Kitchen Update

We are now on our sixth week of kitchen renovations. I would love to be able to report more progress but I can't. In all honesty we likely should have gutted the kitchen but that would have affected the adjoining family room ceiling. We are now doing the work ourselves but that part you already knew if you have been following this blog.

Appliances Installed

Background: The kitchen is mainly below ground with a large window opening onto the ground and a patio door opening into the backyard facing the water. While this means good energy savings because of the extra thick walls it also means we are somewhat limited for adding on in either direction. Indoors the kitchen joins the family room so there is no room for expansion there either. Essentially that means we are working with what we have in terms of space and layout. Unfortunately the previous owners put the sink in an awkward position with the corner being only a couple of inches where the countertop range was. Some of the cabinets were damaged through neglect or using too harsh of cleaners. I decided to refinish them because they are good heavy doors and recycling what we had was the right thing to do if at all possible. So during this renovation we are reusing the cabinets, cabinet doors, cabinet handles, HVAC vent and portions of the existing countertops. We haven't decided about lighting replacement but may upgrade the existing ceiling fan. The pot light over the window works fine so doesn't need replacement.

Cabinet Doors

Pictured is how the kitchen looks right this minute. Most of the cabinet doors have been rehung. The backsplash has been removed that will give about an extra inch of counter space. We were going to leave the laminate on the walls but after finding one small area where it was lifting decided to remove it. The laminate was covering an electrical receptacle (red arrow) that we didn't know about. It was reconnected by our electrician this morning! Which leads to to make a few comments on DIY.

Any DIY project is likely going to take twice the time and cost twice the amount of money you figured it would. A fundamental mistake some DIYers make is to not ask for help or hire out when they are out of the area of ability. Not only does this end up costing both time and money but so mistakes can put their families at risk. Now both my husband and I are quite comfortable doing electrical repairs however, the wiring in this box wasn't quite familiar and the box had been covered for at least as long as the previous owner did the kitchen. We discovered the box was dead but looked to be inline with other receptacles so could easily be reconnected. In this case it was easier and safer to have our electrician stop by to check it out before we did anything.

For the most part I'm happy with how the cabinet doors and handles came out. They are cleaner and brighter looking and they match the wood ceiling better. We ordered the hinges online from MyKnobs at a cost of $1.93 per set compared to $4.39 per set here. That is quite a savings! Each set came with two hinges, the necessary screws and cabinet pads. The only problem we encountered was having to drill new holes on the door backs for the hinges as the new ones were slightly smaller than the old ones.

Breakfast Island

The breakfast island has been the source of much discussion. It along with the change from carpet to ceramic tile flooring are the only things that mark the change from the family room to the kitchen. We would like to get a bit more light into the family room so the first consideration was to put frosted glass panels on both sides of the two end cupboards. Removing all the doors for refinishing showed up that this wouldn't give the effect we wanted. We knew for sure we wanted to square off the counter on the island (1) and it has now been removed. Then and we are now still discussing removing (2). Both of us agree the overall look with (2) removed would be a plus. However, my husband came up with the idea of narrowing the island by removing (3). The reasoning is the island is not used as an eating surface and in fact no one uses the island for eating even when we are entertaining. My concern is that this would be removing too much counter space something we always can use more of. I'm thinking we shouldn't narrow it because at some point we may want to use it as an eating surface and it does make a lovely serving surface as well. So I think (3) will be staying.

Tiles

Pictured is a close-up of the breakfast bar to give you a bit better idea of what we are doing. The edge (4) has already been removed. This will allow us to run the wood needed for the tile installation. Instead of doing a wood trim edging as initially planned we are now doing a ceramic tile one to match the counter. The portion in orange (5) is the portion we are debating removing. As you can see that is a substantial amount of countertop in a kitchen with little counter space so we will likely be leaving it that wide (26"). Another thing we will be fixing before tiling the wall is the switches. For some reason there's a space between the switch and plugs so we will put them together properly.

What is really exciting is seeing the tile being laid out. Now that the kitchen is in even more disarray than before and it will get worse before it's over, the tile gives a glimmer of this is going to happen. That's another side to DIY. It goes slow because life does get in the way. We don't have a week of full, non-stop time to dedicate to the project. We work when we can so the house has been in varying degrees of chaos for the past six weeks while we work time in for the kitchen around everything else.

Sink & Taps

We bought the Moen faucet (model 87444) quite some time ago. The hardware store was running a sale on Moen products. The faucet was marked down to $60 from $119.99 so imagine my surprise when I saw it was $206 on the Moen website! What appealed to us was the overall design and that Moen has a good reputation.

We ordered a Moen sink Camelot (model 22231) from HomeCenter. The regular price was $215.75 but the discounted price was $131.61! Shipping brought the total to $161.56 but considering the time and money we saved finding a sink that would exactly fit the spot the shipping costs were worth it. Notice we went with a single bowl sink. We currently have a bowl and a half sink but it won't fit the new location. The new bowl is deeper than the old larger bowl. Not only do we not have room for a double sink, we cannot have a garburator here so we decided to go with a single sink. I'm sure I will adjust.

Online shopping has become the new and environmentally friendly way to shop. You can comparison shop online saving time and money all from the comforts of home. Not only that but most shipping charges are considerably lower than what you would spend driving from store to store so not only are you saving precious gas dollars, you are also reducing your carbon footprint. One down side to online shopping is of course the shipping time. That just means you have to do a little more planning and realize that a DIY project may have to be delayed while waiting for a purchase to arrive.

The next few days should see a lot of changes so please check back for the next update.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Starting to Stain

Refinishing kitchen cabinets or any other cabinet or piece of furniture is slow going. The end result always depends on the quality of the preparation work so this is one area where you should not skimp. So far I have 10 drawer fronts and 13 cabinet fronts to the completion of staining. That leaves me 10 cabinet fronts that have not been sanded yet and the cabinets themselves that have started to be sanded. I am rather pleased with the results even though it has been a lot of work. I'm hoping to have the rest of the cabinet fronts and cabinets stripped today. From there the timing becomes simply staining and finish coat time while allowing plenty of time for the stain to dry before applying the finish and allowing that to dry between coats. I hope to also have the handles spray painted today. We are replacing the hinges because some of the old ones are not really re-usable.

Composite cabinet doors are those made from particle board then covered with a thin veneer. Both aggressive cleaning with harsh chemical cleaners or neglect such as allowing water to remain on the door's bevelled edges can cause the doors to look unsightly. The problem is this tends to affect only door fronts in heavily used areas while the rest of the door fronts may look almost new. That means if you buy a new to you house you stand a good chance of running into this problem. Refinishing is likely the cheapest option for getting a renewed look but it is time consuming.

Resist the urge to try fixing just those damaged doors as it will be next to impossible to match the existing door fronts. Quite often these doors are heavy and still quite usable so your options become whether to stain (good option for wood finished) or paint (only real option for already painted doors). If staining do consider that you may have to use the same handles or find similar to hide any flaws from the old handles. Hinges likely should be replaced. On average, do not underestimate the amount of time this project will take. Allow for at least two weeks, start to finish.

Tips for Refinishing Composite Cabinet Doors
Note: Safety first! This project requires safety goggles and a dust mask along with proper ventilation.

1. empty cabinets
   
2. remove doors from cabinets
3. remove all hardware
   
4. wash well with TSP and allow to dry
5. decide on whether painting or sanding down to wood veneer - either way you still have to do some sanding
   
6. use a spray bomb for the finish coats if stained or the paint coats - be sure to apply in thin coats with doors laying flat
7. keep the spray bomb in motion and not too close to the surface to avoid excess pooling or uneven surfaces
   
8. Use a fine steel wool between coats and to smooth any raised edges in the raised particle board
9. Allow ample time for stain drying, drying between paint coats or finish coats

Prepped for Staining

The garage has been taken over with door and drawer fronts sitting on bins. This is where I do the staining and finishing coats for a couple of reasons. The door fronts take up a lot of space because I am doing them flat. I was going to do them outside but weather can be fickle and I need at least a 24 hour dry time for the stain followed by another 24 hours for the finish coats, likely four. Recall that I am finishing both front and back of each door so that adds another day. Time wise just in this adds up to three days. The main reason for doing the staining and finish coats in the garage aside of being able to leave them undisturbed is to keep the odours out of the house as much as possible. Using a spray bomb in the garage won't be a problem either so I will get the nice finish I want without having to worry about over spray. As you can see, only a fraction of the door fronts are ready for staining.

The Stain

I am a fan of Flecto Varathane products and use them almost exclusively for any refinishing projects. The stain performs nicely without drying too fast for good blending and the urethane gives a nice, very durable and scrubable finish. I'm using traditional cherry (# 245). What I don't like is these products are not exactly environmentally friendly although the water based ones are better than the oil based.

Staining the door fronts is really quite easy. I use a pure bristle brush to apply a generous coat of stain then let it sit 5 minutes before wiping off the excess. This ensures the stain penetrates through-out the remaining veneer for an even application. This also eliminates having to apply a second coat. Once the excess stain is removed I allow the door fronts to sit undisturbed for 12 hours then turn over and repeat the process on the back (inside of door). It is imperative that the stain be fully dried before applying the spray finish coats.

I'm using Flecto Varathane Professional Clean Finish in semi-gloss. This finish is touch dry in minutes which helps to eliminate any dust or insects settling into the finish resulting in a nice smooth finish. Anything that does settle between coats is easily removed with a light sanding using fine steel wool.

A Peek Look

Here is a peek look at what the stained door fronts will look like. This picture was taken just after applying the stain and removing the excess stain. This is a good indication of how they will look with the finish coats applied although they will not be shiny as I'm using a satin finish. Note how the original stained sides are lightened just a bit with the new stain. Also note how the shape of the original handle still shows. This is more apparent on some of the doors than others. The veneer was to thin to sand away this problem so as already mentioned I am reusing the handles. Not only is this frugal since I don't mind the handles especially after being spray painted (see tomorrow's post) but environmentally re-using instead of replacing is a good thing. The stain is not near as yellowish after it dries as you will see in tomorrow's pictures.

I've already started spraying the handles and have to say they are coming out better than expected. I will post more about them tomorrow including a little cheater trick for cleaning them before painting. So please check back tomorrow as I get one day closer to finishing our kitchen renovations.

Garden Gnome
© 2007