Our Home Renovation

There are a few things in the Sheridan House that I have spent literally hours trying to figure out the best way to make them work. One of those things is the kitchen cabinets. A few things we know for sure:

• We want to keep the existing cabinets
• We need to add a section of cabinets for the area next to where the stove will go
• The base cabinets are about 4″ lower than normal
• The upper cabinets come down lower than normal
• A dishwasher (we’re not 100% sure we’re going to add one) requires about 2-2.5 more inches below the countertop.

Here’s some photos. (click to see them larger)

So, we can leave everything as is and build the new lower cabinet to match, and have the stove surface stick up 4″ above the counter. Or, we can build the new section at normal height and have most of the counter low, but the new ‘end’ high. Or, we can raise the whole counter a full 4″ to normal height and the stove fits normal and there’s room for a dishwasher. But then there is almost no usable counter space because that leaves about 9″ between the counter and the upper cabinets. You see the dilemma? I’ve literally spent hours pondering this and trying to come up with a solution.

Here’s what I think will be the best compromise…Raise the counter 2.5-3″ so it’s barely lower than normal, probably not noticeably so. Shorten the upper cabinets by a total of about 2.5″. I should be able to take about 1″ off the top and 1.5″ off the bottom of the cabinet doors. I think that between those compromises, we’ll get everything we’re hoping to - a dishwasher would fit, there’d still be about 14″ of clearance between the counter and upper cabinets, the stove would only be ~ 1″ higher than the counter and the character of the original cabinets can remain mostly intact. There’s still the issue of how to raise the counter, but that’s another kind of problem that is more fun to figure out because one way or another it can be done.

Any other ideas? There’s a bunch more photos of the kitchen posted on Flickr.

We had been planning on replacing the flourescent yellow plastic tiles on the backsplash with beadboard wainscoting. Seeing how this is only a short-term renovation, we decided to just use the wainscoting plywood (which I’m normally not a fan of) since it would be quick and easy. In measuring the one side of the sink, getting ready to cut the wainscoting, I realized that I needed a new two-gang electrical box. I had a few, but they were all for new construction, which basically would require putting a large hole in the wall. So, I needed to run to our favorite home improvement warehouse to pick one up that was designed for instialling in an existing wall.

Going past the new countertop (which was sitting on the front porch), I happened to think that we never bothered measuring it to double-check the depth. You can probably already guess where this is going. Upon measuring the countertop, then measuring the lower cabinets, then re-measuring the countertop and re-measuring the cabinets, I discovered that the countertop was only 24.5 inches and our cabinets were 26 inches (plus you need some overhang). I ran out back and measured the old countertop to make sure - it was only 26 inches, but gained an extra .5 inch from the extra layer of drywall and plastic tile. So, we needed a countertop that was 26.5 inches deep.

We loaded up the countertop we had just bought the day before and took it back to Lowes. Not exactly an easy thing with a 10 foot long countertop. We headed over to Home Depot and I talked to the guy in the Kitchen section about it. Their in-stock countertops were 25.5″ which would still put us an inch short. After talking about it for a while, we decided the only viable solution was to build the wall/backsplash out an inch.

We bought a new countertop from HD and then nailed firring strips up on the wall and used real beadboard wainscoting which brought us out an inch from the wall. We tested the new countertop and it fits and looks great.

In the midst of all that, we got home and realized that I forgot to buy the double-gang electrical box that I was going for in the first place!

So, now we just need to finish up the electrical so that the rest of the wainscoting can go up and get painted, then the countertop will go in and we can cut the hole and install the sink.

And the creep goes on. Sunday afternoon was to be the day that we removed the old sink and countertop and installed the new ones. All started well - the countertop came out pretty easily and we were able to leave the sink mounted to it and carry the whole 10′ long beast right out the door.

Once the old countertop and backsplash were out, it became apparent that there was drywall put up (pretty thin - only 3/8″) on top of the plaster between the contertop and the bottom of the cabinets. What is it with layers upon layers of stuff in old houses? Our kitchen floor - ceramic tile on top of lino on top of plywood subfloor on top of old lino tiles on top of plywood subfloor on top of the original hardwood - almost an inch thick total! Anyway, I digress.

So we removed the flourescent yellow plastic (!) tile that was the backsplash, then we ripped out the drywall that was under the tile. No big deal so far; not too much of that evil OHSC - yet. Now it’s time to pull out the electrical outlet, which was a GFCI but apparently wasn’t wired properly, as the GFCI part wasn’t functional. So, we shut off breaker #2 which just happens to have most of the house on it, including the refrigerator, and I pull the outlet out to see what was up.

You know how you always (I do anyway) try to think of the worst case scenario, then when it’s better than that, you’re happy and when it’s the worst case, you’re prepared for it? Well, I thought the worst case scenario was that it would be the old, original knob and tube wiring still. No, it had been updated, except that the wire had the outer housing stripped back quite a ways and had been pulled through the metal box, presumably when they put it in) and BOTH the neutral and hot wires were nicked and exposed quite a bit from being pulled through the sharp opening in the box.

So, it was time to re-wire the kitchen. Not something that I had been planning on for Sunday. As with everything like this, in the end it’ll better, and we’ll know that the wiring is safe, but STILL, can’t something be easy?? Stay tuned for Part 3, which may come later today - you’ll find out about our adventures with lower cabinets that were “custom built” 2 inches deeper than standard. In the mean time, here are some photos of the kitchen before and as it is currently.

Since we’re planning on completely renovating the kitchen sometime in the future (probably at least a year from now), we’ve been trying to do as little as possible to the kitchen for the time being. But, like all things renovation, there is the classic “Old House Scope Creep”. OHSC is what happens when you want to do one simple little thing and it turns into something much bigger. (Credit for the term goes to House in Progress)

A classic example of this was our replacement of the hallway light. It was early on in the renovation and we decided late one evening to put the new stained glass hall light up. Simple enough - take down the old fixture, put the new one up. Then, we decided that we didn’t like where the light switch was (at the far end of the hallway) and since the backside of the bathroom wall was already removed, it would be easy enough to put a switch there, which was within one step of entering the hallway, no matter where you were entering from.

So, the project became a little bigger. We had to run new wiring to the switch and while we were at it (and since we were working on upgrading all the wiring in the house) we figured we might as well run a new line to the light as well. Then we took down the old light and discovered that it wasn’t mounted to a junction box, so we had to cut a hole in the ceiling (through the lathe and plaster), mount a junction box there, run new wiring to it and to the switch, then put up the light. That is OHSC. Anyone who has done any kind of project like this is undoubtedly familiar with it.

The kitchen has been affected by this, too. The sink was too disgusting to live with, so we were able to get a nice used kitchen sink that would suffice until we’re ready to renovate the kitchen. If we were going to be taking out the old sink (we already re-did all the water supply lines), we might as well re-do the waste lines under the sink, and we should put in a Dispose-All (or garburator for those who call it that) at the same time (which requires electrical work, too). And if we were going to be doing all that, we might as well at least look into how much a new kitchen countertop was going to cost.

The good news is that the countertop (laminate) will cost less than $100 total. And the sink and faucet were free (thanks mom and dad!). So, the project isn’t going to cost us much and in the end we’re getting much more than we had hoped for, but it’s taken a lot longer and evolved into a much bigger project than we had originally planned on.