Kitchen Renovations

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I took a few shots of my kitchen just before its demolition last Monday and few since. They are apropos what follows but you’ll have to wait until they are posted tomorrow. 
 
So … to continue about the kitchen renovation I am in the midst of  …
 

Last Monday, the kitchen was gutted. I regret I didn’t take pictures of it at its worst, but at the time I was so disgusted by what was behind these old cabinets, which were in a couple of cases installed with far too much space behind them, that all I could think of was to clean it up.
 
By Wednesday, the electrician had punched all his holes in the wall and rewired the room to accommodate under-the-cabinet lights, which I didn’t have before, to move some other … you don’t need the details.
 
By Thursday afternoon, all the holes had been filled and the first skim coating of the room had been completed, even though my workman, Armando, didn’t show up until after 2 because he had to grout someone else’s backsplash in the morning – the final touch on most kitchen renovations.

 
Okay. Everything was going pretty much on schedule until Friday afternoon, when my cabinet dealer emails that the cabinets, which, by the way, are stock, not custom, will be delivered three weeks late.

Mind you, I have been calling this guy on the phone every week for the last three weeks to (ostensibly) ask a question (only sometimes real) and to remind him that I expect the cabinets on July 29. I had spoken to him an hour before the email. Even then he assured me that they would be here.
 
I took this well, I am proud to say. If a contractor had told me his subcontractor had screwed up I probably would have gone berserk. It helps that my cabinet man, who seriously screwed up here, is giving me a nice discount.
 
It’s now Tuesday morning and Armando has mostly completed the plastering and skim coating, sanding, and even some priming. It was a dusty day here yesterday. I vacuumed twice just to keep up and I am still sneezing, even though the dust settled overnight. Armando has also made good headway in removing with a heat gun and scraper 60 years of paint from my large metal window frame. We have also secured the building’s original plywood sub-flooring and, with very long screws, cement board sub-flooring over that. I’ve learned that a level and secure installation of the tile’s sub-floor – cement board in my case – is vital. Even the seams need to be taped with mesh, filled and skimmed with thin set, which is the plaster used to lay tiles. You don’t want your tiles shifting or buckling, do you?
 
Martine is my tile installer and he will be here any minute, with Armando, and I hope the plumber I have been waiting for. He needs to move the gas pipe, after which Armando needs to seal the hole.

Arthur Schwartz's
The Southern Italian Table

Arthur Schwartz's
New York City Food:
An Opinionated History with Legendary Recipes

Book Description & Sample Recipes

Arthur Schwartz's
Jewish Home Cooking:
Yiddish Recipes Revisted

Now Out
Order from Amazon now!