Fixing the Front Bookcases

One of the bookcases in the front room has started to lean to the left…and it’s been bothering me to no end. 

So this weekend I emptied it, levelled it with shims and screwed it to the adjacent one. I also re-organized and tidied up the books so it looks a little better.

And now we know: this took way less time than I thought it would, for once!

New Pillows for the Front Room

These pillow forms have been sitting sadly on the front room sofa without covers for many months now. You really need the extra pillow to lean on the arm rest, so we used them even in their naked state.

At a fabric sale earlier this year, I bought some purple material and sequined trim to use in this room. I glued, and then hand stitched the trim in place before sewing simple envelope back pillows covers.

They’re pretty fun…a little girly but Tom will have to live with that.

And now we know: creating the style of pillow cases with all the fabric folds is hard. I first tried this by ironing pleats into the fabric, but after about 10 rows they started to get off the straight, so I eventually abandoned this technique.

Switching Up the Chair Cushions

 Last year I built 2 chairs for the back room and they've never seemed quite right to me. I found them uncomfortable and too hard, you didn't sink into the cushions. Also the back cushion was almost 2 inches higher than the wood frame, making it look funny.

Finally I decided to try replacing the back cushion. I bought 2” foam (replacing 4”) with batting around it, but it looked even worse since it was so much thinner that the seat, and was not that much better in terms of comfort. In the end I stuffed each cover with 2 standard pillow forms wrapped in batting. This is much more comfortable and because it is less structure, they now line up with the top of the wood frame.

And know we know: try out 1 chair before buying both pieces of foam…I now have 2 extra 4” pieces and 2 extra 2” pieces of foam

The Kitchen: Before and Afters

Initially the plan for renovating the kitchen was to do it over 2 weeks when on vacation. Then we decided to go to Vermont in the middle, cutting 5 days out of the 16 days. My (ambitious) schedule had us completely finished with days to spare before we had to go back to work. Although we did not finish in the allotted time, we did have a fully functional kitchen by the end of our vacation, just without doors, drawers, completed paint job or baseboards. Not really the end of the world as we could still cook.

Looking back I wouldn't have done much differently. It was stressful, but we got through it with minimal fighting and are very happy with the end result. We dealt with the surprises, like the tar on the floor, and learned some new skills, like using the disc sander on the floor. At this point, neither of us can face another kitchen renovation in our lives, but maybe down the road in our next house we will try this again, we've definitely learned a lot about installing kitchens.

Here are the before and afters of the room

The sink corner:

 The stove corner:

And a few extra photos for fun:

And now we know: was it worth it? Given some distance from the reno, I think so, Tom might disagree though. Also I have awesome arm muscles and abs after 3 months of renovations and building the cabinets.

The Kitchen: Calling It Finished

This weekend I did some more touch ups. Where the peninsula meets the wall, I primed and painted the drywall mud, then caulked the joint. 

The cutlery drawer got its edging. All the others were done prior to the start of construction, but I ran out of edge banding before the last one and never came back to it. 

Although there are still some minor things to do in the kitchen, it’s reached about 95% completion now, so I am calling it finished.

And now we know:  the only things left in the kitchen are painting of the ceiling where I patched it and adding moulding to the front of the melamine shelves. At this point I am burnt out from kitchen reno’s, work stress and being sick all at the same time, so these small things will have to wait for the new year.

The Kitchen: Touch Ups

I hung the upper doors and touched up the wall paint.

Much to the bemusement of my husband, I removed the pantry doors, replaced all 8 of the 90 degree hinges with 120 degree ones and re-installed the doors. It was really bothering me that the doors only opened until they were parallel with the pantry sides.

And now we know: the trick to having your hinges open the degree they advertise is to ensure the holes you drill are close enough to the door edge. If I did it again I would splurge for all 120 degree hinges and am thinking of eventually going back and replacing them on some on the more frequently used upper cupboards. Also I would purchase a new bit at the start of the reno instead of using a crappy old one that I had to sharpen twice per hole and that got so hot the wood got burn marks.

The Kitchen: Paint, Blocking and Blinds

Over this weekend I painted the upper cabinet doors and touched up some of the walls. I also touched up the black paint on the baseboards and gave them a couple of clear coats.

In the upper cabinets, I added some blocking to attach the hinges to. 

Its just pine that got screwed in and the holes filled. Before the doors get hung, they’ll get a coat of white paint so they blend in.

Finally I reinstalled blinds, which gives the room a more complete look and adds some softness.

And now we know: I wish I’d added the blocking at the start when I sanded the cabinets but after doing it, pine was a lot easier to use for this than oak. The oak was hard to drill in place in these tight spots.

The Kitchen: Finally Hanging Some Doors

Today was the day we tackled hanging the giant pantry doors. These monster doors are 24” wide by 7 ft high and have 4 hinges each, so hanging them was definitely a 2 person job. Surprisingly, it was not as hard as predicted, once the top hinge and bottom hinge were in place, the center 2 were easy to do. 

Next was hanging the base cabinet doors and drawer fronts. They went on fairly easily, I marked the overlay with painters tape and then determined the placement of the hinge. There is a lot of room for adjustments with this type of hinge, so you can play with it to get everything lined up perfectly.

Next was hanging the base cabinet doors and drawer fronts. They went on fairly easily, I marked the overlay with painters tape and then determined the placement of the hinge. There is a lot of room for adjustments with this type of hinge, so you can play with it to get everything lined up perfectly.

Down in the shop, I assembled more upper cabinet doors. Yesterday I had cut the centre plywood panel and Tom sanded them in preparation.

And know we know: It’s much easier to align drawer front if you build a complete box and then attached the front while the box is in place on its hinges, vs pre-attaching it then trying to fiddle with the hinges, like I did for the bedroom dressers.

The Kitchen: Drawers and Trim Installation

Unfortunately the kitchen still looks like a construction zone. There is construction stuff all over the island and still no doors on the cabinets.

At night this week I’ve been working on getting the drawer glides and drawers in. Installing glides is one of those things that would have been easier to do before the counters went it, but there was just no time.

The drawers did not go in easily. Even after measuring for the drawers once the cabinets were built and the blocking in place, they were still too big. I had to trim 1/8” off the edge of each drawer to allow them to move smoothly. This was really a pain to do and have it look good. I only removed about 3” up from the bottom on one side of each drawer, where the glide is attached, then painted it white so it would be less noticeable.

Trim was another item that did not get done, so we headed to Home Depot to pick up what we needed. The flat trim and quarter round for the base cabinets started off by getting a couple of coats of black. 

The rest of the day was spent running up and down stairs cutting the trim and nailing it in place. Obviously it needs the nail holes filled and some paint, but it does make the room look more finished.

 I especially like the 5” high baseboards. 

And know we know: double check before you paint your trim black. Some of it, like the piece for below the pantry, might not need to be painted. Luckily the back is the same profile, just not primed.

The Kitchen: Reno Day 10

Our last full day before going back to work was spent getting the kitchen to a point where we could use it to cook again and be able to move some stuff back in. To start Tom put a coat of sealer on the back splash grout and I caulked the edges. The outlet needed an extension piece due to the extra depth from the tile, so we switched it from a cream one to a white one at the same time.

The upper cabinets got a final coat of white paint, both inside and out. 

We recruited my brother and dad for help to move the fridge and stove back into the room. The stove just fit, honestly there is less that 1/8” clearance and I was so happy it fit after all the problems with the counter ends. 

In the corner cabinet, I installed the half circle lazy susan unit. This set was from Lee Valley; it came with brackets that screwed into a vertical post and 2 shelves that clipped into them. Installation was easy, the only issue was the screws that came with it; they were such bad quality that the head broke off when you tried to screw them in.

As you can see the cat came home today and gave her approval to the lazy susan. 

And now we know: my timeline for the kitchen was a little too ambitious. I wish we were a little further along before we had to go back to work but it is operational even without any cabinet doors.

The Kitchen: Reno Day 9

Now that the base cabinets are painted, I was able to put the clear coat onto the cabinets. They got the same polycrylic as the doors. 

A first coat of white paint went on the upper cabinets, although hard to tell in photos, they now look much cleaner in person.

The back of the pantry doors also got a couple of coats of white paint. They are currently taking over our dining room table much to the happiness of Tom.

Finally, the back splash got grouted. I used a non-sanded white grout and followed the typical progress; put it on, wait, wipe off excess, wait and lastly buff. I love the difference grout makes to tiles, it makes it look cleaner and polished. 

And now we know: wash your tools right after you finish with them. We had let the grout from the bathroom tiling dry on the stirring drill attachment, so Tom spent some tile chipping it off before we could use it again. 

The Kitchen: Reno Day 8

After another coat of black paint on the base cabinets, we ripped up the paper on the floor and gave it a good cleaning in preparation for applying a clear coat.

Over the course of the day, I put FIVE coats of clear water based semi-gloss verathane on the floor. Every 2 hours I put on another coat, cutting in with a brush, and then using a flat pad attached to a pole for the main areas. I finished up the final coat at 9 pm. 

In between coats, I put 2 coats of clear polycrylic on the backs of the doors. 

And 2 coats on the drawer fronts. Since I used matt black paint, the clear coat gave them some shine and the durability they need in a kitchen.

And now we know: all those coats and the time sanding really paid off…the floor looks amazing. Also that clear coating dries incredibly fast.

The Kitchen: Reno Day 7

Well the range hood went back in today. When we took out the old one it turned out that it never vented outside…which obviously concerned us. We got a few quotes to install a vent to the outside but people kept saying how hard it would be to do it as the chimney is behind and the clay pipe inside could collapse. So we looked into other options and it turns out you can buy a charcoal filter attachment for the new range hood that works just as well. We got it and installed it, the only draw back it that the range is now lower by almost 3” to the stovetop, but luckily it is still within the allowable distance. Needless to say it is also much better looking than the old cream one. 

The rest of the day was all tiling the back splash.  Don’t you love it when something you think will take 3 hours really takes 8. I chose to alternate rows of white subway tile with rows of small glass subway tiles. I enjoy tiling so although it was hard on the back, I did fun doing this.

Tom not so much. He is the official tile cutter and spent the day running in and out to his wet tile saw in his lovely outfit. It got pretty cold by the end of the day.

And now we know: creating a pattern with tile adds a lot of time to the task. Cutting tiny glass tiles on a wet saw is very challenging.