Post#5 - Recessed Lights

Good morning all,

When I first started the electrical part to this project I never realized the amount of work involved in re-routing the circuits from the panel upstairs to the one downstairs. At least now I'm done and all I need to do this week is connect the 6 recessed lights in the kitchen. The next diagram is the one that represents the recessed, cabinet and under counter lights.

Circuit 2

Last week I organized the two electrical panels downstairs which took over five hours. I still have lots of room in my main panel to add more circuits if I ever need too.

Downstairs Panel

Last week I bought lumber to build the posts and beams.  I'm hoping to get those in this week. The next picture shows the posts and beams in my shop.  Yesterday Alex and I planed those posts and beams and they are looking great.  The next picture shows the posts and beams in my shop before they were planed.

Post & Beams - Rough

I'm done varnishing 80 piece of 16' knotty pine that will go on the ceiling and part of the north wall in the dining room. I used over 3 gallons of varnish to get all of these planks varnished. I'm looking forward to putting those up on the ceiling. We insulated the south wall in the kitchen. The next picture shows our kitchen as of this week. I had to remove all of the insulation because we had condensation between the exteriour wall and the insulation. I hope that we get our kitchen window on Tuesday so that we can start closing the West wall too.

Project - Week#4

This week I hope to finish taking down the drywall in the dining room, start putting up the drywall on the east and south walls and maybe even install some of the posts and beams. Alex will be spending the day helping out on Wednesday because it's 'Take Your Kids to Work' day. It will be nice to have a helping hand. Hope everyone has a great week.

Post#4 - Electricity...More Electricity

Good morning everyone,


Welcome to this week's blog. I spent most of last week moving electrical circuits and adding new ones.  Most of the electrical stuff is done.  I still have to finish up putting in the recessed lights in the kitchen and the light over the table in the dining room. The next picture shows the electrical plans for the dining room.

Circuit 1

I've decided to hire someone to install our french doors.  The door was too heavy for me to put in on my own and I figured it would take a contractor a fraction of the time it would take me to do this on my own. So on Wednesday afternoon we installed the french door. Louise finished insulating the door on Thursday. It looks awesome.  The next picture shows the installation process for the french doors.

French Doors

The electrical panel is finally out.  I have two circuits to complete in order to finish the electrical work in this project. I'm hoping that by the end of next week I will be done and starting on putting drywall in the kitchen.

I removed more drywall this week. In addition I opened up the wall between the dining room and living room.  We're going to put up some beams between these two rooms. The next diagram shows the before and after picture of that piece of the project.

Living Room Wall

Louise didn't like the kitchen window we ordered so we ended up ordering a new one. I'm hoping to receive the new one next week at the latest. Well that is all for this week's blog. See you next Sunday.

Post#3 - Removing Drywall

Hello everyone,

I can't believe that I am already starting the third week in my parental leave. Time is certainly flying by and the project is moving along nicely. This past week we were able to remove most of the drywall in both the kitchen and the dining room. In addition we removed the partition wall between the kitchen and dinning room. We still have to remove part of the wall separating the dining room from the living room. I spent about two days and a half working on this part of the project. Yesterday Alex removed the foil off the wall, it will be replaced by plastic. The next pictures show the kitchen as of today.

Project-Week#2

Alex also helped a lot on Monday with removing drywall. He is growing way too fast and always eager to help out. I also started to varnish the knotty pine that will go on the ceiling. I can't really start working in the kitchen at 4:00 AM so I go to my shop and varnish for a few hours each morning. At the moment I have 40 pieces of 16' lengths with 3 coats of varnish on them. Many more to come since we decided that we will put knotty pine on the walls in the hallway too. The next picture shows the planks in the shop. I can varnish 16 at one time. I calculated that it takes me about 6 minutes per coat per plank.
 

Varnishing in the shop

I also started working on moving some of the electrical circuits from the upstairs panel to the downstairs one. So far I moved 11 circuits. I still have a few to go before I am done. I am probably going to spend most of next week working on electrical stuff. The next picture shows the panel upstairs.

Upstairs electrical panel

This week we receive our kitchen window. I will probably hire someone to put it in as I have too much work to do before they put in the cabinets at the end of November.

Post#2 - The Temporary Kitchen

Good morning everyone,


It has been a very busy week. On Thursday we went to watched our two daughters run in this year's cross country meet. Jasmine came in 12^th place and Jacynthe in 23^th place. We are very proud of our two girls.


On Friday Louise and I celebrated our 18^th wedding anniversary, which is actually on Sunday. (October 9^th)  I can't believe it's already been 18 years. I love you honey and I'm very lucky that you choose me to be the love of your life. We spent the day in Sudbury shopping.


This week we finished moving our kitchen downstairs. I had to do a little bit of electrical work to get the kitchen ready. I connected the receptacle for the oven and installed the hood over the oven. The next picture shows the new location for our kitchen. We took the table we had in our recroom upstairs in the shop and moved it in our temporary kitchen. We also moved our kitchen table from the dinning room to upstairs in our shop.


Temporary Kitchen


I also finished installing all of our old kitchen cabinets in the shop. In addition I installed my radial arm saw in the workbench. I found a nice mitre saw stand at Home Hardware in Sturgeon Falls for my sliding compound mitre saw. I also built a new cabinet for my clamps out of our old pantry. I ended painting the stairs because I had some paint left over from painting the kick plates.  The next pictures shows the shop as it is now. I actually spent more time in the shop than planned last week but at least the shop is now in tip top shape.

Shop

The next step in this project is to remove the laminate flooring and the drywall from our kitchen and dinning room.  I started yesterday and hope to get that done by mid-week at the latest. The next picture shows the project so far.

Project - Week#1

I also hope to start moving the electric wires out of the panel upstairs to the one we have downstairs. I think the electrical work will take a while to complete. I'll be spendnig some quality time in the attic pulling wires out. The next picture show the electrical panel upstairs.

Electrical Panel Upstairs

We plan on using the laminate flooring from our kitchen and dining in our bedroom. I will use the baseboards in my shop. I was lucky to have help from Louise and her mom yesterday to remove the laminate flooring. I also decided that I will varnish the knotty pine in my shop prior to putting it up on the ceiling. That is all for this week, see you next week.

Post#1 - Moving Cabinets

Good morning everyone,


Welcome to our blog. This is our first post and I hope you will come back and visit often. This week we started to take down our cabinets. I'm on a parental leave until January 9^th, 2012. I will be focussing on this project for the next 14 weeks. If things go according to plan we should be able to finish a little early and have our Christmas supper in our new kitchen.

The next picture shows our current kitchen:

Current Kitchen

Last week I started to move the cabinets from our kitchen to the shop.  I hope to finish this part of the project by mid-week. If everything goes according to plan I will have all of my cabinets installed in the shop by the end of the week. The next picture shows the cabinets in the shop so far.

Shop Cabinets

I bought an old radial arm saw last week. I need to install it in my work bench. The next picture is one of the saw. It is over 40 years old but in good working order.

Radial Arm Saw

I plan on using the radial arm to cut rough lumber and keep my compound miter saw to cut the good stuff. I'm looking to buy a mitre saw stand for my mitre saw. The one I'm thinking about can be seen at the next link. I just need to find a reseller close to our place.

http://www.kingcanada.com/Products.htm?CD=280

Once I finish moving and installing the old cabinets I will start to take the drywall off of the walls in the kitchen and dining room.