Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Nicole's Kitchen Remodel…Part 1

Mike's daughter, Nicole, has been wanting to remodel her kitchen for about 2-3 years now.  She has already done some changes like adding a tile countertop on top of the old laminate, new appliances, and  new sink.

This year she decided she wanted new cabinets and a new countertop.  While trying to keep the cost down, Nicole experimented with a couple of things this year.  First she tried building her own cabinets to see if that was worthwhile.  She made a work cabinet for her workshop but found it too difficult to get the right kind of wood here.

Here is the cabinet she made.  Yes she is pretty handy.  Wonder who she takes after:)



Next she tried painting her original cabinets.  She painted a couple and it did not look good at all.

At that point Mike and I told her we would help her with the remodel if she ordered something she liked.  Well Nicole was all about that and now we are in the process of helping her.


This is Nicole's kitchen before:







She found a company online to order her cabinets from.  They sent her a sample of the door with her color and style before she placed her whole order.  This is her sample door…nice:)




Next up, Nicole took all of her kitchen measurements and placed the order.  


On July 2 we went to the store to wait for the delivery of Nicole's 18 cabinets.  Unfortunately the freight truck broke down and never made it to the store.  So we went there the next day and the truck made it:)





We got it all unloaded and loaded on to our trailer.  Unloading at Nicole's house with AJ's help:




Nicole has been preparing for this and has been taking her old cabinet doors off and emptying as many things as she can.


While we are there Mike decides to get the top cabinet down next to her refrigerator:





Since this is a doublewide, we have no idea what issues we may run into.  Nicole and I hold the cabinet box up while Mike unscrews:



Whew…that went well.  Nicole and I carry it out in one piece.



One part is down and that was an easy one.  Let's hope the rest of the kitchen goes as well:)




and we leave Nicole with her work.  She has 18 cabinets to start putting together:



Oh fun:





Mike and I have done a lot of remodels together but this one is slightly different.  One it is a doublewide and who knows how it was put together and two we are not demolishing any walls so we have to be careful.


We told Nicole that with her help the kitchen demo and remodel part will take 3-5 days.  I told her to get some paper plates and to set up a temp kitchen.  She said she won't need that because it will only take one day.  Then I told her…I don't want her to kill her father, lol.  Usually we demo an entire kitchen and then put it back together.  With no problems this would take Mike and I about 3-4 days.  We will see how long it takes in the following stories.


I will write again next week with our first real work day:)

6 comments:

  1. Looks like Nicole and you have similar tastes in colors for the walls...LOL!!

    Something I don't remember you guys doing in the previous kitchen projects.....put up a ledge board for the upper cabinets to sit on (so you don't have to hold them) as you screw them to the walls. Also, it's easier to do the upper cabinets first, then put in the lower cabinets...at least that is what I have found.

    That cabinet color is beautiful. We went with a "blonde" oak, and I wish we had done cherry or another darker color like Nicole chose.

    Can't wait to see the next installment!......and curious to hear just how much Nicole like putting those cabinets together..LOL!! Been there, done that!! :-)

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    1. Actually I copied her after my disaster yellow color, lol.

      I have never had the pleasure of using a ledger board. Mike is too impatient, lol.

      The cabinets are a very nice color.

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  2. I also wanted to comment on the great job that Nicole had done with that cabinet. I like the extra support she put behind the center piece...a good strong counter, to be sure!
    She was much smarter to order the cabinets in the boxes, because of the time and expense of doing each herself. A couple of cabinets would be one thing, but 18 is another thing all together....unless she wanted to wait until next year to complete them..LOL!! Not to mention the cost of building the woodworking shop........oh yeah, Dad has a nice barn that would be perfect! LOL!!

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    1. Ha, ha…I think she did try to talk Mike into something like that.

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  3. Something I forgot to mention:
    1.) Nicole did a great job on that cabinet she made....especially adding the re-enforced center post to give the counter top strength. But she was correct in buying the cabinets....with 18 of them, she'd have been building them until next year!

    2.) Something she may want to do (though I'm gonna guess that by the time you read this, the cabinets are already up...you guys are just too fast!!)...is to remove the strips on the wall, and Spackle the seams. My Father did that in his Double-wide, because he just hated the way it looked with the strips on the walls. Once he had it done, he was able to paint or wall-paper over the entire wall, as if it was a normal sheet-rock wall.

    Can't wait for the next installment!

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    Replies
    1. 1. She will read this. Thank you for that. She is pretty talented and willing to try things.

      2. Nicole would love to get rid of the seams. A few years back she did try to do that. She didn't like the results. She just needs more experience.

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