Kitchen remode

Status
Not open for further replies.

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Around 3 years ago, my family and I moved from our home way out in northern Wake county that had a wonderful detached 24x32 workshop to a home in north Raleigh where I relegated all of my toyls to the basement. When we lived in Kansas City I had a basement shop, and it wasn't bad, but I had forgotten many of the pains associated with it. I do miss my 24x32 building, but that is niether here nor there...

The home we have is in need of updating. It was built in 1982, and I don't think the kitchen has been touched since that date. So, we are remodeling the kitchen. We have hired a contractor to handle what I thought was the bigger portions. Removal of a load bearing wall and installation of a beam. Removal of a window and closing in, and removal of a window and installing a sliding door. Refinishing the floors, and all the sheetrock, trim and paint.

My plans were to handle all of the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. The HVAC amounts to relocating 3 supply vents so no big deal. The plumbing amounts to relocating hot, cold, and drain for the kitchen sink.

The electrical I thought was going to be a breeze, but has since turned out to be a nightmare. It seems fairly obvious that whoever wired this house was a jack leg. I have never in my life seen so many junction boxes and home run cables in my life. I have 2 large panels absolutely full to the brim. I had thought in a previous undertaking that I could just pull the meter and kill the power, but that is not the case. The way the meter is set up is like an ammeter with one of those coils that wraps around it so I cannot kill the power.... I then have junction boxes with 6,7, or 8 cables going into it... Nightmare.... I will be running and cleaning up wire the rest of my life the way I am heading.... I digress...

Here is what our kitchen did look like. It is very dark. The floors are dark, the cabinets are dark. The previous owners did "splurge" and upgrade the countertops, but who cares. The sink doesn't work right, The cabinets are tiny.
No drawer slides, the soffits are a waste of space, I can go on and on.

IMG_20171230_095520.jpg
IMG_20171230_093509.jpg
53702648535__55FF6017-124B-4A2A-9B41-9E32D24BE4AF.jpg
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
I have started building the cabinets. We are going to be making cherry cabinets using prefinished plywood for the interiors. Raised panel doors, Blum soft close hinges and tandem drawer slides.

In doing my test runs, I was going to use my existing shaper cutters, but obviously, they are a bit dull when I made some test cuts.

IMG_20170929_120445.jpg

IMG_20170929_120326.jpg
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
So I got some new shaper cutters from Freeborn. THEY ARE NOT CHEAP, but I must say they are very high quality.

One thing that bothered me was that my cope/stick joints were not tight using the Freud shaper cutters I had. I always had to shim them. When researching the Freeborn cutters, they guaranteed their cutters were perfectly matched, but even with the Freeborn cutters I found my joints loose and I had to shim them. Irritating to put it mildly. I did some research and found documentation on the Freeborn site. What it amounts to is that the spindle on my Delta shaper is not perfectly perpendicular to the top, hence why they are loose. Oh well, I shimmed the cutters, and they cut quite nicely.

IMG_20170929_120304.jpg
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Lots of door parts. I have 49 raised panels and frames to make.... I have a Felder sliding tablesaw combo so I am straight line ripping all of my stuff with an Aigner gadget I got recently.

IMG_20171217_183346.jpg
IMG_20171221_201852.jpg
IMG_20171214_112807.jpg
 

Henry W

Henry
Corporate Member
Wow Travis, when you wade back into woodworking, you really take a deep dive! Looking forward to ongoing in process descriptions, as well as the final product shots.
You have a timeline developed? This looks like a full time endeavor.
 

redknife

Chris
Corporate Member
Big solo project. Good luck and I look forward to your cabinetry work. The house we just left was wired as you described (I'll spare you our details). Over 7 years we rewired most of the house. Everything I saw was like "Who thought this was OK?". Point is I can sympathize with your electric nightmare.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
Thanks for the post, it makes me feel a little better about our wiring. It was also clearly by the former owner but he wasn't that bad. Lots of uncovered junction boxes in the crawl space but covers are cheap. There are also a few soldered joints which I guess may have been up to code at some point. Lots of neutrals tied together but that helps my Insteon home automation communicate.

We also recent redid the kitchen but my wife was not OK with me making the cabinets so I had a contractor take it to finished drywall with rough wiring and plumbing in place and then I did the finish electrical, plumbing, hung the cabinets, tiled the backsplash and put up all the trim. Replaced an exterior door too - did a bath and a half at the same time. Our dark stained oak got sanded down and refinished by another contractor. I also did the painting. Even without building cabinets it was a lot of work.

I built a kitchen two houses ago. That wife was more patient and we didn't change layout so I built cabinets in sets. Where I had a lone cabinet, I made that. Where I had four cabinets ganged together, I made and replaced 4. My "shop" was the front of the garage so building an entire set would have meant no cars in the garage. We liked them, it worked.
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
I will thank you as well - our lights kept dimming in our upstairs bedroom - sometimes when the load was heavy, and sometimes when it wasn't!?

so I thought, maybe there is something wrong with that circuit or circuit breaker... when I pulled it - the knife that the breaker goes into was charred!!!!!!!!!
Changed locations and violia! no brown-outs!

Now we are monitoring that breaker to see if the circuit is actually overloaded...

My better half has a 1500 watt heater in her bathroom and sometimes that trips the breaker - so I think the same guy heas been traveling the southeast for a while wireing houses!
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
Recently there was a thread by a fellow member (Brogan) about doing some minor DIY work in his NEW home. He agonized and went to great lengths to pull permits and have his work inspected. He was thinking "what if down the road the house burns down and the insurers refuse the claim or potential buyers won't buy it because some work was not permitted". Yikes!

You folks have done lots of renovation on older homes. Was he being paranoid and what's your take on the permit issue? I'm curious, because some members curse permits as money grabbing by the local authorities and others think permits are not that bad with some moderation in their application to specific circumstances.
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Recently there was a thread by a fellow member (Brogan) about doing some minor DIY work in his NEW home. He agonized and went to great lengths to pull permits and have his work inspected. He was thinking "what if down the road the house burns down and the insurers refuse the claim or potential buyers won't buy it because some work was not permitted". Yikes!

You folks have done lots of renovation on older homes. Was he being paranoid and what's your take on the permit issue? I'm curious, because some members curse permits as money grabbing by the local authorities and others think permits are not that bad with some moderation in their application to specific circumstances.

I will be/am pulling permits. I am not willing to remove a load bearing structural wall without the stamp certification of a structural engineer and the inspections department signing off on it. As for the wiring in my home, in most aspects it does meet code. There is nothing against having lots of junction boxes, crazy runs, etc. What does not meet code is that the kitchen currently has no GFCI receptacles as at the time it was built, it was not a code requirement. There are some other items I will be addressing that are not right either. It is against code to have more than one neutral wire under the same lug on the neutral bar. You can have multiple grounds, but neutrals have to be on their own lug. I have about 2 or 3 that need to be corrected. I also have no hard wired smoke detectors and will be adding one in the kitchen. There are a bunch of battery ones, but only one in the basement that is hard wired for the rest of the house.

When I built my shop at my former home, I pulled an electrical permit for it. I went to the inspections office, met with the inspector, showed him my wiring plan and he asked if I had any questions, which I did not. They came out, did the rough in, and recommended one change, but still passed it. On my final, everything was ok except I used the wrong ground clamp. They told me to change it, and still passed me.

I too believe they are more often than not a bunch of BS, but in some ways they are there to keep the truly incompetent from doing things that they should not and to do the right things. Some of the things municipalities push don't make sense, but having inspections is not to me a bad thing.

On the other hand, when I upgraded a bunch of machinery in my other shop, I added a phase converter and 3 or 4 receptacles. I did not pull a permit. I researched it a lot, and I was comfortable with what I did. I guess I would say if you are not 100% confident you better get a permit.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I too believe they are more often than not a bunch of BS, but in some ways they are there to keep the truly incompetent from doing things that they should not and to do the right things. Some of the things municipalities push don't make sense, but having inspections is not to me a bad thing.

On the other hand, when I upgraded a bunch of machinery in my other shop, I added a phase converter and 3 or 4 receptacles. I did not pull a permit. I researched it a lot, and I was comfortable with what I did. I guess I would say if you are not 100% confident you better get a permit.

I agree. All things in moderation, including moderation. + Common sense.

I'd rather have building codes than not have them, but agree that some it is BS.
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Re: Kitchen remodel

I have been working on getting the finish on my cabinets. I am using Rudd solvent based precat lacquer. I must say it stinks like nothing I have ever smelled. I chose solvent as I wanted something that would lay down fast and dry fast.

I have a walkout basement so I set up to spray under the deck. I started on Friday, which ended up being a mistake. Two pieces have blush (water vapor trapped in the finish), and I had a lot of orange peel.... Not a good day.

So I did a bunch of research that night and came up with a plan to get things working. First off, I decided to not use my pressure pot and just use the 1quart cup on the gun. I had a lot of trouble maintaining consistent fluid pressure and wanted to remove that variable from the equation. As I was disconnecting the pressure pot I realized I had the lines hooked up backwards which explains my issue, but I went ahead and removed it anyway.
I also increased my needle size back to my spray systems recommended size as I had went smaller to try and address the orange peel. I had decided if after changing to the needle I was still having issues I was going to do what I found recommended everywhere, and that is to thin the finish. I really didn’t want to do that as it means I would have to spray more coats, but I would do what it takes...

It was pretty cool Saturday morning, but I got set up and started, and the stuff sprayed beautifully. The humidity was down from a Friday so blush was no longer an issue. For the most part, the stuff is pretty smooth, but I have decided to sand once between coats with 400 grit, and it is very nice.

I sprayed today as well with temps in the thirties, and finally quit as my hands started getting cold.

The finish dries in about 3 to 5 minutes and I do a few more coats. I let it cure/cross link by taking it inside, sand with 400, and recoat. I don’t vacuum as what I sanded is lacquer and it dissolves back into the finish.

So far I have been very happy with the results. The few pieces that have blush I have to sand anyway and when I respray it will melt into the layers it will clear up.

Check out the color and depth the finish adds as compared to the unfinished cherry door.

Second photo shows the blush.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180113_172722.jpg
    IMG_20180113_172722.jpg
    333 KB · Views: 130
  • IMG_20180114_171012.jpg
    IMG_20180114_171012.jpg
    334.4 KB · Views: 115
  • IMG_20180114_162410.jpg
    IMG_20180114_162410.jpg
    284.4 KB · Views: 130

mbromley

New User
Bromley
Re: Kitchen remodel

Very nicely done! I'm always intrigued by a good finish job like that, I've never had such luck or the patience for finishing. Looks like its really coming together.
 

BThompson

New User
Bill
Re: Kitchen remodel

Cabinets are looking great! Plan sounds great. I would strongly suggest re-thinking the smoke detector in the kitchen. They turn into a nuissance alarm due to any smoke, steam. I would suggest adding a heat detector especially if you have an alarm system. They don't cause the false alarms like a smoke and activate during beginning stage of fire. Hardwire smoke detectors are good if wanting all smoke detectors to activate when any of them activate. Besides that, battery powered smoke detectors work just as well.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Re: Kitchen remodel

Nice, great post and adventure!!!!

I will be building a new home soon, with a detached shop simultaneously, however giving the latter priority so I can do all my own cabinet work.

While I can do cabinets currently, I am not really geared to do them real fast, so I would have to invest a bit in a few pieces of equipment.

Questions:

1.) Were you using a power feeder with hold-down on the shaper?

2.) What did you use to cut your plywood sheets straight and square, without tear-out?

3.) For the face frames are you going to use pocket-hole joinery and are you using a jig?

4.) Do you have a rig for drilling the shelf support holes in the plywood?

5.) Gluing up your cope and stick doors with panels, are you doing that on the bench with squares or do you have a rig to do that with? Are you using a pin nail gun to hold the joints together after gluing so you don't lose drying waiting time?
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Re: Kitchen remodel

Nice, great post and adventure!!!!

I will be building a new home soon, with a detached shop simultaneously, however giving the latter priority so I can do all my own cabinet work.

While I can do cabinets currently, I am not really geared to do them real fast, so I would have to invest a bit in a few pieces of equipment.

Questions:

1.) Were you using a power feeder with hold-down on the shaper?

2.) What did you use to cut your plywood sheets straight and square, without tear-out?

3.) For the face frames are you going to use pocket-hole joinery and are you using a jig?

4.) Do you have a rig for drilling the shelf support holes in the plywood?

5.) Gluing up your cope and stick doors with panels, are you doing that on the bench with squares or do you have a rig to do that with? Are you using a pin nail gun to hold the joints together after gluing so you don't lose drying waiting time?

Willem,
Ive done 2 complete kitchens for myself to date. Im not sure how many doors in total, maybe 80 for both kitchens. The first, I didnt have a shaper, I used a router table and a 3.5 HP plunge router..... all by hand feeding... it was slow and very inaccurate. I dont recommend this at all. As for panels, a tablesaw with a good quality blade (like a WW2) is fine. I assembled my faceframes with pocket screws with the simplest Kreg jig available (about $35). Same for the shelf pins, I bought a simple plastic jig with a special guided bit for that. The second Kitchen went much smoother with the aid of my shaper and powerfeed. I have a PM2700 (5HP) with a 1HP PM 4 roll power feed on it. It will do a raised panel in one pass, smooth as glass in maple.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Re: Kitchen remodel

Willem,
Ive done 2 complete kitchens for myself to date. Im not sure how many doors in total, maybe 80 for both kitchens. The first, I didnt have a shaper, I used a router table and a 3.5 HP plunge router..... all by hand feeding... it was slow and very inaccurate. I dont recommend this at all. As for panels, a tablesaw with a good quality blade (like a WW2) is fine. I assembled my faceframes with pocket screws with the simplest Kreg jig available (about $35). Same for the shelf pins, I bought a simple plastic jig with a special guided bit for that. The second Kitchen went much smoother with the aid of my shaper and powerfeed. I have a PM2700 (5HP) with a 1HP PM 4 roll power feed on it. It will do a raised panel in one pass, smooth as glass in maple.

Thanks Chris!!!

How did you handle the plywood sheets, for the casework and shelves?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top