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 "Vertical 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.

Kitchen Reno: Part 3 - The Vision

Two weeks ago, Eric Borman introduced my wife, Judy, and me to Heather Fisher.  For the benefit of those who may not have read Part 1 of this series, Eric is the owner of Borman Construction; the company that Judy and I have selected to renovate our kitchen.  

Heather Fisher is a professional kitchen designer who came along with Eric to see our current kitchen for herself (she could be forgiven for assuming the photos that Eric may have shown her to be an elaborate practical joke) and to offer some suggestions for our new layout.  She works for AyA Kitchens, so it seems I was wrong in thinking that Borman Construction will be doing all of the work themselves.  Apparently, they do subcontract other specialists, but it was clear to me, watching and listening to Eric and Heather interact, that the two have worked together for several years and they know each other well.

Heather began by confirming some basic assumptions:

• We're going to replace our portable dishwasher with a built-in model.  
  
  
• We're getting a new stove, but we're keeping our current refrigerator.  
  

• We're also keeping our current microwave oven, which is a counter-top model, as opposed to getting an over-the-range model, which is installed above the stove, where the range hood normally goes, and has the advantage of using no counter top real estate.  

 She then offered several suggestions:

• A U-shaped layout with fixtures, appliances and cabinets arranged in such a way that functionality flows from station to station.  (Don't tell Judy that this appeals to me because it reminds me of a Star Trek bridge layout!)  Plus, we could still add a center "island" later on, if we chose to (not that we're planning to do so).
  
  
• Move the pantry from its current location in the far corner of the kitchen to the "east" wall, between the exit that leads down to the basement and the refrigerator, and install pull-out shelves for greater ease of access.  This also places the two food storage facilities side-by-side so that the refrigerator food and the pantry food can get to know each other better. 
  
  
• Move the stove to the "north" wall at the far end of the kitchen such that it is bordered by a generous amount of countertop space on both sides, where the small appliances can be placed so that all food preparation facilities (stove, microwave, air fryer, toaster, coffee maker) are together or at least within reasonable proximity of each other.
  
  
• Install 45-degree cabinets in the "northwest" and "northeast" corners of the kitchen for easier access.

After discussing all of the above with us, Heather and Eric left and, a week later, Eric sent us the drawings shown here (which, to give credit where it's due, were drawn by Heather).  Judy and I were both suitably impressed and accepted the layout without any changes.  

I did have a few questions, such as how many electrical outlets will there be, and where will they be located?  Eric assured me that there would be "lots" of electrical outlets on the countertop.

One other thing that I had noticed is that, while admittedly sporting a veritable plethora of cabinet and countertop space, there was precious little room for our water cooler.  The only place where it will fit is against the "south" wall (the only wall left untouched by the proposed reno), but that wall currently has no electrical outlets.  I asked Eric whether we could add an outlet to that wall.  He said that can be done and also suggested that the plumber could install an reverse osmosis water tank beneath the sink.  This would do away with having to constantly buy the 19-litre water bottles that our water cooler uses.  While a nice idea, we're going to have to nix that, because our water "cooler" actually dispenses both hot and cold water, a feature that we like, and I've since learned that under-cabinet R/O systems can't dispense hot water.

Having approved the general layout, it was time for Judy and me to select the cabinets, specifying style, finish, drawer/hinge type and door/drawer handle type.  For this, we visited Heather at a nearby AyA Kitchen showroom, where she showed us samples and finished display models so that we could compare options and get a mental picture of what our kitchen would look like.   She also offered some useful practical tips on things such as what cabinet styles were more difficult to clean or would need cleaning more frequently because ridges on their exterior surfaces would have a greater tendency to attract and build up dust.

We wound up selecting Alban style cabinet with a flax oak finish and champagne bronze handles.  She also suggested that we consider upgrading the drawers to the left of the stove, making them specialized garbage and food waste bin storage.  This added about $1,000 to the cost estimate, but Judy and I decided that the added convenience was worth it.  We said to go ahead with that and Heather updated her drawings and advised Eric Borman, who sent us a change order for our approval.  Once again, that budgetary flexibility that I mentioned in Part 2 of this series proved useful.   

Kitchen Reno: Part 2 - The Best Laid Plans

The scope of our planned kitchen renovation means literally gutting the existing kitchen and building a new one from scratch.  Given that a kitchen cannot be demolished and rebuilt in a day or less (trust me, I checked!), it then follows that, from the day that the wrecking ball meets our current kitchen until the completion of the new one, our home is not going to have a kitchen.  Having arrived at this conclusion, my wife, Judy, and I came to the realization that, before the kitchen renovation begins in earnest, we will have to:

1. Clear out anything that we don't wish to see destroyed along with the old kitchen, including all appliances, dishware, cutlery, food, the cat, etc. 
   
   
2. Find an alternate means of fulfilling all the functions that the old kitchen used to fulfill, including food preparation and storage plus dispensary of drinking water and the washing of used dishes.  We may be increasing our reliance on paper plates, disposable cups and plastic cutlery but a certain amount of dishware reuse will be unavoidable, if only those accoutrements used in food preparation.  I Googled and I Googled but not even Gemini was able to find anything like a disposable paper saucepan.

Future Auxiliary Kitchen

And so it was that we set about planning ways of overcoming these hurdles, one by one.  Our basic approach will be to set up a temporary makeshift kitchen to be used while the new one is under construction.  Fortunately, we have a spare room that we can designate for just such a purpose. It's a bedroom that was recently vacated by our daughter and her husband, who finally moved into a place of their own.  It's largely empty, save for a few odds and ends left behind by the "kids", including a night table that looks like it might make a decent microwave stand.

This room will house the refrigerator, a microwave oven, an air fryer, a slow cooker, a toaster and a Keurig coffee maker, all of which will be moved from the old kitchen to the makeshift one.  Small tables that we happen to have standing around in our basement and large plastic tote containers will be employed as makeshift counters upon which the smaller appliances will be placed.  There will be no functional stove, obviously.  All food preparation will have to be done using the aforementioned list of appliances and/or our (outdoor) gas grille, which is equipped with a side burner for heating pots of water and such.  The renovation is scheduled to start in late September or early October (no firm date yet) so the weather should be amenable to firing up the gas grille for the first little while, anyway.

Once the old kitchen is put out of commission, there will be no tap that dispenses drinkable water until the new kitchen comes online.  We do have running water in the bathroom and laundry room but neither Judy nor I feel very comfortable about drinking the water dispensed by either of those.  Fortunately, we do have an electric water cooler which uses those large 19-litre plastic bottles of spring water that can be purchased at most grocery stores.  This water cooler dispenses both cold and hot water, depending on our beverage needs, and will be moved from the old kitchen to the makeshift one along with the other appliances.

As for cleaning used dishes, that will be done using the laundry tub.

The stove will be either given away or discarded, to be replaced with a new one, and the portable dishwasher will likewise be either given away, sold (for a song) or discarded, to be replaced by a built-in one.  Note:  The cost of these two new appliances is not part of the $50,000 quoted in my last post, so these will increase the project's total price tag, somewhat.

Having established the plan, such as it is, Judy and I tackled the task of clearing out as much of the cabinets as we could. We decided to start with the pantry, having agreed that anything following that could only be easier, not to mention less icky (with the possible exception of the refrigerator) as the rest doesn't involve food storage.  When possible, get the nasty stuff out of the way first, I always say.

We decided to group everything which came out of the pantry (or any other kitchen cabinet for that matter) into the following categories:

1. Need - Anything which we will need to be able to access and use while the new kitchen is under construction (for example, plates, cutlery, drinking glasses, sugar, coffee, bread, etc.)  These items will be left where they are, to be moved to the makeshift kitchen just before the old one is demolished.
   
   
2. Store - Anything which will not be needed while the new kitchen is under construction, but which we plan to keep (for example, a cake plate, empty vases, seldom-used food preparation tools such as the cheese grater, etc.)  These items will be packed into boxes and totes, to be unpacked when the new kitchen is complete.
   
   
3. Discard - Anything which is broken or has expired/gone bad or anything which we simply do not want to keep.  These items will be given away or thrown out.

We started with the top pantry shelf, on which were stored the most seldom-used items, being the hardest to reach.  That contained just two items; a glass cake plate, with cover (that's a "store") and a decorative four-piece serving bowl set with matching tray which had been a gift from someone  and which  we had never used and weren't ever likely to use.  That ended up going to our daughter, who fancied it.  Fortunately, she didn't turn out to be the person who had gifted it to us in the first place or, if she was, she has the best poker face that I've ever seen!

The remaining pantry shelves contained mainly food as well as miscellaneous food storage and preparation items.  There was an awful lot of old/expired food (some never opened) which we had forgotten about and, in some cases, had not even known about, having been purchased and stored in the pantry by the "kids" without our knowledge. 

There were also certain contrivances about whose origins we had no clue, but we were sure we had never purchased.  One example was a deep fryer basket (the mesh kind that one fills with french fries or fish, to be lowered into a vat of frying oil).  This was especially peculiar as we don't have a deep fryer.  Another somewhat esoteric one was a European tool in a box labeled "Eiershalensollbruchstellenverusacher" (a German moniker which roughly translates to "Eggshell predetermined breaking point causer," another example of the German penchant for inventing long monikers for very specific things!) As far as I could make out, this seemed to be a tool for cleanly cracking an eggshell around its entire perimeter at whatever point the user designates.  No messy tapping the egg with a spoon or on the rim of a hard bowl for those fastidious Germans, no sir!  I believe it was a gift from one of my Austrian aunts. Don't tell her, but it went into the "discard" group.

As you can well imagine, emptying all of one's kitchen cabinets and drawers is a tedious and time-consuming task.  By starting early (well before we even had a firm start date for the actual renovation), Judy and I were able to make the job more manageable by doing just a little (usually just one or two shelves) each day. 

When tackling a big project such as this one, it's prudent to allow for additional, unforeseen costs.  For example, one day I pulled into my driveway and glanced up at my roof for no particular reason, only to see a large chunk of my chimney top lying on my roof, next to my chimney, rather than sitting on top of the chimney, where it belonged.  Although this admittedly had nothing directly to do with the kitchen reno, it was nevertheless an expensive (roughly $4,000) repair which couldn't wait (chimneys are kind of a must-have, especially when one's home features not one, but two, natural wood-burning fireplaces, as does ours).  If our home maintenance budget hadn't had a certain amount of flexibility, this incident might have seriously delayed the kitchen reno project but, no, it was "Damn the falling chimney bricks!  Full steam ahead!"

Kitchen Reno: Part 1 - In The Beginning

I live in a bungalow that was built during the 1950s.  A few things have been upgraded and modernized but, for the most part, the house has retained its "rustic fifties charm."  

That assertion holds truer for the kitchen than it does for any other room in the house.  The cabinets are solid wood with a stain or lacquer finish which makes for a cottage-like wood-grain look, complete with knot-holes.  I like the look, but the cabinet surfaces have become scuffed and scratched over the years.  

Some of the cabinet doors are awkwardly hung and one is missing entirely, owing to the fact that they're all mounted using pin-and-socket pivot hinges.  It turns out that one downside to this sort of hinge is that they wear out the wood on which they're mounted over time, causing it to crack and warp, until the hinges are no longer properly aligned or just fall apart altogether.  This comes from having only two mount points supporting each cabinet door, and most of that weight is taken by the lower one.  

Oh, and the cabinet door and drawer handles don't all match.  Several of the originals literally broke from the stress of simply being pulled and pushed once too often for too many years.  It probably didn't help that none of the drawers have roller guides on their sides, so that they open and close by the principle of force over friction only.

The counter tops are a dark gray boomerang Formica pattern, which I discuss in much more detail elsewhere in this blog.

The sink consists of a single basin as opposed to the more popular double-basin sinks.  There is no built-in dishwasher.  We use a portable one, which needs to be rolled into position near the sink and attached to one of the faucets each time that it's used, and then rolled back out of the way again when it's finished washing its load.

The vinyl floor has, unfortunately, not tolerated the weight and stress of the dishwasher traversing it daily and has therefore begun to tear.  I use the word "begun" here in the same context as in the sentence "The universe has begun to expand since the big bang."

So, a kitchen renovation is clearly overdue.  With our grown kids having flown the nest fairly recently and, finding myself with a whole lot of extra time on my hands even more recently, my wife and I have decided that the time has come.

The first order of business was to define the scope of the project.  The cabinets need to be replaced.  It follows, then, that the countertops and backsplashes will also need to be replaced.  The walls are adorned with a garish wallpaper pattern which I can only say seemed like a good idea at the time, but whose novelty factor has now been greatly diminished.  The floor covering is damaged and must therefore also be replaced.   Concerning appliances, our refrigerator is still in decent shape, but our stove, while functional, has become a bit of an eye-sore and must also be replaced.  We want to install a built-in dishwasher to replace the portable one and, since the kitchen doesn't already have a built-in dishwasher, this will mean plumbing work in order to run the necessary water lines.

A project of this scope is clearly beyond my handyman expertise (avid readers may recall that I was barely up to the task of installing a new set of tub doors some years ago) so we set about looking for a contractor.  Friends and family members who have had similar renos done were able to provide us with a list of company names and contacts but, as we began reaching out to some of these, we found a dismaying tendency to specialize.  Some of them replaced cabinets and counter-tops, but didn't do floors, walls, electrical or plumbing work.  Some were able to provide the names of companies whom we could hire to do the work which they themselves didn't do, and some were even willing to subcontract the work out themselves, but I wanted one contractor who could do it all, so that I would have one point of contact to whom I can turn with any questions, suggestions or problems.  Further, because of my lack of handyman expertise and the impairments to my balance, dexterity and strength that come with Parkinson's disease, 

I wanted them to do everything, including demolition and removal of cabinets, counter tops, floor and wall coverings, etc. and installation of new ones, including any finishing, painting, repairs, plumbing, electrical, etc.  I want my only responsibilities to include emptying out the cabinets, drawers and refrigerator, clearing the counter-tops, moving the appliances, large and small, out of the kitchen, making decisions about things like paint colour, floor covering and cabinet and countertop style and opening up my wallet.

We eventually found a contractor by the name of Borman Construction who appeared to meet all of the above requirements.  I reached out to them via their web site and I got a speedy response from the owner, Eric Borman.  He came to our home to see the current state of things for himself and to take some measurements.  He also suggested some changes which we had not considered.  For example, we have a large pantry built into one corner of the kitchen, which we were going to leave alone, but Eric suggested that we build a new one with pull-out shelves and drawers for better access and organization.  (The current pantry has five fixed shelves, so you can imagine how awkward it is to get at anything stored near the back of any of the top shelves!)

After reviewing our requirements, Eric went back to his office and, within a week, sent us a formal quotation for the job.  Our new kitchen is going to cost us about $50,000 including taxes.

... And so begins the adventure!