On the home improvement shows, I’ve seen them install a piece of molding between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling, scribed to fit tightly at the top. That should mean no or very little dust and grease on the tops of the cabinets.
We have a cabinet guy coming tomorrow to take a look, and we will definitely get some numbers for various approaches. I have no clue about the cost of something like an extra custom panel or two vs. having to do a whole kitchen full of custom or semi-custom cabinets in order to go all the way to the ceiling, but I suspect it will be a significant difference. We’ll see if it’s worth it to us once we are talking about actual numbers.
Here’s a pic of our custom cabinets, installed during our kitchen remodel about 20 years ago. (Geez, has it been that long?) That’s crown molding at the top of the cabinet, against the ceiling.
Pretty pretty pretty
:: bump ::
We have now officially kicked off - the deposit has been paid to the contractor, and cabinets and countertops mostly selected (we are waiting for pricing to make the final selection, which will happen Monday, and the cabinet shop owner will pop over to our house to pick up payment). The contractor says he can start demo as soon as this Wednesday (eek!), so tomorrow will involve packing up the kitchen equipment and rearranging the dining room to set up small kitchen appliances like the toaster oven, coffee maker, Instant Pot, an electric frying pan, and some limited cooking utensils and outdoor dishes. Everything else will go in plastic tubs in the basement.
The cabinets will be simple white Shaker-style, and the countertop will be black quartz, so they will go with anything if anyone wants to make changes in the future. The cabinets ended up being about the same price as Ikea, so given that, we decided to keep it simple by not having multiple providers and a 7 - 9 week lead time (they should arrive in 7 - 10 days).
So in the morning, we have a lot of work to do rearranging and packing! We also went to the plumbing supply store yesterday for a new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal, and ordered cabinet pulls and a new light fixture for over the island. But the part I am the most excited about is new, handmade Turkish backsplash tile! We have always loved Turkish ceramic motifs, and right now in particular I feel good about supporting an independent female Turkish artisan.
I guess there’s no turning back now. Wish us luck!
Those are beautiful
Ooh, i like those.
Good luck, i hope it all goes smoothly, and you love the results.
I’ll be replacing my backsplashes and upgrading my wiring soon. Just that is going to be pretty disruptive, and i also need to find a place to put the electric kettle and the instant pot.
Here’s the tile I’m using.
OMG, love it!
I’m excited to see how all of this turns out. Our kitchen remodel is still in the fantasizing stage.
Sounds perfect, I have similar cab and stone colors. Over 10 years later I still love the look.
That Turkish tile is sweet it’ll look great as a back splash.
Today is Rearrange the House Day! Time to pack up nearly everything in the kitchen cabinets, put it in giant plastic tubs in the basement, and rearrange the dining room so we can move all the small appliances in there at the last minute for our temporary kitchenette. I think with the toaster oven, Instant Pot, espresso maker, electric frying pan, melamine outdoor plates and cups, a couple of mugs and bowls, and some limited cookware and utensils set up in the dining room on a folding plastic table (heat-producing appliances on top of either my giant marble pastry board or cutting boards), once the fridge and the microwave are moved in there, we will be able to manage some simple meals. The dishwashing is going to be awkward, but I think we will set up the dish drainer on the ledge in the tub (which just has some cleaning supplies on it right now), and wash dishes by hand in some kind of plastic basin in the bathtub. But we are for sure going to stock up on some easy frozen things at Trader Joe’s, too.
Anyone who has done this before, please share your Kitchenless Cooking tips! I managed for an entire semester cooking most of my meals on a single burner in a Soviet dorm, so I think we will manage somehow, probably supplemented with some takeout now and again, or some things from our local Polish deli.
I’ll have a sink and dishwasher in the evening, but will be without a stove. (And access to the sink will be very limited during the day.) So I’m also looking for tips.
We live in a townhouse condo and had no place to set up an alternative kitchen. Plus, we were doing a top-to-bottom remodel, so the rest of the place was a mess, too. We just survived on take-out and no-cook food like sandwiches and salads. Fortunately, at the time, there was a coffee shop a block away that we could walk to. We got very friendly with the owner/manager. Sadly, there’s apartments there now. Oh, and we were both working at the time, so we got in the habit of eating our main meal at work and just a light snack at night.
Hopefully you still have access to your refrigerator?
Another issue is construction dust, which gets everywhere. Is it possible to block off the kitchen and have the tradespeople enter and exit via a door directly into it? Basically, you want to avoid having them walk dust throughout your house. You can get a sticky mat and place it at the entrance to the construction zone, so that as people exit, they step on that and it captures much of the dust. You can also isolate the construction zone with plastic sheeting taped to the floor, walls and ceiling, and enter and exit via a zipper door. Even then, you may want to cover stuff elsewhere in the house and take special care with any electronics.
Yep, the fridge is being moved into the dining room for the duration, thank goodness.
Yep, that’s the plan. The kitchen is at the back of the house, so they will go in and out the back door (and they can store tools, supplies, etc. in the basement, which is also accessible via the back). Unfortunately the sole bathroom is off the kitchen hallway, so everyone will need to use it (and enter it from the rest of the house). There is also a door between the bathroom/kitchen part of the house, which I asked them to tweak (it doesn’t latch properly - it’s a 115-year-old house - but they say that’s a simple fix).
And we have some pretty robust air filtration built into the HVAC system. But we have reconciled ourselves to a certain amount of crud during the process. My normal workspace is a bedroom that we have converted to an office/den which is off one side of the kitchen and separated by a door, but I think I am going to move the kitchen table to the front living room window and set up my work computer there temporarily.
Cool. We had room in our utility/mechanical room. And there is a laundry sink in there so it made it easier.
We just used the microwave. A chili, frozen soups (need to be pre cooked/prepared of course) got us through. We also did take out. Pizza or whatever. If you have a grill on the deck that can be helpful too. A steak as a treat is nice. IMHO baked potatoes cook up pretty well in a microwave.
I cook quite a bit, but this turned out to be a non-issue. We did fine.
We do have a grill, and a basement, but the basement is unheated, and the grill is stowed away in the garage for the winter. In February in Chicago, outdoor grilling is not something one can count on, and it’s a tad chilly in the basement. We do have some frozen home-cooked food in the downstairs freezer, and between that, the Instant Pot, the toaster oven, electric frying pan, and the Instant Precision Dutch Oven that I bought…erm, I mean Tom_Scud just gave me as a Valentine’s Day gift (hey, it’s red and everything!), I think we will be just fine. And yes, the plan is to move the microwave into the living room, too. I just scrubbed down the folding table that was in the basement, and we are going to set up a mini-kitchen on that and some wire shelving along the dining room windows.
Our microwave is designed to be mounted over the stove. We won’t be using it. We will just have an instant pot, an electric kettle, and possibly the toaster oven, although I don’t like to do real cooking in there, as it’s too hard to clean. And yes, it’s too cold to grill.
Almost sounds like your saying it’s too chilly to grill in the basement. Just don’t do that EVER.
But it sounds like you will be fine. Maybe go out to eat a little more to break things up. This process was a total non-issue for my Wife and I. So much so that I’m having a hard time remembering it.