In this remodel, I'll be doing the work myself, with some particular intention around keeping the kitchen functional as much/long as possible.

Some background

We bought this house about 8 years ago - it is our first house, and it met the criteria we were looking for: dated, but not in need of anything. It is not an expensive or fancy place, so this remodel is part of making it a little nicer and bringing the styling up to date. It was built in 1976, and is a manufactured home. It is traditional stud construction, it was just built off site in two pieces and then placed on a standard concrete foundation. The center wall of the house is the seam, and is about 7" thick because of it.

The original owner had done some work including a new roof profile and a very large shop; more on those features later.

Here is the house from the road: Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

You can see the large shop on the left - it is 50 square feet bigger than the house.

The Kitchen

Why remodel? Well, because our kitchen is ugly, dated, poorly laid out, etc. Add to that that it is horrible for entertaining - the house is small, and with the way it is laid out, the living room is a thoroughfare between the kitchen and the rest of the house. Project goals/tenants:

• open up the kitchen area to the living room to maximize the entertaining and shared space feel, thereby reducing the thoroughfare feel of the living room

• maintain space for small dining table/area at north end of room

• use modern/mid-century modern styling to suit the sloped ceiling ranch style the house was built with.

• Convert savings from doing as much work by ourselves into higher quality products (e.g. cabinets, flooring, etc.)

Before Photos

Note: these photos were taken as we were clearing the kitchen out for flooring stripping, so you'll see things are a bit discombobulated.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Note the giant closet/pantry in the corner of the kitchen, taking up all the space. It is home to the hot water heater, and also provides some pantry duties.

Rotating counterclockwise around the room, notice how the dishwasher is about half a mile from the sink:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

The sliding door and the "dining room" such as it is. The door to the garage is just out of frame to the left.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Here is another view, showing the empty room, with the door to the garage:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

I'm subscribing for ideas on how to do something similar with mine. Gotta keep it functional as well when I do it.

I'll be following along as well. Is the hot water heater staying or moving?

Step One: relocate the hot water heater.

Work is going to be crazy for the rest of the year, so in the beginning of March, my boss suggested if I wanted to take any time off, the end of March would be a good time to do it. That means that the kitchen remodel we've talked about for years would either have to start NOW, or wait another year. We went for it. This installment occurred March 12th.

We didn't have a design for the kitchen in mind, but I knew two things:

• we wanted an island

• we needed to get rid of the corner closet

Since the closet had to go, that meant the hot water heater had to go too. I made a list of the parts needed to simply move the heater 35 feet to the North, and place it in a insulated pantry in the garage. I didn't take any photos of the process, because it is simple: Disconnect the heater from the wall, drain it down, move it to the garage, then run new pipes from the old lines (in the crawlspace) out to the new location.

A lot worked out in my favor here: I ran Pex lines, and there was ample space between the floor joists where the house met the garage, so I could run them right to the heater. There was also a sub-panel in the same room that I could wire the heater from, since it was only providing lights in the garage at this time.

Here she is, all relocated. I didn't even have to cut the shelves - the space between them and the chest freezer was the exact dimension I needed for the tank.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

That down, we could get serious and actually start demolition.

Looking forward to this - you had me at "mid-century modern".

We just bought a place that's somewhat similar, and even still has the original paneling throughout the living room & kitchen. We don't hate it, and don't want to spend a fortune "updating" things just to have them look out of date in another 10-years. If we can figure out a way to just make a slightly more modern take on the "mid-century" part that would be great.

We definitely need a kitchen update though, as our water heater is stuck in a closet taking up space, there's no dishwasher(or presently room for one) and I can't even reach the bottom of our upper cabinets to open the doors...

Designing a New Kitchen

While the above work was underway, I also spent a lot of free time on Ikea's Kitchen Planner, doing design work trying to figure out what we wanted. I'm no kitchen designer, so I went through at least 12 major iterations. Also note: we're not committed to using Ikea cabinets - I'm mostly using their stuff to see what designs might work in our space. This post is current day, as we haven't finalized our design yet.

Ikea's Kitchen Planner is a very frustrating experience. It works, but is very slow, and very glitchy. Sometimes you'll select a box and it will relocate itself across the room on its own. Every time you select an item, you have to wait a solid 8 second for the server to catch up and allow you to modify it. It is on their end, not ours - everyone reports the same awesome lag.

Here is an example of the floor plan view:

Kitchen layout1 by craig richmond, on Flickr

One of the (many) rejected designs, in 3D view:

Kitchen layout2 by craig richmond, on Flickr

And here is the closest approximation to what we've decided on:

Kitchen layout3 by craig richmond, on Flickr

My aunt has designed kitchens for years as part of their custom builder business, and I went over everything with her. With the constraints we have, she offered a lot of helpful suggestions and I think some of the design ideas she suggested will make their way into our plan.

You'll also notice that there is a big opening in the wall where there isn't one in the "before" photos of the first post. Yeah, I'll be adding that.

Quoting Cabinets

The above design from Ikea is right at $7000, with their highest end doors. We've heard a lot of great things about Ikea cabinets, despite everyone's usual feelings about Ikea. The boxes are standard particle board, frame-less in the European style. Their hardware, hinges, soft close actuators and all that are apparently excellent quality from a high end supplier. The negatives of Ikea cabinets are that there isn't really any customized options (sizes) available, and 90% of the doors they offer don't look great. The high gloss top-of-the-line stuff is well regarded and still competitively priced, and as an added plus, my wife and I actually like the two Ringhult high gloss options.

Yesterday I spent three hours at the local contractor supply house (Evergreen Lumber), where we worked out a design using Canyon Creek brand cabinets. Canyon Creek is local-ish to us being from Monroe WA, about two hours away. Their stuff is generally regarded as higher-end on the quality scale. We came up with a design in a box similar to Ikea, without face frames. Their cabinets have a lot more cool custom-ish options like pull out spice racks in lieu of filler pieces and clever things like that. We can definitely get more utility here than we would with Ikea. Here is the design:

Kitchen layoutCC1 by craig richmond, on Flickr

The quote from Canyon Creek was about $8200, which shocked me - I was expecting it to blow my budget apart, but it came right in at the top end of what we are willing to spend. When I was working with the sales rep yesterday, we got to the part where we started choosing door materials, and my wife and I picked a high-gloss white for the upper cabinets, expecting it to be a lower-cost option. Nope. Turns out the high-gloss white is the most expensive door possible, even more than fancy solid woods and exotic veneers. Yikes. We made some changes then and there, but after getting a glimpse at what boxes cost, I thought we would be well north of $10k. Glad to see they are still in the running.

We are pretty pleased with the above layout, as it works well in the space and meets all our tenants.

I'd watch that fridge location.
Sister just built a house, and her brand new fridge door hits the wall, modern two door fridge too, which means that the side next to the wall is very hard to opena nd reach items inside. Major design flaw to the house.

Budgeting & Finances

I probably should have made this the second post, but better late than never.

I've worked as a planner in the past, and currently working as a Project Manager, so making a scope and budget was no big deal.

I had another post here about financing the project, as I am blissfully ignorant in all things debt related. You can read that thread here.

So back in early March, my wife and I applied for a HELOC to pay for this thing. We could almost pay for the project out of pocket, but then I just know I'd be cutting corners on cost and quality, all while extending the project duration, so I think this was the smart thing to do. Plus with the line of credit, it will make the new roof we need to do in the next year or two a little easier to swallow.

All in, the budget comes at around $18k, with a healthy contingency included. I don't think I'll beat that, even buying second hand appliances and doing other things to save some pennies. This includes new floors (likely hardwood), a new dishwasher, new or second hand fridge and range, new vent hood, new cabinets, new countertops, plumbing, wiring, backsplash, etc.

It is a lot of money. Doing this stuff isn't cheap. My biggest costs are cabinets, floors, and appliances. The rest of the stuff will nickle and dime you to death, but isn't a high dollar amount.

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

Thanks for the input - we've gotten the same feedback from some friends who just had the same issue. Our design allows the doors to open fully, in both directions even with a cabinet-depth french door fridge.

You bring up a good point - designing a kitchen requires a lot of consideration about how the appliances work and open, as well as the impact they have on the space around them when they are being used. I've spent HOURS pondering these points, and I'm sure I'll still miss things.

I'm actually busy drawing up the plans for my father's next house.

You think the kitchen is bad, we've spent probably 10% on his garage, 10% on the house, and 80% on his master bedroom suite. 90% of that for the bedroom...

Step 2: Floor Removal & Asbestos Abatement

Disclaimer: Asbestos is dangerous stuff, and you shouldn't mess with it. I've had lots of asbestos and Hazmat training for work over the years, so I felt confident taking the work on. I was reluctant to post anything about the abatement, because it is a topic that requires a great deal of knowledge. I don't want to encourage anyone to DIY abatement unless they understand the risks involved.

Remember this floor?

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

The layer of vinyl flooring you're looking at is just the top layer of three. Knowing that vinyl flooring often has asbestos in the paper backing, I knew the right thing to do was to get some samples tested. I didn't want to do any testing, because then there would be a record showing that there is Asbestos on the property, but it was the right thing to do. Under the hot water heater, was the original floor, and I had an easy spot to peel up the two layers above it. Test results came back positive on the two lower layers. Bummer. (Note: follow state and federal guidelines when taking samples of materials that are Presumed Asbestos Containing Material, PACM).

My options were as follows:

• leave the floor in place and remodel the rest of the kitchen over that wretched, tasteless, dated vinyl

• pay to have it abated at $6,000 - $9,000 based on past job costs.

• abate it yourself

Starting on Friday the 18th, I went with the third option, as it is the only one feasible. Which is where all the before photos are from, when we started moving everything out of the room for floor removal. I won't go into great detail on the abatement process, but I will say that I did everything legally. This included building a full enclosure in the kitchen, permitting with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, full hazmat gear for me, all waste double bagged in 6Mil visqueen with proper labeling, proper transportation paperwork, proper disposal, and a number of other things I can't remember.

hashtag: grownup

I have pictures of the room getting bagged to create the enclosure, but none of the actual abatement - you can't take your phone with you into the enclosure while you're working. Let me summarize this work by saying that it sucks. You're in a tyvek suit zipped all the way up, with the hood up. You've got thick PVC gloves taped on at the sleeves, and rubber boots taped on at the calf. You're wearing a half-mask respirator with P100 filters and safety goggles. Now you go into the enclosure, and you don't come out until you're done or until you've sprayed yourself down and you're sure there is no contamination on the surface of your suit. No way to eat or drink, unless you decontaminate yourself and strip out of your gear, which isn't worth the trouble. Here are photos of the room in the process of getting bagged. Note that the top layer of vinyl was peeled up first, as it didn't need to be disposed of as ACM.

Appliances out: Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

My wife and I are at opposite ends of the "handy" spectrum, so I wanted to capture this picture of her removing the trim in her favorite schleppy house pants:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Bagging up. Note the sprayer that will be your best buddy in spraying down all friable asbestos:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

I'm really sad to say I never got a photo of the original floor - it was this horrible late 70's puke green in a small oval tile/stone pattern with brown grout lines. Here is the best photo... me heading out to dispose of all the bagged and covered ACM at the only county transfer station that would take it. My '66 Dodge D200 named Jonesy has already gotten to do a lot of work on this remodel.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Well I didn't realize we are almost neighbors. Down a little south in Sammamish. Your house setup is really close to how mine was originally. The original owners closed in the carport and increased the size by 600 sqft over the original 1250 sqft it was.

I've since added a 30x28 garage in the same place as yours and remodeled most of the rest of the house. Room by room over the last 20 plus years we've lived here. On the last room and bath which is of course the master bedroom. Figure I'll have it done just about the time we sell it and move over to Cle Elum.

To bad you didn't start this in January I've been off work since October after wrist surgery. Could have helped demo even at my age it's still fun. Now I'm just bidding on jobs waiting to go to work.

Good luck with the remodel.

Demolition

Floor abatement left us with bare subfloors, hand sponged clean after all the fun removal activities.

The bottom layer of floor was actually applied on some thin plywood which was nailed to the subfloor, so that subfloor was in great shape since I was able to remove the thin ply in whole sheets as part of the abatement. Here is the subfloor:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Since this kitchen needed to be functional still, I rounded out the four day weekend of abatement by covering the subfloor in some underlayment to reduce slivers in little feet. I forgot to mention that I had to complete the whole abatement in four days start to finish because that was how long my 4 year old daughter would be at her grandparents.

Appliances back in (not the dishwasher since we never used it all the way over there anyway) and underlayment down:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

That leads me to an important topic:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

This is our cat Miso. Remember to think about the impact of a remodel on all your loved ones, especially pets. She was a little stressed while I did the abatement, and didn't eat all her daily ration. Last week she compensated by eating all of her food and begging for more a little harder than usual.

Closet Removal

Finally, I can start tearing out this crappy closet. Progress shots from last week:

Sheetrock out of the inside:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Sheetrock outside the closet:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Bye closet! Note the shear panel plywood on the other side of the 2x3 studs. Yes, 2x3. The center wall of the house is two of these walls butt together. Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

OK, as of Wednesday last week, all the sheetrock was off that wall behind the fridge.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Little Helper

Here is my helper:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

She wears spongebob squarepants gloves to pick up nails I drop for her.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

You can see here that we have a table back in the room. The fridge rolls out into the middle of the room whenever I need to work.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Also, I forgot to post this one of me right before I started the abatement. This is right before I taped my second glove on.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Hahaha that look is about the same I get from my wife when I ask her to help me. Sorry to hear about the asbestos. Nasty stuff.

Been on a few job's watching them poor bastards having to do that in 90 degree weather. They had a little shower set up in a enclosed hallway so they didn't have to disrobe out of their suites every time they came in or out. I think they mainly used it to cool down as I never saw anyone come out but once or twice but you could hear the shower going most of the day.

Demolition Part 2

Astute readers will have noticed that the designs I posted for our new kitchen have the whole West wall removed. Let's make that a reality, shall we?

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

I was nervous about tearing into this wall since it is the center seam of the two halves that make up our house. There is a thin 3/8" thick piece of plywood nailed and glued to the back of the 2x3 wall, shear panel style. I knocked out one set of studs to see what it felt like. It was weird, there didn't feel like there was any load on them. The existing header going between the living room and kitchen has a solid 1/4" between it and the jack studs, and it looks like all the load is borne by the 3/8" shear panel.

On Friday last week, I got the rest of the sheet rock off the living room side wall.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

I wedged studs back in after this photo, but I'd seen no change in top plate height after removing a few.

Here's a fun mystery:

I went to remove the trim around the big opening between the kitchen and living room. When I pulled the top piece down, a bunch of pea gravel spilled everywhere.

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

This gets me right up to yesterday:

Untitled by craig richmond, on Flickr

I shimmed between the walls (there is a .25-.5" gap between ply panels) and braced up the wall in preparation to hanging the new header. I hope to get that up tonight if I have time.

What's up with that pea gravel? Don't think I've ever seen that "feature." Great work so far, btw.

Maybe the gravel came from the road, when it was trucked to the site?

Great project. Mr. T pitys the fool who lives in a kitchen during a remodel.

What's the deal with asbestos? From what I read it's only a major issue with long term exposure in which case I don't understand the necessity for the heavy duty clean up. I mean I wouldn't plan on rolling around in it in my birthday suit but as long as you have a mask and you're well covered.....is it really that big of a deal?

Also, how wide is that cabinet to the left of the oven?

The issue comes in if he disposes it. If caught they basically throw away the key to the lock of the cell in the dungeon they throw you in.

Also, I think to get the permit he has to demonstrate all the safety gear. So if you have to show the inspector the E36 M3, you might as well use it.

Asbestos is fine if left dormant. When you break it apart or risk breaking it apart you are basically screwed. Long term exsposure for dormant/idel stuff is a hazard. Short term E36 M3s in the air exposure is the worry. (it gets in your lungs lickity split.)

Speaking of asbestos removal, this story will terrify you:

As a kid, my parents had an art gallery inside a 20'x200' former grocery store, and the old cooler/freezer was used as a storage room. 20-years ago after dad died, mom decided to convert the building into an arcade/pool hall, which required removal of the cooler.

I demoed it all by hand, no PPE whatsoever - it never even crossed our mind that it might be asbestos, or that it was bad. Figure a room 6'x10'x7' with ~foot-thick walls of tile, with a fiberous insulation inside.

It hasn't killed me yet...

In reply to Enyar:

Ask Steve McQueen about the big deal about "Asbestos"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McQueen#Illness_and_death

In reply to brad131a4:

We're practically neighbors! I'm out in the Gig Harbor area, on the Kitsap Peninsula.

The house has a number of funny stories - there is baseboard heat all over the house, but none of it was connected at the breaker panel - in the early 80s when they built the garage, they stole the double pole breaker for the heaters in order to run a sub-panel to power the garage. The best part is that there were at least 6 blank spots left in the primary panel that they could have used.

Anyway, the owner ran a weld shop out of the garage and quickly discovered that the small panel and single welder outlet was not adequate. He later ran a new service from the meter to the garage, so there are two panels out there.

Enyar wrote: What's the deal with asbestos? From what I read it's only a major issue with long term exposure in which case I don't understand the necessity for the heavy duty clean up. I mean I wouldn't plan on rolling around in it in my birthday suit but as long as you have a mask and you're well covered.....is it really that big of a deal? Also, how wide is that cabinet to the left of the oven?

I contracted out a LOT of asbestos abatement when I worked at a paper mill. The guy I worked with (Asbestos Jimmy) had been doing it for decades, and claimed that the only people that actually get Asbestosis or Mesothelioma are smokers who have been exposed a good deal. You'll note Steve McQueen was a smoker.

Mad_Ratel is spot on though - There are no half measures. If you are going to do the work above the board, you have to do EVERYTHING. I've supervised lots of abatement in the past, but never done it myself. By law, a homeowner is allowed to do their own abatement, but if they hire the work out it must be to a certified abatement contractor. I was very careful when I did the work not just for my own safety, but also that of my family. With a full enclosure you can control all the 'stos. Important to note that the paper backing on the vinyl that contained asbestos is barely friable - it serves no danger unless you disturb it, and then when you do it creates very little dust. Almost none. I am super confident in the work I did - Asbestos Jimmy would be proud.

Enyar wrote: Also, how wide is that cabinet to the left of the oven?

Good question - it is a 15" wide box, and I will be doing a waterfall edge with the countertop on the exposed face. I was worried that it was a small box standing all by itself, so the waterfall edge will help give it some mass. Especially since I'm planning on doing 2" thick concrete for the tops. 15" wide to the left of the oven will still make for some useful space to set pans while cooking.