Kitchen Remodel

My wife and I remodeled our kitchen back in '17. It was a team effort, and I used a lot of the scope making techniques that I learned from Steve Swayze towards the remodel of our kitchen. Prior to meeting Steve Swayze, I never considered myself a handyman, much less as having the ability to remodel a kitchen. However, after working with Steve Swayze for years, I decided I was ready to tackle remodeling our kitchen. Since we remodeled our kitchen, we've also remodeled our guest bathroom to match the kitchen. All of our projects are done together- Andrea and I make a great team.

One of the main project goals was to make the cupboard above the refrigerator accessible for Andrea. The way it was set up, it was recessed way back to the wall, so Andrea had to get a chair and climb on it to get to the cupboard. When I built the refrigerator enclosure, I brought the cabinet forward to be flush with the refrigerator front. 

I also built the dining table right after building my 10" f/5.6, but before remodeling our kitchen. It was a 2 week project,. Although it'd been beat up by the kids through the years. It outlasted all of our prior dining tables which just about fell apart because of our kids. However, the dining room table has since been replaced with the kitchen island, a far more efficient solution for our needs today. 

In the kitchen, the 3 lights created dark areas in the kitchen which was problematic for communication. These 3 lights were removed and replaced with thirteen 6" recessed lighting at 2700k, which is a warm white-yellow hue. I find this hue to preferable to the harsh white produced by 5000k-6000k lighting. I did all the work, including the wiring, myself. There was also a large empty space between the end of the kitchen counter and the sliding door. I built a desk area comprised of a cabinet buttressed by two pantry style cabinets. I also moved the cabinet above the refrigerator forward about 2 feet, and built an enclosure for the refrigerator using the old cabinet that was above it. I planned to buy a new cabinet for above the refrigerator but realized it would not match the rest of the kitchen so I re-purposed the old cabinet and just built the enclosure around it instead.

Painting the kitchen took a week, followed by a month because of the cure time for the paint we used- Benjamin Moore Advance. This paint is very durable, and has withstood the abuse from our 3 kids in the 8 years since the kitchen was completed. Also note in the before picture, the empty space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. This created enormous amounts of dust that would sometimes come down to the kitchen counter area when we turned the fan on. I closed this space off by building faux cabinet extensions. It gives the cabinets the appearance of being larger than they really are, and creates a really nice aesthetic that flows into the 3 piece crown molding that I built.

I built the crown molding in 3 piece configuration because it resists movement due to temperature changes during the seasons. So far, in the 8 years since the remodel, we've had zero problems with separation. I also did the 3 piece crown in the bathroom, hallway, and living room as well. It really lends a sense of majesty to a room.

The recessed lighting are split into 3 groups. The first are the main 6" lights throughout the kitchen, controlled by a dimmer switch. The 2nd group are the 4" lights just above the kitchen counter. These are controlled by a dimmer right behind the sink, just to the right of the sink. The 3rd group is actually just a single 4" light, right above my computer desk. Controlled by a switch right next to the switch for the outside light, next to the sliding door.

We also did the floor ourselves- much better than the old vinyl flooring, which BTW, is still under the vinyl paneling we installed. The old vinyl floor is glued to the sub floor so we left it.

This is the first home we bought, so it is small. We plan on moving to a bigger house in an area that is more rural and further away from other houses in the next few years. So, we'll likely do this all over again! It was a fun experience and something we enjoyed doing.