Kitchen Redo Day 2

Yes, I know I posted 2.5 before 2.0

This post could also be titled.

The Saga Of The Too Tall Dishwasher

or

The Freaking PO Is Screwing Me Again

Today's goal was to swap out dishwashers, add the missing code required air gap, install the fabulous new 1HP garbage disposal, install a new faucet and drill a hole in the counter top for a soap dispenser.

Switching dishwashers should be a simple thing....slide one out, disconnect it, connect up the new one and slide it in, DONE!!! In this case, not so much....

Old Dishwasher Finally Pulled Out

You see, the problem is, the PO installed the cabinets along this run onto the sub floor. Then he added 1/4" cement board and the tiles....effectively trapping the existing DW in its place...instead of tiling the entire kitchen floor first or at least adding some plywood to bring the cabinets up he did....NOTHING!

Here's some fabu shots of me trying to figure out how to get the newer DW to fit.

See that look on my face? I've had that look a lot lately...
To get the new DW to fit I had to remove part of the padding on the top and massage a metal seam with my framing hammer! You can also see the crappy chrome plated plastic faucet in this picture.

On To The Garbage Disposal

Cabinet Before

Existing Crappy Plumbing

Whoops, gotta switch out those non-GFCI outlets under the sink!

Voila New Garbage Disposal

New Plumbing

Had to make a quick trip to Pagano's Hardware cause the P-Trap ripped in two and I need a longer tail piece.

Dead Plumbing Parts

Bye Bye

Drilling The Granite Counter Top
I was pretty worried about this, thinking that it was going to be some hard horrible thing. This turned out to me one of the easiest things about this redo so far. After watching some YouTube videos I was ready to try it.

My Drilling Tool

Don't ya love the handle? Can't find ANY of em anywhere....That's a diamond grit bit that still cost me $32 at the shady Chinese granite place...

Hole Marked And Ready To Go

Instead of using water to keep the bit cool someone suggested packing it with ice as it was less messy.

Action Shot

Hole Done

Cute Little Plug

I'm hoping that the black on the bit is just burned wood from cutting all the way through the granite and plywood underlayment....I'm hoping I didn't cook the bit...
Giant Mess....

Soap Dispenser Installed

Done Shot

We can't believe how much nicer the new faucet makes the kitchen look. It took me like 2hrs to pick
out this faucet. I had to call several manf to ask them, 'What exactly is this faucet made out of?' I wanted a solid brass faucet and NONE of the manf I talked to make em anymore! At any price point! All the high end faucets where 'all metal' but the metal was some sort of amalgam and they couldn't tell me what was in it...these are faucets that retail for like $600!?!?!  I got the guy at Pfister I was talking to to tell me which older discontinued models were made that way...then I found one at Amazon! Heavily marked down cause it was a discontintued model.

This shot also shows the new SS outlet covers we bought.

Some exciting pics of more SS outlet covers.

Next Up, What to Do With The Glass Block???

Kitchen Redo Day 2.5

This post could also be titled

Electrical Schmectrical

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate the PO of this house? How many countless hours I'm spending un-F'ing this guys work?
There's even a song that goes along with it. 'Hate em, hate em, hate em, hate em all day long...Heh! hate em hate em hate em, this is the hate em song, Heh!' Its catchy, trust me, if you catch me on the street I'll even sing it for you!

So, one of the things my code enforcement officer specifically pointed out was the lights on the arch over the breakfast bar. He said that they are 12VDC lights and that he couldn't find the transformer anywhere.....I was secretly hoping that they were really 120VAC lights and he was just mistaken....not so much....

Here's what they look like with me just taking one down

Check out the look on my face when I looked up into the hole.

Cause this is what I saw.

Yanked out

This is my fav, that's safe right?

This is what I felt like after I had em all pulled out.

So here's the crazy thing (ya just one) these holes were wired for 120VAC. But instead of putting in ceiling boxes and 120VAC lights they put in the outlets and the transformers and all of this mess.....
Arrrrrrrrrrgh!

So, out go the lights, the transformers and in go the old work ceiling boxes.

Except that the arch was built too narrow on the inside dimension to fit old work boxes!!! Hurray!!
I had to break out my chisels and remove some of the wood to get each box to fit! Hurray!!!

Here's how they look all correctly installed and waiting for the new lights.

We decided to get some nice pendant lights (from Amazon, YAY free shipping, Booo on sales tax)...that don't really match anything else in the entire kitchen or entryway.....

Next up Kitchen redo day 2.0...or, 'The tale of the too tall dishwasher.....'