BedStuy Reno
« Lower Level - Finish Floor Kitchen Chronicles, Part 2 »
April 8, 2008
Here Comes the Kitchen!
With the floors finished and the walls primed on the Lower Level, G and I finally got down to the moment we'd been waiting for: installing our kitchen. Now, whenever I say this to people, they are shocked - how have you lived without a kitchen for all this time? Well, we haven't. We have been using the small kitchen on the top floor in the future apartment, where G and are living while we do all this work. In the meantime, our future kitchen has been sitting in boxes on the Lower Level for about a year and a half.
The boxes had been stacked inside the future little half bath on the Lower Level, so getting set up to install the kitchen involved first moving all the boxes into position, sorting out cabinets from doors, and setting up a staging area for cabinet assembly. As I've mentioned, we got our kitchen from Ikea, and the running joke is that by the time we're done, we'll be able to grab any missing parts from the new Ikea in Red Hook, which at this rate, will certainly be open before we are done with our place!
The first order of business was to install this track on the wall where the wall cabinets were to hang. The Ikea system is pretty brilliant. Hang the track, tying back to the studs in the wall, and the cabinets can slide into place anywhere along this track. Once the wall cabinets are up, you are supposed to follow up with the base cabinets, where, along the wall, you install a strap which the back of the cabinets rest on, so they are all in line, and the front of the cabs rest on individual legs. The whole thing works nicely.
The first wall cabinet we had to cut to allow the vent for the microwave/exhaust to pass through. Same for the second wall cabinet, which we also had to cut at the base where the microwave vent would pass through it. The microwave took a couple of tries to align with the holes in the cabinet above, but once we got it, everything else moved along pretty smoothly. We felt pretty damn cool after getting the microwave up - our first appliance! We hung it ourselves! Let's hope it doesn't fall down!
As the kitchen started to take shape, it was super encouraging. These are pics from the beginning of that process, basically taking you through the first wall of wall cabs and base cabs, before we started to install the center island. Stay tuned for another kitchen installment (pun intended).
Comments
Your kitchen is death
Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 12:36 PM
I can't believe you are going to install the kitchen on that floor.What a waste of time and money.
Fix the floor first!!
Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 12:58 PM
Don't pay any attention to these asshats that probably have nothing more than a galley kitchen in their 650 sq ft apartments
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 9, 2008 1:56 PM
How rude!!
The kitchen is really taking shape. Can't wait to see which doorstyle and countertop you selected.
Im wow'd by your patience of waiting to install them for more than a year. I guess you're not one of couples that want to open all of your Christmas by Dec 15, huh? :)
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at April 9, 2008 3:30 PM
I agree don't listen to these trolls who have nothing but nasty things to say. Keep up the good work and I'm looking forward to your next installment.
Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:34 PM
Great to see people doing an honest job without thorowing money at it and sharing the process with others. Hysterically funny are people who think thier own taste is so great that they afford to disparage others.
Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 4:29 PM
screw the haters, keep it up. you can't buy character.
Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 6:24 PM
I think it looks great. It makes me feel as if my husband and I should get back to doing some of our work ourselves (we are old). You certainly seem to be having a less angst ridden experience that those of us who are always waiting for this or that or this guy or that inspector. (In exchange for all your hard labor) Keep posting. Can you tell us what kind of stove you will have.
P.S. I like the floors.
Posted by: lauriec at April 9, 2008 8:14 PM
Congrats to you guys! It has got to feel wonderful to finally see your kitchen coming up.
Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 12:56 PM
Lauriec - There are certain rewards to doing the work yourself, but there's also stress, and the fact that what could be done quickly takes a long time. (take for example that we've been blogging about our house for nearly 2 years, when it could have been just, say, 6 months!) Still, we are getting closer, and it's very encouraging.
As for the stove, like nearly everything else with this kitchen, it's Ikea! One stop shopping. We bought an cabinet-installed electric oven, and a counter-mount 4-burner gas cooktop. Since we are locating the cooktop directly over the oven, I guess we could have just bought a full freestanding range. But hopefully this will look more integrated in the end.
- Peter (from Bed Stuy Reno)
Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 9:09 AM
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