Kitchen pt IV

Good golly part 4! I hope this doesn't turn into a project the length of an entire NFL season. No really the devil is in the details and there is a never ending supply of details. When a project starts small and morphs into the neverending story you gotta start drawing lines and picking battles. You know how there are always little things to be done no matter what the status of a room is? Well I'm suggesting that in order to force the completion of the project those be turned into individual projects. For instance I still need to paint the old cabinet faces in order to call this project done. Well those cabinets are no longer part of the original project they are now simply on my honey-do list. They aren't holding anything up and can be handled over a weekend so they just got scratched from the major project. Electrical switches/receptacles...ditto. I can do them one at a time when I've got time. Changing out light/plumbing fixtures...same thing. The old ones still work so installing new ones can be handled on a case by case basis. Don't get overwhelmed if you're going it alone. The major stuff is done and now the rest can just run it's natural course. If I move the little stuff into the natural rotation of household maintenance chores they become much more manageable and I can move past the major project feeling where there is so much to do and it all needs to be done now so this project can be over. Since it's never really all done anyhow (there's always something) quit stressing. Besides I've been neglecting the yard and the rest of the house with a dedicated effort on the kitchen so I really need to spread myself around and handle the entire house again instead of just one project. See ya next time.

Kitchen part III

       Well it's been awhile but I'm slowly getting there. One of the drawbacks of doing it slow is that the project takes so long. But as far as I'm concerned having absolute control is a huge plus. Doing it yourself means you are not dependent on a contractors busy scheduling conflicts. If a contractor is running more than one job at once and only has the personnel to staff one at a time then you are caught in the middle of a juggling act that will only get worse if he picks up another job while yours is still incomplete. Also a full scale kitchen renovation requires the use of several different skilled trades and the contractor rarely has all of them on payroll so you get their busy schedules thrown into the mix. Now if you aren't up to all phases you can save time and have more control by being the contractor and having your own sub-contractors handle the work that way you have a hand in the scheduling and aren't leaving it up to one guy who may be great but is overwhelmed by all the demands on his time. But if you have all your players in on the project before it begins then they can tell you how much lead time they need to get you on their schedule. For instance if the framer tells you he's starting in the morning and will be done that day then you can call the plumber and electricians and give them a heads-up that you'll be ready for them the day after. Etc, etc,etc. Meanwhile the cabinet guys have had the prints for a couple weeks and have the cabinets ready and need to be informed when the drywall is finished so they can be building the countertops while the painter is busy cause you called him when the carpenter told you the drywall would be done and he can make sure he has all the paint and materials ready to go because you already picked out colors and other specs before the job began. You can see how complicated it all gets and scheduling around inspections, adding other trades if necessary (A/C, alarm, tile)and rain /snow delays all can slow it down. Now if a contractor is handling all of this for several jobs imagine how easily he can be overwhelmed and have all his jobs suffer for it. Bigger outfits solve this by having office people with specific jobs like scheduling, payroll, sales, message taking and forwarding as well as specialists to manage separate projects from start to finish. These 'project managers' act as mini-me reps for the contractor who has ultimate authority and responsibility. If you can afford this outfit that is great but remember you are paying for office staff, supplies, accounting, etc that have nothing to do with your job but all contribute to getting your job the attention it deserves. This long winded essay got a little off track but to get back to my summation. I managed to do it all myself. It took along time (I'm still handling details) but by biting off a piece at at time I am managing to get it done while maintaining a functional kitchen for the duration of the project which is a huge plus vs having it completely out of order for a week or more. Think about it. That kitchen sink along with all the appliances are getting pulled out of there on the first day and they aren't going back in till the end. Stay tuned for part IV

Kitchen part II

well I'm getting there. The old has been stripped of it's former glory and unceremoniously deposited at the curb.To be honest it didn't really take a whole lot of glory with it. The only salvageable material was some ugly paneling that will live out it's life as drawer bottoms. Even though it was ugly it was made of quality plywood that didn't deserve what was done to it and so it will be re-purposed and re-used. Since the "island" only served as a drop spot for mail. shopping bags or what have you we decided a smaller version would serve the same purpose as well as forcing us to clear it more often. The smaller size offers a little less room but accessibility is no longer an issue. Since I built it I was able to control the size and placement of the doors. The studio sized refrigerator has found a new home in the utility room and the extra wall space was used for added counter top/cabinet room. Again since new cabinets were cost prohibitive I built my own from quality stock and thus while they don't have the same designer good looks as the ones that come in a box (wink, wink) you could park a bus on them and they are going nowhere and there will be no repairs needed for their lifetime which now extends past the lifetime of the house I put them in. On a sad note I discovered as I often do an original floor treatment that was ruined by subsequent installations of inferior products. It turns out that the original flooring was actually terrazzo incorporated during the construction of the home as part of the slab. Terrazzo is a decorative concrete additive that was hugely popular for it's low cost and low maintenance and had the added benefits of durability, attractiveness and being period perfect.

slippedcog: Anybody seen a skillet?

slippedcog: Anybody seen a skillet?: In the ongoing saga I like to call "How can anyone live like this" we are re-vamping the kitchen into a place for food preparation instead ...

Awesome!

The president came to town and it rained buckets so now he is all wet just like his tax and spend economic policies. I can't believe people stood in line for hours to see this guy. I do believe in respecting the office of the president of the United States of America but I can't get behind him so I'll just leave it there.

Anybody seen a skillet?

In the ongoing saga I like to call "How can anyone live like this" we are re-vamping the kitchen into a place for food preparation instead of the Golden Corral for cockroaches. You can't keep it clean if you can't tell it's dirty. It also helps if form follows function. As I've said before since this is a rental it suffers greatly from a lack of basic maintenance and the maintenance that was performed was done as quickly and cheaply as possible. For example the solution to a broken drawer was to remove the drawer and screw the face of it to the cabinet thus giving the appearance of a drawer without actually having one. Problem solved right? Well this may seem perfectly acceptable if you don't have to live here but we do and we need that drawer. However after further consideration there is no way I am building a new drawer to put in that piece of crap cabinet that was a piece of crap 20 years ago. Sooooo it looks like I need a new cabinet. Also the refrigerator in a 2200 sq ft house should not be one suited for a studio apartment. fortunately we have a great refrigerator however the space in the kitchen where it goes is sized for one suited for a studio apartment. It gets tiresome having to walk to the living room for eggs because they won't fit in the kitchen. We also have an "island" this is composed of some old base cabinets cobbed together and covered with plywood and tile. The main problem is accessibility. You have to strap on a miners helmet, pack a lunch, and hire a guide if you want to find anything in the back corners. That coupled with no power outlet makes it pretty much just a box that won't move. As a bonus the lighting is less than adequate and the tile used for countertops and backsplash is horrific. We also have one of those "lazy Susan" corner cabinets that is the laziest Susan I've ever seen. You almost have to kick it around. Well time to get busy.

Where are the #$@% candles?

My friends if there is one thing we can learn about storms it is to be prepared. The storm doesn't need an official name and weeks of media frenzy to do substantial damage up to and including loss of life. One thing that comes to mind is expensive but worth considering and that is underground electrical service. During a major weather event that causes widespread power outages individual homes are last in line for restoration services. Power companies prioritize based on the number of customers served by the project. Therefore your neighborhood power could be on long before your house is if the storm also took out the overhead line serving your home. Individual customers are usually last in line unless there is a safety threat posed by your circumstances in which case the threat was probably dealt with before they took care of the mainlines anyhow. It won't hurt to get an estimate for underground service just don't choke on your coffee when you see it. If you plan to own the home for any length of time it's worth considering.