Kitchen Before and Kitchen After

You don't really realize how bad something is until you've experienced something better.

My Hands Have Leprosy

The skin is just raw and dry and sloughing off where the cuts and gouges from doing the kitchen have been healing.

With that disgusting lead-in, I finished all the trim in the kitchen this weekend. I need to do one more poly coat on the exposed board in the dining room where the transition from the tile is, caulk some areas that need some nice big caulk, and then do the finish painting. Should be done by the end of next weekend. So, old to functional new in 9 days, and functional new to finished in about 4 weeks.

I got my ear bud headphones stolen at work. I think it was cleaning crew. I used to work cleaning crew at Meriter Hospital and at an outpatient surgery center. I would take candy if someone had a jar on their desk, but I wouldn’t take peoples personal shit. I really want to stay late some day and just be sitting waiting for the person and ask them if they know anything about it and then do a Curb Your Enthusiasm stare at them.

My dad made this.



Pretty awesome. I barely have the patience to install child locks on my kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen Remodel: Day 15

I've been doing little things since day 11, but nothing really warranting a picture. I put the child locks on, filled in some areas that needed more grout on the floor, painted all the trim, and stained the transition strip that will step down from the tile to the wood floor in the dining room.

Today I started installing the trim. We're using 1X4's and quarter round. I went and got it at the new Menards that they built next to the Super Walmart in North Peoria. It's pretty huge and nice. All their good lumber is inside now, only the treated lumber is outside. I grabbed some select 1X4's and crappy prefinished quarter round which is like some sort of weird composite material but is cheap.

My reconditioned Hitachi miter saw works nice, and it was only $74 including shipping. Reconditioned tools are the way to go, 50-80% off is sweet and they work and look like new.

I just got back from drinking beer with my tattooed hockey buddies, which means we lost two in a row and are out of the tournament. I'll do a post on that tomorrow though since it's quarter to midnight and I have to work tomorrow.



I like doing trim work because it's pretty low key, and with a nice miter saw and my Dad's air nailer it goes fast.



I'm about 60% done. I need to install the transition strip after the poly coat drys and then do the trim on the walls that go from the dining room to the kitchen.

Kitchen Remodel: Day 12

My wife got all the curtains done, and I gave the final wipe down of back splash post grouting. I installed all the child locks on the cabinets. Whoever invented child locks is a sick twisted bastard. They’re awful to install. You’ve got about 1mm tolerance up and down where you need to be in order for them to close by themselves, and not open if you pull too hard on them. I did get to use my new reconditioned Makita 12V cordless though. It, unlike child locks, is a fine piece of engineering. The drill itself was made in China, something went wrong with it, it was reconditioned in the United States, and I got it, two batteries, a quick smart charger, and a case for $80. Sweet deal with a one-year warranty. It looks brand new other than a small dent in the foot of the carrying case.

I should be getting my reconditioned Hitachi miter saw today to work on the trim with. That, a bit of mudding, getting and installing switch and outlet covers, and touch up painting is all that is left.

Tonight we play our first playoff hockey game. I missed the last two games of the season due to my 11-hour days remodeling. I’m not expecting much other than drinking some beer after our second loss in the double elimination format. We peaked in the first part of the season and are shit now. Maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to squeak out one win so we get to play 3 games. Yeah, and maybe I’m a Chinese jet pilot. (A shiny nickel if you know where that’s from).

Maybe I can give some sort of rallying speech, since I’m the Captain. I’m not much for public speaking, I do better when I can type, and re-read and edit and type some more.

Even then I’m average at best.

Kitchen Remodel: Budget and Labor Overview

All right, I get to sit down in my comfortable work chair and reflect for a few minutes. The kitchen is well on it’s way to being finished. All that remains is grouting the back splash, a final coat of sealant on the floor grout, the trim, and touching up some paint.

My original cost estimate was $4450, right now without having bought the back splash grout, and some of the trim, I’ve spent $4368.58. That’s not bad.

To date, I estimate that we’ve put in a total of 187 man-hours of labor in 9 days. That’s an average of 10.4 hours per day per person. I don’t know exactly how much a contractor would charge per man-hour of labor, or if it would be more or less time than we’ve spent, but I’ve got to guess it would be between $60-$80 per hour, some of that time was spent doing specialty work an electrician or plumber would do which would be even higher. That means we’ve saved an estimated $11,220 to $14,960 in labor. Two years ago I bought the house for $104,500. I’m hoping that now with the new roof, new plumbing, new kitchen, and various other small upgrades and improvement we’ve done, I’m hoping I’ve moved it into the $130,000-$140,000 range which is what some of the nicer houses on my street are going for.

The Building Momentum

“Sometimes the train is going 100 miles an hour and you’re better off getting out of the way rather than trying to stop it.” – some asshole at work talking about a bullshit process I no longer have to deal with.

Anyway, in that case momentum is a bad thing, but when it comes to Obama’s momentum it’s a good think. I’m stoked he’s pulled within like 20 delegates of Clinton including Sűper Delegates.

My wife put it best regarding how we don’t really like Clinton. She said that Clinton seems like “Mom” from Futurama. When she’s speaking publicly she’s all nice and happy looking, and then as soon as she gets behind closed doors she’s an űber bitch.

Last Friday we went to Lowes and Home Depot and started planning our kitchen remodel. Our kitchen sucks balls. We’re going to gut it and redo everything. My dad is coming down Good Friday week and we’re going to have at it. It should be a good time. It will be like old times when we redid our kitchen at home like 10 or 12 years ago. I’m going to make sure I wear steel toes for this remodel. Last time I accidentally kicked a drill that was laying on the floor and it went right through my shoe and stuck underneath my little toe. It only went in about a half inch, but it didn’t feel good. I’m working all the numbers and layouts and material stuff right now. We need to get the cabinets and counters ordered in about two weeks.

Got my taxes filed this weekend, the economic stimulus thing is going to get through, my bonus is on the way, a class action lawsuit against Belkin that I qualify for is going to payout about $130, I’m just waiting for the cash to roll in so I can let it roll out for kitchen and baby stuff.