I talked my friends in to letting me remodel their kitchen. (pic heavy)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

My business has been slow so I've been toying with the idea of going pro and getting a license.




Before





During




Insulation (the only thing besides granite that I didn't do)





During





Teak hand-scraped floor.





Insulators install lawn fabric to hold the blown in cellulose.


After



Shelves (minus glass) and "jelly cabinet" all made from leftover stock finished lumber and a door that was sent with hinges drilled on the wrong side. I cut it down to size for the "jelly cabinet".





Stove with pot filler and my "spice and oils cave". I recessed it in to the space that used to be an old doorway (bricked up before they bought the place).



Jelly cabinet up close. You can see where the mullions are backward - no problem since we are not inserting class.




And my favorite part:



Boos butcher block we picked up for sixty bucks at their outlet store. The owners were against it but now they love it to death. One of the guys oils it every chance he gets - he's obsessed with oiling the top.
(The laundry room (behind white door) used to protrude all the way to where butcher-block ends. We cut it back and opened the kitchen to the dining room.)

[NMDemDist2]

1. wow! well done!!

:applause: :yourock:

[trud]

2. great job

I love those cabinets and hanging lights.

Out of schadenfreude, how long was their house in the during phase :-)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. We figured a month but it took a solid three. ... plus

I haven't installed the glass shelves in the jelly cabinet and shelf next to the window...... so like the pros, I have a small punch-list.

They threw me out when they got tired of looking at me. They're good friends (still) and a couple of the sweetest guys on the planet but they had had enough so I have to circle back around and do a few things like the under cabinet light over the sink.

They couldn't be happier with the kitchen. It was almost unusable in the winter due to the lack of insulation and the ceramic tile floor that sucked heat out the back door. There was a bricked over door and window with zero insulation in the cavities. Also, there was zero insulation in the ceiling throughout this 3rd/top floor vintage condo - the association paid for the insulation of the entire roof/crawl.

We probably spent more time because we rushed through a few items. We wanted to get the kitchen some what functional for the family reunion party he sprung on me after I started the job. I didn't know they had company coming right at the one month mark and they didn't think to tell me because they assumed my one month time-frame would be accurate.

For instance, we installed the cabinets and granite before the floor was down so we had to build up plywood under the cabinets to match the new floor height.

The granite went in before we were done drywalling etc. We did this so they would have a sink. I had to install trim and crown over the already installed uppers.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Nice job!

They look like KD cabinets. I used them in my last reno. Very nice, good price.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. They're Hampton Bay cabinets ordered online from Homer's.

Well actually, they are Allwood Cabinets out of Florida and Hampton Bay sells them through HD. Costco also peddles these under their brand. They came shipped from Florida via FedEx.

The pricing was really good compared to everything else I priced out for assembled cabs with plywood boxes. Also, we included a bunch of roller storage drawers and a dual garbage/recycle drawer.

Their top crown molding selection wasn't too good so I made my own. Also, they couldn't accommodate a wall cab depth pantry (without stacking a bunch of wall cabs) so I left that area empty and the finished with left over fillers to make the shelf and cabinet.

The quality is not too bad. The door panels are half inch veneer ply. I like that over the quarter inch panels you see on a lot of shakers. The interior veneer lining leave a little to be desired - we left a spot of water inside one of the cabs over-night and it stained/lifted the finish. We are going to line the bottoms with vinyl shelf paper. Also, I might tile the inside of the sink cab - I've always wanted to try that.

The only complaints I read about online were the cabs arriving damaged. But everyone agrees Allwood takes care of replacements pretty fast. We only had one problem with a mullion door sent with hinges drilled on the finish side. This worked out for us cause I chopped the mistake door down for the "jelly" cabinet. I think they fixed their damage problem by using FedEx.

We could have upgraded to the soft close doors. I hope we don't regret that - not for the soft close feature but because it would have included an upgrade to Blum hardware. We'll see.

[beac]

6. What a gorgeous kitchen! Looks like you are already a "pro."

:applause:

[Paper Roses]

7. Boy, I wish I had friends like you! Beautiful. n/t

[eleny]

8. It's beautiful!

Opening up the kitchen to the dining room made so much sense. A+++!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. The dining room is next. They haven't used it since the kitchen became an eat-in kitchen.

They want me to build out the dinning room with built-in book cases, crown molding, entertainment system, and lighting. The idea is to utilize the dining area as an informal space with a small but expandable dining table. A wall mount TV and and hidden components are what we have in mind.