Kathy and Peter's San Clemente Remodel; Kathy's Perspective:

We are DONE!!!!  

Since I've been hogging all the remodel blog posts, Kathy wanted her perspective as well, and here it is!  

“Not only was it difficult to watch Peter trying to get the cabinets to fit the warped walls and ceiling, but to have the entire downstairs in disarray and packed with cabinets was very tiring.  All the cabinets came wrapped in cardboard, and we had a mountain of cardboard outside or front door, waiting to be taken to the local landfill.  Our makeshift kitchen was in the dining room; we had lined up a coffee maker, hot plate, microwave and an air fryer on a foldable table.  Since we only have so many electrical outlets in the dining room, we could only run either the microwave or the air fryer, if we ran both we would trip a fuse.  We used paper goods and had frozen dinners when we could because cleaning dishes and pots and pans cups and silverware was not fun.  We would fill a milk crate with our dirty dishes.  Once a day I would carry the crate upstairs and wash them in the bathroom sink, and then dry them on the bathtub surround.  That gets old after a couple of months.  Half of our family room held tools, rolling carts to hold tools, and area for staging cabinets in process.  Since Peter had hacked up most of the Travertine floor, everything downstairs was covered in a layer of dust; we couldn’t escape it.  Going outside to the backyard I was greeted by our entire kitchen in boxes, which we had boxed up before we started the kitchen remodel. 

My goal was to try and keep a normal life for us and the dogs for five months.  The devil is in the details.  When you think you are done, because the cabinets are up, you’re not.  It is a good thing we didn’t order all the cabinets at once.  We installed 2 upper cabinets at the coffee bar and realized that 42” cabinets were too tall and didn’t leave enough space between the bottom of the cabinets and countertop (because we did a crown molding on top, we needed to install cabinets 1.5” lower than the ceiling.)  It didn’t look right, so we purchased all the other upper cabinets at 36”.  (The store doesn’t sell 39” cabinets like some stores that can special order).  The 36” were OK, but we could see the under-cabinet lighting when we sat on the sofa in the family room, so we decided to make our own 1” light rail out of extra doors that we needed to purchase.  So, installing the light rail was a painstaking task that took a whole weekend. 

One of the light rails installed, using both glue and screws (Peter’s specialty).  Still needs a bit of painting…

 Another detail that took an entire day to install was the under cabinet over-the-range fan.  It sits flush with the cabinet underside, so you don’t see it.  Getting the right curve of the duct and getting it to fit was not fun, but after Peter tried unsuccessfully, with a bit of luck I was able to get all the pieces to fit.

The over the range fan and the ducting.  After several tries, I was able to get the duct pieces to fit, then we wrapped it in duct tape.

The over-the-refrigerator cabinet only came in two heights.  One was too short, the other was exact to the refrigerator height.  Unfortunately, with the new floor, the refrigerator hinges don’t fit under the cabinet, the fridge is ¼” too tall.  So my counter depth refrigerator is not flush with the counters.  Almost, but it is OK.  The only solution would be to cut the cabinet bottom to clear the hinges and we don’t know if we want to do that…

The refrigerator door hinge hitting the bottom of the cabinet.

 Peter spent an entire day creating a “garage” for the dishwasher to fit exact, and as usual, he used plywood and hundreds of screws, but in the end it worked out just right.

When they installed the countertop, they didn’t cut an opening in the underlayment plywood big enough for our cooktop to fit.  Peter bought a blade for his multi-tool saw to cut into the wood supports to fit the cooktop.  He also had to build plinths under all the base cabinets to be flush with the windowsill so the counter would be the correct height to go under the bay window.  If he didn’t do that we would need to purchase three new windows.  As usual, this took several days to complete. 

Also, even after all the planning, we realized that some of the cabinet doors were hitting each other when opened, so Peter had to install wires that prevents the doors from being opened all the way.  There was another couple of hours of measuring, drilling and putting in screws, but now the doors don’t hit each other! 

Cabinet door opening restriction wire installed on one of the cabinet doors.  Peter ended up installing a total of nine wires in total, both in the kitchen and upstairs in the bathroom.

 This was also true for the very first 96” tall pantry cabinet that we installed; we should have put a filler between the cabinet and the wall, but instead we put a filler in over by the refrigerator. It was such an ordeal to get the tall pantry up that the thought of attaching a filler to it didn’t even cross our minds. So in order to make sure that the pantry door does not hit the door jamb, Peter also put in wires in that door, so that it can’t be opened all the way.  We can still get to all the food in the pantry, but these are some of the details that we didn’t think about.  

The opening restriction wire installed at the top pantry door.

 Having the cabinets raised up from the floor meant that a traditional toe kick would be too short.  So we had to compromise by purchasing a large sheet of end panel and customizing the toe kick. 

I was going to use a white subway tile for the backsplash but realized after installing the first cabinet, that our cabinets are more of a creamy white and also, there is not any white in the counter, it is more of a cream.  No white tiles looked right.  I’m so glad we took the time to go to the Dal-Tile showroom in Anaheim and have an appointment with a tile designer.  She picked a taupe, beige looking ceramic tile, and each tile is a variation, similar to a zelige tile.  It turned out really nice and is the perfect color for the cabinets and counter.  It would have been a mistake to choose a white subway tile. 

Back splash tile installed over the range, with the range hood light on.

 All in all, Peter built a beautiful kitchen.  It turned out better than I could have imagined.  However, there were a lot of changes along the way, and we had to make some adjustments and compromises.   Like I said, “the devil is in the details”.”