Grout is applied to the kitchen tile by Dan.

Today was the final work day on our kitchen remodel — time for grout. The guys from A&G arrived on time (as usual) and set straight to work. There were some adjustments to be made to cabinets, and door stops added to save the cabinet doors from damage if opened too far, one replacement door from Kraftmaid was installed but another arrived without provision for hinges! But the focus was on tile and grout: John mixed while Dan tidied up the cabinetry. Then Dan started in applying grout with John following, not far behind, wet-wiping the tiles, smoothing the grout lines. Then there was more wet-wiping followed by dry wiping, and dry wiping, and more dry wiping.

John wet-wipes the grout, removing it from the tiles and smoothing the lines.

The transformation was fascinating to watch. By 2:00 they had finished, cleaned up, and packed up. We exchanged pleasantries and hand-shakes and they were — literally — heading off to the next job. We will have a bit more dry wiping to do but the kitchen is, essentially, complete and lovely, and ready for years of enjoyment. And, at long last, we get to move back into our living room!

Our New Kitchen

John and Dan work together fitting and installing tile.

Posting this, I’m unsure about how to number the project day. The A&G guys were only here half a day but it’s a full step forward in the project. I’ll call it Day 9 1/2 but it really feels “bigger” because the tile backsplash was put up this day. Dan and John efficiently worked together spreading the tile adhesive, fitting the pieces, and pressing the glass tiles into place. What a difference! This particular tile is hard to describe: it has a matte finish, a warm tone, but looks quite different under different lighting conditions and at different angles. Application of the grout will finish the tiling and the kitchen project, and that’s due Friday. Right now, however, we can really comprehend how the kitchen will look and it’s looking mighty good!

Kitchen sink area shows off cabinets, tile, and countertop.

Wider view of nearly-complete kitchen.

Appliance garage with upper cabinet is slid into place – the final piece!

The guys from A&G arrived bright and early and immediately set about multiple operations in our house. Dan installed electrical outlets flanking our kitchen range, John started in on moulding, and Al assisted with moulding and installation of the final cabinet unit. That last unit was second only in size, I think, to the pantry … it’s the appliance garage with two-door cabinet above, and all one piece! Al and Dan slid it from its huge shipping carton, prepped it for installation, and slid it into place. Once fastened into position the garage/cabinet completed installation of the new kitchen cabinet suite. The garage was last because it had to wait for installation of the countertop — it sits directly upon it! The garage door has a wonderful, tensioned, parallelogram action meaning one pulls out and up to open it and the door rises parallel to the upper cabinets and does not swing out. The mechanism prevents slams both during opening and closing and is brilliantly designed!

Dan installs bar-pull style handles on doors and drawers.

Dan installed all of the bar-pull style handles on the cabinet doors and drawers. The hardware is solid stainless and has a soft finish, just reflective enough to pick up color from the surrounding wood. Interestingly, we think the handles are a beautiful accent to the design complimenting the cabinets without calling much attention to themselves.

John installed most of the new moulding including tough fits.

Outside of the kitchen, trim and shoe moulding were added, completing the flooring project. Most of the moulding went up rapidly but there were those bothersome little spaces that needed a lot of measurement and attention. The finished product really looks great but, where it meets the original woodwork, calls attention to the fact that the old stuff is just too, well, ordinary. We’re also gonna need to repaint all of the walls. {ugh}

End of Day 9 – All Cabinetry is in Its Place

If the shipment comes in as promised this evening, the kitchen will see backsplash tile put into place. There will be one day of waiting as the tile adhesive sets. On Friday, the tile is to receive grout. The tile will really finish the project and, for the first time since we’ve lived in this place, the kitchen will have beautiful walls and will practically be a showplace.

It’s getting hard to continue the project’s numbering scheme. After the first week, many of the work days have not been contiguous and sometimes not entire days. So today’s “day” number is somewhat arbitrary. I don’t really care because, whatever day it is, plumbing was connected in the kitchen!

For the first time since the project began we have a fully-functional kitchen. Al, of A&G Home Improvement, came in with his associate Dan to connect our plumbing and we are most appreciative of their Saturday afternoon efforts!

With the new countertop in place and the sink installed, the two attached the garbage disposal, drain pipes, the wonderful new faucet, and connected the dish washer. Everything’s working now — hurrah! We can stop using paper and plastic dishes, won’t dry our hands washing, and can cook real food. Al & Co. will return on Tuesday to install the trim moulding for the new floors, the one remaining cabinet unit, and on Wednesday will put up the glass tile backsplash. Once grouted (next Friday) the project should be complete! Now the condo will be worth way more than we could possibly sell it for. These improvements, however, are for us.

Sorry! No pictures today but what was done, while it was good work, is largely that “invisible” stuff that counts for so much but wasn’t very photogenic.

Countertop end-piece is slid (pounded) into position.

We’ll call Thursday, November 29, “Day 8” though there has been a period of inactivity that — given our living circumstances — probably ought to be added to the day-ticker! We won’t gripe too much, however, as the Cambria countertop arrived and was installed. Installation was quite a process. We have three countertop areas: two flank the kitchen range, and one forms an ell around the far corner of the kitchen and holds the sink. The two smaller finished pieces were, essentially, just brought into the house by the installers, set in place, and adhered to the tops of the cabinets. The ell, however, was another matter. The main expanse of Cambria arrived in two pieces with one solid piece running across the far end of the room, the other covers the right-hand base cabinets; the two butt on a miter. Cambria is heavy stuff looking and feeling like polished granite.

The sink section of countertop is positioned.

The two men of the installation crew muscled the first piece into place then, with the first piece tilted up slightly to allow the tight fit, eased in the larger section and lowered both to the cabinet tops.

Vacuum joiner device holds the two pieces together for bonding.

They used a special vacuum-secured device (as seen on TV) to, first, create a gap along the mitered ends. Then they added a bit of adhesive and used the vacuum machine (it looked like some sort of brain transplant device from a cheap sci-fi movie) to press the pieces together and hold them tight as the adhesive cured. The installer adjusted for level and repeatedly felt along the seam to assure the surfaces matched perfectly as possible.

Adhesive bead is run along all of the edges.

While the joining was taking place, the crew ran a bead of silicone adhesive along the underside of the countertop where the Cambria rested on the base cabinets. Special color-matched material was pushed into the space where the ends of the countertop touched cabinet walls. The big, dark-colored sink was raised from inside the base cabinet, adhesive added, then wooden braces installed to secure it in its subsurface-mount position.

Countertop is completed!

I’m leaving out a bunch of steps that made this a good installation; it was fairly intense. The process took a couple of hours and the results are splendid, though the place smelled like a chemical plant: resin and adhesive odors were so strong I opened the house to 37-degree (F) air to stop my eyes from watering!

Looking good? Hmmm…. needs tile! Hardware, too!

Funny thing: the cabinets look great, the countertop looks great, why am I not thinking the whole thing looks great? Ah! Whereas the cardboard we had covered the base cabinets with was crude, the Cambria is perfect and that draws attention to the terrible walls! Backsplash tile cannot come too soon, though we’ll have to wait til Wednesday!

The painted trim moulding sits atop a pair of empty bookshelves awaiting installation.

Things have been crawling along this week as we all await the delivery of our Cambria quartz countertop. While we’re waiting, She Who Must Be Obeyed has nearly moved all her gear into the kitchen. Every available cabinet and drawer seems now to be occupied, a bit early I think, as the handles are yet to be installed! I can barely find anything now and, without handles on the drawers and doors, it’s difficult searching for whatever it is I need. We’re muddling through, however, even hand-washing all of the reusable dishes and flatware — something we’ve not done on a regular basis in years. More challenging, perhaps, is the fact that there is no running water and no sink on the main floor so dishwashing is done in a tub within the basement utility sink! I made pasta last night and had to carry a big pot of nearly-boiling, pasta-filled water to the basement for draining. Pasta and I made it through just fine. I have been keeping busy painting baseboard trim and shoe moulding that will be used to complete the flooring portion of our remodel. That, too, is challenging as it’s hard to find places to lay out the pieces that are up to about 15 feet in length for painting, then storage. I solved part of the problem by using boxes and bits of flooring to suspend the moulding above the paper-protected floor while painting. The wide trim pieces are now being stored atop two empty bookcases in the living room, awaiting installation. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the painted shoe moulding. We’re hoping the crew will return this Friday and install the moulding, finishing the floors. The countertop is expected in around the end of this week, beginning of next. This project, if completed in early December, will have taken fully six months from the time we ordered cabinets to completion. Seems longer than that.

Shoe moulding laid out for painting in our “former” living room.

The kitchen as it appeared at the end of a half-day’s effort this Saturday.

The crew of A&G Home Improvement came in for an intense half-day this morning. They finished laying the flooring on the main floor, even tearing out the half-bath there. The major kitchen appliances were placed in their alcoves, more to get them out of the way than anything else, and we can now move about in the living room — even sit at our table if we like! Monday and Tuesday will likely see completion of the contractor’s work, at least until the countertop arrives; the stairs will be surfaced with laminate as will the upstairs hallway. I go back to work and the crew will have to deal with She Who Must Be Obeyed. Now I must prepare for a night conducting Public Stargazing at the Observatory so I’ll leave one photo here showing the kitchen as it appeared at Noon today.

First order of business — smooth out that ceiling! The highly-textured kitchen ceiling got a scrape-down that knocked off the many peaks and reduced the height of the rills in the compound. It was a nasty, dusty job but it had to be done. Everyone who has seen it agrees, the ceiling now looks beautiful. Once painted it will smooth out still further but will retain a nice textured pattern. Well done! The doors were reinstalled on the cabinets today and then the guys launched into the flooring. Over the course of the day they were able to cover most of the kitchen, the dining area, the living room, and entry way. Along the way the Cambria technicians arrived and, using digital measuring devices, mapped out the precise shape and size of our solid-surface countertop; it arrives in about two weeks. The contractor plans on working a half-day tomorrow to finish flooring the main level. Yes, I know it’s not the kitchen but we were happily able to afford this work and be shed of the terrible carpeting that we never did like! I can hardly wait to have the floor (and the entire project, for that matter) completed but it’s gonna be a while.

Scraping the ceiling was no fun for John or anyone but the result was quite nice!

Crown molding is installed and wiped down by Dan.

Cambria representative uses digital device to input precise measurements for countertop.

Al (the boss) installing QuickStep laminate flooring in the living room.

photo