It is finished

After 2 months of assembling, installing, waiting, and more installing our kitchen remodel is finally done!

Last Nov of 2003, I received a small bonus from work.. immediately my wife and I knew where this money was going to be spent. We’ve been longing (her more than I:) for a new kitchen for some time now and this bonus was truly a gift.

With our small budget of $3000 we decided to go with IKEA cabinets since they offered the style and more importantly, the price, that we liked. We went with the Applad cabinets and a laminate countertop.

This countertop delayed the project by a good 5 weeks since we changed our mind 2 days into the project. We originally chose the Pregel (butcher block) countertop but later realized the high-level of maintenance required, so we went with something more durable.

With the cabinets so plain and basic looking, we dressed it up with some over-size cabinet handles. The top cabinets had horizontal glass doors with a stainless steel trim which added a nice balance to the otherwise plain and basic cabinets.

Tough Challenges

Cabinet Lighting

One of the trickiest parts of the installation was the wiring of the pre-existing cabinet light. The flourescent light that was underneath the sink-side cabinet was wired directly to a live AC wire with a wall switch. We decided to replace it with “IKEA” lights inside the horizontal glass-doors to give it a nice look. Unfortunately these IKEA halogen lights required a step-down AC adapter that needed to be plugged into the wall.

So my first attempt at solving the problem was to install a socket inside the wall and wire it to the existing switched wire. Later I was told this was very much against “code” and putting a transformer that heats up inside drywall was not the brightest idea!!

The safer solution was to run the wire down behind the base cabinets and create a new outlet underneath the sink. This was where I would plug the light AC adapters to power the lights.

Countertop cut-outs

Having not used a jig-saw since highschool when I helped my dad build our family deck, I was bit nervous in cutting out the sink and socket holes from our nicely finished countertop. I purchased a Skillsaw 6Amp jigsaw ($70 at home depot) and got the appropriate laminate blades and gave it a go.. Cutting out the socket holes was the “confidence” building excercise. I measured where all the sockets would go in the countertop backsplash. For each socket hole, I pre-drilled 4 holes on the corners to give the jigsaw room to work. Sure enough the jigsaw was very easy to use and the holes were just right for the sockets.

Next the installation of the sink. With the countertop over the base cabinets I had to make sure that the sink was properly aligned, as to not hit the top of the cabinet walls. The IKEA sink was somewhat of a tight fit so cutting the sink hole had to be just right.

Unforunately, the sink did not come with a trace pattern.. to solve this problem I traced the entire sink upside down and then 1/2-inch inward giving me the correct sink pattern. So I measured, re-measured, and made sure that I was not going to land on the walls of the base cabinets.

After quadruple-checking, I finally decided to cut. Following the same steps with the socket holes, I drilled 4 large holes on the 4 corners of the sink. I then cut along the pattern I had drawn out and to my surprise cutting was taking a lot longer on one of the four sides. As I was cutting, I noticed the jigsaw was going a lot slower.

I failed to see the support bar on the front of the kitchen base cabinet that increased the cutting depth by two! The jigsaw blade was barely going past the height of the countertop + support bar. I could try and just cut but that would have taken a very long time and possibly damange or overheat the jigsaw motor.

To alleviate the stress on the jigsaw, I drilled a straight set of holes along the deepest side of the sink giving it a perforation. The holes where made by the largets size drill bit I had which essentially cut a good portion of the countertop for me. I just had to run the jigsaw and finish the job, relieving the jigsaw of the unwanted stress.. sure the line was the not straightest cut, but no one would see since the sink was going to be over this hole.

After the sink-hole was cut, I placed the sink and to my relief it fit snugly with very little wiggle room.. oh and it was straight too which was an added bonus

Plumbing

With the sink in place, I was ready to re-install the plumbing underneath. However, this new sink was a different size and dimension that my previous one. The major difference was that the sink was dual-bowl sink that was uneven in depth. Furthermore, the location of the sink shifted slightly to the left. These changes rendered my old pipes unusable, unless I cut and extended them.

Well the condo is about 30-years old and I’m not sure how old the pre-existing pipes were. But after removing them, there sure was a lot of mineral build-up in the pipes. I decided to replace the metal pipes with PVC pipes.. why? PVC pipes were cheaper and according to the guy as OSH, more tolerant of the Santa Clara hardwater.

I had to jump on the internet to look at how this was done. I had a garbage disposal underneath the shallower bowl and the regular strainer underneath the deeper and larger bowl. At this point I had made so many trips to Home Depot and OSH, that I decided to get all the possible plumbing pieces I could grab so as to piece this plumbing puzzle together.

After looking at some pictures on how to install the plumbing of a sink with a garbage disposal and a dishwasher overflow line, I believe I got it just right.

With the faucet installed, the little sink soap dispenser (had to cut a hole on the stainless steel sink for this featurette), the sink locked down, the plumbing all set, I turned on the water and waited for leaks.. fortunately there were no leaks. I even tried the new dishwasher and again waited for leaks and to my great relief no leaks again!

Once the sink and plumbing set, I finally bolted down the base cabinets to the wall and screwed the countertop onto the base cabinets. Everything was secured and ready for use.

Conclusion

Overall this was a very satisfying project. I enjoyed working with my hands again and the challenges we encountered were fun to solve. With the new tools; jig-saw, c-clamps, crowbar, stud-finder, level; accessories; and wiring materials the entire project was under-budget by $600. By doing the work ourselves we saved $1500. With the extra money I was rewarded with a new LCD monitor which I got from an Apple friend for rock-bottom price.

Can’t wait to start the bathroom!