A Little Light And A Little Air

Our kitchen exhaust fan and light got installed today, and what a nice looking piece of equipment this is. Great light along with a quiet and powerful fan. The duct work is 6 inches so lots of volume going outside quickly. I had to do a little adjusting to the 90° elbow because of a stud I had to move the exit hole right slightly, it all worked out in the end.

As we begin.

Locating the exhaust vent.

A little of set and working.

Great light and trust me the fan is powerful.

Exhaust installed.

From the other side.

Counter Top And Faucet

On July 25th we went to a company in St Stephen called Sticks and Stones to see about a quartz counter top, because we have seen them in family and friends homes and they look great we decided to check them out. After a little while looking at different options (I had to hold my ground on not getting the GREEN one) ReBecca liked one called Hanstone Specchio White. We liked the little 12 x 12 sample block so we asked to see the larger stone to see if we really liked it and it was great. While we waited for a quote we went through the catalogue with faucets and saw what we liked and got a great deal on it as well. We knew it would be expensive, it is a forever counter so paying a little more for this quality was worth it and it came in on budget, at least what I thought it would be. Today they came and installed our new counter top, these gents did a fantastic job and very professional. I would just like to note for the record, ReBecca said she has no more excuses.

It has arrived.

Before they started.

Drilling a couple of holes.

It's in and looks great, despite the picture quality.



Nice looking and its 1 1/8 inches thick.

Everything went in perfectly.

A Nice Fit

The wall is up and painted, as a matter of fact both the kitchen and dinning room have a new look. We primed the walls, and applied two coats of Diamond White paint, it's hard to see in these pictures but trust me it's white. A little later on I'll build a cabinet to go over the fridge for more storage space.

The mud work is done, three coats and this
is the primer coat.

All done and everything put back.
A nice fit.

One More Wall

This is a wall we always intended to put up, it just took a while getting around to it. We needed the rest of the kitchen in place to before it went up. Not much to it, it's not load bearing, just a support board across to secure the cabinet that will go above it, never waste a space.

A simple frame

Drywall on both sides, metal edge and tape.

First coat of mud applied.

Temp Top

It will be a while before out counter top is installed, as a matter of fact we are going to check out a very good company tomorrow and hopefully we'll have a better idea how long this temp will be in. It's ¾" birch plywood, with three coats of poly and after these pictures were taken I rounded the corners by the sink and the end, then I added the edge banding to finish it off, now for more poly. It may be a temp top but doesn't need to look shabby, it will look great.

The stone will be better.

Nice look.

177 inches of counter, with sink and cook top.

Patch Job Done

Well the patch job is done and I'll be starting the cabinet install tomorrow. Lots to do, making sure the base is level, getting the upper cabinet height right, then installing them and then the base cabinets. They'll need a little work, two will need cut outs for plug access, the cook top one will need an opening to pug it in and the sink, well that speaks for it's self. I'll see about progress pictures, no promises.

Left side, not perfect. They won't be seen
behind the cabinets.

Right side, same here and the back splash
will hide any other imperfections.

Under Cabinet Lighting

It's never as simple as just putting up the under cabinet lights and plugging them in, you see you're not suppose to see the wires or plug, and they need to be good LEDs. So I opened up the walls to add a plug down behind the lower cabinets, so I can plug in a little transformer for the LEDs, and run a low voltage wire for the lights. With the new LED's you can't just hard wire them in. When I install the lower cabinets I'll have access behind the drawers to the pug and all is good if I have to replace the transformer, easy access and no requirement to re-open a wall later.

The right side of the kitchen.

Add a little mud.

The left side, sorry no mud pictures this time.

It's Getting Closer

Well the kitchen is completed and I found a couple of new developments. We wanted to fix the dip in the ceiling between the kitchen and dining room, this meant once the old support beam was exposed we could brace the ceiling, jack it up, replace the old header and supports and we'd be done. It still is going to happen but there is one step the turns out to easier then I thought. The existing header isn't holding an load, in fact the one side was resting on an old 3 x 4 post and the only thing holding it in place was drywall, I quickly screwed a 2 x 4 in to hold it in place. No wonder the ceiling sagged and the bedroom above had a dip in the floor. I am hoping we can straighten it out a bit before we put down the floors.

With all the interior walls down I was able to see where the old wiring went and ReBecca and I tracked it down, and pulled it out. Some were still live but that didn't take long to correct. ReBecca is going to recycle the copper wire, maybe into her art.

Kitchen wall, interesting wall paper and access to the chimney.

A closer look at the wall paper.

This is the kitchen side of the header, I don't know if you can see it or not but they just nailed the two 2 x 10's together in place and through the old sheetrock.

You can see the protruding nails after I removed the sheetrock.

The kitchen wall that I thought we could remove, ReBecca noticed that it is tight up to the ceiling and the strapping. We don't need the extra 4 inches that bad.

This is the low point between the main beam and the header, I can see right under it, not even touching.

This is what we pulled out of the walls in the kitchen and dining room, and all the way into the attic, an nice little pile of copper wire.

Starting Demo Again

Well after taking a couple of days off after working on the floors, we are getting started with more demo work. First thing is to get the plumbing disconnected to the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen was easy, the old sink and counter came out easily, but I have been looking at the bathroom and it looks like this will take some time as the all the lines in this area come together, including the addition. I'll have to do a little exploring first to see whats what and how I can disconnect the water and drain lines so we can keep the addition on line. Then everything will come out, demo the room and restart anew.

Here are the before and after pictures of the kitchen sink and counter area.