Last Year's Kitchen Project

[Frank Snyder]

Bob Marino asked me to post some pictures here of my kitchen project I worked on last year. My wife and I began the gutting process in March '05 and wrapped it up by late August '05. We did all of the work ourselves, and the only thing I hired out was the countertops since I didn't have the means to work with quartz.

The "before" pictures...

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[Frank Snyder]

The gutting process exposed some scary new surfaces and some framing issues. The kitchen was mostly plaster and lathe and there was only one electrical circuit for the entire kitchen.

The floor joists had been cut mid-span to allow for a cold-air return (I had always wondered why the floor was so springy in that one area). The ceiling joists were just 2x4's 16" OC spanning 12 feet. I had to open the floor to address the joist issues and replace the 2x4 CJ's with 2x8's. I also had to replace the steel vent and plumbing for the sink as it was 80 some years old and almost solid inside.

Gutting pictures...

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and my crazy wife...

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[Corey Hallagan]

Very nice Frank! You both did great. I am about to embark on a gutting of our kitchen.

Corey

[Frank Snyder]

Some of the studs for the load bearing wall had been notched out so bad for the sink plumbing, I was surprised that the ceiling stayed up. I sistered new studs next the notched ones and replaced the steel plumbing pipe with PVC.

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[Frank Snyder]

Code around here demands a circuit for just about every appliance and outlet in the kitchen, and I ended up running 12 new circuits (in conduit) just for the kitchen alone. I got a little crazy with bending conduit, but not to worry, I didn't exceed 360 degrees of bends between pull-points.

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For drywall, since I have 9 foot ceilings, I opted to use 54" wide drywall and span from corner to corner. As you can see from the pictures, my studes don't fall on 16" centers, so this was really my best choice. For one wall, I used 2 16-foot pieces spanning corner to corner.

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[Frank Snyder]

After finishing the drywall and painting, I began work on the floor. The fridge we bought weighs in excess of 400 pounds and I was concerned about cracking tiles when we went to install it. So I added another 1/2" of plywood on top of the existing 3/4" subfloor, then followed with 1/2" cement backerboard. For the radiant heated floor, I went with an electrical product which I bought on a spool (1/3 the cost of the pre-grid mesh systems) and created a grid on the floor. The tricky part was to order the correct length to cover the area since I couldn't cut the wire. I followed with a 1" mortar bed, tile and I used an epoxy grout system.

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[Frank Snyder]

Now this is the relevant part as I'm posting this on a woodworking forum. I made all of the cabinets on my back patio underneath a 10x10 tent. I was inspired to do this from watching an episode of TOH where Tom Silva and Norm made all of the kitchen cabinets on the back patio of the house they were working on. And, they were using Festool's guide rail saw and router to accomplish this (cue Bob Marino). I figured, if they could do it, so could I. The base cabinets are Birch plywood carcasses with Cherry face frames and inset doors and drawers. The drawer bodies are solid Birch. The wall cabinets have Cherry plywood caracasses. I used Blum's Tandem Plus drawer slides with Blumotion for the drawers and their cool little door dampers.

Scribing the face frame for the farm sink was a real challenge, but I managed.

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[Frank Snyder]

Since this is a small kitchen (16x12), we tried to take advantage of every nook and cranny for storage. I used toe-kick drawers for things like cookie sheets and pizza peels. For spices, I designed a pull-out filler strip for one of the wall cabinets. I used WAC low voltage Xenon lighting for the upper tier of wall cabinets. We love our new kitchen and it's been holding up just fine after a year's worth of use. Thanks for viewing.:)

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[Corey Hallagan]

Frank, I guess I was looking at the Before the first time around! Didn't look bad at all, but WOW that is some new kitchen!! It was alot of work no doubt! Nice job.
corey

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks, Corey. If you're planning on remodeling your own kitchen, make sure you have a realistic contingency plan for dealing with cooking and washing dishes. We turned our front bedroom into a temporary kitchen and washed our dishes in the bathtub. This gets old real quick, so be prepared to endure the hardships. Also, be prepared to deal with any unknowns, especially if you live in an older home. Our house was built in 1920, so nothing was up to code. If you get a permit and start opening walls, you'll be required to fix any problems as you discover them. Very much a can of worms...


This was our kitchen for a few months...

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Best of luck to you with your remodeling.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Great series of pictures, and an excellent remodeling job, Frank. Like Corey, I saw the first picture and thought OK...so he made a bunch of white box cabinets. :D (I see now that I missed the fact that you even said they were the "before" pictures.) Amazing transformation by the time I got to the "real" pictures.

- Vaughn

[Marty Walsh]

Frank,

Six months of a 'temporary kitchen' had to be a PITA, but all I can say is WOW to the finished product!!!! :eek:

You and your wife did an incredible job!!! Thanks for sharing.

- Marty -

[Gail O'Rourke]

Gorgeous, just gorgeous. Congratulations to you and your wife.

[Charles Wilson]

I saw the before pictures and I said to myself, "Self, that doesn't look too bad." Then I saw the after pics and thought, "Wow!" You did a great job! The only question I have is where and how did you eat for 5 months?

Regards,

Chuck

PS - Like the Tyvek suits and hardhats.

[Art Mulder]

Very, very nice job.

Question #1- why on earth did you put all the electrical in conduit?! Surely that wasn't required by code? Seems like a huge amount of work.

Question #2- can you tell us more about those toe-kick drawers? Did it make it hard to level the cabinet? How many did you make?

#3 - Looks like you put the base cabinets in first? How did you find that? I was just reading an advice from someone that recommends putting in the uppers first, since the base are not in the way when hanging them, and also less chance of damaging the base cabinets when working over them.

thanks for telling us about this.

[Chris Mann]

Very nice work, and good job dealing with the x-factor of opening up walls in old houses. It's amazing what you find in those old walls and even more amazing how little is required to really hold up a house once the whole system is in place.

Did you use the festool lr-32 hole drilling system on these cabinets and if so what'd you think of it?

Also what slide hardware did you use on that pull out spice rack?

-chris

[Chris Mire]

i would be proud of that kitchen if i had built the cabinets in a well equipped shop, so to say you did them outside under a tent, well that is just incredible. great job on the entire remodel. beautiful result

where did you do the finishing of the cabinets?

chris

[Matt Meiser]

Incredible! Looks like it was a LOT of work, but the results were worth it.

[Glenn Clabo]

Oh man...that's AWESOME!
A few years ago DRLOML and I gutted to the studs our old kitchen and rebuilt it. http://www.pbase.com/gclabo/kitchen
We bought 3/4 of the cabinets though. I'm humbled by your work...

[Larry Fox]

WOW - that is awesome work. Did you also build all of the doors?

I am currently working on a kitchen cabinet project and am facing a gut-job once they are done (although not to the same extent as yours). I have been working on the cabinets for 9 months now and the fact that you and your wife did all that fantastic work in such a short amount of time is quite impressive indeed.

Based on seeing your work relative to my project, I am going to head over to the classifieds section and start posting my tools. :)

[Jim Becker]

AH....I can totally relate to that project, Frank!! Great job!

[Rob Diz]

I'm about to start the process of building the cabinets, and will be tearing everything out the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the inspiration. Sometimes I get lost in all of the details that need to be covered and forget what the end product will look like.

[Mike Hill]

Frank: We live in a new home with a nice kitchen. My wife is easy going and does not ask for much. If I showed her these pictures, I am sure I would be in trouble. I spent the last 5 years selling high end Real Estate in Florida and this is one of the nicest kitchens I have seen. Hope you both enjoy it immensely.
Mike

[Frank Snyder]

Thank you all for the compliments. I will try to address each and every one of your questions...

Charles: We broke down and bought a microwave for this project (we like to cook so we never had one before). I'm sure we did our share of take-out as well. We learned the hard way that you want to wear head protection when pulling down plaster.

Art: Answer #1 - Code here allows for Romex, but I grew up outside of Chicago and everything is in conduit, so this is what I know. The conduit, IMO is safer since it acts as the ground, protects the wire from damage, and space permitting, allows for additional circuits to be pulled.

Answer #2 - For the toe-kick drawers, I used a 3-1/2" high toe kick space (4" would've been better) with standard 18" ball-bearing drawer slides (no blumotion here). I made a false solid Cherry front with an "L" profile (used a large bowl bottom bit for the contour) which allows your fingers to grip the lip and pull the drawer out. You don't see the lip from the front when the drawer is closed. I took my time to level my floor prior to tiling, and I was extremely careful to level each tile as I progressed. This made the drawers with such tight tolerances possible. I oversized the holes on the front of the drawer body and used large pan head drawer screws to attach the false front. This allowed for fine adjustment. Each base cabinet has its own toe-kick drawer.

Answer #3 - I agree that installing the wall cabinets first is easier, but I had my reasons for doing the base cabinets first. Since each cabinet was custom sized to fit, I began with the base cabinets since they had conform around their constraints for the utilities and appliances. I basically built the base cabinets around the appliances, then built the wall cabinets to follow the extents of the base cabinets. Also, by building and installing the base cabinets first, this allowed us to get into our kitchen sooner (for the sink, countertops and the dishwasher) while I continued to work on the wall cabinets (selfish strategy). Since the floor was level, the base cabinets were level, and I just made a simple box to support the wall cabinets off of the countertop when I went to install them. I ran the face frames wide and scribed them to fit. As for concerns about damaging the base cabinets when installing the wall cabinets, I just keep a thick moving blanket or sacrificial material around when I need it. If I was using pre-fab cabinets and filler strips, I would hang the wall cabinets first.

Chris Mire: I don't have Festool's hole-drilling jig...yet. I used Veritas's aluminum hole drilling jig which I had for some time from previous projects. For the pull-out spice rack, I used 2 9-inch ball bearing drawer slides mounted to one side of the box, one high and one low. I thought it might rack, but it didn't. It works flawlessly. I also devised a tongue and groove system for the adjustable shelves. I was concerned that the shelves might shift and get caught behind the face frame, preventing the box from sliding out. I used 3/8" Birch dowels as the guard rails to keep the spices from falling out. They're undercut so they can be moved as needed. I just wish I had the foresight to rip all of the face frame material from the same piece of wood so that the grains matched. Next time...

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Chris Mann: I used 3-4 coats of Minwax's Wipe-On Poly (Satin). It's the easiest finish to work with IMO and since I didn't have a spray booth, that's what I went with. After a years' worth of use and abuse from my slobbery Basset Hounds, they still wipe clean and look like new.

Glen: I loved your kitchen. The finish on the cabinets is outstanding! Beautiful tile work as well. There's no need to be humbled...

Larry: I made all of the doors and drawers outside under my tent. I had Rigid's TS2424 table saw with the Bench Dog router table wing. I used CMT's toungue and groove combo bit for the doors. For the drawers, I borrowed a PC Omnijig 7216 to do the dovetails. I now own Festool's VS600 dovetail jig and I've used it extensively for other projects. It works great and is a lot easier to move around. I also used Festool's MFT1080 to cut all of the inset doors to fit (1/16" equidistant clearance). I hope you're only selling your tools to buy better ones ;).

Jim: I saw your kitchen remodel project a while back on your website. I was very impressed. You did a phenomonal job!

Shelly: Yep, under a tent. It's not so bad if the weather cooperates. Those days are over now that I'm building a new workshop.

Rob: I'd be a little hesitant to attempt a kitchen remodel over the holiday season. I hope you don't have to host dinner ;). Do all of your planning ahead and maintain a schedule (or at least a log) so you can learn along the way. I know a guy who decided to renovate his only bathroom a few months after his wife got pregnant, thinking he could wrap it up before the baby arrived. He finally finished it 2 years later. Home improvement is stressful enough, but combining that with other stressful events is living on the edge (at least for me).

Mike: Thank you for the compliments. No need to show your wife the pictures ;). My wife and I have been renovating our 86-year old bungalow for the past 4 years ourselves and I think we've given it a second life. Here's a before and after curb shot...

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[George Gross]

That is an incredible remodel. I am currently finishing my basement and will start the construction of a small wet bar with cabinets in a few months. Seeing what you did sure is inspiring.

I am fairly new to SMC, been lurking for a while though. This is my first post, I just needed to come out of the woodwork to say congratulations on a gorgeous remodel.

George.

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Frank:

You have done an incredible job, the LOML was looking over my shoulder and she agrees. I'm going to steal your toe kick drawer what a great idea.

I can relate to your problems with an older home, my FIL has a 150 year old farm house as a summer place. I keep telling him that if it burnt down he would be further ahead.

Greg

[Roy Wall]

Frank -

Holy Smokes!!!! What a terrific kitchen remodel.......just spectacular!!!

And SMARTly done....what a great process:eek: :)

1) Do you have link to that radiant heat supplier....and any other pertinent information.???

2) What manfacture - model are the stove and refrig....?

You and the wife did a great job.....thanks for sharing!!

[Frank Snyder]

Greg - I didn't come up with the toe kick drawer concept...it's been used before, so don't worry about stealing it. It is a great idea nonetheless. Just be sure to mount your slides under the cabinets before you install them. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time drilling the holes accurately for them (no clearance).

I have a soft spot for older homes (I'm a TOH junkie) so I'd never condone burning them down. My house was in pretty sorry shape when I bought it...cloth knob and tube wiring, disfunctional plumbing, plaster falling off the walls, leaky windows and doors, roof damage, squeaky floors, the works...it just needed some love and attention.

Roy - for the electric radiant heated floor, I used SunTouch Warmwire (do a search for this...not sure if I can post a direct link here or PM me and I can refer you to the online retailer I used). You need to figure out the area you want to heat and determine the spool length(s) based on the area and the spacing of the wire. I used AutoCAD to figure this out. You don't want to heat under the cabinets or appliances. The online instructions were comprehensive as well. It took me a day just to get the wire laid out just right, but again, this product was 1/3 the cost of the preconfigured mats. I recommend back buttering the tile with a large notch trowel and setting the tile onto the wire rather than applying the thinset directly to the substrate and wire. Again, this is more time consuming, but the results are worth it and you don't risk damaging the wire with the trowel. I went with the programmable thermostat and it only heats the floor based on our schedule. It really helps augment our existing heating system. That combined with insulating our house, replacing the windows with energy efficient ones, adding continuious rafter ventilation and installing a tankless hot water heater, our gas bill didn't break $100 over the coldest part of the winter. And the radiant heated floor only added about $25 to our electric bill each month. Prior to those changes, we saw some $200-300 gas bills during the winter.

The fridge is a Sub Zero 611, the range is a 30" Wolf Dual-Fuel (gas range, electric oven), the range hood is Wolf, and the dishwasher is a GE Monogram (the one with the Xenon lights inside - very cool).

Thanks again, everyone, for the kind words and compliments.

[Bob Marino]

Folks,

I had the pleasue of meeting Frank and his wife some months back when he requested that I make a presentation at his ww guild's meeting in Chicago. At that meeting, Frank first showed this kitchen redo...along with a beautiful Craftsman door. (PS - Frank did you post that one yet?). Besides being an excellent craftsman, he is so unassuming, friendly and down to earth, you got to like this guy!

Bob

[Larry Fox]

Frank, how did you do the mullions in your doors? For my own project I have two doors which will have glass instead of a raised panel and I have been scratching my head over how to make them for a bit. You appear to have solved the problem exceptionally well.

Thanks again for posting the pics and all the information - very impressive indeed.

L

[Frank Snyder]

Larry - I more or less followed the same pocket cut/half-lap procedure illustrated in "The Complete Guide to Furniture and Cabinet Construction" from Taunton Press. The rabbet for the glass gets an additional pocket cut to receive the half-lap joint of the mullion. The intersecting mullions are joined together with a half-lap joint. I used a dado blade for the half-lap joints, a rabbet bit for the rabbets, and a chisel for the pocket cuts. PM me if you'd like more information.

[Jay Knoll]

Frank

Wonderful job, anything else I say will be an echo of the other posts, thanks for shozwing us the project

Jay

[Al Willits]

Timing on this post was excelent for me, as we are about to start our first big project and its our kitchen, its a bit smaller than what you have, but its an old house and expect a few of the problems you ran into.
If you don't mind, I'll steal a few of your idea's..:)

Thanks for posting your project.

Al