Dining Room / Kitchen Doorway

Another project I completed is the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen. This is what it looked like before:

The first thing I did was to make and install the threshold. The kitchen floor is about 2" higher than the dining room floor because of all the leveling I had to do in the kitchen.

I used a piece of 5 1/4" oak flooring for the threshold, I cut both ends of the board at angles because the threshold will lay at an angle.

Once it was cut I cut and installed a shim piece to go below the threshold:

Then I installed the threshold:

With that done I installed the door casing. I found some casing that is very similar to the original casing in the house.

The casing is about an inch smaller than the original, I didn't have any rosettes that matched so I cut some blocks out of the oak flooring.

Once I have new casing cut to match the originals I will re-frame this doorway.

Kitchen Paint

For the past few days I've been working on getting the kitchen ready to paint. Sorry I dont have any work in progress pics... First I mudded and sanded the walls then began working on the trim. The door and window casings were in horrible shape. I had to scrape and sand them first. Next I installed them, fixed any holes and cracks with wood putty then primered them.

Finally I was ready to paint. The color is a goldish yellow. We picked out the color then found almost an exact match in the oops section. It saved us more than half and to top it off it's Valspar's premium paint.

I also sealed the backsplash with two coats of sealer. All the switch plates on the backsplash are oil-rubbed bronze. The plates in the rest of the kitchen are painted wood.

Here are a few pictures:

Left to do in the kitchen is install the crown on the ceiling, install the crown on the cabinets, install the light bars, and install the toe kicks. I'll be moving on the the upstairs bathroom next though. I need to get the shower built ASAP, the downstairs bathroom is an addition on the outside of the house and isn't insulated very well so it gets very cold in there. This makes it hard to take baths.

Kitchen Backsplash pt 2

Yesterday I laid the grout for the backsplash. The float I had was too big so I had to use a mud spatula and the grout was runny so it was a messy job.

Here are a few after pictures:

I guess now would be a good time to unveil the new island we got:

In two days I'll seal the grout.

Kitchen Backsplash pt 1

Yesterday I began working on the kitchen backsplash. I put this off for a long time because I thought it was going to be a real pain to install. It turned out to be quite easy. The only thing is, once you start you cant stop so it gets a bit tedious after a while.

Here is a picture of the first section, most of the cuts were just cutting the tile in half for the top and bottom of the diamond portion. The only other ones were around the outlets and a few at the ends of the walls. I'm using 4x4 Country Beige travertine with a 1/16th in. grout line.

Here are a couple after pictures:

We will be hanging corbels under the edge of the cabinets on either side of the hood vent, that is why some of the pencil trim looks like it's missing on either side of the framed in area in the picture below.

The black circle is the water line for a pot filler.

This afternoon comes the grout.

Kitchen projects

We've had some rain so I've turned my attention indoors for a while. There are lots of little projects in the kitchen that need finishing up.

The window weights in the big kitchen window were broken so that was the first thing I did. The window casings were already off from when we gutted the kitchen so it was fairly easy to remove the window and re-rope the weights.

The sill was damaged so I removed it so I could repair it. I didn't get a picture of it when it was broken but it had split on the left side about 6 inches to a knot and broken off into a couple of pieces. I glued and clamped it back together and put about six 2" nailgun nails into it.

Here is a picture after I filled the knot hole in with putty:

Then I filled in all the cracks and holes with wood putty:

All that's left to do is give it a final sanding and reinstall it.

The next thing I did was finish sheetrocking the kitchen. Here is one of the areas that wasn't finished:

And here it is finished:

I also finished the area above the kitchen door:

Now all that's left to do on the walls is mud, sand and paint.

Building the deck and oven cabinet

I know I haven't posted in a few weeks but it's because I kept forgetting the camera, not for lack of work.

Last week I built the oven cabinet, installed the double ovens and the cooktop.



We also got our sink faucet in, it's a really nice bridge faucet in oil rubbed bronze from Signature Hardware.



We spent last weekend landscaping the front of the house. I probably should have rebuilt the front porch first but the yard was looking really bad.




The landscaping is a mix of boxwood, holly, gardenia, and azalea.

The big project we've been working on is the deck. First I had to tear down the old porch deck. I had to cut it apart section by section. I had wanted to save the flooring, it was a full 1" thick, but it was very moldy so I couldn't.


There is a well under where the porch was next to the kitchen door, I'm not sure what I am going to do with it.



With the area cleared out I could begin building the new deck. First I hung the ledger boards, Then I placed the piers that will hold up the brace beam. I dug holes at each location and filled them with concrete to give the piers a solid foundation. I also had to prime the side of the sunroom before I installed the ledger board on it.

Then I built the beam. It is built out of 2 pressure treated 2x10's sandwiched together. The span is 21' long, there are no 2x10's that long so I had to make each beam 10' 6". I installed an extra pier at the location where they meet in the middle.


The deck will extend another 2' 6" beyond the beam, right up to the old stairs. I plan on keeping them.

I forgot the joist hangers so I had to leave it at that today. Hopefully I can get back out there tomorrow and finish installing the joists and put the decking down.

Granite!

Kitchen Cabinets

The cabinet guy showed up with the hood vent and the rest of our cabinets today (minus a door that he is still waiting on). The first thing I did was to install the final upper cabinet and install the mullion doors on the end cabinet (we were shorted a hinge).

Next I built the pantry and fridge cabinet (the pantry cabinet is the one we're waiting on a door for) and then installed the fridge.



We're really not happy with how the hood vent turned out. I'll probably end up getting the parts and building my own (if you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself...).


By the way, I dont know what the deal is with my camera, it's a new one and a really good one but these pictures do the cabinets NO justice at all. I think it's the lighting and the settings I have the camera on...



There is still a lot left to do, install the end panels on all the cabinets with exposed sides, valence above the sink, crown and light bars, toekicks, and build the oven cabinet.

Sealing and grouting the floor

On Thursday I sealed the floor. I put 2 coats down then let it dry overnight. On Friday I grouted then sponged it 3 times. Today when I came back there was still a slight haze on the floor.


I'm going to try to scrub it tomorrow then put down another coat of sealer if I have time.

Today I also laid down a sub-floor in the sunroom in preparation for the oak flooring.


I had to use left over plywood scraps because I'm out of plywood and my truck is broken down for the time being.