Posts Tagged ‘reno surprises’

We’ve paid a huge deposit (gack!) for our new granite counters and appliances, but our contractor told us our sink is on a 40-day backorder with Ferguson while everything else is only a one week wait.  Well, that’s not going to work for me.  I would like my kitchen finished because I’m tired of eating grilled and microwaved vegetables for dinner.  I’ve already been without a stove for almost two weeks now, and I’m ready for this to be done.  Who would’ve thought it would be the sink that would bring this to a halt?

Undermount Cast-Iron Sink

Well, I’m impatient!  I don’t want to wait that long.  Thus, I’ve been scouring the Internets, and I found my sink on eBay!  Not only can I have in 7-10 days, but it’s much cheaper, even with shipping costs included.  And I don’t have to pay taxes!  I am full of win!

Maybe I can actually have all this installed before the 4th of July.

At least, I believe this is what the people who did the interior finishes in my kitchen must have thought while doing their jobs.  Yesterday I took down the old crappy fluorescent light fixture above my kitchen sink only to find it was not affixed to a ceiling box.  The hammer-happy construction crew had simply knocked a hole in the ceiling, pulled the wires through, and attached the light fixture to the ceiling with dry wall screws and anchors.   It wasn’t even centered properly!  *sigh*  Thus, I had to hop in my car and drive to Lowe’s for what feels like the millionth time in a week to buy a remodel ceiling box.  I didn’t think to take a picture when I pulled down the old fixture because I was so exasperated.  However, I did take one as I was in the process of installing the new ceiling box:

Kitchen Light Ceiling Box Install

If you look closely, you can see where I had already patched the holes where drywall anchors were used to hold the fluorescent light to the soffit.  Oh yes — and when I was cutting the hole for the ceiling box, I took a peek inside the soffit.  It’s just as I expected; there isn’t a damn thing in there!  They are “decorative” soffits.  Really, y’all — drunk people constructed my kitchen; I am convinced of this!  Anyway, my hole is nice and round because I used a compass and my trusty Dremel to make the opening for the ceiling box.   The rough edge you see is where the original construction crew knocked the soffit open with a hammer.  Grrrrr!  But hey — I got to geek out and use a compass and the drywall circle cutting attachment for my Dremel.

After dealing with the unexpected crappy ceiling box situation, I moved to installing a new pull-out pantry system.  I have a pantry cabinet, but the shelves in it were stationary and very deep.  Thus, stuff was constantly getting pushed to the back of the pantry, and we were continually buying duplicates because we could never see what we had in stock.  So, I searched online and found a fabulous pull-out pantry system at Rockler.  I had to get something that would work with my framed cabinets, and Rockler was the only place that had something. I only have a 14.5″ opening for the pantry.  Check it out!

Pull-Out Pantry - Closed View

That’s it with the pull-out piece closed.  When you open it, you have access to the back side of the shelves as well as some extra stationary shelves inside the pantry cabinet:

Pull-out Pantry - Open View

Those clear acrylic shelves in the back didn’t come with the system.  I just removed the old MDF shelves with crappy laminate and replaced them with acrylic shelves.  I went to Lowe’s and had them cut a large sheet of acrylic to fit the inside of the cabinet.  I reused the rails and supports that were originally for the faux-oak laminated MDF shelves.  What can I say?  At this point, I’m thinking of ways not to paint more cabinet stuff!  I didn’t paint the pull-out organizer, but I figured the maple looks okay inside the pantry.  As a bonus, acrylic is very easy to clean.  The laminate on the crappy MDF shelves started peeling away as I was trying to clean them.

I think the pull-out pantry organizer makes the most of a very small pantry cabinet.  At the very least, everything is now well-organized and easy to find.  I’m happy with it!

I’m really in the home stretch now.  I only have a few more cabinets to paint, and I need to finish applying the new wall color in the kitchen.  After that, I’ll take a wee break while we wait for the new dishwasher, and then it’s on to Phase 2: new granite counters plus a new sink, faucet, and range!  After that, we’ll add all of the decorative trim to the place: crown molding, finishing trim, etc.  That’s Phase 3.