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.

Making Room

Today was a nice day to work outside and we finally got at the shed. We just put things away and even stored large items there under tarps when we moved, not much room left. It took the day and we aren't done yet, but the big things are done. I built a wood rack to properly store my lumber and we decided to let go of a few things, so the trailer is full of stuff for the dump. Lots done and more to do.

All of this stuff.

And everything you can see here.

Came out of here, amazing.

New wood rack.

A full wood rack.

Putting It All Together

It was a busy week, putting the draws, doors and panel up. When you go from drawings, to cutting materials, to assembly and then installation, sometimes there is a little tweaking required and when you do that with specific dimensions and painted parts, one has to clean up these adjustments to keep them looking as they should. I won't go into details, lets just say lessons learned. As well I installed LED lights under the upper cabinets. So, here they are, up and looking fantastic. This is one step closer to completion and getting what we (she) wants.

How it looked before I started.

The upper left cupboards.

The upper right.

Left side of the kitchen.

Looking down from the right side.

Adding Colour

Once the glued dried I sanded everything and then put on the primer. Today I got three coats of paint on the back side of each and I'll be starting the front tomorrow. I didn't get a picture of them with the primer on, so you'll have to just imagine this picture but everything is white.



Once again, they look great.

Doors And Drawers Taking Shape

Since the counter top was installed I've been working on the cupboard doors and drawers. There wasn't much to see until today, because it's hard to show the groves and the tenon cuts. Each of the 72 boards were run through the table saw twice to center the grove and each of the rails had shoulder cuts then I used the tenon jig to cut away the scrap leaving tenons. And yesterday I picked up the plywood to finish them off. Today I assembled them, there are 9 drawers, 8 doors and 1 panel for the dishwasher. Next few steps are sanding, priming and painting.

Here they are glued and clamped together.

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.

Doors And Drawers

After the floors were laid we took a couple of days to visit with family, rest and I did a little golfing, now it's back to work in the kitchen. I've started to work on the doors and drawers, first I had to layout the cuts needed to maximize the wood. After all its 1" x 8" x 8' maple and I don't want to waste any. So now I have 36 stiles and 36 rails ready for mortise and tenons to be cut in, tomorrow.

This is what 40 feet of 1" x 8 " looks like cut up. Not much.

Great Looking Floors

The floors are laid and they look great. It took us 3½ days total to lay them, there were a couple of day's in between we didn't get any down, other commitments and a break helps. I still have to get the transition pieces for the bathroom and mud room doorways done. It took this long because we had to make sure the look was right, with some being a little lighter then others and the joint spacing was what we wanted. This is the first really big project we did together and it went very well, we're even still talking.

From the dinning room.

Looking back from the kitchen sink.

The fridge opening and the dishwasher was done too.

The kitchen's new look.

A great looking dinning room.

In front of the cook top and sink.

The Old And The New

Well the hall way is about done, just a couple of small pieces to cut and nail in, then onto the kitchen and dinning room. Here is a picture of the hallway as it looked when we first came to see the house, and a look with the new floors.

September 2011.

Today.

They look and feel great.

New Floors

We started to lay the new floors, they're 5 inch clear maple engineered boards. It took the day because they needed to be laid out so they look good, not too many small pieces together and make sure the joints aren't too close to the previous row. I used an air nailer with a shoe that fits these ½ boards, I borrowed from my brother-in-law, and it makes quick work nailing them in every 2-3 inches. No more pounding with a mallet on a traditional floor nailer, it is a little harder on the knees though.

The before look.

The after look.