But I know why you're *really* here, so let's start with a gratuitous Boone & Rosie pic from the middle of the remodel.
That white piece of metal sticking out of the trash bag went through my right foot a few minutes later.
Ooooh. Ahhhhh.
Now that that's out of the way, off we go.
It took about 3-4 weeks of living with more parts and pieces than I could count sitting in my breakfast nook, clogging up my everyday life before I finally decided to suck it up and pay a professional to install the cabinets.
...back in August. 😂
I know, I know. I said I was DIYing this kitchen. But I still think we've done/are doing enough to keep the DIY label. It's just those cabinets...
My brother/amateur general contractor does *not* enjoy finishing work. And since he's giving me a great deal on his labor [read: free + beer], I'm trying to take his preferences into account. Plus, I still need him to like me when this is all said and done.
Installing cabinetry is not something he was looking forward too, especially since I made him install the laundry room cabinets at the Woodward Place just in time for me to sell it. He was clearly less than ecstatic when I asked him to help install a whole kitchen and asked me to get a professional quote...just for "comparison's sake." When that came back around $25/linear foot, or roughly $500 for my whole kitchen, I didn't have the heart to tell him no. After weighing the cost of purchasing any tools we would need, an allowance to purchase replacement parts for whatever we would inevitable break, and our sweet, sweet time, $500 seemed very reasonable.
My contractor - the one I hired, not my brother - asked for a blank canvas before he could begin work so we were responsible for clearing the old kitchen out and repairing the walls. I assembled the most rag-tag group of people and together, we knocked out the demo in about a day.
That's some very old, very yellowed drywall.
It is worth noting that I decided to match the footprint of my old kitchen so I wouldn't have to replace the floors right now. The tile is in pretty good shape and (despite being my neither my style nor on trend) it's neutral and free.
Not a lot to say here. Crow bar, crow bar, crow bar. Hammer, crack stuff, spackle. You get it. The only thing worth mentioning is I am now the tape and mud queen.
If you can't tell, this is my favorite picture I've ever taken 😏
I was so relieved to have the cabinets in, I decided to halt any and all progress for about a month. Because I can.
Eventually, I got my brother's attention again and we took a day cutting the butcherblock counters to size. I've been ogling butcherblock for a while and the price point (less than laminate) made it a no brainer. I settled on Karlby from Ikea. It wasn't really much of a thinker: nothing compared in terms of price, availability, or online tutorials.
Since we had no idea what we were doing anyway, I asked my brother to figure out 45 degree corners versus 90 degrees corners, which would have been much easier. Honestly, I'm so pleased I did; the angled corners look much more professional and seeing the individual pieces of wood form right angles makes me the neurotic kind of happy.
Everyone's favorite part of that day was that time we realized that when opened one of the drawers wouldn't clear the front of my new farmhouse sink so we had to move the whole peninsula out three inches. Then, because it was such a good day, we cracked said sink 😭
...yeah...
By the end of the day we were too tired/depressed to actually attach the counters to the cabinets. So for a few more months I lived with counters that slipped and slid all over my kitchen. They looked like they were attached (I'm the queen of laying things out *just so*)...but they weren't...
I probably would've gotten them attached sooner if it wasn't for one unexpected perk: whenever someone new would come over, they'd invariably lean on the counter, almost fall on their ass, then panic because they'd think they broke everything.
Once we got the counters attached, things seemed to pick up. Now we're at my favorite part of any project: the details. After the better part of a year without a kitchen, then without counters, then without stationery counters, I'm so excited that everything is properly installed that painting and staining look like a treat..
I decided to Waterlox my counters, though the color was a little too light for my taste. I took a few more months to apply several coats of stain prior to the Waterlox.
I'm not going to try and explain this whole process, because there are *a lot* of people who have done this process more successfully than me. My two pieces of advice:
- If your counters are pre-oiled (like Ikea's), use a gel stain. No amount of sanding could make my counters absorb a reasonable amount of traditional brush on/wipe off stain.
- Tape your corner seams. Getting the brush marks to match the wood grain is nearly impossible at a corner seam without it.
I wish I could say that wasn't the end of this story and in some ways it isn't. But in the literal end-of-the-blog-post way, it toooootally is. Unfortunately, this is the very real world of cheap DIYs and lazy homeowners, so I'm just going to live with it as is for a while. I have made some more progress, slowly but surely, though I still have a to-do list a mile long. On it: re-install one cabinet over the refrigerator, add all the trim (that will cover where the floor tile ends under the cabinets), and give the cabinets a few more coats of paint. Yep, I'm like 99% certain that mermaid green is already on its way out. On top of that I still need to learn to tile a backsplash, add hardware, and install my light fixtures.
Maybe it will be all done by 2018...maybe not. #blognesty
No comments:
Post a Comment