Kitchen Nightmares: Somerville Edition

Even if sometimes it still feels like we’re in the same situation as we were a month ago, when the kitchen didn’t even have walls, the project really has come a long way.  There’s a functioning refrigerator, complete with cold filtered water and ice maker; a working sink, running water, and garbage disposal; and this morning we fired up the Wolf for the first time.  No actual cooking happened, but the thing works.

Fire!

So technically, we could store food, cook it, eat a meal, and wash the dishes.  The problem is that neither of us is really interested in moving into a 90% complete kitchen.  There are still cabinet adjustments to be made.  Shelves for the cabinets are still sitting in the dining room.  The dishwasher probably works but isn’t securely mounted under the counter.  We can’t leave anything on the counters, because inevitably a contractor or two will need to push it out of the way.  Plus there’s the issue of dust.  A good amount of it still gets kicked up during the work day, even though most of the sawing is done outside.  It’s just not worth the hassle of trying to use the kitchen as-is, even if home-cooked meals sound really good right now.

The ovens moved into place the other day:

Double oven in its cabinet

As far as I know, we still don’t have adequate electrical service to the house to run these.  Still nice that they aren’t blocking the path from the living room to the kitchen any more.

Some of the under-cabinet lighting is installed:

Fluorescent fixtures under cabinets

A few more small fixtures need to go in, and we definitely need to get warmer tubes.  This is way too white, especially with the stark-white walls (which of course will go away).

George was here today (Saturday!) trying to catch up on door and window trim along with baseboards, light rail, the dry bar, and other details.  I think he’s as anxious to finish the project as we are.  We are really close, and it looks awesome.  Dare I hope that next weekend we’ll be moving our stuff back in?

Uncategorized electrical, lighting, oven, stove, trim

The past two days have been a total roller-coaster.  First we find out that we might not have a countertop until late February.  Then one of George’s contacts comes through with a good slab that can be installed next week.  Lessons were learned, disasters were averted, and ultimately we stay on schedule - I think.

Last week we checked in with Vermont Soapstone, which we’d always thought would be our vendor of choice for our soapstone countertop.  The sample we got from them months ago was great.  We got their quote and were happy with it, so we figured we’d go with them.  Unlike most stone vendors, they bring an entire slab of stone to your house and fabricate on-site - pretty hardcore.

Then we asked when they could be here.  February 16 - about 4 weeks after we’d hoped to have completely wrapped up this project.  It seems that we’d lost touch with them around the holidays.  We assumed that we could get them here to install a countertop on schedule, but in fact we lost all awareness of their lead time.  Suddenly we were left without a stone vendor who could deliver on our timeline.

Enter Matrix Stone, a referral from George.  They got us a quote yesterday and said that they could complete the entire template and fabrication process by this coming Monday or Tuesday.  Their shop is near our office, in Everett, MA, and they work with suppliers in Braintree and Westwood.

Anne and I both ended up losing most of an afternoon of work while we went south to check out slabs of stone.  The first one we saw was not promising: lots of quartz veining, and lots of spots which mottled the nice smooth soapstone texture we were looking for.  The second stop was much better.  We saw slabs from two lots of stone, with varying degrees of veining.  One of the options was particularly nice and we decided to go with it.  Problem solved.

Matrix will come to template tomorrow and will install the finished countertop on Monday or Tuesday, all for a very reasonable price.  We hope that our estimation of quality is accurate; the stone certainly looked nice in the warehouse this afternoon, but we are hardly stone experts.  This situation all worked out well, but we would have liked to have had more options, including Vermont Soapstone and other companies, like Green Mountain Soapstone and the supplier recommended by our designer at Kitchen Interiors.  Waiting until this late in the process really limited us, and while I think we will end up with a good result, it would definitely make us feel better if we had more options.

In the meantime, the rest of the refrigerator enclosure was built:

Refrigerator in its enclosure

The dishwasher was moved into place:

Dishwasher in place

And the enormous double oven was unwrapped:

Double oven before mounting in its cabinet

For some perspective, here’s the whole kitchen as it looks from the hallway:

The whole room so far

Tomorrow we hope to have some more details on the little side project that’s tagging along with the kitchen, a small dry-bar/built-in that will occupy the closet space that’s held our wine refrigerator in the dining room for a long time.  We decided to finish that off during the kitchen project because we’d already have the electrical and carpentry talents of various contractors at our disposal.  More info on that when we have it.

Anne and I grabbed dinner tonight at West Side Lounge on Mass Ave. in Cambridge.  Such a good place that we almost never go to.  Their cocktails are excellent, and the food is very good.  Anne had a burger and I had roast chicken - simple stuff that was very well done.  I had what they called a “Crimson Manhattan,” made up of rye whiskey, yellow chartreuse, orange bitters, and a splash of pomegranate juice.  Very tasty.

Uncategorized cabinets, construction, countertop, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator

A couple of days ago, Yale called to let us know that our appliances would be delivered today between noon and 3pm.  This was easily doable since I planned to be home all day anyway.  Then, at about 7am, while Anne and I were still fast asleep, the doorbell rang.  They showed up eight hours early!

The dining room was promptly filled with a refrigerator and several enormous boxes.  The Wolf cooktop, complete with wooden pallet, plus the double oven, dishwasher, blower fan, and hood insert occupied almost as much space as the cabinets had before, essentially keeping us from using the room we had just gotten back when the cabinets moved into place.  Thankfully, it was only for one day this time.  By tonight most of them had moved into the kitchen.

Wolf cooktop, packaged and on a shipping pallet

Double oven in a box

Refrigerator in place in the kitchen

George and his helper George (very confusing) arrived shortly afterward to continue hanging and assembling cabinets.  Most of the upper cabinets are now on the walls, and the fridge space has started to take shape.  We’re now getting a sense of how much space we’ll have in the room now that we’re using both walls.  It’s a lot smaller than it used to be.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but it will take some getting used to.

More upper cabinets alongside fridge enclosure

Vent fan hood with more wall cabinets

One thing we realized is that the fridge and the cabinet above it will make it so that the window isn’t visible from most of the room.  Both are, I think, 24 inches deep and are placed directly to the right of the window, effectively shading the front of the room from any window light.  This will definitely take some getting used to, even with the window in the back door providing natural light to the whole room.

Can't see the window. There will be another cabinet above the fridge as well.

Tonight’s dinner was at Stone Hearth Pizza in Belmont.  Their food is excellent and all locally sourced.  We don’t get there often enough because Belmont Center is a little out of the way for us, and unfortunately they don’t deliver.  We were on our way back from Expo Design Center (fancy Home Depot) in Burlington, where we finally picked up cabinet hardware - simple brushed nickel knobs and drawer pulls that still ran us over three hundred bucks.  Nothing comes cheaply on this project.

Next up, we need to pick out a faucet and a pendant lamp for above the sink.  Both of those are quickly becoming tile-esque chores.

We took a trip down to Yale this afternoon to look at lighting.  It turns out that we should have done this a long time ago.  Some pendants rely on a transformer in the ceiling, which requires a larger electrical box than is standard.  We could have had a larger box installed, but that becomes much harder now that the walls are closed up.  It’s a minor issue that can certainly be worked out, but still, we’d hoped to avoid any more surprises.

Uncategorized cabinets, construction, issues, lighting, oven, refrigerator, stove

It’s the night before they’re coming to remove the old kitchen, and we’re packing everything up in boxes and moving it to the basement.  Despite our need for more storage, we actually have a ton of stuff in the kitchen.  It’s amazing how much you can cram into cabinets.

Plus, we need to figure out what to keep upstairs so that we can eat food we order, clean dishes, store leftovers, make coffee, etc.  The cats are here supervising and making sure we don’t stow away any of their food or catnip.  It’s daunting to think how much we use the kitchen and what it will be like not to have one for two months.

It’s also just strange to see the room empty:

Empty room #1

Empty room #2

Empty room #3

Uncategorized before, cabinets, countertop, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, sink, stove

Here’s a look at the kitchen before the renovation.  It’s not bad, but you can see how everything useful is along one wall.  The other wall is where we’ve added a small pantry cabinet, a butcher block, and our trash and recycling.  There’s a also a chair, which is mostly used by the cats.  Just go ahead and try to take it from one of them.

Main wall with counter, sink, dishwasher, stove/oven, refrigerator, and all cabinetry

Other wall with furniture and a window

Another view of the main wall

The other wall looking back through the dining room to the living room

Our weak lighting situation. Also note the water-damaged ceiling.

Uncategorized before, cabinets, countertop, dishwasher, lighting, oven, refrigerator, sink, stove