Rough inspections for framing, plumbing, insulation and electrical are all done! Got permission to close up the walls. The electrical inspector gave me great compliments in how I laid everything out and the panel I put in.
I was surprised when the quote for drywalling the whole thing came in at $5k (materials come in around $900). I guess I was thinking it'd be closer to $3k, but that was just my gut. I'm on a tight timeline at this point to make the quartz templating and install dates, and my drywaller is someone I've used before, I know he does good work, I can trust him and he's available now so I'm hemming and hawing if it's worth the delay (and possible hit to the relationship) to try to get other bids when I know if I just go with him I it'll be done correctly and within the next 2 weeks.
Anyway, had some downtime in the meantime, so I started assembling boxes that I had made during the winter (as outlined in previous posts). Here's a pic of the island carcass in place. Nothing is screwed together or to the floor as I'll have to drag these boxes into the other room while the drywall is going in, but it was nice to see things "taking shape" a bit.
(10-05-2022, 03:24 PM)brianwelch Wrote: Around here (SEPA), getting permits is the way to get your real estate taxes increased...
When they replaced my furnace and ac they took out a mechanical permit, that passed and they signed the permit. Several week later a county car was looking around to see if there was any building work. He said he was from the assessor's office. Said they come out to check. The mechanical permit flagged it. Roly
Around here, drywall for a small job runs about $75-$100 a sheet (sanded) for a small job like this. Ceilings add to it as do corners. Sheets equal total sq ft of walls and ceilings including door and windows divided by 32 plus 10% scrap.
(10-20-2022, 08:41 AM)Dumb_Polack Wrote: What's filling the space between the 2 rows of cabinets? (or will they eventually go "back-to-back"?)
Originally the island was going to be narrower, and that was just going to be a chase about a couple inches for electrical and gas lines.. We then decided to modify the design and make the island as wide as the slab would allow, so that will just remain dead space. You won't see it though once the ends of the island are in place and everything is put together.
Really starting to take shape. My drywall guy came and went, exactly when he said he would and it took exactly as long as he said it would. He also put two coats of primer on all the new work and painted the cathedral ceiling for me too. All the base cabinets are now set, just in time for counter templating by the fabricator, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
You may notice the wall on the left by the sink/window is unfinished drywall, that facilitated keeping my temporary sink in place, and that whole wall will be covered in tile anyway so we didn't bother with much more than taping it.
Note too the faux beams mentioned earlier, everybody loves them! All the dangling wires you see are the leads for the LEDs which light up each drawer and cab (I'll do another writeup on all that later)
Where are you locating all of the drivers for the drawer lighting ?
I see the dishwasher location has changed from the orig. design. What's the latest with the seating area on the back of the island ?
Thanks! Yah when we re-organized the layout once we decided to tear down the walls, I moved the dishwasher to the left of the sink, so that the drawers and single upper cabinet where most of the dishes and glasses would reside (also left of the sink), would be directly adjacent to it. More efficient unloading that way rather than having to reach around the sink and take a step or two to get stuff out of the dishwasher and into the cabs.
The design of the base of the island is simplified a bit too - still the same internal storage but the "end caps" will be just decorative and thinner (sorry I don't have renderings) allowing for a 12" overhang on all 3 sides. This will allow for 4 seats on the back side of the island, as well as another one or two at the end by the sliding doors. There's nearly 60" between the seating side of the island and the wet-bar, plenty of room to walk around even if people are sitting there. A bit less space between the sink and the working side of the island (~40" if I recall) based on my wife's experimenting with how far she has to turn to move things between those two counter tops in this galley/working space.
As for the LEDs, essentially there are two drivers - one for a single color (4000k) which splits off in parallel to each of the drawers/cabs, and another driver for a "hybrid" LED which has dimming and white-color adjustments which will serve all of the "toe kick" and floating shelf runs. So two power supplies, each with a remote controlled receiver (battery powered wall mounted dimmer style switches). I assembled the drivers and receivers together on a piece of plywood with some buss's to essentially act as a power distribution center (pic below.) This whole thing will mount to the ceiling/joists in an unfinished area of the basement directly below the kitchen. The electrical inspector thought this was all very clever, and said since it's all low voltage I can do whatever I want. (much earlier in the thread there was some discussion about approved in-wall wires for speakers and LEDs, he said as long as it was a UL listed product he's fine with it).. This pic shows the "panel" out in my shop where I was experimenting with various switch types. So each major cabinet section will have a low-voltage "home run" (16AWG stranded) coming down to this panel and then the various drawers in each will split off in parallel within the cabinetry.. (i.e.. there is no run of LED that feeds into another, it's all in parallel).. My "power distribution panel" will be fed by its own breaker in my main panel.
I've also run speaker wire through the ceilings (not cut in yet, but I've marked on the floor where they'll be) which are driven by a 250watt Bluetooth receiver which I've hidden inside one of the base cabinets on the wet-bar side.
11-14-2022, 09:31 AM (This post was last modified: 11-14-2022, 09:44 AM by mound.)
Made the deadline for the counter top templating, they should go in the day after thanksgiving!
Decided to switch gears to some "real woodworking" and start putting together some drawer boxes.. A long afternoon with a dovetail saw, mallet and chisel and I busted out 6 drawers, dovetailed front and back. I think they came out OK, haven't cut dovetails in a while. Kinda wish I made the pins a bit smaller, but whatever! These are all dry-fit, still need to clean things up, glue them together, sand, finish, but it's a start... yah, hand cut dovetails on a kitchen.. I am crazy!
What finish would you all apply to the drawer boxes?
You may recall from earlier discussion in the thread, the resawing, acclimating, movement, more flattening etc. of all that hard-maple.. ended up with drawer sides just shy of 1/2" thick.. A bit thinner than I'd like, but it kinda gives them a lightness that I do like.. Anyway, sitting on 100lb rated undermount slides with 1/2" plywood bottoms, the drawer sides essentially become decorative, these will hold anything we put in them.
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