Kitchen Reno: Part 7 - Patterns

As the accompanying picture shows, our kitchen rebuild proceeds apace.  Just 3 business days after having been razed to the studs and insulation, our kitchen once again has walls, albeit simple drywall, so far.  Still, that's good progress in my books.  

Mike, from Borman Construction, required a decision of my wife, Judy, and me which we had not anticipated.  He wanted us to choose a pattern for putting down the 12" x 24" ceramic tiles that are to make up our floor.  We had simply assumed that they would be laid down, end to end, row upon row, like a grid (sometimes referred to as "Straight Set").  While that was certainly an option, some quick on-line research revealed several other popular patterns for our consideration, including "Vertical Stepped", "Vertical Offset" and "Basket Weave," among others.  I printed some patterns that we liked and we discussed them amongst ourselves.  Eventually, we narrowed it down to the four patterns that I just mentioned.  Judy and I needed to do a grocery run, so we went to the supermarket and left Mike to continue hanging drywall, with the understanding that we would give him our final decision later.

By the time we returned from the supermarket, Mike had left for the day but, before going, he did something completely unexpected and rather impressive.  Using our actual floor tiles, he laid out each of our four "finalist" patterns so that we could see exactly how they would look on our kitchen floor.  You can see them in the photo on the right; Vertical Straight Set (top left), Vertical Stepped (top right), Vertical Offset (bottom left) and Basket Weave (our favorite) at the bottom right.  What a great idea for presenting the patterns in a way that made it easier to decide.  More bonus points for Mike!

Kitchen Reno: Part 6 - Destruction!

This past week, Eric Borman and his crew showed up bright and early, at 8:00 AM, as promised, in order to demolish our old kitchen.  What seems even stranger is that I paid them well to do so, as the terms of my contract required that I make my first installment payment when the work officially began.

Before wrecking our kitchen, they kindly helped my wife, Judy, and me with the disposal of our old stove (it's being replaced and a new one is already ordered) as well as moving our fridge to the auxiliary kitchen.  Well, that is, they tried to move our fridge to the auxiliary kitchen but, as I'd mentioned in an earlier post, they weren't able to do so because of, well, bad planning on my part.  I failed to measure the doorway to the auxiliary kitchen in order to ensure that the fridge would fit through it.  As it turns out, it would not.  But the helpful lads from Borman quickly located an available corner in our dining room, set the fridge there and ran an extension cord to it, taping it securely down to the floor such that no-one will trip over it.  It's almost as though they've done this before.

The stove was placed on our front curbside, from whence it disappeared within a couple of hours, probably having been picked up by some local salvage scrounger(s).  

Our dining room adjoins the kitchen and the entrance between the two has no door, so the Borman team hung a drop sheet over it with a zipper up the middle in order to minimize dust and debris from the kitchen getting into the dining room while still making both rooms accessible.

Then followed a day of incredible banging, grinding and assorted other noises that should never, ever emanate from anyone's kitchen! I can state this with confidence, as these noises did emanate from my kitchen, and the result was not pretty!  The photo at the start of this post basically says it all.

The racket also freaked out our cat, Ebony, just a bit.  She went into hiding for a while, then finally re-appeared when her stomach insisted that it was time to do so.  Her food and water bowls used to be on the floor of our old kitchen but Judy and I wisely chose to move them to the dining room well before Demolition Day so that she (Ebony, not Judy) could deal with getting used to the new location without also having to deal with the disruption of her home environment at the same time.

I have to hand it to her, she's a fairly resilient feline.  In the early evening, after the workmen had left for the day, she reappeared and gingerly explored what was left of the old kitchen, before finally jumping up onto Judy's lap as she (Judy) sat in her easy chair, the better to let the warmth of her (Judy's) thighs ease her anxieties. Ebony is at an advanced age for cats and, as such, her 15 years' lived experience seem to have given her the serenity to take things more or less in stride.

I also want to mention, in passing, that one of the workmen (Mike) noticed Ebony and asked us whether we wanted her to be kept inside.  I told him that Ebony is very much an outdoor cat and we let her come and go more or less as she pleases.  I have to say that I was impressed that he thought to ask the question.  Our pet is, of course, in no way his responsibility, yet his question implied that, if we had wanted her kept inside, he would be mindful of closing the entrance door behind himself when entering or leaving our house, thus preventing her from running outside.  Bonus points for Mike!

I have to admit that I get a bit of an uneasy feeling as I stare at what's left of our kitchen.  It's been stripped down to the floor boards and insulation.  Even though I know that all of this will be replaced within about four weeks, I can't seem to stop my brain from lamenting, "What have I done?"

Judy and I are now using the auxiliary kitchen and I have to admit that we've already been getting too much takeout food and heat-and-serve meals in the interest of minimizing cooking because most of our regular cooking involves the use of a stove, which we currently lack..

Doing the dishes has become awkward and inconvenient.  We load the used (dirty) dishes into a small plastic tote, carry them down to the laundry room, and then wash them by hand, using the laundry tub.  We set up our dish rack on a folding card table, and the washed dishes go onto the dish rack to await drying.  Because the tap on our laundry tub dispenses only hard water, the dish soap doesn't foam up quite as much as it should, and our glassware and silverware are already looking a bit clouded.  Unfortunately, there is no remedy for this.  We'll just have to live with it until we once again have a functioning "real" kitchen.

I fear that it's going to be a long four weeks! 

 

Kitchen Reno, Part 5: The Auxiliary Kitchen

Our kitchen has finally been cleared.  It's easy to under-estimate the amount of time it takes to accomplish this.  My wife, Judy, and I have been gradually working at it for weeks now, and yet we only just managed to complete the task the day before our current kitchen was scheduled for demolition.

Some of our old kitchen's contents were given away, some were thrown away, some were placed in storage, but a lot of it was moved to an auxiliary kitchen that we set up for use while the new kitchen is being constructed.  After all, we still need to be able to prepare meals, we need a place to store food and ingredients, we need a source of drinking water and we would like to be able to enjoy the occasional cup of coffee or tea and other such non-essentials.

A spare bedroom that was occupied by my daughter and her husband before they finally left the nest was turned into an auxiliary kitchen.  Our portable dishwasher, which had probably been looking forward to a bit of a holiday, considering that there would be no water tap to connect it to and, therefore, no way for it to do its regular job, was doubtless rudely surprised when it found itself re-purposed as a counter-top, appliance stand and makeshift cabinet for the dishes that we use most often.  

For drinking water, we moved our water cooler, which dispenses both hot and cold water, from our old kitchen to the auxiliary kitchen.  A portable shelving unit with wheels on its legs had been our microwave stand as well as a place to keep cat food and other sundries.  It now supports our air fryer, an electric induction hot plate, some boxes containing kitchen garbage bags and compostable waste bags, some cook books and other sundries. A couple of large plastic totes were re-purposed as a countertop on which we set our kitchen knives and a cutting board.  These totes aren't empty.  They contain items from our old kitchen which we won't need to access or use until the new kitchen is completed.

Our microwave oven still comes in very handy for meal preparation, of course, so one of the night stands that our kids had left behind was re-purposed as a microwave stand.  Our bread box containing bread (what else?), buns, english muffins and other grain products sits atop the microwave, just as it did in our old kitchen.  We can also use our crock pot as a slow cooker and our electric frying pans for fried foods.  We couldn't come up with sufficient countertop space nor electrical outlets to operate these at the same time as all the other appliances, so we swap out the induction hot plate with whichever disconnected appliance that we need.

We set up a makeshift pantry by strategically stacking empty large, plastic totes and an empty cardboard box on their sides for use as shelving.  The contents of the old pantry (or, rather, those foods and ingredients that we use the most frequently) went onto these makeshift shelves.

An old metal shelving unit that we weren't using for anything else was used for storing pots and pans as well as our tea pot in a readily accessible manner.

Finally, our old kitchen drawers containing cutlery and other smaller kitchen utensils as well as cookbooks and such were set on the floor with their contents left inside them for now.  

 We had intended to move our refrigerator into the auxiliary kitchen.  There was room for it, right next to the water cooler.  Unfortunately, while I checked to ensure that the fridge would fit into the spare bedroom that houses the auxiliary kitchen, I failed to check whether it fit through the door to that room.  It does not.  So, the good folks from Borman Construction, who helped us to move the fridge between rooms, set it up in our dining room instead.  Not quite as elegant, but workable.

This is to be our de facto kitchen for the coming month. 

Kitchen Reno: Part 4 - The Timeline

Borman Construction has now provided us with a detailed project schedule for our kitchen renovation.  It looks like this:

• October 15 - 16: Complete demolition of the existing kitchen.
• October 16 - 19: Installation of electrical. 
• October 19 - 21: Installation of plumbing.
• October 21 - 23: Installation of drywall.  Repair and prep ceiling for painting.
• October 23: Install impermeable floor membrane.
• October 26 - 28: Install ceramic floor tiles.
• October 28 - 30: Paint walls and ceiling.
• October 31: Install kitchen sink. 
• November 2 - 4: Install wall cabinets. 
• November 5 - 15: Install countertops. 
• November 13 - 17: Install homeowner-supplied appliances and range hood.
• November 15 - 18: Final touch-up  (plaster and painting).
• November 16 - 18: Install backsplash tiles, dishwasher connections and homeowner-supplied kitchen faucet. 

So, there you have it.  The kitchen reno will start a few days after (Canadian) Thanksgiving and will take about a month.  We should have a new kitchen in time for the holidays.

Note that the above is a simplified version of the project schedule.  The actual schedule provides a lot more detail regarding what each task entails as well as what Borman Construction will provide vs. what Judy and I are responsible for supplying. We need to purchase a new stove and range hood, a built-in dishwasher and a kitchen faucet.  We pay for those ourselves, over and above the quoted renovation cost.  Borman Construction will install them all for us.  We're keeping our old refrigerator.

We also need to select our cabinets (already done) and select a countertop and backsplash style as well as ceramic floor tiles and a sink.  The cost of these is built into the contract, but we still have to select what styles we want.  We also need to select a wall colour.

Rather than waiting until the very last moment to shut down our old kitchen, Judy and I agreed to do so about a week ahead of time.  We figure that this will give us lots of time to clear out all remaining dishes, cookware, appliances, etc. from the old kitchen, set up our auxiliary kitchen and get accustomed to living with a makeshift kitchen while the current one is still usable in the event that we completely overlooked something.