Kitchen Remodel - Post 2...

When we started this process, I contacted someone I used to work with.  Her husband was a builder and I wanted to know if he was available.  Mike Davis of Davis Builders and his wife, Donna, met with us to discuss our vision for the kitchen and steps we needed to take to accomplish that.  He set the order - first the cabinets, then the counter top, then everything else.  He arrived on April 6th to unhook and move out appliances and to move some electric plugs.  Since we were adding almost six foot of new counter top, we needed the floor plugs moved up to counter top level.  An afterthought was adding a new dedicated plug just for our TV and phone.  Before the back splash went up but after the counter top was installed, we purchased a new flat screen TV for our counter.  If you look at the first picture in my last kitchen post, you can see how much room on the counter top my old TV took up.  In my excitement, I set up the new TV and discovered in order to use the TV to cover the cable and phone jacks, the cord would have to be stretched almost two feet to reach a plug.  So, I asked Mike to add a plug next to the cable and phone jacks just for the phone and TV.  You will see later that the TV covers the whole thing leaving a nice clean look.  Just another one of those details that I didn't think through at the beginning.  Luckily the back splash had not been installed, so no harm, no foul.

On April 11, the Wood Front Kitchen crew showed up.  There were only two employees and in no time at all, they had taken all the cabinet doors off and were ready to work.  In this picture, you can see our old microwave cabinet.  This is the box they completely rebuilt.  The opening in the box will be smaller, raising the entire cabinet so I have more height on the counter underneath.

This is the new microwave cabinet installed.  I gained another eight inches of height on the cabinet below.  Some of the facing material is already installed. 

By April 13th they were installing hardware.  They have also removed our sink, faucet and old counter top which was a laminate.  Water had seeped under the joins in the laminate and created bulges in the counter.  It had also had something really hot set on it which caused a color change we could not remove.  I was glad to see it go.  Three of our base cabinets were retrofitted to have two large roll out trays in each cabinet.  Our new base cabinets had them installed when they arrived.

When the Wood Front Kitchen guys left on the 13th, this is what our kitchen looked like.  The new cabinets are a creamy antique white.  The two top cabinets on the right and the two base cabinets on the right are new.  There is a tall cabinet without a drawer to the left of the new base cabinets.  That's a pull-out spice rack with three shelves which replaced our old trash masher.  Since we were planning on installing porcelain floor tile, our counter top would need to be raised 1/2" to allow the dishwasher to slide in under the counter top.  This was the same reason the cabinet over the fridge needed to be raised.  I wouldn't have thought of that, but Woodfront Kitchens measured the kitchen twice.  Dave measured for the estimate and two days later another employee came out and remeasured.  This assured them the correct amount of material would be created and caught the problem with the dishwasher.  Before they left on the 13th, they added height to the tops of the base cabinets so the counter top would be higher than our original counter top and the higher floor would make up the difference.

Woodfront Kitchens has a great working relationship with Central Illinois Granite in Morton, Illinois.  After meeting with Dave at Woodfront, we went to Morton to find a counter top.  After looking at many selections I picked a Quartz Reflections product which had recycled glass in it.  Bits of glass were the same color as my accent tile but what really sold me was the tiny bits of reflective material which might have been mirror.  When the light hit the sample, it sparkled.  My kitchen needed sparkle; this counter top material was like a beautiful piece of jewelry.  We also picked out a new double brushed nickel under mount sink and a new faucet.  Those would be installed with the counter top.  They promised that they would be at our house on April 14th to make a template of the counter top and be back one week later to install the new one.

Next post:  countertop and backsplash.