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New Kitchen – cabinets, countertop

Now that all the major, structural stuff was complete:

  • New floor down to and including the joists

  • New ceiling including new rafters

  • New interior walls and exterior siding including studs, etc.

  • All new plumbing & electrical

We were now ready for the cabinet maker to deliver and install the new cabinets. This is the one part of the job that I did not do. We had Yoder Cabinet Company make custom built solid wood (Hickory) cabinets. Our kitchen is roughly 9’x20′ and we designed it so that we would have a “J” shaped kitchen where we had 20′ of cabinets along the long wall, 9′ along the short wall, and the 6′ peninsula. The peninsula separated the dining room from the kitchen and provided barstool seating for 3-4 people. I also installed the new sink and new dishwasher and hooked up the plumbing.

For the countertop we chose laminate, which the cabinet maker also installed. Although it has held up just fine and there are no problems with it, I wish I had spent the extra $1k and gone with Corian. For the backsplash, I installed decorative ceramic tile which looks great. I also installed beautiful tile on the wall behind the stovetop and on the peninsula/counter. My wife chose all the tiles (floor, wall, countertop, etc, and they look great!). (Remember: I am just the handyman). Thankfully, she did the wall painting which required special effects (which are beyond my ability!). I did the priming, but the painting required an artist (my wife)to deal with the 3 stage finish painting/glazing, etc. I don’t know what it is called: but it looks fantastic.

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New Kitchen – continued

Before I continue I would like to say that if I had realized all the work that I was going to be getting myself into, I would have somehow talked myself out of this project using whatever excuses I could think up: “it is way beyond my capability & ability”, “it will cost too much”, etc, etc… There were alot of things that came up unexpectedly (known as mushroom factors: where you encounter an unexpected problem that you must deal with, and in dealing with that one, another 5 crop up).

But what I have discovered is that when you rise to the challenge, you will be amazed at what you can do. Sometimes, of course, it is a choice; other times it is a necessity. In our case we often had to go back to the “drawing board” to re-figure “custom” solutions to the “custom” problems.

So: I am very happy that I didn’t give up. And 7 years later I still am delighted with the results and still amazed that I could possiblyhave built something so beautiful. So: don’t underestimate yourself!

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One Hardworking Man

When you live through all that there is much that you just take in stride (or suffer through- you pick), but when I read through Handyman’s account I started to remember just how hard he worked… and keeps working. We can say we were nuts, that we would not do this again if we had known how much work we had let ourselves in for, but the truth is that the Handyman honed his skills and proved his mettle in the accomplishment of what is probably the work of two men… no, probably more like a team of men. He did get some help from our sons, but the elephant share was his own sweat equity (and blood sometimes… if you count scratches and whatall).

Thanks, Handyman… you have made things nice for us. and that kitchen is a constant pleasure:)
I’ll try to get some pictures scanned in if I can find them…
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