April 28, 2010 by admin
I chose the ProLine Range Hood model 101.36. It is a 36″ 1000 CFM under cabinet (or wall optional) mount range hood. The hood install itself was relatively easy. Being someone who did it alone, I highly recommend you have some help. This thing gets heavy when you lift it up that high. I used the same technique installing the range hood as I did for the kitchen cabinets. I first tacked up a temporary support support board, heaved that puppy up on it so I was able to hold it in place with one hand/shoulder while drilling in the first screws.
Proline Range Hood Model PLJW 101.36
The hardest part about installing the hood was Read more »
Tags: kitchen improvement, kitchen renovation, proline pljw 101.36, proline rangehood, range hood, Range Hood Installation
Categories: Range Hood Installation •
2 Comments »
March 31, 2010 by admin
Finally, some rewarding progress! In all fairness, doing the travertine tile floor was rewarding but it took so long it was hard to appreciate. Now it’s covered up so it can’t be enjoyed.
I used contractors paper available at your local big box hardware store to cover the floor while the work continued elsewhere.
The kitchen cabinets arrived pretty much as expected. They are maple with a burnished coffee glaze and cabinet-grade plywood boxed. The drawers feature the hydraulic closing mechanism which is nice when the drawer is full.
At first they sat in the living room as the travertine was finished, then moved into the kitchen:
It is not difficult to hang kitchen cabinets if you haven’t any help. Simply attach a Read more »
Tags: how to hang cabinets with one person, installing kitchen cabinets, kitchen improvement, kitchen renovation
Categories: Hanging Maple Cabinets •
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March 29, 2010 by admin
I can’t stress enough the importance of taking good notes during a kitchen improvement project! These notes are for myself as well as for other people working on the project, such as my contractor Johnny Chihuahua.
notes for kitchen improvement
Kitchen renovation notes… Read more »
Tags: kitchen improvement, kitchen remodel, kitchen renovation notes
Categories: Taking Notes While Working on Kitchen Renovation •
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March 29, 2010 by admin
After the pre-tile floor was complete the next step was to move on to knocking out some electrical work to get this kitchen renovation moving. Each half of the kitchen was slated for 6 and 5 recessed lights, with the side of 5 also having hanging mini pendants over the island. USALight has great deals on recessed lighting. I also used them for a basement renovation where I had 16 4″ cans in the room (click the link for details of that project).
Since the ceilings are 10 feet high in for this kitchen improvement project, I went with 6″ cans.
6" Recessed Lighting Cans
I used “new construction” cans for the side of the kitchen were Read more »
Tags: hanging pendants, island lighting, kitchen improvement, kitchen renovation, over counter lighting, recessed lighting, under counter lighting, wiring lmultiple lights
Categories: Lighting Design & Installation •
2 Comments »
March 29, 2010 by admin
There was no choice but to remove the subfloor since the tile was so severley stuck to it (see tile mess here). When doing a kitchen renovation, trust me, you dont want to run into this problem. Under the subfloor was an old wood floor in half the room, and floor joists in the other half. The floor joists had “sister joists” attached to the sid of each one that leveled out the floor for tile. The bowed floor dropped nearly 2 inched from side to center. The problem was that the sister joists were also glued to the subfloor in that half, so they had to go also. We basically stripped half the room down to joists. These pictures are a bit blurry but you get the idea:
bowed floor joists
bowed floor joists
So the next step was a Read more »
Tags: bowed floor joists, hardi board, kitchen improvement, kitchen renovation, leveling a floor, subfloor
Categories: New Subfloor in Kitchen •
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March 8, 2010 by admin
tile wont come up
As you can tell from pictures of the kitchen the room was divided into two areas. Although both areas had the same tile, removing the tile floor was very different in each area of the kitchen. The side of the kitchen that had the appliances was relatively easy removing the tile. The other side, however was tile removing hell! It was nearly impossible to separate the tile from teh plywood subfloor. Each tile smashed and splintered into tiny peices and hauled out in buckets. Even after smashing the tile, the actual bottom portion of each tile remained in tact:
problems removing tiles
You can see the orange-ish tile and only a few spaces we were able to get to the actual subfloor. Everywhere else is the bottom of the tile still stuck to the subfloor.
difficult tile removal
If you’ve ever had some problems removing floor tiles, you understand from these pictures that this was not a fun job.
We basically got it smashed down enough to expose the seams of the subfloor so that could be ripped up with the tile remnants still intact.
The two sections of the floor were different levels so one sheet of subfloor had to be removed from one half of the room. Turns out these sheets were heavily glued, screwed, and nailed together. More fun trying to rip them apart as they just shredded and splintered:
difficult tile removal
Due to a bow in the floor joists, there were ‘sister joists’ attached to each kitchen floor joist to level it out. After discovering the sub floor issue we figured it was better to just rip it all out!
difficult tile removal
You can see that old hardwood floors were under the sub on one side. Given it was only one side, they it wasn’t salvageable.
Tags: kitchen improvement, Tile Floor Removal
Categories: Tile Floor Removal •
4 Comments »
February 17, 2010 by admin
This was a load bearing wall basically runs the length of the house and was the first thing to be considered before starting this major kitchen improvement. It was a support type of wall, not holding the entire weight from above. The perpendicular second floor joists run the whole width of the home from one brick exterior wall to the opposite with no break.
kitchen improvement - wall removal
In the above picture you can clearly see the ‘drop down’ 2×4 framed ceiling that was installed in the cooking area of the kitchen. Besides making it easier to install recessed can lights, and maybe for the “look” of the cabintes going to the ceiling, I’m not quite sure why this was done. I do know this: it’s coming out! 10 foot ceilings will be had all about this new kitchen.
kitchen improvement - above the "drop ceiling"
above the drop/false ceiling
where cabinets met the dlowered ceiling
uneven floor between seating & cooking area
A beam ran along the floor, as the footer to the removed wall, which was left for some reason. This caused the two ares to have two different floor levels witha threshold smoothing the way from one to another. Here you can see the tile butted up against this beam, with a layer of sub and then the old original wood floors below.
Beginning the kitchen improvement: Tear Down That Wall!
New support header installed…
Beginning the kitchen improvement: Tear Down That Wall!
new support beam
The effect that removing a wall can have on a room is simply incredible! The space feels so big and open. New floor, cabinets, countertops, light fixtures, etc…are eagerly anticipated!
Tags: kitchen improvement, kitchen renovation, remove load bearing wall, wall removal
Categories: Load Wall Removal •
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