Category: House

Now that the tile has been installed, we can look forward to the appliances coming into play – most of them, anyway.

Since the refrigerator has already been installed, there are only three left to go. Of these, the oven is still the outlier. There’s just some wiring work to finish on the oven before it goes in. Fortunately, we have been able to save some money on appliances by re-using our oven/microwave combo and our dishwasher.

Now, the last time we did a kitchen remodel, we tried to reuse our old dishwasher. However, it was somehow damaged – either during the removal or the installation. The first attempt to use it showed a leak. In this case, though, our rather nice Bosch dishwasher got installed and we are able to use it without leaks.

Phew! (Saved a bit of money there!)

Dishwasher installed.

Now there is a slight issue with this, but it’s easily fixed. The dishwasher has been mounted too far out – it’s protruding about 3/4″ when it really should be flush. The contractor has agreed to align it properly, so that will be fixed soon.

Next up was the range top.

Now for the rangetop, the plan all along was to upgrade us to gas – and not only gas, but a real “statement piece” for our main cooking area. I wanted to go with a full 48″ Wolf rangetop with a griddle. I wanted a 24″ griddle with 2 burners on each side. We did not want the full range – first, they are way more expensive, and second, we didn’t want to have to bend over to put things in the oven. We have gotten used to our wall ovens.

I also wanted to save some money on it as it’s really expensive. It’s high quality and made in the USA. The problems, though, were that at full retail it’s VERY expensive, it also never goes on sale, the specific model I wanted was also hard to find in stock anywhere, and the supply chain issues I mentioned when ordering our refrigerator also would have affected our ordering the rangetop. It could have taken 6 months to a year for it to come in.

So, this being the desired main appliance, I actually started looking for one over two years before our renovations began. I tried to shop at clearance centers, major sale days for appliance resellers, but the model I wanted never showed up. There were occasionally some similar models, say with a 12″ griddle, but never any with the 24″.

Then, lo and behold – one day while trolling eBay, I discovered an appliance shop that sold used Wolf, Viking, SubZero and other high-end appliances. I discovered them because I set up an automated search which sends out emails when something matching pops up. One day, something did. Not only was it the one I wanted, but it was over $1000 below retail price. The only problem: it was in Connecticut. Never fear: they shipped. Not only that, but they also crated it up with great care and it got here in less than two weeks. This rangetop has been here in the garage for over a year waiting for its debut.

Well crated rangetop in February 2022, lived in the garage for a long time.

Uncrated to make sure everything is there.

After waiting so long in the garage (yes, I covered it back up and kept it safe) it had to be moved only once: for the installation of our garage shelving system.

Now that th e cabinets, counters, and tile have been installed, its time has come to shine. It was installed and tested (and then promptly covered up for painting prep). Now, it has been freed and I’ve even cooked our first meal on it. We can’t do too much in the kitchen yet, though – there is still much more work to be done.

Rangetop in place. Left the plastic on the front to protect it while the renovations are taking place.

The next appliance is the oven. It will go in soon, but before that we must make sure that there is the appropriate plug in place both on the oven and the receptacle in the nook where it will be installed. Also, since we are re-using the old oven, we are installing spacers in the nook to allow us to use our 27″ oven in a 30″ space. The old oven was smaller than the new common sized models, which are all 30″. We did not want to limit future upgrades to only 27″ but didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade just yet. I mean, we are spending enough already.

Finally, by the end of the day, the contractor installed the faucets and soap dispenser. This completed the plumbing work allowing him to attach the new disposal and hot water tank for out dedicated hot water tap.

I tested the sink out by rinsing my skillet.

Hot water tap front and center! Also, ignore the blue stripe: that’s painter’s tape in preparation for the trim painting that will happen next.

We are getting so close!

Next up: painting.

Now that the counters are installed, it is time for the tile to go in. So, the next day after the stone is delivered and installed, we bring out our samples of our chosen tile and lean them up against the wall on the new counters…

And it doesn’t look good. The tile we initially chose was a white, large size, textured tile for the main part of the kitchen, and a rustic white brick for the buffet area. We set them on the counter to see how it would look.

The brick tile looked great, but the large tile: well, it looks washed out and gray. Not at all what we had in mind.

Notice how it just looks gray and dark?

This was unfortunate since we loved the nice texture and “waves” it had which would match the movement of the range section “centerpiece” tile (see above picture on the right side). But the feature we loved about it, the texture, caused shadows and darkness that we didn’t think looked good at all.

Here it is next to our brick tile and you can even see that not only is it too dark, but it almost looks pink in tone.

So, we panicked for a bit. Just a little.

Eventually, after much discussion and a few samples later, we decided to just do brick everywhere. It’s not quite what we wanted, but it does add a little “organic” texture to the modern kitchen – and the color is a lot better. We ended up deciding on a light gray grout to minimize the seams, but not eliminate them with white.

First section of tile going up.

As the tile was going up, we had to make several adjustments to tiles along the way since the side are a little uneven – the organic nature of the material made it a little sloppy, so we adjusted where we could behind the tiler. Along with the tile, though, we installed floating shelves. When I say “we”, I mean our installer of course. On the last one, though, there was a problem with the mounting that we didn’t see until he left- so we spent a few hours correcting it. That was hard, and we woke our neighbors with the hammering late at night. (Sorry, neighbors!)

The end result looks great!

Our centerpiece tile in the area behind where the rangetop will go.

Left side of floating shelves installed.

The window trim also went up on tiling day. Well, tiling “week” as it took a whole week for it to get done.

Pre-tile floating shelves on the right.

Tile around the spice cabinet.

Main wall before grout.

Grouted section – nice light gray which matches the veins in the countertop.

Tile around the sink and window.

Tile and shelf in the buffet section.

I don’t have any pictures of the caulking, but that’s okay – you shouldn’t be able to see it from this distance.

The grout might even be a little lighter now – it wasn’t fully dry when I took these pictures.

Next up: appliance installs and maybe even knobs & pulls?

We’ll see!

Finally.

So, the delay I mentioned earlier was simply an overestimate by the countertop company to take into account any number of delays, which there really weren’t. The only delays in that process were getting measurements done and approved. once that was done, less than a week later, we have stone. Rock. Counters.

It was a beautiful sunny day today as the stone truck arrived. Inside it were our custom milled counter sections. (Yes, I know everyone has custom milled counters, but it sounds nicer that way.)

Kept safe with clamps and dry inside the truck, our stone is ready to install.

Now I say “stone”, but it’s not really stone – it’s quartz countertop material, which is bits of quartz embedded in resin, shaped and colored to look like just about any natural stone such as granite or marble. Ours is a Calacatta Laza marble-like quartz countertop. We’ll call it “stone” since that’s what the industry guys call it.

I don’t remember what brand it is, but that’s not the important part here. What is important is that it is here and installed.

There are 7 pieces of stone to install here, and only one seam on the longest section. 6 counter pieces and 1 windowsill of the same stone above the sink.

I will say that these are a BEAST to move. There were 5 guys on site for install and they did a fantastic job. They moved most of the stones by hand, but for a couple, they used a small truck to roll it in.

First section installed.

The island piece was the biggest and heaviest.

Installing it took all 5 of them.

Another view of the finished island stone.

Our side wall area (calling it the “desk” area, but not for seating).

The buffet area that will be in the new dining room section. (Yes, I know there’s a drawer front missing – we are having it repainted as it chipped.)

The longest counter section – there’s a seam in the other end somewhere if you can find it.

Finally, our sink and windowsill all matching.

It is hard to describe the feeling we have now that we are SO CLOSE to finishing this project. It now looks like things are on the downhill slope, accelerating towards the finish line.

Next, just a few more things to go: tile, toe kicks, trim (baseboards, doors, and window), knobs and pulls, faucets and plumbing, appliances, floor squeak repair, painting…

Well, maybe more than a few things.

Now that the cabinets are installed, we have been noticing a few things that we did not notice before. Especially, we noticed that the lights above the main cabinet for the fridge were mounted too close to the cabinet, in fact: if the crown moulding were installed, it would cross the light bezel making it impossible to replace.

Notice the two lights above the fridge cabinet. The one on the right would just touch that corner of the crown moulding if it were installed, whereas the one on the left would be partially blocked.

This issue really came up for two reasons. First, because we didn’t pay enough attention to the placement of the cabinets and light fixtures already in the ceiling.

Is this our fault, or our designer/contractor? Sometimes I think we are telling them how to do their jobs… And we are.

They looked fine where they were according to our idea of where the cabinets were supposed to end up. Second, the cabinet company (unbeknownst to us) decided to extend the fridge cabinet depth 3 additional inches. Now, this might have been seen as a considerate concession: meaning they were concerned about the fridge doors opening up and hitting the counter, since it protrudes about 1.5″ from the cabinet doors (a little over 24″ depth). In most cases, this would have been fine. However, the particular fridge we purchased had a specification diagram outlining the exact measurements required for installation – and it was PRECISELY 24″ deep. Not 27″ inches. The doors are specifically designed to not strike a counter when opening. They hinge in such a way that no part of the door will pass 90 degrees of the opening.

All that consideration was for naught, AND it left us with a light buried behind the crown moulding.

So, we had to move the lights.

Since we had to do that, we moved the right light over enough that it was proportional to the other light next to it on the right. The left light, we pulled out to balance with the pantry wall light and centered it on the fridge compartment.

Now they are in the right place.

Of course, that means that we had to have the ceiling carved up again. Right through the new sheetrock that got replaced just last month. When I say “we” here, I mean our electricians moved them.

Our sheetrock guy was NOT HAPPY!

He came back today and repaired it.

Patch work.

Now, we are letting it dry for sanding, texture, and priming.

Sometimes, it’s two steps forward, sometimes it’s spiraling towards chaos.

But we are getting closer to done, and we have a sign-off meeting with the cabinet people on Monday so that will get done soon.

One small step for Casa Phillips…

Since our counter tops have been delayed, for some unknown reason which I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we had some time to leave our living room empty of furniture. At first, we just wanted to make sure the finish was fully cured. But, as it sat empty, I got the idea to finish the wall painting.

Now, you will notice that the wall on the left side of the fireplace is blue (the color is called “lakeshore”, but I will call it “blue” for simplicity) and on the right side it is the drab green/gray color that the house was painted when we moved in. I call that color “paste”.

The “before” picture of the fireplace wall.

The original idea was to paint it, but we didn’t want to move the furniture around. And since there was a nice hard break in the wall, we could do it in phases.

Now is the time for a new phase.

So, we patched some holes, sanded, added texture, taped it off and then painted. First, we updated the tepid gray “paste” to a much cooler gray color which is painted in the gym room. Then, we added the blue to the remaining side walls in the living room. This includes the window wall, but not the back half-wall. That one we painted the new gray.

Here is the difference between the two grays: the one on the right is new, while the left side is the old color throughout the whole house.

New blue walls completing the room.

Final gray matching the room behind the half-wall (which is the gym).

You might see that some touchups are needed at some of the edges if you zoom in to the pictures, but we’ve completed those now. You can also see all of the items stashed in the gym while we shuffle all our furniture between the rooms being refinished.

The next step will be to move all our stuff back into the living room and clean out what we crammed into the kitchen and other rooms.

Now, we have to work with the stone people again soon to get things started up. Let’s hope we can get things moving soon.

As an update to the floor refinishing drama, the living room refinishing is done. There are only two tiny little bubbles in the finish, so we can start moving our furniture back in tonight.

Here is the whole floor completed.

Notice the highlighted area – the colors on the steps and floors match perfectly with the main floor.

We have a winner!

Now, we can start moving furniture back into the living room so we can clear things out of the front of the kitchen before the construction teams come back and make more dust.

There are still some tweaks to do before we call it “finished”, but those are mainly some squeak remediation and spot repair. Those can wait a little while, but we’re almost done.

Well, with the floor at least.

When reading “accoutrements”, you absolutely must use a French accent. After all, we are talking about the “fancy bits” of the kitchen which put the spit-and-polish finish on the whole project.

Well, not “spit” in literal terms, I hope.

I am talking about kitchen hardware. The faucets, handles (or “pulls” as I have been made aware) and knobs. This has been a long journey started well before the cabinets were finalized. It has taken many months, maybe even the better part of a year to finally get it right.

It was not easy – in fact, it took much prayer in the end to finally land on just the right combination of items to make it all fit together.

There was also weeping and gnashing of teeth in there as well.

As our appliances and range hood are all brushed stainless steel, we wanted to compliment the finish of those, but not stray too far. In other words, no brass, no chrome, not even the black that is so popular today. We also wanted to have the shape harmonize with the curves of the range hood. There were also stipulations about comfort and safety – no sharp edges or things that would snag clothing when walking by. There are some amazing looking handles, but many have pointy bits on the ends which could draw blood.

No, we wanted curves. Not too many, but understated and tasteful. So began the shopping. Store after store after web store after web store. Several Amazon orders were placed and returned. What we finally found was a knob we liked in a finish called Antique Silver. It is beautiful and made the final cut for installing in the kitchen. We ordered a few of the matching handles – I mean pulls… right: matching pulls from the supplier in the same finish. At first pass, they were good – not “great”, but they were mostly what we wanted: no pointy bits, easy to get your hand around, and matching in color.

Or were they? Once we laid them out next to the actual cabinets (we had samples before, but once you have the cabinets they are going on, you really don’t know what they are actually going to look like), we absolutely did not love them. They were dark and dull compared to the knobs, and in the right light a completely different color tone.

As the cabinets were nearing completion, we were under pressure to make a choice quickly: after all – the installers were supposed to install the hardware when they installed the cabinets. So, a last-minute scramble to a few local stores was in order. We stopped at the local high-end place where there were several cool options, but none we fell in love with. And a good thing too! One option we looked at was $150 PER PULL! (We were targeting between $3 and $10 per pull.)

Finally, we went back to a place we had been before since it was on the way home. Lo-and-behold what did we see, but a wholly new item on their display panels. It was something close to a pull we had liked before but couldn’t find in the right color. This was a pull in Jeffrey Alexander line called “Philip” (yes, there are a lot of name similarities in there and they are not lost on me…) and they even had a finish called Brushed Pewter that was extremely close to the finish of the knobs.

We had found our hardware! Order placed, order received. Here is a picture of the hardware.

Three different sizes of pull on a sample color of our cabinets, counter material (middle right) and backsplash over the rangetop in the back.

If you notice, the sheen on the knobs and pull is bright and similar to brushed steel, but a little darker – enough to match, but have a slight contrast to the stainless of the rest of the accessories.

The next bits we were able to obtain were the faucets and soap dispenser. This actually took us a while, but not quite as long as the knobs and pulls. I wanted something more industrial – you know the coiled over giant spring faucets you find in restaurant kitchens, but Laura didn’t like that so much. We found a compromise initially, but it was too expensive.

The shopping went on for several months, when one day we were looking for hardware at Ferguson and not finding it. We happened to look along the back wall and there were some faucets we could browse, so we did. One option we saw was a black and gold simple faucet with a knurled sprayer and handle. Of course, it was totally the wrong color, but they said they had it in stainless to match. We had already kind of settled on the compromise faucet, but the hesitation I had in ordering it should have been a sign that it wasn’t right for the project.

So, online I went to the manufacturer’s website to look at the stainless model. Sure enough, it was beautiful, and it even had a soap dispenser to match. What was even more surprising is that there was a hot water faucet in the matching style as well! We have become addicted to having hot water so quickly available and easy, so the faucet was a must have item.

But it was also very expensive. What would we do now?

Go to eBay of course. Sure enough, there were “open box” items that were for sale. These were new with fully unopened parts packages, some had damaged outer boxes, but all were new and never used. Buying the big faucet there got us $300 off retail. The hot water faucet was about a 75% savings, and the soap dispenser… well that was just a little cheaper, but worth it. Now they all match.

Here they are.

It’s a brand we are familiar with: we put a Brizo faucet in our kitchen in Virginia when we remodeled that one. We like the quality and feel of it.

We’re excited to get this going!

Now, we just have to wait for the counter tops… which have been delayed for a reason not well explained to me.

Sigh.

One of the important considerations when planning our remodel and budgeting process was that we would minimize the cost wherever possible – and that meant re-using most of the appliances in the kitchen. An exception, of course, was to be the new rangetop. We were very keen to move from the electric stove top to use gas instead. Gas is SO much better to cook with, as most professional kitchens are well aware.

That list of appliances to keep included the oven/microwave combo, dishwasher, and refrigerator. That was our plan three years ago in the beginning.

Fast-forward to 6 months ago.

We were getting close to finalizing the plans for the cabinet layout, and my initial idea was to create a 48″ space for the fridge which would have two 6″ spacers to close the space up to a regular (our current) fridge size of 36″. This would help us both save the cost of replacement and allow us to upgrade to a 48″ model when we were able to. I had my eye on the 48″ side-by-side Sub-Zero, but that costs as much as a new motorcycle and after the Texas ice-storm (read here why this is relevant) a couple of years ago combined with an overall materials pipeline slowdown, that meant a 12-month wait for a new one. I was prepared to wait.

Then: it started. The icemaker broke. Well, it wasn’t the first time, and the previous times I was able to fix it by thawing it out or replacing some parts. This time, I couldn’t easily fix it: I started filling ice trays. Soon after, we started to notice puddles on the floor next to it. At first, we thought it was a dropped ice cube, or some spilled water from the spout. But it kept happening. Then our food started to get damp, and the shelves started to mold and remain wet.

We had to clean it out and that meant removing all the food to the spare fridge in the garage (which was not big enough to hold all of it) and into some coolers.

We tried to get it repaired, but the repair service we called said the only way to fix it was to replace it completely (the specific model we had was known to have these kinds of problems, apparently.)

So, I finally got frustrated enough to give in to purchasing a new fridge, but the real challenge was this: do we get an interim one that would be similar to the old one for cheap (well, cheap-ish: nothing worth buying is cheap these days) or do we go for the one that had my eye on?

Turns out, this was a more complex question than we realized. It might seem an easy decision to just get the cheaper stand-in option since the desired end result was over a year away anyhow. But, even the more reasonable models were still clocking in at much more than “throw away” money. We looked around for some used high-end models, but due to the supply issues, those were as much or more expensive than ordering a new one.

Finally, we went to Frederick’s Appliance Center in Redmond. After visiting several major local appliance stores, we were prepared for the same sad story of waiting a year for a new one, but that was not the case here. It seems that the people at Frederick’s plan well ahead. They actually order inventory long before customers demand it. They have a long running supply chain of various models and makes coming in at different times. In fact, if we were ready to install in a week, they just happened to have one similar to our needs in the warehouse right then. Of course, it wasn’t the 100% model I wanted – it had the wrong handles, but it was THERE. Instead, though, I chose to wait since our cabinets weren’t ready. I put in an order to be delivered in the first part of December.

I went with the Sub-Zero I originally wanted as the end result. And yes, that upped the budget by quite a bit.

Now, the cabinets weren’t ready then, so they allowed me to hold the fridge for delivery until it was ready. So, last week, it came.

The unboxing. I love that there are no loose parts or wires on the back.

The installers were amazingly skilled at getting this thing into the house.

Getting it installed required excellent balance and strength.

Finally, the installed fridge fits snugly into its new home. And yes, we are keeping the plastic protection on for the duration of the remaining construction.

I have to say that the installers were AWESOME. They were very knowledgeable and skilled at their jobs, and very helpful.

This model also has a wireless module that gets installed (but is not included) which will be here tomorrow. This is supposed to help keep us abreast of any maintenance issues that might come up.

We had to wait 48 hours to cycle through 2 full bins of ice before we could toss out the old ice trays. Now, we have clean filtered water and ice again. We’ve started moving our cold food back in from the garage. Fortunately (but uncomfortably), we don’t have a lot of fresh food and produce requiring refrigeration right now since we don’t have a kitchen to make it.

Yet.

Soon, this will change.

Soon.

At least the old fridge is out of our bedroom now.

And now for the “Big Impact” item – cabinets.

And yes – there will be pictures at the end of my rant.

Actually, our renovation project really begins here with the cabinets. Back in 2019 when we first started thinking about renovating the kitchen, we attended the Seattle Home Expo (before the lockdown and the year that wasn’t). We saw many interesting things, like giant “swim in place” lap pools, but the main thing we came away with was a reference for some high-quality cabinets, made locally in Woodinville.

We were astounded of the quality of the cabinets, and that they were inclusive of any inserts or accessories and were made locally to order. Of course, the pandemic struck next, and we soon forgot about them.

After going through the design/build ranks in Seattle, and even a store front kitchen design place, we had a general idea of what we wanted, but none of those places would satisfy us of the quality and customizability of their cabinets like the first place. After almost 2 years of trying to plan, design, and find a contractor/builder, we returned to the first cabinet company.

What a night and day experience. The first designers we worked with took some loose measurements and went away for a few weeks. They came back with drawings that were maybe 80% of what we wanted, but nothing looked quite right to us, and we made them tweak it several times – then, after COVID hit and things got crazy, we had to back off. We came back to them later, and they were so busy that they could not accommodate us for anywhere near the same budget. Everything got more expensive.

So, we went to that storefront place I mentioned earlier. Fortunately, they required no money up-front, and would design and estimate the layout in just a few days of working with us. They came up with the better plan after seeing what the first company did, and even found some outside-the-box ideas which helped us find our final layout. But they were WAY over budget also and would not let us choose better cabinets. They had a specific vendor that they used and would cost much more to get the cabinets we wanted in the colors we chose.

Fast forward through much frustration and emotional meltdowns, we eventually remembered the first cabinet vendor. After brining our sketchy plans and ideas, their designer/technician calmly began entering all the data and dimensions into AutoCAD (or some such architectural program) and began to lay out the entire plan. He came up with a cost estimate that very day, and even found a contractor to do the install of the cabinets and the remainder of the construction work to very close within our budget.

Now, that was a year ago that we signed our contract with them. There were some speedbumps on the way (I hate speedbumps, by the way – they are indeed evil). These speedbumps were us tweaking the final details, putting the finishing touches on all the accessories that we needed, and finally getting enough design time with the cabinet designer to make sure everything was covered. We finally finished it up and signed the contracts in November.

They said it would take 6 to 8 weeks for cabinet construction, but I think the order was expedited because we had cabinets delivered to us early in the second week of December – closer to 4 weeks production time. We thought they would fill one of our garage bays and that one of us would have to park in the driveway or on the street – that was a gross underestimation on everyone’s part. The cabinets alone filled one and half bays, so we were both out in the cold.

We arranged the main cooking wall in a line to make sure everything was there.

There were a few issues that we had, such as a miscalculation on where the rangetop and hood would be in the layout, but those issues were corrected expeditiously. In fact, see those two cabinets above without doors? Those were produced within 24 hours in order to correct the layout issues. There are a couple of chips in the finish, but we are supposed to be getting some touchup paint for those things.

Fast forward (past two or three other blog posts and one ice storm) to this past week where the cabinet install began. First, was to get all the cabinets inside. That took longer than I think the installers were prepared for.

A snapshot from our “construction cam” showing the cabinets being staged for install.

One of the installers levelling and installing the main cooking wall cabinets.

The lowers for the “buffet wall” in what is now our new dining room.

The new cabinet where the oven will be installed. The oven was previously in the section just to the right of where it is now, just next to the pantry door.

Complete lowers for cooking wall (minus drawers and a couple of doors).

The new cabinet for the fridge – we went with an upgraded size (48″ instead of the usual 36″). Not only will it help resale value, but we can get so much more stuff in it!

Uppers for the “buffet wall”.

Final install state after getting as much done as could be at this time.

You’ve probably noticed that not everything is quite finished yet, but that’s okay – some of it we intentionally delayed in order to figure out what to do with the floor, and the crown moulding on the fridge wall is missing because the lights are actually in the wrong place and blocking the install. That will be fixed later.

While we had some issues with the install of the cabinets, I understand that it was par for the course of how these things go. Overall, they did a good job getting everything in place and correcting some install mistakes that our contractor caught and held them to task.

As you can see, it’s getting real now.

Remember how I said that we weren’t happy with the floor color? Well, the floor guy has risen to the occasion and offered to help us make it right. We mulled things over and decided the best/easiest way to make things match would be to refinish the living room to match the hallway/kitchen floor.

Now, in the picture from last post, you cannot see it, but the floor difference from the landing to the sunken living room is significant. The difference from the hallway to the master bedroom is less so. In fact, we are confident that we could ignore it and even eventually “forget” about it. So, the only logical way forward is to refinish the smaller living room and make sure that it matches the rest.

We are confident that the floor guy can make it right.

He’s not only a good and solid person, but also very skilled at what he does.

Since the change will be small, we will not leave the house and go to a hotel (I’m out of Hilton points anyway). This should be done by the weekend, and the rest of the renovations can continue apace.

Soon to be done!