Kitchen Install: Day 1 Wrap-up

(Starting off with a gratuitious Bettie shot)

Update from Day one: Not a lot of big things going on for the first day of the kitchen install. The day started with our contractor Butch working by himself, while his assistant Ken was out buying supplies. We walked around and went over some of the ground rules, and made sure we were all thinking the same thing, so we could strategize the whole process. Then the work began.

Walls were cut out in pieces. They remained intact for the most part so he could re-install them in place so there would be less of a difference in the texture of the walls. Several interesting discoveries came out of this process. First, the type of plywood used to make the walls is no longer made. Sure it’s just ¼” ply, but its on the thin side of ¼ where most of today’s are on the fat side of ¼. I would have expected that ¼ inch ply would be ¼ inch thick, but I guess if 2x4s are neither of those dimensions that it reasons to stand that plywood would also be different.

It took some interpolation to determine the second fact. It is a bit strange to have plywood for walls when it is definitely more common to have either Plaster and Lath or drywall, but initially this was just put down for cheap building back in the ‘40s. But as the plywood walls were cut away, Butch noticed that the sheets of ply were glued to the studs in the wall, and the only nails that were in place were those used to hold the sheets up while the glue dried. This led to the hypothesis that the house was a modular house, built in 2 halves and stuck together on site in 1948. This actually makes a surprising lot of sense. If you consider than the house is nearly perfectly rectangular, the only exception being the front entrance being a bit recessed off the side of the house (if you can imagine it, that made sense in my mind, but I go through the door every day [look at the picture top right and I think you can see what I’m talking about]). Also, having spent some time in the attic, there it most certainly a central spine of the house, where 2 longitudinal joists come together directly below the peak of the roof, where it would make sense that the two sides came together.

By the time I came home for lunch, the door to be filled was removed, and the framing had begun. By the end of the day it was completely closed off on the hallway side. The kitchen side of it will be covered by cabinetry and back splash, and on the hallway side we will build a built-in bookcase. While I can see a door there being convenient, having the extra counter space, and the extra storage a book case provides will make the whole situation a bit better. And we lived without the door for several months and never noticed. So plusses all around.

The other thing that was started was the patching of the hole in the center of the kitchen where the original light had been, which was just covered by a little metal cover plate. There was a junction box up there, with shielded wire running to it. Unfortunately, as Ken discovered, the wires were still hot, and the wires had worn through at the edge of the conduit. He ended up shorting the circuit, tripping the breaker, and sending half of the house dark. A little bit of fishing, removing some shielding, and lots of electrical tape, it was then set for the electrician to work on it. On the subject of half of the house going dark, it was a further supporting fact for the modular construction. It would make sense for each half of the house to be pre wired on a circuit, and the two to be tied together in the panel during construction. It was then prepared for the plywood patch that will go in there and give us one solid ceiling.

So that’s where it stood at the end of day one. I am writing this toward the end of day two, and that update will follow soon. It’s a bit exciting, frustrating, and definitely a bit interesting, especially for someone like me who is a bit of an engineer, and a bit of a handyman. 

Kitchen Demo

This is what the kitchen looked like on Friday:

Outdated appliances that were cheap to begin with, stained vinyl floor, particle board cabinets (and not a lot of them), a hideous chandelier in an awkward spot, and really, really bright red paint.  

It all had to go.

Brendon and my dad knocked out this monumental task, with only minimal help from my mom and I (read, handing them stuff when they needed it and holding the door open for them to carry things outside), in under 4 hours.  Impressive doesn't begin to cover it.

There they are, all finished up, proud and exhausted.  The base cabinets gave a bit of a fight, but nothing these big strong fellas couldn't handle.

The gutted kitchen was in remarkably good shape.  Sure there were a few holes in the wall, but they will all be hidden behind new cabinets; and there was a teeny bit of mold behind the sink, but it cleaned right up with some Clorox spray.  The wooden subfloor is sturdy and even, and there's no signs of real damage.  It was really interesting seeing all the layers of paint as previous owners became less thorough about moving things before painting.  One corner looked almost like modern art.

The color on the far right is the one the finished kitchen will be, a marvelous terracotta.

The general contractor, plumber, and electrician will start work first thing Monday morning.  Meanwhile, the room is empty and startling every time we pass through.  And the cat is rather mystified by the whole thing.

Closetings

One of the many aspects of the house that we found to be substandard was the closets. Maybe it’s the fact that it is 60 years old, and it appears that they have not been played with at all. And also the fact that closet technology (I use that term loosely) has come a long way. We have been dissatisfied with having one shelf and one bar, and felt the need to remedy the situation.

One of our favorite home stores is The Container Store. If you are a neat freak, organization freak, basket, bin, and doodad freak, or just any other sort of freak that likes putting stuff into other stuff, then this is your place. Admittedly, I am not an organized individual, as my wife, mother, and anybody else that has ever spent a few minutes with me can attest to. But that notwithstanding, I genuinely enjoy shopping there. It’s a lot like Ikea, you just start thinking of all the crap you would do if you had time, money, and motivation. Well, at this stage in my life, I have 2 and ½ of those.

At The Container Store they have a closet system called Elfa, which I believe is Swedish, further tying it to Ikea in my mind. It’s very similar to the systems found at other home improvement stores, but seems to be a much higher quality, and it is highly adjustable. A few months ago, they had a large sale on it, so we dropped a few hundred dollars to outfit several of our closets with the systems.

We were going to have it all shipped to the house, but it would have been a rather large sum of money to have that done. They offer an in-store pickup option, and that seemed to be the best solution. The closest store is in San Jose, about an hour away, at a really nice shopping center called Santana Row. We pulled up out front, went inside, and within about 5 minutes they brought a big cart full of stuff out and we loaded the car up. Very easy; very quick.

So the following weekend I set about installing the first closet full in the coat closet. We are also going to do the Master Bedroom, and the Laundry Room. We will be installing the laundry room while the kitchen is being done and the master closet when we get off our butts and do it. It was a relatively easy process, once the demo was done. Taking out closets that have been in place for 60 years, and have a dozen coats of paint wasn’t super easy, but with a pry-bar, hammer, and some scrap pieces of wood, it all came out pretty easily.

Some houses have drywall, some have plaster and lath. And we have plywood walls. And as you can see, when they built the house, they decided to plaster and paint after they put up the closet pieces. So we will need to go back in and put some plaster up to blend it in, and paint so there’s no exposed wood. And once we do, it will also get a thorough re-organization so as to not look nearly as messy as it does right now.

The hardware went up rather easily. A couple holes drilled and screws screwed in. The rails went on easily and then the shelves went on quickly too. We replaced a single shelf with 2 shelves, lowered the hanger bar by about 6 inches, and the whole shelving unit is about 6 inches from going all the way across. The CD/DVD rack on the door is an Elfa system we purchased a few months back, and matches the rest of the system. We will install a rack on the side of the closet to hold brooms and such, since we really don’t have a good spot to store them at the moment. So while we can hold a few less jackets, we have a lot more storage. All told, the demo and install took about 2 hours. And I did it by myself while Cara was out with friends. Go Me!!!!

Turning the soil

When we bought the house, the yard was pretty bleak.

The front yard contained a broken fountain, a tangle of ugly hose and pipes (not pictured), and one scraggly tree, which became even more scraggly and ugly when it was trimmed away from the house, as per our inspection. The tree was not-so-lovingly nicknamed "Cousin It," though my mother also labeled it the "Dr. Seuss Tree."

The backyard was a tangle of weeds, and not much else. (They did take the bucket with them before we moved in.) Quite a bit more green has appeared since this was taken in the fall, but it's mostly crab grass and dandelions.

Over the last couple of weekends, we have put in several labor-intensive hours making some early improvements. This past Sunday was the most industrious yet.

First, we removed Cousin It. We found out it is a podocarpus henkelii and can grow to be very, very tall. Which is bad news when the root system starts out just a couple of feet from one's house. What were these people thinking, anyway? Besides, it wasn't especially enhancing our curb appeal. So out it came.

Instead, in front of the house we planted three camellias (a Pope Pius IX, a Pretty-in-Pink, and a Marie Bracey, if you must know) and a little gardenia in the far corner.

Some time in the future we will add some azaleas to fill in the gaps. Check out the blossom on the Pope Pius though - it's gorgeous!

Doesn't even look real, does it?

We also put in two itty bitty baby citrus trees, a Persian lime and a Meyer lemon. The lemon has some little flowers which are very fragrant, and at least one small fruit. All that, and only two feet tall.

As for Cousin It/henkelii, it was relocated to the back yard, where the root system of a 35 foot tall tree won't upset anything but a run down shed that ought to be replaced anyway.

Behind the tree, you can see some little garden plants peeking out. We planted sugar snap peas a few weeks ago and they are doing fantastically. Every single one sprouted, and they are 3-5 inches high already.

(The crab grass is just driving me nuts, though!)

Next to them we added some peppers. These we started from sprouted plants this past weekend.

There are are few cayenne plants, a serrano, and a poblano/ancho.

The garden plants in the back are doing much better than the ones in the front, also planted at the same time as the peas.

Somewhere in this picture there's carrots, bok choy, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, thyme, oregano, and thai basil. This is an early picture, and there is some growth from just about everything since then, but nothing that looks anywhere near edible. Certainly not the abundance we've seen with the peas, and I may have to try all over again with the herbs in containers. Plus I think slugs are chewing up the spinach and maybe the broccoli. Beer traps are in my future...

We still have tons of work to do before the yard could be called "nice." Eventually we will put sod down in the front yard, replace the fence, add flowers along the front border, maybe plant an orange tree to join the lemon and lime. There are window boxes to be planted, very soon. We'll probably get some tomatoes and squashes when it warms up a bit more, too.

And the weeding. Always the weeding.