Well, the sink in the kitchen had the same issues. And unfortunately, the other base cabinets in the kitchen were made the same as the little one we demoed already. So they all had to go:
It was rather frightening to see:
- The total lack of insulation
- The mess of wiring that ran every which way, none of which was properly terminated or code in the slightest.
- A ton of pipes that were not only NOT code, but running through studs as though they had a personal vendetta against pine
- Scrubby asphalt paper
- A bleached out rat skeleton (not pictured, for the good of your stomachs)
- Actual live plants (vines) growing up into the wall cavity. You can see remnants of them in the trashcan in the picture.
It was truly a Pandora's Box moment, realizing that any improvements to the sink would require the work of the same professional plumbers we were planning to hire for the bathroom. At least the electrician, when he came to update the outlets, would be able to take care of that wiring mess.
But the cabinets were gone, too, which was an ominous absence that sounded painfully like dollars being ejected out of our bank account at high speeds. Alas, the show had to go on!
The plumber finished the plumbing quickly, at the same time as the bathroom project. The electrician came and updated the kitchen wiring not long afterward. Unfortunately for us, the electrician required a permit... Which we did not have. And since the plumbing had been done as well, we had a few things to -ahem- discuss with the city. A few hours and $90 later, we had permits and inspection dates for the work. At least that went (relatively) smoothly.
After the subcontractors left, the first order of business was to tackle the wall insulation. Although we could have shoved some fiberglass in there and called it a day, we wanted something solid that was a bit more difficult for vines, cockroaches, and pre-skeletal rats to get through. I grabbed some R-3 foam boards and a truckload of gaps and cracks foam and went to town:
The foam stops at the exterior of the house, for what it's worth. I left the asphalt paper remnants behind it, too, just for good measure. The seal was tight on the foam, and you could definitely tell the difference in airtightness. I mean, at least we couldn't see daylight anymore.
The next step was to add some of that lovely pink, horrible-awful fiberglass insulation. We got R-13 batts (code requires a total of R-7, I think, so we are way over it now). We trimmed and stuffed the cavities with batts, and started slapping drywall up.
Like how easy I made that sound? The first piece included two outlet boxes, so beyond trimming the general shape to fit under the window, we had a few holes. Too bad this happened on the first one:
Uggggggh. We're tiling over that area, though, we were able to move ahead without losing the piece.
Drywall is a super slow process. It's probably about the most painful job that looks so incredibly easy, but it never is. I've never had luck with drywall of any kind. At least we were able to get it moving, and finish the first piece quickly:
You can see some of the batts here, including the one for the empty cavity, which is drooping over to the side because it decided to get sassy with me, so I put it in the corner. We struggled with more outlet boxes, the drain and water supply lines, but eventually we won:
What's that you say? Something here looks off? One of these things is... not like the other? Apparently, Home Depot and Lowe's have some philosophical disagreements when it comes to mildew-resistant drywall. I prefer to consider this a journey to Mardi Gras, myself. At least it's done!
Next are the cabinets. We did a lot of research and ended up at Ikea, where the cabinets are inexpensive but modular in a way that we couldn't beat. If a door gets ruined, I can run over to the store, (which is 5 minutes from the house) and grab a new one. We started assembling the cabinets, and by the end of the night tonight, we had made noticeable progress:
Oh Ikea cabinets, thank you for not being jerks. Of course, the same can't be said for the water supply and drain lines, which made getting that corner cabinet in place a nightmare that even a can of Crisco and a shoehorn couldn't remedy. For those wondering, neither did prayer or cursing- in that order.
We still need to grab the door and drawer fronts, buy a countertop of some sort, and get all the shelving in, but so far, I'm pretty impressed with how sturdy the boxes are. We mismeasured the back wall, though, so our 24" cabinet will be going back to the Swedish motherland in exchange for a 21" box that will allow us to put a dishwasher in there. No dishwasher before- what a nightmare!
Due to the upper cabinet positions and the placement of the windows, we have to keep the sink in the corner. The previous sink, if you recall, was a standard rectangle, installed at an angle with a custom-built cabinet to hold it:
Using standard cabinets means we need a special sink to fit in the corner. Ikea to the rescue again, with a cute corner sink that will work with any faucet we may buy:
Why, hello sink. One of these days, you will hold my dirty dishes. I hope you're excited.
One more cabinet to go, then a bit of leveling with the adjustable legs. Sides, toe kicks, doors and drawer fronts in a dark finish, as well as drawer and countertop installation await us first. As soon as all of that is done, we'll be close to moving in! Of course, there's still a ton of work to do in the kitchen, including removing some erroneously-installed mirror film from the windows, demolishing and sacrificing the scallop trim to the kitchen gods, and painting all of the walls, upper cabinet boxes, and fronts... (Or replacing the fronts, perhaps?)
Finding a countertop won't be quick choice, either...
