easy. It was a bit tricky getting the line at the same height on both sides of the kitchen. I don't have a laser level, but I used the window casement as reference points. To install the rail, I tapped small picture hanging nails in along the level line, and rested the rail on those nails while I marked holes to drill into the studs (and between the studs). Cutting the rails to length was a pain, I used an old hacksaw blade with a holder. Don't waste your money buying hacksaw blades from Harbor Freight. They are cheap and absolutely terrible......useless.
After the corner cabinets were up, it was easy to mount the remainder of the top cabinets. It's key to align the mounting hardware on the suspension rail with the holes at the top back of each cabinet. Just lift the cabinet up, catch it on the bolts sticking out of the rail, and then secure it loosely with the mounting plate and nut. I was able to get the cabinets plumb and level with the aid of a few shims. They look pretty good. Pictures to follow. Although the hacksaw blades from Harbor Freight might be useless, the 12 inch ratcheting bar clamps are awesome. Easy to use, non-marring, they made it a breeze to clamp the cabinets together before ganging them.
Today my husband helped me install the microwave. Now that's something I would NOT try by myself. Tricky to get the bottom plate installed. Had to drill two new holes in the factory-provided plate to secure the back plate to the studs with the lag bolts. Also had to shim beind one end of the plate because there was a little "recession" in the wall.
The reason for drilling two new holes was to get below the bottom edge of the "nail plates" that the electrical inspector made me install. Oh well. It JUST worked out. I'm confident the microwave isn't going to fall off the wall. BTW - the IKEA install instructions tell you to drill a 1 and 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the fan cabinet to pass the plug for the microwave through. You can get away with a 1 and 1/4 inch hole just fine. They also tell you to drill a 3/4 inch hole for the toggle bolts to be used at the each end of the backing plate. You can definitely drill smaller holes than 3/4 inch, but I don't remember what size drill I used just now. I think it was 9/16, but check me on that. I can tell you 3/4 would have been WAY too large of a hole.
The range hood is also up. Just have to hook up the electric. I thought I was going to get a Kenmore hood, but I found a Whirlpool one at Lowes for a great price, and I liked the style of it. Ended up having to make a "channel" in the drywall to run the NM cable over to the entry point for the hood, and I couldn't be happier with the installation. My husband, luckily, was able to assist with placing the range hood, and it was in place in about 10 min.
The floor is also down, It's been down for a while now, letting the wrinkles come out of it. It's fiberglass backed sheet vinyl. I'm not too happy with the color. It's seems much darker than the sample we looked at at Home Depot. But since we had such a difficult time picking out a floor, we're thinking that maybe it's too dark for a reason.......because the other floor would have been way too light. The floor does look pretty good, despite the difference in color.
It did take FOREVER to patch the underlayment. I used ring nails, and each one had to have patch applied to it. I also had to place a jack post in the crawl space to support one joist that was sagging. Pretty proud of the result I got. Now when you walk in the kitchen, the floor is level, and you don't fall down into a hole.
So that's it. Sorry no pictures in this post. Next tasks are to install the under cabinet lighting, the window trim, and the shelves on either side of the windows.
