The Great Darpel Kitchen Remodeling

Apparently, I did not learn from my glorious experience remodeling our upstairs bathroom in late 2002. Yup, it was supposed to be a long weekend, strip, paint and fix up that turned into a four month odyssey of pain and discovery. At every turn, we learned the depth of potential human stupidity. After finding three layers of wallpaper, I learned to curse the former owners of Casa De Darpel.

Ok, so, a couple years older and wiser, we decide to take on remodeling our Brady-Bunch era kitchen. We knew it was not going to be quick and easy, and planned on some hired help, such as having the cabinets installed. Again, we are making great little discoveries along the way.

I am presenting here a remodeling diary, so that, you too, can marvel at the 'handy-work' we are encountering at every turn. The dairy starts up with the actual demo work, after all the arrangement have been made.

Day 1 - July 8th, 2005
Cautious Optimism
	At left you can see the kitchen pretty much as it started out. I had done a little work removing some back-splash tiles behind the microwave, to the left of the sink. Also, I had removed some of the floor tiles while installing a new patio door. But, that was it. Messy aside, it was a fairly ugly, cramped and drab kitchen.
Great Discovery
	Well, we really cranked on popping up the old ceramic tile. I had planned to take up the 1/4 inch under-layment and get right down to the sub-floor, where the existing cabinets were resting on. After fusing with my two new favorite tools of the day (more later), I made huge discovery - HARD WOOD FLOORS! We had planned to put down Pergo over the subfloor. Now, we discover 3/4 inch thick, 2 inch wide hardwood planking.
Great Disgust
	Ah, why do I even get excited? We make this great discovery and then, BHAM!, we get slapped back to reality quicker than the next loser get's voted off the island. The MORONS who owned our house during the last major kitchen overhaul (20+ years ago) felt it necessary to nail, glue AND screw the under-layment to the perfectly good hardwood floor. And, my lord, they screwed more often than Pamela & Tommy Lee! Click on the photo to the left and see how many screws you can count. This is roughly a 2 foot square area. I'll tell you I removed 23 fricken screws! 23! WHAT THE HELL????? There are SO MANY holes we're not sure we can even save this once majestic floor. Not to mention, I had to rip the Luan (under-layment) off little by little.
Day 1 Wrap-Up
	What a day! As you can see, after really tearing through the ceramic, I didn't get very far removing the under-layment.
Day 1 Tools of the Day
	My two favorite tools on this day of mixed blessings HAS to be the aptly named Wonder Bar, and equally aptly named 24" Wrecking Bar. Without these two marvels of demolition invention, I would NEVER been able to remove any of the Luan. Ahhh, leverage. Or, as we engineers say, ahh, what Moment about the central axis!
Day 2 - July 9th, 2005
Dad's Little Helper
	On day 2, we got a little more help. Well, maybe not much help, but a lot of fun. Being a Saturday, Brendan was home with us to "Help". He certainly tried! I tell you what - NO ONE puts screws in the garbage like MY BOY. Sweeping and scraping, no so much. But he was ALL OVER screw & nail disposal like stink on poo. Actually, that was my only complaint. You don't have to stop periodically to change the drawers of hired help!
Day 2 Wrap-Up
	Well, we didn't get too far today, but we did get the island out, and the rest of the ceramic tile. I only managed to get one more section of the under-layment off, though. And, now, I have a bigger problem. I have all kinds of screws I can't get out! No matter what I try, I either can't budged them, or, the just sit there and spin! ARGGGG!
Day 3 - July 10th, 2005
The Day of the Dad
	After a trip to the zoo, we came back to work on the kitchen. My parents came over bearing chicken and the power to control he that shan't be named (the un-napped Brendan). I posed my screw problem to Dad, and he pointed me the magic that is the Vise Grip! Not having owned any Vise Grips, this necessitated a trip to Sears Hardware! More in the Day 3 Tool of the Day. If there was a Nobel Prize for home improvement advice, my dad, Bill Darpel, will be in Stockholm shortly!
Plumbers, They Weren't
	What you see at left is the truly wonderful job someone did in routing the water line for the fridge. This skinny cabinet was the one to the right of the stove. It was used to store cookie sheets, and stuff like that. Rather than come out of the wall behind the fridge, they routed it through here, with the added feature of extra crimps!
Day 3 Wrap-Up
	Thanks to Dad, we actually made a lot of headway, today. Thanks to the Vise Grips, I got out most of the left-over screws. We also removed two cabinets and the stove. Check out the wall-paper that the MORONS painted, tiled and built over! Pretty, huh?
Day 3 Tool Of The Day
	Without a doubt, today's tool of the day is the venerable Vise Grip (ok, Sears calls them 'Locking Pliers', but we all call them Vise Grips). With these, I was able to lock onto each stubborn screw and twist it out of its self imposed hardwood prison.
Day 4 - July 11th, 2005
Moronese Window Installers
	I guess there's plenty of stupid to go around. Now, we long knew that the windows installed just prior to the last owner's, the Sanborn's, were sub-par. In fact, Keith& Tricia pretty much told us so when we bought the place. Most did not stay up on their own. They had tried to fix them, but couldn't even find the manufacturer. However, today we discovered the depth of the installer's stupidity. The kitchen window was placed right over the back-splash tile! Getting the tile out was a delicate operation so as not to make the window even worse!
Goodbye Hardwood, Hello Pergo
	Like Loverboy or Kansas performing at county fairs, we just didn't want to give up on the dream. Of course, ours had to do with reviving a hardwood floor, and not trying to fit back into red leather pants. This picture at left pretty much sealed the fate of the old hardwood floor - it is doomed to live for several more decades beneath a covering of Pergo. Check out the gapping hole where the stove was. The M-O-R-O-N-S did not fill the gap with wood, but laid down drywall!
Plumbing Genius
	I should have known from the bathroom project. I looked under the sink and thought I saw two shut off valves. Upon closer inspection I found a hot water valve and a shut off for the dishwasher, on the hot water line as well. But, NO COLD WATER SHUTOFF! So, I had wanted to get all the cabinets out today, but have to wait for super dad to come over tomorrow, when we'll shut off the whole house water and install the damn valve.
Day 4 Wrap Up
	Like I said, I had hoped to clear the whole room and cut out all the damaged wall board. Well, we almost got there. Ahh, what a mess. I really regret scheduling the dumpster drop off for Wednesday (Day 6). I had wanted to make sure we had it long enough. Our garage, however, is now almost full of crap. Oh well.
Day 4 Tool Of The Day
	Today's favorite tool was my trusty ol' Dremel. With the general cutting bit and the depth guide, it made quick and easy work of cutting away old drywall. With the addition of my two gallon shop vac, with the hose right near the cutter, it was even fairly dust free!
Day 5 - July 12th, 2005
Day Of The Tim
	Today was, among other tasks, Electrical Work Day. But, thanks to buddy and CSU Students, Tim, things went quite well. Time put his electrician experience to work on a number of relocations, etc.
Mystery Wires
	One of the upgrades we are making is to add a garbage disposal. I mean, I don't know how we've managed thus far! Anyway, after fighting to get the last of the cabinets out, mostly due to the fact that the plumbing came up through the bottom, and not from the back, we discovered a mystery wire, tied in a nice little knot. We could only assume it was from a former disposal, but why on earth would you remove one and not replace it? Also, we have a second, mystery drain, too! Anyway, when we removed the old wallboard around the wall switch, we found the other end, safely disconnected from anything.....we think.
Junk Piling Up
	I timed the dumpster to come on Day 6, tomorrow (Wednesday). I did this so that it would not be picked up until after the cabinet installation. On retrospect, I really should have had it here no later than today. The picture at left shows the ever growing pile of junk accumulating in our garage.
Day 5 - Wrap Up
	It probably doesn't look like much got done today, other than removing the final cabinets. It would take a sharp eye to see the results of Tim's labor with the electrical. However, thanks to him and Super Dad coming over again to install the missing shut off valve, I am 90% ready to replace the drywall. You can't see it, but I also built the small/short wall addition to accommodate more cabinets.
Day 5 Tool Of The Day
	Today's favorite tool has got to be my Compound Mitre Saw, which was a gift from my father-in-law (Phil buys awesome gifts!). This saw made quick work of building the small wall today.
Day 6 - July 13th, 2005
The Day Of Solo
	I worked pretty much solo, today. Dad came over late in the day to re-seal a joint, but I am kind of impressed with what I got done. I fixed most of the rotted plywood and got one wall of drywall up and mudded.
Day 7 - July 14th, 2005
The Day Of Mac & Tom
	Today we had a visit from Mac & Tom Construction (or Destruction). They quite skillfully broke down most of the old cabinets and completely filled our dumpster. I was worried it would be too small, but we are getting another one tomorrow. Tom also finished out the drywall on our little add-on wall, and Mac mudded over all the screws.....with his driver's license!
Day 7 Progress
	Jen helped me get the rest of the drywall up before Mac & Tom showed up. She also turned out to be MUCH better at mudding than I am.
Days 6 & 7 Tool Of The Day(s)
	This little set had proved invaluable over the last two days. It's a Black & Decker set Jen gave me for my birthday in 2002. The same power unit drives a drill, circular saw, saber saw, sander and router (not pictured). I used the little circular saw to square out the cuts of the old drywall, the saber saw to cut new drywall, the sander for, well, sanding, and the drill/driver EVERYWHERE!
Day 8 - July 15th, 2005
	Today we finished most of the drywall mud touch-ups, painted the ceiling, primered and painted the walls. Other than touch-up work, we are all ready for cabinets. No more real work until Monday (Day 11).
Day 11 - July 18th, 2005
Yea, Cabinets!
	Yea! Frank, our handy craftsman from the Kitchen Design Center (www.kdc-ohio.com) started installing our cabinets today. This guy was handy, to say the least. We did hit a couple snags, though. In order to keep from having to cut huge holes in the bottom of our sink cabinet, I had to cut off some valves and just cap the lines. No problem, excepts I've never really done any real plumbing. Well, first time - no leaks! Next problem - the outlet we installed for the garbage disposal was too far over and had to be moved. Again, a little creative carpentry and, wha-la! Problem solved. After than I had to move one other box I had Tim install, about six inches over. No big deal. Over all, this one guy made pretty quick work, and was nearly finished with only 3 cabinets to go.
Day 12 - July19th, 2005
Cabinets Done
	Today, good ol' Frank finished up our cabinets. Our kitchen is really begining to LOOK like a kitchen again! (I took this picture, and the next two with Jen's Cannon Digital Rebel, so they're much better)
Greater Project
	To this point, I have really neglected the fact that this is really not just a kitchen project, but a rennovation of the "Greater Metropolitan Kitchen Area". The GMKA includes an updating of the living room, as well. Today, I removed the old carpeting in the living room, as well as the ceramic tile right in front of the door. It was the same tile as was in the kitchen. Underneath, we found the same mistreated hardwood flooring. Oh well. We will put down the Armstrong Pergo-esque laminate flooring.
Days 13+ - July 20th - 26th
Nearing Completion
	Well, after the cabinets were in, it was time to start the rest of the finish work. We started laying the laminate flooring in the kitchen and living room. At first, I really wasn't getting the hang of it, so not much got done on Wednesday & Thursday. Dad & I did get the new light installed, along with the microwave, so some functionality started creeping back in. Friday, Jen & I attacked the floor in earnest. By 8 pm, we were just about wrapping up. The counter tops were installed ahead of schedule, on Saturday morning. We weren't expecting them for another week! Sunday, after running up to Dayton for Greg Webster's wedding, Dad & I started hooking up the dishwasher, sink & garbage disposal. It took until yesterday, the 26th, to get it all working right. Now, we really just have finish work to do. At this point, I will probably just post one more "finished" entry.