A pictorial History of a Kitchen Remodel (pic heavy)

Flying Clay Disk

We decided to remodel the kitchen.  (this statement should just stand on it's own, for all eternity)

The kitchen was nice, but poorly designed.  There was very little storage, no room for people to move around.  We had this non-functional two-level island which didn't work as prep, and didn't work as a bar, it just didn't work and was in the way.  The kitchen was nicely done in granite, but we didn't like the granite (I hated it actually).  It was dark, awkward and forced everyone into the same corner.  To remodel it was going to be hard (very).  We live here, and we don't have anywhere else to go (what with animals and all).  This would be one of the harder projects I've ever done.  So, here's what happened....

First, the planning phase (i.e. how can we do this and still live here at the same time???).  We decided to break the remodel down into three (3) phases.  The first was to construct a built-in hutch on the west wall of the kitchen.  Wife has hundreds of cookbooks, china and I have some great cast iron stuff.  Prior to this, the west wall of the kitchen was bare.  We needed storage, and lots of it.  So, Phase 1 was the west wall.  Phase 2 would be a large island, and Phase 3 would be to take out all the appliances, sink, stove and gut and replace everything. 

We would do all the work ourselves.

I don't have pictures of every step, but I do have some of the phases.

Here is phase 1, the west wall with the built-in hutch...(under construction)

[img]https://i.imgur.com/SvsRt18.jpg[/img]

Of course, before very long, my better half had to start putting stuff in it!  I no sooner got the doors hung and she was stuffing these cabinets full!!  And I mean FULL!!.  So, soon, even before we got the quartzite counter top in here's what it looked like....
[img]https://i.imgur.com/RPR6bDV.jpg[/img]

Next was the island.  I had to tear out the old island, and all the old granite (on the island).  It was a small island, and the wife wanted a big island (a GIANT island).  So I built cabinets for a 5'x9' island, it's HUGE!!  The quartzite for this weighed almost 3/4 of a TON!  Notice the quartzite top now on the hutch in the background.  These were from the same slab.  Also notice the black granite we were removing on the left.  All of this granite was removed and trashed.  Here's a pic....
[img]https://i.imgur.com/GIbGooh.jpg[/img]

Then came phase 3, the hardest of all.  We wanted a Farm Sink, and those are not easy, but worse, the wife wanted a "pot filler" over her new commercial stove.  My GAWD, if I ever build another house, I will start with a pot filler and build the entire house around it....they're THAT hard!.  Anyway, the first thing was to set all the new cabinets and get the farm sink in.  The sink was granite, and it weighed 195lbs, and it's a monster...here's the pics after it was set...
[img]https://i.imgur.com/VE3q9Zh.jpg[/img]

Notice all the temporary countertops made from 3/4 ACX plywood and treated spar varnish.  These were our countertops for months while the fabricators fabricated the quartzite for the counters.  I even had to build and plumb an extra board to hold the faucet (which took some doing).  Every step had to be planned just right.

Of course, Murphy's law would have the dishwasher crap the bed in the middle of this, so that was replaced too..  Then it was onto the stove...a commercial stove...and believe me folks, these puppies are NOT easy to do!

So there was too much heat and too much gas and too much burning of oxygen inside the house, so we couldn't just put in the stove, we also had to put in a serious ventilation system to evacuate the CO2 and makeup air into the house.  So a big vent hood was in order.  It's a 1400 cfm hood, which required we had to put makeup air units in the house.

A really nice double oven 48" commercial stove set up with (6) burners, and (8) if you count the two under the grate.  Here's a picture....
[img]https://i.imgur.com/oa00P09.jpg[/img]

As you can see in the last picture, the temporary countertops are still in place.  They have since been replaced with the quartzite you saw on the island (we bought multiple slabs to do this job).  You can also see the infamous pot-filler over the stove!

The kitchen is now nearly finished, much further than these pictures, but if you ever want to remodel a kitchen, just ask yourself how much patience and sanity you have, because it ain't easy!

Hope you enjoyed.

mark christian

Wow, the range and strove top looks amazing. What are all of those spices? There must be a spice for every day of the year. As an unrelated bonus, you actually used a photo hosting site instead of linking 200 photos into the thread which the forum's bandwidth has to support.

Mr. Perfect

Looks great!  If you will permit me, I will share progress on my own kitchen transformation (not done yet).

Flying Clay Disk

Oh, I tried to make them show up, Mark, but I failed.  Sorry.

It was a long road, this one.

The spices on the wall are (96) I believe.  I built those racks.  The wife is a Chef, and we've traveled the entire world together.  There is not a spice we don't have, or one we're not looking for.  Those ones don't even count the hundreds we have in bulk under the counters in roll out drawers!  This has been a labor of love (and sometimes not so much), this remodel.  We transformed a normal residential kitchen into something really useful and nice.  It wasn't easy, and it wasn't always fun, but we did it.

We had to re-route everything, re-work all the electrical, all the gas, all the lighting, all the water, all the drainage.  Every single thing in that kitchen had to move.  There's so many things you can't even see in these pictures; we had to relocate all the refrigerators, just move every single thing.  Every single trade I ever thought I knew was taxed to the limit on this one.

Mr. Perfect

Flying Clay Disk said:

Oh, I tried to make them show up, Mark, but I failed.  Sorry.

It was a long road, this one.

The spices on the wall are (96) I believe.  I built those racks.  The wife is a Chef, and we've traveled the entire world together.  There is not a spice we don't have, or one we're not looking for.  Those ones don't even count the hundreds we have in bulk under the counters in roll out drawers!  This has been a labor of love (and sometimes not so much), this remodel.  We transformed a normal residential kitchen into something really useful and nice.  It wasn't easy, and it wasn't always fun, but we did it.

We had to re-route everything, re-work all the electrical, all the gas, all the lighting, all the water, all the drainage.  Every single thing in that kitchen had to move.  There's so many things you can't even see in these pictures; we had to relocate all the refrigerators, just move every single thing.  Every single trade I ever thought I knew was taxed to the limit on this one.

I feel for ya. All the same things happened here. I think the most surprising worst part was trying to agree on things like kitchen sink, faucets, and (dear GOD!) counter tops!!

austin20

Very nice.

Flying Clay Disk

Mr. Perfect said:

Looks great!  If you will permit me, I will share progress on my own kitchen transformation (not done yet).

Please do!  I'd love to see them!

Flying Clay Disk

I didn't fill in all the open wall stuff in my post.  All the electrical we had to do (the island is electrified on both sides).  We had to completely re-wire the sink and disposal to make it Code.  (re work the electrical panel).  We basically had to re-do everything!.  We tore down walls, we tore the sides off of every wall, had to chase every wire, ever circuit, every pipe...it was endless.

mark christian

I've looked at the photos several times and the kitchen is palatial. I'm very impressed- and i'm not impressed by much.

kimi

Superb!

Chief Shaway

Very nice. 
We had ours redone last summer. 
3 weeks without a sink or stove. 
The grill worked overtime for sure. 
I did all of the plumbing and electrical, left the rest to the pro's. 
Our contractor uses mostly Amish/Mennonite labor. 
We ended up going with a Hickory counter top and love it. 
She is eye balling the main bathroom next. 

Flying Clay Disk

@Chief Shaway - We managed to keep both the sink and the old stove functioning throughout it all.  When we plumbed in the gas for the new stove, we moved it out of the way and then put it back afterwards.  The new stove wasn't delivered for a couple more weeks.

The only thing I contracted out was the HVAC work for the hood.  (I don't like working in attics / on roofs, so it was worth it to pay for that).  So, when the HVAC guys were here I threw a couple extra bucks their way and had them assist in moving the new stove into place.  The new stove is a combo of electric (ovens) and gas (range top) like most commercial stoves, so it went right in.  Only was without a stove for about 4 hours of one day.  The sink required pretty careful planning to keep it operational.  You'll notice in some of the pictures I had to rig a temporary countertop.  I had to reinforce the back of the counter to stabilize the faucet.  The old faucet was plumbed through the granite and it was one big piece, so in order to remove the old granite I had to come up with a plan to keep the sink operational.  The granite had to go early because we had to set new cabinets to the right of the sink.

Of all the phases, I think the last phase was the hardest, because you couldn't touch one thing without affecting three other things.  So planning and coordination took some time.

On a funny note - There's always some weird thing that happens on a project like this, and ours was no different.  On the day the stove was to arrive we had a torrential rainstorm for about 10 hours.  The road was complete mud and there was no way a tractor trailer was getting down the road and up to the house.  The driver called me at about 7 pm and said he was a half hour out...now it was "salami slicing time"!  Time to make a decision.  Had him meet us at a local market about 15 miles up the road.  There we would unload the stove and hood onto my truck which could get through the mud to the house.  Felt like making some kind of a stolen goods rendezvous at night in a parking lot.  The store was closed, and I was just waiting for the Sheriff to show up any minute where I'd have to explain what the heck we were doing.  Even funnier, the Sheriff's satellite office was right next door!  But they never showed.  Fortunately, everything was palletized and packed in serious wood crating so we were able to unload it here with the skidsteer and the pallet forks on it.

Flying Clay Disk

mark christian said:

I've looked at the photos several times and the kitchen is palatial. I'm very impressed- and i'm not impressed by much.

Thanks Mark!

Coming from you, that's quite the compliment!  And I do appreciate it. 

A lot of hard work went into this project.  I think I used about every tool I own, and even had to get some I didn't own.

In the end, I think it came out really nicely.  It got the wife what she wanted and then some.  Plus, it definitely enhanced the value of our home.  Not to mention it removed a totally dysfunctional existing kitchen.

Mr. Perfect

Flying Clay Disk said:

mark christian said:

I've looked at the photos several times and the kitchen is palatial. I'm very impressed- and i'm not impressed by much.

Thanks Mark!

Coming from you, that's quite the compliment!  And I do appreciate it. 

A lot of hard work went into this project.  I think I used about every tool I own, and even had to get some I didn't own.

In the end, I think it came out really nicely.  It got the wife what she wanted and then some.  Plus, it definitely enhanced the value of our home.  Not to mention it removed a totally dysfunctional existing kitchen.

The work looks great, Bob. I know you two will enjoy it immensely.

SW0320

Kitchen looks really good.  What brand of stove is that?  We did our kitchen 15 years ago for our 25th wedding anniversary.  We did a Wolf stove and Sub-Zero fridge/freezer.   Looks like you added on to the kitchen?  

We took over our living room and added it to the kitchen and then added a new living room.  
Had an interesting experience.  The builder for the addition had just finished an addition for our neighbor so asked him to do our addition.  Did not think he would do it as he normally did only new houses not additions.  We got about 3/4 done and had to go away for one of our events. 

Came back and found out that our builder ran away with the neighbors wife.

We were lucky to find new builder to finish the project.  These type of things are always an experience.  We had custom cabinets built, so coordination between builder, cabinet maker, plumber, electrician and appliances was a real juggling act.  

Flying Clay Disk

@SW0320 - The stove brand is a Z-line commercial, saved a few bucks over a Wolf.  Refrigerator in the kitchen is one of the big Samsungs.

We didn't actually add to the kitchen proper, but the kitchen was set up as a kitchen- dinette.  We did move some walls (slightly) but really just to make things fit properly.  Fortunately, I'm an old builder so we didn't need to sub it out, we did most all of it ourselves (cabinets, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, framing, finish work, etc.)  Obviously, we had to hire a granite/quartzite fabricator for the tops, and we did hire an HVAC guy I know for the hood (which actually is a BIG cfm hood!!!  It will suck out a lit match!)  For the hood, we had to vent some make-up air, and that was "fun".  The stove is like 60,000 BTU if all burners are on, so we needed makeup air for the stove (and for US)! 

We were originally going to go with a 60" stove, but then our efforts would have been much more focused around the stove, exhausting it, and fire protection (and numerous other Code issues).  We opted for the 48" instead.  Our hood is probably too large (in terms of cfm), but if something burns...you can't even smell it!

SW0320

FCD I wish I could be like you and be able to do the work myself.  I was very fortunate to have good contractors but it is still work to line everything up.