Not much doing today. Hung out at Home Depot for about two hours, looking at tile. Picked up some paint samples. Brought back a few pieces of floor tiles for my husband to look at tomorrow. Did get three 20 A circuit breakers and got to talk to an electrician who gave me some good info on running cable and installing boxes in exterior walls.
I never had to deal with running cable in an exterior wall like this before. The exterior walls in the kitchen are cinderblock (load bearing) with brick exterior. There are 1x3's on top the cinderblock, and there is currently plaster on top of those. Replacing plaster with half-inch drywall. Anyway, he told me that to fit a full size box into the wall, just chisel out the cinderblock. This completely makes sense, becuase there are two GFCI's on the exterior wall behind the sink currently, and I couldn't figure out how they got the boxes flush with the hardboard backsplash.
Which brings me to the tile. I want to do a nice 1x1 mosaic tile backsplash. I'm thinking a mix of muted tones with some blue highlights. There was a piece of flooring at Home Depot with blue highlights in it, and I instantly thought to incorporate some blue in the backsplash tile. The cabinets are white (Lidingo from IKEA), with the solid oak countertops, stainless steel sink and bisque appliances. Yellow paint on the walls, and a faux-stone floor. I think it will be very nice. I hope.
Just need to calculate how many 12x12 pieces of tile are needed for the backsplash, and I'll pick them up tomorrow. I can't believe how expensive they are, but I think it will make a nice feature in the kitchen. Plus, it will be easier to cut the tiles apart to fit them than having to nibble down or scribe and snap ceramic. I figure it's going to be about $5 per square foot. There is 10 linear feet of counter top across the back, 5 on one side, and 7 on the other - and I'd like to run the tile up the wall behind the stove. So that's 10 + 5 + 7, 25 square feet minimum 25 x 5 - that's 125. Plus a bit to run up behind the stove - 2.5 feet by 1.5 feet - so add another 4 square feet - and since there's 1.5 feet above the counter, then add a half a foot all around - let's say 13 more square feet. Let's see, that makes 25 +13 + 4, or 25 + 17, for a total of 42 square feet - which is 42 x 5, or 210. I guess that's not too bad. Of course, I'll have to check my plans to be certain of the square footage.
More tomorrow. If anyone has insights on working with 1x1 mosaic glass tile, please let me know. Also if anyone has ever had to make a choice between ceramic, porcelain, or vinyl floor tiling, what did you go with and why? The ceramic and porcelain are way less than the vinyl......
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
State of the kitchen when we bought the house
We bought a split-level house that was built in the 50's. It's a nice place, but definitely in need of updating. The kitchen is ORIGINAL, with built-in wood cabinetry. They are dark-oak stained plywood, and were custom-designed for the space. They are not modular like today's cabinets.
The only updating the previous owners did consisted of changing the appliances. They also removed all of the fancy brass cabinet-door pulls. We know this because we found one lying in a bottom drawer. We really wouldn't care so much that the sellers replaced the flush-mount door-pulls with $0.80 cheapies from Home Depot, except that this caused the dishwasher, which was installed in a corner, not to open fully.
Don't get me started on the condition of the appliances when we bought the place. Each one had its own special problem, and the refrigerator didn't make it two weeks. Apparently, it got cool, but never went below 55 degrees Farenheit on a good day. We caught on when two quarts of milk soured in about 2 days, back to back. Lesson learned? Make sure your home inspector uses a thermometer to check the fridge temp.
But there was an upside here, as we got a "brand new" Kenmore side-by-side with through the door ice and water. It came from a Sears Outlet store, and we got a major deal on it because it has a few minor dings. None are very noticeable, and we have kid-art all over the doors anyway.
The stainless-steel wall oven and ancient stainless cook top were passable. The wall oven is not deep enough to hold a standard size cookie pan, and forget about putting two cookie sheets next to each other on the same oven shelf. The thermocouple for the broiler element was lying in the cabinet above the oven, and the broiler has never worked since we've been here. Why? Because there's no thermocouple installed on it! Lesson learned here? Make sure your home inspector trys BOTH the broiler AND the oven heating elements, especially when you FIND A THERMOCOUPLE lying in the cabinet above the oven DURING the home insepction.
Surprisingly, the dishwasher is holding its own. I actually like the dishwasher very much, especially now that we budged it over an inch and can open the door all the way. It's a Kenmore, guessing about 10 years old, but it runs very well, and the dishes actually get clean. It's a fighter, the dishwasher. It has to pump out it's drain water through a teeny-tiny copper tube, much too small for it. If the pump hasn't burnt out yet, it never will. The dishwasher will be very happy in its new home next to the sink, and will enjoy its new, larger-diameter drain pipe very much. It's earned its spot in the new kitchen. The wall oven and the cook top have dates with eBay, and I'll be sure to disclose the broken broiler element, and also that the electric ignition for the left-front burner doesn't work on the cook top. Becaue that's what sellers usually do, at least the ones who like clear consiences. Let me rephrase that, at least the sellers who have consciences and like to keep them clear.
The only updating the previous owners did consisted of changing the appliances. They also removed all of the fancy brass cabinet-door pulls. We know this because we found one lying in a bottom drawer. We really wouldn't care so much that the sellers replaced the flush-mount door-pulls with $0.80 cheapies from Home Depot, except that this caused the dishwasher, which was installed in a corner, not to open fully.
Don't get me started on the condition of the appliances when we bought the place. Each one had its own special problem, and the refrigerator didn't make it two weeks. Apparently, it got cool, but never went below 55 degrees Farenheit on a good day. We caught on when two quarts of milk soured in about 2 days, back to back. Lesson learned? Make sure your home inspector uses a thermometer to check the fridge temp.
But there was an upside here, as we got a "brand new" Kenmore side-by-side with through the door ice and water. It came from a Sears Outlet store, and we got a major deal on it because it has a few minor dings. None are very noticeable, and we have kid-art all over the doors anyway.
The stainless-steel wall oven and ancient stainless cook top were passable. The wall oven is not deep enough to hold a standard size cookie pan, and forget about putting two cookie sheets next to each other on the same oven shelf. The thermocouple for the broiler element was lying in the cabinet above the oven, and the broiler has never worked since we've been here. Why? Because there's no thermocouple installed on it! Lesson learned here? Make sure your home inspector trys BOTH the broiler AND the oven heating elements, especially when you FIND A THERMOCOUPLE lying in the cabinet above the oven DURING the home insepction.
Surprisingly, the dishwasher is holding its own. I actually like the dishwasher very much, especially now that we budged it over an inch and can open the door all the way. It's a Kenmore, guessing about 10 years old, but it runs very well, and the dishes actually get clean. It's a fighter, the dishwasher. It has to pump out it's drain water through a teeny-tiny copper tube, much too small for it. If the pump hasn't burnt out yet, it never will. The dishwasher will be very happy in its new home next to the sink, and will enjoy its new, larger-diameter drain pipe very much. It's earned its spot in the new kitchen. The wall oven and the cook top have dates with eBay, and I'll be sure to disclose the broken broiler element, and also that the electric ignition for the left-front burner doesn't work on the cook top. Becaue that's what sellers usually do, at least the ones who like clear consiences. Let me rephrase that, at least the sellers who have consciences and like to keep them clear.
Why I am writing this blog
I'm getting a new kitchen and I can't stop talking about it. Apparently, I'm talking about it TOO much, to everyone I know. I guess I realized that I needed another outlet to obsess about the kitchen when my father suggested that I write a blog about it. Boy, oh boy, I must really be talking about it too much if even he is tired of my ramblings, because he usually loves to talk about all things mechanical and home-improvement. So here I am, blogging on the internet, to save the sanity of all those around me.
I've never written a blog before about any past projects. Then again, blogs weren't too popular at the time. So I hope you'll bear with me at times while I try to figure things out. Hopefully, someone out there might benefit from the information posted here, and maybe someone will read one of my posts and think, "She wants to do WHAT? You can't do THAT!", and will reply to suggest a better approach to something.
I've never written a blog before about any past projects. Then again, blogs weren't too popular at the time. So I hope you'll bear with me at times while I try to figure things out. Hopefully, someone out there might benefit from the information posted here, and maybe someone will read one of my posts and think, "She wants to do WHAT? You can't do THAT!", and will reply to suggest a better approach to something.
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