Remodel's Sixth Week

It's Saturday morning and as I write the finish carpenters are installing the trim and base molding. That should be another project done by days end.

It was an exciting week because, 1) we got the rest of the cabinets installed with the exception of the dining hutch uppers, and 2) we got the counter tops installed. The kitchen is really looking like a kitchen now. The hutch uppers need to be installed after the counter top is installed.


Monday the upper kitchen and 1/2 bath cabinets were installed and most of the top and side trim was applied. They will need to come back to install the upper hutch cabinets, adjust the doors, fix a few problems and install pulls and knobs. Yes, we've finally decided on a style for the knobs and pulls but it will take a couple weeks to get them. Even without the hardware the cabinets look great. We are really glad we decided to have a new hutch unit built and stained to match the dining table.

Tuesday the electrician stopped by to move his misplaced outlet that lay behind the refrigerator case's right wall. Am still not sure whether it will be abandoned or he'll put another outlet behind the fridge.

Wednesday was a quiet day - no work done.

Thursday the finish carpenter started with the trim and base. While he was scoping out the job he noticed that there might be an issue with installing the old pocket door hardware. As it turns out, half of the roller mechanism-the half that is attached to the door-got tossed out with the old door. The only prudent solution our brainstorming came up with was to replace the old track and hardware with new. But to put in the new you have to take out the old. To take out the old you need access to all the fasteners. To gain access to all the fasteners you need to punch a hole in the newly textured and painted drywall. I hope it will be a seamless patch.

No sooner was that issue resolved than another reared its ugly head. Modern 30" pocket doors are, well, 30" wide. Not so with the old pocket doors, or at least this old pocket door. Our opening is 30 5/8" with the jamb. That means that with the door attached to the rollers and closed, there would be a gap of about 5/8" adjacent the pocket side of the door and the door would swing from the track because there's no pocket to keep it from doing so.

Picture yourself hanging from monkey bars with your feet off the ground. You'd be able to swing to and fro easily right? Picture someone with their outstretched arms on either side of your legs about 1/2" away from them, you wouldn't be able to swing very far would you? Same principle with the pocket of the pocket door. It is someones outstretched arms.

I sure wished someone would have measured the old door before ordering the new one. Since the door was custom made, it would have been easy and not costly to make the door 1" wider. Do we want to push the remodel schedule back a few weeks to have a new door made? I don't think so. Our solution is to put 3/4" thick door stops around the three sides of the jamb on both sides of the door for consistency and paint the jambs and stops colors matching the room to which the stop faces, i.e., peanut for the dining room side and apple crunch for the kitchen side. It is hoped that by painting the jambs and stops, they will blend into the corresponding rooms and not stick out like sore thumbs. Not perfect but livable-I hope.


Friday the counter tops arrived and were installed. Love that quartz! They really look superb and the computer generated cuts were spot on. The color is on the brownish side and goes quite well with the hutch but not as well with the kitchen cabinets in my opinion. My hope is that the back splash will help tie everything together.