Monday, January 20, 2014

Kitchen Renovation: Electrical and Plumbing

Last Monday things didn't look drastically different in our kitchen, but if one wondered downstairs to our basement it was clearly evident that something was going on. Thankfully, by Tuesday the work had migrated upstairs and things were starting to look vastly different. 

Our house, while structurally sound, has a hidden evil - we have aluminum wiring. And I've been told that's bad. Again, this is just another one of those instances where I'm incredibly happy the hubs is an engineer because once people start talking about metal conductivity, coefficients, and galvanic corrosion I start to get a tad bit out of my league.  And I'm a nerd! To sum up, this is why we hired professionals because the decision was made to pull all the wiring in our kitchen and dining room and replace all of the aluminum wires with copper wires. We have an unfinished basement which meant pulling wires was a lot easier than if we had a finished basement - tedious, but easier. 

These photos are pretty dark because they were taken at night and with limited light available in the kitchen. Not all of our new lights were hooked up at this point. And the external flash for my Canon is packed away somewhere. 


We now have 13 recessed lights throughout our kitchen and dining room. We decided to go with recessed lights in the dining room because our dining room table will not be centered with the window and at this point in time we didn't have an exact table in mind and therefore we couldn't commit to the exact placement of the table. We didn't want to risk hanging a pendant light now and then it wouldn't be in the right spot when we bought a new dining room table. We can always change the lighting later if needed.


Our new sink hook up! The bay window was supposed to come out on Day 11, but the weather didn't cooperate.  That pushed our schedule back a day because the rest of the drywall couldn't be done until after the window was replaced. 


Victory! No more gaudy chandelier in the dining room. I don't know why, but we have huge windows in our house and while I initially fell in love with them, they've turned into a pain when trying to find curtains, especially roman shades. 


That little pipe at the floor might not look like much, but that's our new gas hookup! I know it sounds weird to get that excited over natural gas, but I've wanted a gas range my whole life. Our house used to have gas and there were a few questions as to whether the old pipes were still functional.  I'm very excited to have this feature in our new kitchen. 


I'm still a nerd at heart and I was actually excited to see when drywall was taken out. I was that person who took a flashlight to look over every nook and cranny of our house's inner workings. I have no idea what I was looking for, but I didn't find anything that looked damaged to me! That made me happy. 

When I had heard last Tuesday (Day 11) that our window wasn't replaced yet I was a tad bit bummed. Both the hubs and I knew any type of delay to our schedule would probably push our final finish date back because we were working with such a tight timeline. However, no one can control the weather and it isn't a good idea to do outdoor siding work in the pouring rain. Oh yeah, it poured, not just a little mist! 

That tiny bit of sadness was replaced with absolute giddiness when I came home on Tuesday night and saw the new state of our living room. It was absolute chaos, but seeing that all of our new cabinets had been delivered was the best feeling in the world. 

Up next - a new window! 


8 comments:

  1. Holy moly!! You are one brave women! This looks like something you would see on HGTV!! Can't wait to see the final product!!

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  2. Oh, it's getting real up in there. Bet you're very excited to have all this progress.

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  3. It’s good to see that you’re enjoying your experience, even the messy parts. Some prefer to leave all the messy parts of the job to their husbands or contractors just to avoid the stress it cause, but you’re definitely not like them. I agree with you when it comes to plumbing and electrical jobs. It’s a wise decision and investment as well to hire a professional; not only to lessen the stress on your part, but to also have an assurance that everything will be installed or fixed properly. Anyway, I hope everything is progressing well on your house.

    Levi @ CapitalPlumbing.ca

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  4. Tough work. It’s great to know you are having a good time, despite the chaos and the pile of works needed to be done. Keep enjoying it, and all of the sweat will be worth it once you get a fully functional electrical and plumbing system.

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  5. That was a load of work, wasn't it? Those are two of the most problematic aspects in renovation, plumbing and the electrics. They form a circuitry in a way that determines how functional a kitchen or a room is. Dealing with those often need experts to lay them all out and prevent the knots and overlaps. Anyway, good luck with everything! I'll be looking forward to your kitchen's success for the long haul.

    Lovella Cushman @ Perfection Plumbing

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  6. That's one template you really had to work on. I'd presume that the task was rather engaging. It does bog one down at first glance, seeing all the stress and effort that the renovation process would necessitate, not to mention the costs. However, if you've got the electricity measured well across the landscape, then the wiring should be a smooth, though laborious process, as it probably was. All the best!

    Kellie Taylor @ Aim Dynamics

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  7. It always been a hard job to renovate specially kitchen but also an excitment to see newly designed and renovated kitchen after all, all the success comes only because of hard working. Keep it up and all the best.

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  8. Wow! I love the antique feel. Every detail is perfect! Such great designs and textures. Great job!

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