Tile backsplash complete!

Updates are fewer and further between now, and quite honestly, will wrap up in just a handful of more posts.

That's because...

I'M ALMOST DONE!

When I last left off, I had tiled along the wall by the new, small window. Next up was the longest wall, at around 11'.  Plus, it had the existing window the tile around.  I bought a few bull nose tiles, as I was going to try to do that around the window, but I just felt that it didn't work.  I ended up just cutting whole 3x6 tiles to fit.  I did, however, spend an hour or two measuring, marking, and otherwise determining the best layout for the tiles.  This is the only wall where tiles end at both walls, so my biggest concern was centering them around the window.  I believe it worked quite well.

Left side

Right side

With that done, all that was left was the wall behind the stove, no windows, long run, and just two outlets to cut tile around. 

Then, on to grouting!

The internet can be a good source of information.  It can also be a bad source of information.  I sure hope this blog is not a bad source of information.  :)  The subway tiles we used are standard ceramic, and the greenish/brownish accent tiles are glass.  Grout is sanded, or unsanded.  When searching on the internet, about 50% of the time, people say sanded grout will not hurt glass times.  And about 50% of the time, people say that sanded grout will scratch the glass tile.  Since the tile is on a wall, and not subject to a lot of stress, I went with the unsanded grout.

For the amount of tile I had, I calculated I would need a 10lb bag of grout.  1lb bags are $5.  10lb bags are $11.  I wanted to grout in stages, but the recommendation is to mix the entire bag.  I didn't want to spend $50 for $11 worth of grout.  So, I put my big boy pants on, got everything ready, and mixed my 10lbs of grout with recommended 44-48oz of water.  46oz to be exact. 

And I grouted.  And grouted.  And grouted.  It took around an hour, maybe a little more.  It wasn't difficult work, but it was hard work.  Very hard.  In hindsight, I probably should have used the full 48oz of water.  Even after half an hour, I could feel the grout start to firm up. 

But it looked good.  Real good, if I may say so myself.  :)

I was concerned that in a few places, where the tiles were pushed a little closer to the wall than the others. I was afraid that they would stick out further once the grout was in place, but it was the opposite, really.  The grout served to smooth out small inconsistencies. 

After 30 minutes of drying, you use a wet sponge to clean the haze off the tiles. 

And clean.

And clean.

And clean. 

It takes a long time, and you have to keep rinsing out the sponge.  And you'll probably need to do it the next day too, once it's all over with.

Once the tiles (and countertop) were all cleaned off, I needed to seal where the countertop meets the tile.  I used white silicone caulk, since it supposedly lasts longer than latex caulk. 

So there you have it, the final major task in the kitchen renovation.  There's a little more baseboard trim I need to do, and I've got to tighten the water connection for the ice maker... but that's it.  Oh yeah, and the final inspections. Sarah has completed moving stuff back into the kitchen, and will soon be making cheese grits, and pepperoni rolls, and all manner of tasty things that she makes so well. 

Doors! Painted! Lighting! And tile backsplash - Section 2 of 4

Slowly, slowly, I am wrapping this project up.  The funny part is, I'm still just as busy as I've ever been, it just seems to not be on kitchen project stuff.  However, progress is being made.

I finally got both doors painted, both sides.  Finally had to give up on trying to do it in the garage, because it got too cold.  Had to put the cat box upstairs, block off the basement door opening, and paint on my "workbench" (aka, wonky pool table covered in plywood), while Charlie pawed at the piece of wood I had blocking off the basement doorway.

Doors painted!  And hung!  And cat door installed!  (that will be another blog shortly, since I forgot to take pictures)

Also, I did the final section of under cabinet lighting.  That one too awhile, because it was the run with the built-in microwave.  I was just going to run wires under/around the microwave, but decided at the last minute to go ahead and stick a strip of lights on the bottom of the microwave as well.  Why not, it's not going anywhere anytime soon!  That gives a nice, even light all across the cooking and prep area.

The hardest part was installing the last dimmer.  Because I could not find the dimmer.  A good hour plus, checking everywhere, basement, office, garage, cabinets, toolbox... I knew I had left it on the new counter with everything else, the anti-static bag was there, shipping bag, LED reel, etc.   I had resigned myself to having to order a new one when Sarah noticed it, still in its' bubble wrap bag, peeking out from under the table in the entryway.  From what we can piece together, Charlie got on the counter, found a toy, and played with it until it was out of her reach.

Deco strips have been removed for light installation/tiling convenience 

Just the under-cabinet LED lighting on, no overhead lighting - 20 watts total

Once the dimmer was found, and installed, it became... tile time.

The first section of tile was easy.  Long, straight shot, just 2 outlets to cut around.  This next section was similar with 2 outlets, but it also has the new window, and it's a little more cramped under the corner cabinet.  Realistically, if you can, install your tile back splash before you install your cabinets.  That's pretty unrealistic for just about anyone.

I wanted a simple trim around the windows, so I got some really small shoe moulding from Lowes.  Same thickness as the tile, so it should blend in fairly seamlessly.  I used contact glue to glue it around the window, so I wouldn't have to patch any nail holes.

Tiling this section was pretty much the same routine as the last, just a little more cramped, and a lot more cuts.  Not counting the glass accent tiles (which did need to be cut in some places), I only had 14 tiles across the whole section that didn't need cut.

There you have it.  Section 2 of 4 tiled.

 Finally, as previously referenced, our friend Ross is a Browns fan, and came over and wrote "Go Browns!" on the wall (with permission).  Apparently, his devotion to his "team" has had a negative influence on their season.  They hadn't won a game since November 20th, 2011, until the day I tiled over his graffiti.  Coincidence?  I'll let you decide.

Oh yes, I defaced his defacement before it was tiled over.

More under cabinet lighting

Still going slow on the final bits to get the kitchen all done.  Last week I installed the baseboard and door trim.  Much better looking than door gaps.  Also, I started the process of painting the doors.  Not a fast process, considering I have 2 doors, and 2 sides to each door, and need to put 2 coats of paint on each side, and each side has to wait a minimum of several hours.  And I only have 1 set of saw horses to paint the doors on..  (adds in head)  It's going to take a week or more to paint the doors, unless I want to build some fancy flipping door painting jig, or buy another set of saw horses.

So, in the mean time, I tackled the under cabinet lighting for the north/east cabinets.  There's a couple 45 degree bends as the cabinets turn the corner.  It was a test of my soldering skills, as the solder pads on the lights are rather small.

Yup, the solder pads are under there.  Somewhere.

I measured and "built" the strands in the basement, taping the strands down at the correct angle, since they're flexible and want to go everywhere.

When I was done, I had the following contraption:

Strand of lights, 45 degree angle, strand of lights, 45 degree angle, and strand of lights with power connector.

The solder stuck very well, I tested on a scrap, and was unable to pull the wire/solder off.

A quick drill through the cabinet to run the wire, and hooking it up to the dimmer, and here's the resulting light as seen from the porch:

Now I have enough light on that side, to install the tile.  I still need to cut, solder, and install the lights on the other side of the kitchen.  Then I'll have zero excuses for not finishing the tile.  :)

Under cabinet lighting, and tile backsplash

It has been a week and a half since the last blog post, so you'd think I'd have more done than I do.  But I don't.  Doesn't mean I haven't been working, I just haven't been working myself the long hours that I had previously.

I installed the deco strips (trim under the upper cabinets, see here) and toe kicks (trim under the base cabinets, covering the feet).  Those were relatively straightforward, the only major hint I have for the deco strips would be to attach the right angle brackets to the deco strip, then hold it in place under the cabinet.  Use a pen to mark along the entire length of the elongated hole bracket (you'll know what I mean).  Pre-drill in the middle of the marked area, careful not to drill through into the bottom of the cabinet.  Start your screws in the holes, then place your deco strip in screws before tightening them down.

Toe kicks were also fairly simple.  Measure, cut to size, stick the clips on the back and pop onto the legs.  IKEA really did make it easy.

Next up was the under-cabinet lighting for the new section (my guinea pig section).  You can read more about the type of  lights I used in this blog post.

Lights with deco strip

Lights and dimmer without deco strip

This section was easiest, because it was simply a cut to fit, stick on, and mount the dimmer. The lights look really good, the color is nice and warm. Still hard to believe the whole section was only $25.

Deco strips, done, toe kicks, done.  Tile backsplash and baseboards are left.  I've done plenty of baseboards before, and I usually gravitate towards what I've already done...  But I really wanted to see what the tile looked like.  

The tile will be mostly 3"x6" subway tile, with a 3" high strip of 1" greenish glass tiles for an accent strip.  We've had the tile since May, possibly even April.  I've never done anything with tile before, so I was rather intimidated.  I measured, I marked, I calculated, I played with the layout on Google Sketchup.  How many tiles would I have to cut?  How hard would it be?  Should I calculate it all out first, and make all the tile cuts before I start spreading mastic?  Well, I got tired of trying to figure out on paper (or screen) something I'd never done before, and tiling is always made out to be an easy task on the HGTV shows, so I figured I'd just go for it.  I used mastic rather than thinset because 1) it's easier to work with, and less droopy than thinset, and 2) it's premixed, so you can work in small batches if you need to.  From what I understand, mastic isn't water proof/resistant, so it's okay for backsplashes, but not for bath/tub surrounds.

My friend Phil let me borrow his wet tile saw, and I tried it out on a tile.  Cuts beautifully. Didn't need to cut the tiles before the project, just measure and mark on the tile where it needs cut, walk it out to the saw, and cut it.   So Saturday morning (September 22), I started tiling.  First 5-10 tiles, it was very, very slow going.  I thought it was going to take me forever.  Then, I started picking up speed.  The 7 1/2' backsplash took about 4 hours total. If you're into calculations, that means I can tile at 0.000355113636 miles per hour.  

I think it came out pretty good for a first time at tiling.  I see there were a couple tiles that I didn't get quite as even with the other tiles, as far as how far they stick out from the wall.  Hopefully wont be too noticeable with the grout, we'll see.  The grout is another day, as according to what I've read, you want to mix the whole bag.  I want to get the other cabinets' lighting done first, as it was rather convenient to tile with the lighting right there.  

Dishwasher, doors, and more!

Thursday, September 6th - Plumbing is the part of this project that I was least comfortable with.  Specifically, "supply" plumbing, the part under pressure that brings water to you.  I don't think I mentioned it on the blog, but you may have noticed during the renovation, any shot of the sink area/pipes included an old red plastic coffee container.  That was because after removing the copper tube running to the dishwasher, the valve developed a very tiny drip.  Tiny in that I would have to empty that red bucket every week or so.  With the project coming to an "end", I finally needed to tackle that.  Had I known how easy it was, I would have done it long ago.  Really, it was a matter of turning off the hot water at the water heater, using a wrench to remove the compression valve, putting the new valve on, and tightening it down.  That's it.

So I figured, with the "supply" part of the sink done, the drain part should be easy.  Except I'm a super-novice plumber, and was rather overwhelmed by the vast array of plumbing parts at my local Lowes.  Father-in-law Kevin came over again to help out.  In fact, I'm such a novice, that I'm not even going to detail what I did to get the sink drain working.  The important part is, it works.  :)  I do still need to hook up the 2nd bowl, we didn't quite have the right fittings for that.  But the sink and garbage disposal works, it beats washing dishes in the basement.

Friday, September 7th - Dishwasher installation.  Because of the size and shape of the kitchen, the dishwasher is 24" wide, and the hole it fits in is roughly 31".  I used a couple of large L brackets, and cut a Perfekt cover panel down to size, and mounted it to the side of the cabinet to the right of the dishwasher.  Sturdy, and fits well, and doesn't look weird at all.  If I were super-awesome, I would have made it a little vertical "shelf" to hold cookie sheets.  At this point, I just want a working kitchen.

From what I can tell, there's 2 ways to hook up a dishwasher.  The easy way, with a vinyl or rubber or some type of hose that goes from the valve to the dishwasher, and the hard way, with a flexible copper tube that goes from the valve to the dishwasher.  The vinyl or rubber hoses wear out over time, and can leak, sometimes catastrophically.  Companies make special hoses that "detect" when there's a catastrophic leak, and automatically shut off the water.  Unfortunately, from the reviews I read online, they don't work well, and tend to fail rather often.  The copper tubing, on the other hand, will last far, far longer than the dishwasher ever will.  I decided that I'm not a fan of leaking, so I went the old fashioned and difficult way with the bendable copper tubing.

Difficult doesn't begin to explain it.

Again, perhaps it's just because I'm a super-beginning plumber, or I don't have the right tools, but the copper tubing was just really hard to work with.  It snakes through a hole in the side of the sink cabinet, and then has to work its' way to the front of the dishwasher.  Because of the nature of the copper tubing the fitting it goes into points towards the back of the dishwasher, making it very tough to get a wrench in to tighten it.  It took a couple rounds of "I think that's tight enough." (water on, drip, drip, drip) "Poop, no it isn't." before I finally got it tight enough to be leak free.

Saturday, September 8th - My father-in-law Kevin came over once again, and we installed the two new interior doors.  No major problems or snags there, just the usual fighting with the doors, trimming, leveling, shimming, and nailing in place.

I'm not sure I'm totally happy with the quality of the doors.  Maybe that will change once they're painted, right now they're just primed.  They're Menards' "Duracore" doors, meaning they're hollow-core, but filled with 3M foam.  They seem to block sound pretty good, and have a satisfyingly "solid" feel when you close it.  They just seem rather cheaply made.  It will be one of those "time will tell" things.

I made a mistake installing the first door knob.  In my defense, the directions should have been a little clearer up front.  But I should have paid more attention and read completely through the directions before I started.  The jamb was cutout for the strike plate, and the door had cutouts for the handle and the closer mechanism (whatever it's called), but it wasn't cutout for the metal plate that goes around the spring latch... thingy.  So I used a chisel to carefully chisel out the door where the plate goes.  Problem was, that part of the door is practically cardboard.  Ugh.  I then continue following the instructions...  At the end, as an, "Oh, by the way..." sort of thing, it says that if your door isn't cut out for the metal plate, you can remove it and use the little round metal pieces that come in the package.  Ugh.  So needless to say, the second door knob went on much, much faster.

After the doors, we continued drilling for and installing handles.  IKEA has a nifty little plastic guide for making sure your handle holes all get drilled in the same place.  I also put on some of the cover panels on the end cabinets, hiding the rest of the birch colored part of the Akurum cabinet frames.

There's a paper towel holder... toaster oven... coffee maker...  Kitchen table!!  Saturday was also move-back-in day to the kitchen, marking the end of just under 4 months of cooking in the living room.  The kitchen isn't officially done, but it's functional.

Sunday, September 9th - A quiet, restful Sunday.  Put on a few more cover panels, and, since the fridge is coming back in Monday and it would otherwise be hard to access, I also installed the deco strip under the cabinet over the fridge.

Monday, September 10th - Kevin and Phil came over, and between the three of us, along with extra plywood on the floor, managed to safely wrestle the refrigerator back to it's home.  Like the dishwasher, I went the copper tubing route to supply water to the ice maker.  The fridge is substantially easier to access though.

A happy wife in a functional kitchen!

Yet to do:  Tile backsplash, toe kicks, deco strip, undercabinet lights, and baseboards.  That list is getting mighty short.

Cabinets and Countertops - Part 2

Monday, September 3rd (Labor Day) - Today was a big day...  Countertops!  Father-in-law Kevin came over to help again.

We went with the Pragel stone effect black counters from IKEA.  They're beefy, a full 1.5" thick the entire depth.  Most laminate countertops are thick at the front, and then drop down to around 3/4" for the rest of the counter.  It also makes the 8' section weigh in at around 100lbs.

We had two 6' pieces, and two 8' pieces we needed to cut down to fit.  In hindsight, I wish we had gone with three 8' and 1 6' pieces...  The price difference between the 6' and 8' is only $10 ($59 for 6', $69 for 8'), and we would have had a large enough cutoff to put a matching countertop over the washer/dryer in the mud room.  Oh well.

First things first, we mounted the microwave.  Fairly simple process, take your time measuring and mounting the wall-mount plate, then it should tilt into place, and screw in to the bottom of the cabinet above it.  Make sure you cut your power cord and mounting holes in the cabinet first.  Before the microwave was mounted, we were concerned at how massively huge it looked.  Once it's mounted, you don't see much other than the door, so that was a relief.

After the microwave was installed, we brought the stove in from the garage, so we could confirm the mounting location of the final cabinet, a 3 drawer cabinet to the left of the stove, the only major design change from how the original 1960s kitchen was.

The weight and thickness of the countertops for some interesting cutting.  IKEAFans.com is a great resource for information on IKEA kitchens and other products.  I didn't have to post a single "How do I..." post, so many people have been there before with the same questions, all I had to do was read and find the answers!  Anyway, back to the cutting...  The suggestions from IKEAFans.com had me do the following:  Cut the countertops face down, with a 60 tooth Diablo ultra fine finish blade in my circular saw.  Use masking tape along the cut to eliminate (or at least minimize) any chipping of the laminate.  Go slow. I don't remember seeing this anywhere, but I would add in this:  Start your cut from the front of the countertop rather than the back.  Also, not sure if this is common sense or not, but the father-in-law suggested clamping a straight edge, in this case my drywall ruler, and using it as a guide for the circular saw.  It made for some nice, straight cuts.  Even with all of that preparation, we did still have some chipping.  Thankfully, because the countertops are so dark, a black Sharpie has done a nice job hiding some of the nicks!  I will probably look into some black silicone caulk and see if that helps cover it, as well as seal it.

Speaking of sealing, because the countertops are particleboard, you'll want to seal the edges, so water doesn't get in.  What I did was get a tube of clear silicone caulk, squeeze it on the cut side, and smear it in real good with your finger.  Dries fairly quickly, but stinks baaaad.

The toughest part of the entire day was cutting the hole for the sink.  I used a forstner drill bit at the four corners to get a place for my jigsaw in.  I then used a reverse blade, brand new, high quality Bosch.  The reverse blade cuts on the downstroke, minimizing laminate chipping.  Maybe I just didn't have the right blade, but cutting for the sink was a nightmare.  The blade end furthest from the saw kept bending and not cutting straight up and down.  The end result was an atrocious looking cut, that thankfully in no way took away from the structural integrity of the countertop.  Seal it with the silicone caulk like the other cuts.

I was pretty tired at that point, but as it seems with most nights, there's always little stuff that needs to be done.  Tonight was no exception, I cut holes in the back of the cabinets to access the under-cabinet lighting outlets.  Didn't feel like cleaning up for the picture, so you get a big-old-mess photo of the progress.

Tuesday, September 4th - Kevin came over to help once again.  We screwed down the countertops.  It was as easy as getting in the cabinets, carefully drilling pilot holes, and using the screws supplied with the cabinets to secure the countertops down.  We also mounted the faucet to the sink, and the sink to the countertop.  Faucet hoses too short, oops!

Speaking of faucet hoses...  I read many complaints on different internet sites about IKEA faucets, and how they're sized metric, and don't fit American plumbing systems correctly.  I had a moment of panic myself when the instructions said the US version comes with 9/16" hoses, and I knew that wasn't a normal size.  I looked at the PDF of the instructions on IKEA's site, and it said 1/2", so I think maybe it was a printing error?  Either way, once I found the right 3/8" to 1/2" hose extension at Menards (no easy feat), the faucet hooked right in, perfectly.

Running low on energy for big stuff, I finished the night by installing more cabinet doors, and mounting the first handles in the cabinet to the upper-left of the stove.

Wednesday, September 5th - Not much work done that night, as our Bible study is back to meeting after a summer break.  I did manage to install even more drawers and doors, so it visually looks like I did a lot more than I actually did.

That's it for Part 2.   Part 3 coming up shortly, with plumbing and dishwasher excitement!

The long overdue cabinet entry - Part 1

It has been almost 2 weeks since the last blog entry, but that's only been because I've been so busy with the kitchen.  I did make sure to at least take pictures and leave myself notes to remind me what happened on what day.

Thursday, August 30th - My friend Ross came over to give Sarah a break, and he helped me hang the "northeast" upper cabinets.  IKEA's rail system for hanging upper cabinets made this quite easy.  Take your time getting the rail level, and your cabinets will be level too.  My drywall job was sliiiightly uneven by the new window, and the cabinet over the fridge did require just a little bit of shimming.  Nothing too drastic.

My method for maintaining "level" cabinets as they go around the corner:  Install the rail all the way to the corner along the one wall, and then rest the end of the 4' level on the rail, to get the level on the second wall.  Seemed to work quite well.  Might be the recommended way, not sure, it just made sense to me.

Much to the chagrin of my wife, a die-hard Steeler fan, Ross, one of the Browns' 4 remaining fans, wrote "Go Browns!" under the cabinet in the corner, where there will be tile.  It will forever be known as the Corner of Shame.

Friday, August 31st - Sarah and I hung the "northwest" upper cabinets.  My drywalling job in that corner was worse than the other side by the window.  We went to put the corner cabinet it (always do that one first), and it wouldn't sit flush against the wall.  When I mudded the corners, I didn't feather it out enough and/or sand it enough, so it stuck out.  We put the cabinet in place, marked with a pencil where the cabinet hit the drywall, then took the cabinet back down and chiseled out the drywall so it would sit flush.  Sadly, no pictures of this, but the good part is that it is hard to see once the cabinet is in, and will be invisible once the tile is in.

Northwest cabinet mounting rails

Saturday, September 1st - Sarah's dad came over, and following the same method as the first set of base cabinets a few days prior, we mounted the ledger board for the u-shaped section of base cabinets.  I hadn't installed back legs on the first section of cabinets, but decided to for this main section.  I figured that the ledger board and rear legs would just be extra support.  It ended up that because nothing is ever completely level, the rear legs came in quite handy for leveling the cabinets.

This was also the day that I noticed that without the rear leg on the end of the cabinet run, I wouldn't have anywhere for the toe kick to clip onto.  Also, I couldn't put the foot on the cabinet without unbolting it from the wall, as well as its' neighboring cabinet.  DOH!  After getting very, very close to removing the end cabinet to put a foot on it, I had a revelation.  The cabinets were already resting on the ledger board, so the foot wasn't really for structural stability, it was just meant to attach the toe kick.  So I cut the wide base of the foot off, screwed the foot all the way up, and was then able to fit it under the cabinet.  Unscrew the remains of the leg until it's firm against the floor, and the foot is ready to accept the toe kick!  No massive dis-assembly required.

The sink cabinet was by far the most... fun.  The drain goes out the back, and the supply lines come up from the basement.  I cut a hole in the back for the drain with the Dremel tool, using the adapter I used to cut the electrical outlet holes in the drywall.  I could have done large round holes for the pipes to fit through, except for the hot water pipe, that sticks out with a 2nd valve for the dishwasher.  So I measured and cut 1" wide slots for the pipes to fit through.  I un-nailed the back panel and pulled it back, and then we lowered the cabinet over the pipes, which fit into the slots.  Carefully and awkwardly nail the back panel on, and we're good to go.

Because of the pipe cutouts, I screwed two 1x3 boards along the bottom of the cabinet, for extra strength.  Also, for the dishwasher/garbage disposal outlet hole, I used a piece of trim strip normally used for fiberglass reinforced panels (FRP) to trim out the hole I cut.

Sunday, September 2nd - Didn't do much that day, mostly just installed the upper door hinge hardware and doors.

Countertop set in place, but not cut yet!

That is it for week one.  Next up?  Countertops!  Cut!  And installed!

Vinyl floor installation

Note: Chronologically, this post and the first cabinets posts are out of order, as I forgot to publish this post, before I published the other one.  Oops!

Friday night, Sarah helped me wrestle the 12' long, 140lb roll of vinyl floor into kitchen.  Saturday morning, her dad came over, and the 3 of us managed to roll the floor out to its' final location.  Because it was not yet cut the size, it curled up the walls on 3 sides.  Carefully, methodically, and with a new sharp knife blade, I trimmed it section by section until, suddenly...  There was a floor.

Cat Not Included

For the seam, I tried the "double cut" method using my 4' level as a straightedge.  The idea was to lay the two pieces on top of each other, where the seam would be, and cut through both at the same time, so that the cuts would be perfectly lined up.  You make your cut through the grout line of the 2 pieces, and it should all come out perfectly.  Unfortunately, the level was thick enough that I couldn't hold the knife vertical, and, well, it didn't come out so well.  I did it again, this time using my drywall T-square, and it came out much, much better.

For some reason, I was more apprehensive about rolling on the adhesive than I was about cutting the floor.  Illogical, because the adhesive isn't permanent, and if I somehow messed up putting the floor down, you just pull it up and re-position it.

My father-in-law rolling on the adhesive

Thankfully, applying the floor adhesive to the underlayment was ridiculously easy.  I'm glad I got the roll-on adhesive, rather than the trowel-on kind.  We rolled 2/3 of the flooring back to expose the floor, and just started rolling on the adhesive like it was paint.  Within 15-20 minutes, the adhesive was on.  Let it sit for an hour until the glue is tacky, then carefully roll the floor onto the adhesive-laden underlayment.  Roll back the other 1/3 of the floor, roll on the adhesive, dry for an hour, and roll the floor back down onto the adhesive.

After the floor is done, you go rent your 100lb floor roller from Home Depot (about $20-$25), and roll from the middle out to the edges, both directions (north-south and east-west).

All in all, installing the floor was one of the faster and easier portions of the project.  We started around 9:30am, and were done by 2:30pm, and that included eating lunch, driving to get the floor roller, and waiting two hours for adhesive to dry.

What's next?  Believe it or not, it's time to start actually hanging cabinets!

Bonus Cat Picture - Actually shows the floor texture quite nicely

First cabinet installation!

Electrical, plumbing, and drywall done, ceiling painted, walls painted, floor installed...  The kitchen is now a blank canvas, ready for cabinets.  Hard to believe.

If you'll remember way back, early in the blog, we're adding a section of wall and base cabinets, and countertop to the north side of the kitchen.  36" wide, 15" wide, and 36" wide cabinets.  I decided to start here, since these cabinets are a straight run, and would be the simplest.  Start with the easy, learn how they install, then go on to the harder, main section.


I'm using one of our old cabinets, with a plywood top, as a temporary workbench of sorts in the middle of the kitchen.  It is working quite nicely, and beats working on the ground.

Sarah reminded the cabinet that it was temporary, and not to get used to it.

It is recommended to start with the upper cabinets, as the wider base cabinets aren't in the way at that point, and they're easier to install that way. I'm all for easier.  IKEA wall cabinets have a galvanized steel suspension rail, what appears to be somewhat like a french cleat system.  You screw the rail to the studs, and slide 2 special bolts per cabinet onto the rail.  Line them up, bolts go through the mounting holes in the upper left and right side of each cabinet.

I used Wall Dog cabinet mounting screws to mount the rail.  Each screw, when screwed into a stud, can support 250lbs.  The rail for these cabinets landed on 6 studs, so the rail should theoretically support 1500lbs worth of cabinets.



I ran into a slight snag in that my row of cabinets (4" filler, 36" cabinet, 15" cabinet, and 36" cabinet) was 91" long, and the rail was only 80".  Because of where the cabinets and studs lined up on the rail, it was simply a matter of cutting the rail in half, and mounting it with the rail gap between the mounting holes of the middle cabinet.  Each 40" section of rail screws into 3 studs, and supports 3 cabinet bolts (one and a half cabinets).  The hardest part was making sure both sections of rail were not only level, but level with each other.  I ended up sticking my 4' level tight against the first rail, and pinning it to the wall with a couple of nails.  Position the 2nd rail on the end where it needs to go, and screw it down.

Rail gap is hidden behind this middle cabinet.

Because the cabinets are flush against the wall on the right side, I wanted to bump them away from the wall to allow the doors to fully open.  Since the door panels are around 3 1/2" wide, I decided to use a strip of the toekick, which is around 4" tall, or in this case, wide.  I used a couple of L brackets, and mounted the filler strip to the side of the right-side wall cabinet.

Rear view of the filler mounted to the wall cabinet.

Front view of the filler strip.

Hanging the cabinets is as easy as picking it up, lining up the bolts with the mounting brackets, setting them on, and putting the nut on.  Once the cabinets are all hung, you line them up, clamp them, drill through one of the peg/hinge/drawer rail holes, and screw the cabinets together.  Tighten the nuts on the mounting brackets, and you're done!

The base cabinets were similar, minus the mounting rail.  In the toekick box is another unfinished long piece of MDF that you screw to the wall at 4 5/16" (A nice simple 11cm for you metric folks).  I took my time, because the more level it is, the more level your cabinets will be.  The back of the base cabinet rests on there, and the adjustable legs sit on the ground in the front.  In my case, our vinyl floor is Armstrong Cushionstep, and 1/8" thick.  The floor instructions say that the cabinet legs shouldn't be on the vinyl itself, so I marked and cut holes so the feet could sit directly on the underlayment.  The toekick will cover up the legs.

6th leg hole is not shown.

I used little 3/4" long wood screws to hold the IKEA feet on, since they're likely to fall off while moving the cabinet into place.  Then it's a matter of setting the back of the cabinets onto the rail, and adjusting the feet until it's level front to back, and side to side.

With the upper cabinets,  the rail had holes all along it, so mounting it to studs wasn't a problem.  However, with the base cabinets, none of the mounting holes lined up with my studs.  It's not a huge problem, as the weight of the base cabinets rests on the bottom ledger board, but you still want them secured to the wall as best as you can.  I used anchors similar to the following:

Screw those into the drywall through the mounting brackets, and then run your screw into that to hold it all in place.

Taadaa!

Monday night was the upper cabinets, and Tuesday night was the lower cabinets.  A couple more drawers and doors, a toekick, a countertop, side cover panels, a deco strip along the bottom of the upper cabinets, and cabinet lighting, and they'll be done!  Yeah, that's all.  Oh yes, and then the rest of the kitchen.  But we have cabinets!

Bonus cat picture of Charlie imagining she's a lot smaller than she really is.

Underlayment Installation

Now that the old vinyl floor and underlayment were removed, it was time to get the new underlayment installed.  I bought 4'x8' sheets of 5mm Tri-Ply underlayment at Home Depot for $11 a sheet.  It's really nice looking wood, even just by itself!  I entered the kitchen dimensions into Google Sketchup, and figured out an ideal layout for the underlayment.  You have to stagger the joints, so you don't get 4 corners of 4 sheets of underlayment all meeting at the same point.  Also, you need the grain to all go the same way, preferably perpendicular to the direction of the joists.  I'm not sure if that would matter for me, since I have 1 1/2" of subfloor and underlayment already down, but it doesn't hurt to follow directions.  My stapling pattern was as follows: every 2" around the perimeter of each sheet, and every 4" across the face.

After the first night

So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights were spent measuring, cutting, and air stapling down underlayment.  Of the 9 sheets I bought, only 2 needed no cutting to make them fit.  I went the ultra-cheap route with the stapler, I picked one up from Harbor Freight.  It was on sale, and I had a coupon, so it was $16 out the door.  I did buy good quality Porter-Cable staples, per the recommendation of those on the Harbor Freight website.  How did the cheapo air stapler fare?

Underlayment?  More like DONEderlayment!

9 sheets of underlayment, 10 hours of cutting and fitting, and 2975 staples later, and only 1 misfire.  I hesitate to even call it a misfire, as I think I actually managed to hit a nail underneath whose head was broken off and then hammered below the surface.  I can't complain!

With the underlayment down and the walls painted, we wanted to see how the new floor would look with the baseboard and wall.  We rolled out the small roll of flooring and stuck a piece of baseboard against the wall.

Soon, it will all look like this...

 Also, wanted to see where the cabinets sat, so we knew where to cut the flooring.

Oops, I need to take care of that old phone jack hanging from the wall.

How about another panorama?  

And since Charlie is finally allowed back in the kitchen, how about a return of the Bonus Cat pictures?

Flooring Roll Inspector Cat

The roll of flooring was the only thing in the kitchen, so of course she had to lay on  it.

Next up?  Cutting and installing the new floor.  No, that wont be scary at all!