Jolly Good

This contractor ended up being a complete disaster. The cabinets and counter tops were not ordered and he kept coming up with excuses when he would start. So we fired him, changed the plans a bit and decided to do it ourselves. Lowes had a sale going on so we talked to one of their kitchen design people and he came up with a design. Before the order went through he said someone would contact us to measure to make sure we had correctly measured the area. We had to pay $75 for this....and we waited and waited. I called and he apologized and said he would get on to them . Again we waited and then suddenly I get an email to say someone was coming to measure on Sunday. That was fine until I rechecked the order. The sale was now over and the price was almost doubled. There will be another sale soon if we wanted to wait. Erm..no!

So Plan A and B failed now on to plan C. On Monday we went to Home Depot found just what we want. They accepted our measurements, we sorted out cabinets and quartz counter tops paid less than the Lowes sale price and it will be delivered in 10 to 21 business days ( i hope) plus a new gas stove as well. The quartz people contacted me today to tell me as soon as we have the cabinets and they have been fitted they will come out to take a template and a week later fit the counter tops.

So we have started our new kitchen by blocking one of the 3 entrances to it giving us more cabinet area, moving the refrigerator into an alcove in our dining area and adding a coffee station next to it. We have a plumber coming to move the gas line so our new stove can be in a better position than the current one that is tight up against a wall ( crazy) and we have started removing some of the cabinets and patching walls. It's what we have done before and we are glad we are doing it again. When the cabinets arrive we will fit them.

Oh and not having a truck now is annoying because the sheetrock was too big to go into our SUV. But M decided he could cut it to the size we needed in the Home Depot parking lot and the it would fit ok. He did and it did fit. I guess it's a case of doing what you can without spending money on renting a truck or paying for delivery of two sheets of sheetrock!!

And as for the back garden well we have made head way. We found old steps down the slope that we need to replace. M has cut back enough to see what we have and for now we will leave it until next spring. We do have deer visit us most days which is interesting but I might change my mind when we start planting next spring

I don't really miss Texas. I do miss the good friends we have there but hopefully they will visit next year. We have taken some day trips out and discovered some lovely places for walks and hikes and seeing the beautiful fall colors of the trees has been amazing. So far the new adventure is working out well!

ddsrph

Doing home projects yourself is the only way to go. It is very difficult finding reliable contractors and even the best and most honest is no march for a talented homeowner working on his own house. When hanging the cabinets I have found the best way is attach a small board maybe a 1 by 2 perfectly level for the cabinets to rest on as being attached to wall. Will ensure that they end up straight and level. I would use heavy screws and have the holes thru cabinets pre drilled. I would assume that there may be electrical wires in area and use screws short enough that they couldn’t reach a wire running thru the center of the two by four framing to which the cabinets are being attached.

Jolly Good

Thanks for the advice. The only reason we were going with a contractor was to give ourselves a break. We have always done most of our work ourselves and this is probably the fourth kitchen we have fitted but little tips that help make life easier are always welcome

Pulaski

Totally agreed, 100%. The only blanket exception I make is for anything to do with gas. Even if a project is too large or time consuming for me to do myself, I find that having some experience allows me to direct projects with contractors so that the project turns out how I want it, not just the easist way for the contractor - such as insisting that a new water heater is high(er) efficiency so that it can vent through plastic pipe, so that it can vent through the adjacent wall, ("yes, I know that means you will have to cut a hole through the wall!" ) rather than up through the roof to that ugly stovepipe chimney, as the old one did. Ditto the heating system in the attic. So when we had a new roof installed in 2021, both the old stovepipe chimneys were eliminated. ... Fewer holes penetratrating the roof is always preferred IMO. Personally I prefer 1/4" hex lag screws, with a washer, for securing wall cupboards. They're easy to drive in using a socket wrench, and while arguably over engineered, they only cost a few cents per screw, which is very cheap for total piece of mind regarding the security of wall cupboards.

ddsrph

The 1/4 inch lag screws is good idea and large washer would work well with cabinet back as the back may not be as strong as older cabinet construction using plywood.

joto

We will be doing some flooring soon, rip up carpet and tile and putting new tile down. We can't diy it as DH has back troubles. We contacted the realtor that got us this house, and asked her for recommendations. She gave us the name of the guy they use, and said he is excellent, and he has good reviews, but we will have to wait for the estimate coming in, to see if we can go ahead.

BEVS

Same here . This time round though I have shaken my head in a firm no to any more tiling. I am hoping to get someone in. Not because tiling is beyond me but I simply am all out of steam at the mo. We have so much other 'stuff' we need to also do. Getting someone in though is proving a bit tough around the edges.

Great to read it is all moving along at a bit of a pace.

Pulaski

When replacing carpet with any sort of hard floor surface, consider having the baseboard removed, then having the new flooring installed close to (with any recommended expansion gap) the wall, then the baseboard installed over the top. You'll still likely need a narrow shoe molding to make the join of floor to baseboard look nice, but it'll look better than flooring installed "inside" the baseboard perimeter. It is also a good opportunity to upgrade the baseboard to a taller molding if you currently have the modern, low (cheap) style baseboards.

ddsrph

By replacing the base board they may even be able to avoid having to use a secondary molding especially if the floor is level. When I was building my house I found a guy on Craigslist who was a near retirement finish carpenter who had thousands of feet of floor and window moldings in several storage buildings at his house and was able to buy for about 30% of retail prices. I got some especially nice window moldings that use the square blocks for corners.

Pulaski

In theory, maybe, but my experience is that either floors aren't perfectly flat, or baseboard is slightly warped, or both.

I did put baseboard down in one room without using shoe molding, but I needed to caulk the gap to avoid an unsightly dark line between the white baseboard and the blond maple flooring.

BTW Your window molding looks nice, and that style is actually easier to cut and install than trying to cut 45° mitres at the corners.

Steerpike

We had a disaster with our small spare bathroom cabinet project, thanks to the quartz folks. Just when you think you've covered every single variable, something happens to make you realize you didn't cover everything!

For reasons we cannot comprehend, the quartz guys cut the piece in such a way as to have insufficient overhang at the front, such that the quartz top didn't even cover the front of the drawers. It looked 'odd'. When we queried the shop, they couldn't really explain why this happened, and they ultimately offered either a credit or a re-do, but we were so fed-up with dealing with the project at this time that we gave up and went with the credit. We just ignore it, but it's not right.


Looking down:

Jerseygirl

Arhhhhhhh…..😱

I couldn’t live with that. I would have them back to fit a new top.

joto

We have decided to get painting done on the whole first floor and the stairs and top landing. They will be taking off the base boards, to do the tiling and the painting, and then replacing them, and/or putting on new ones if they get damaged. The baseboards are about 4 inches high and don't look like the cheap ones, as they are straight for the bottom half and then got an inside curve and then a little overhang. It's a modern(ish) house, so it's a bit non-descript, overall. We are getting it done because it needs doing, and we are planning to retire in about 4 years, so money will be a lot shorter then.

SpoogleDrummer

Is it an optical illusion or is it sticking out past the wall? If it is that's the thing that would drive me nuts as I'd inevitable walk in to it at some point.

Steerpike

You are correct. But that one is more debatable, as there needs to be an overhang over the side of the cabinet. If it were flush with the wall, it would also be flush with the cabinet. Now, the cabinet could have been 'indented' by an inch or so; I don't recall now whether that was an option or not, but regardless - it doesn't actually look bad in real life. We've also got used to the 'short' overhang at the front by now. But it just goes to show how many variables there are in these projects!