On 9/10/2015 7:13 AM, philo wrote:
On 09/10/2015 06:45 AM, Don Y wrote:

We did most of ours "up front". We wanted to raise the ceiling, move
the peninsula, remove the cabinets *over* the peninsula, add a pony
wall behind the stove, etc. So, we had to plan carefully to ensure
we ended up with enough cabinet space, the right sorts of cabinets,
electric outlets in the right locations, etc.

Well, the ceiling was raised 25 years ago. The previous owner put in a
drop-ceiling which did exactly that...it dropped. It happened about an hour
after my daughter told me it was going to fall.

Ours was a soffit that hid some HVAC ductwork. But, the ductwork
was off to one side -- yet the ceiling *throughout* the kitchen
suffered this ~13inch reduction in height.

Raising the ceiling thus required moving the ductwork and demo'ing the
carpentry that implemented the soffit. But, that left us with a
ceiling with a slight pitch (house has "flat" roof so "ceiling" is
really the underside of the *roof* joists). So, had to then build a
soffit with a very slight taper to yield a ceiling that was
parallel to the floor. Otherwise, there would be a tapered "gap"
above the upper cabinets (HIGHLIGHTING the slope of the ceiling)

As the ceiling of the kitchen extends into the family room, this means
doing the same in the family room, as well (which is easily three
times the size of the kitchen area).

I took a wreaking bar and entirely gutted the kitchen and put in 5/8" drywall,
walls and ceiling. The entire first floor is 9' ceilings. I have a friend who
is over seven feet tall who says there are few houses as comfortable as ours.

We opted from the start to move the microwave into the small pantry.
It freed up a lot of counter space after deciding to remove the
cabinets over the peninsula (thus no place for an "undercounter"
microwave). This also let that "load" move off the countertop
circuits onto one of the less used circuits in the kitchen.

WE have so little counter space, the microwave in the pantry...kind of a last
minute decision...was one of the better moves.

While we *could* have left it in place, it really represented a big
chunk of lost counterspace. E.g., when I do my holiday baking,
there is nowhere near enough counterspace to cool the 20 dozen cookies
while finishing *baking* them!

We did put in new lighting. After some debate we went with Halogen and
it works
well.

We didn't like the halogen lights. Too "stark" (color). We arranged
recessed lights above the counters with a separate circuit above the
sink area (so you can have "reduced lighting" in the early morning
hours, there -- instead of facing a room full of bright lights).
We added under the counter lighting controlled from wall switches
(instead of having to reach up under the counters and fumble around
looking for a switch).

The main halogen light is on a dimmer so we can adjust it "down" if necessary.

The two kitchen lighting circuits are on dimmers. With just the
lights over the sink on -- and on at lowest setting -- it's almost
like a nightlight; you can just make out the outlines of all the
counters, appliances, etc. in a pitch black house. We will eventually
have to replace the light switches with "smarter" ones as the
dimmer function is currently present in *one* location (recall
each light can be controlled from any of three locations!). So,
you often turn a light ON at one location and have to walk to
another location to tweek the intensity. (We discipline ourselves
to leave one circuit set at high and the other at low)

*I* enjoyed the brightness that the halogens provided. But, we didn't like
the "color" of the light.

After all was done, we were sitting in the kitchen yesterday and
talking about
what we might have forgotten. All we could come up with was that it
would have
been nice perhaps to have the vinyl (or whatever it's made out of)
flooring
removed and had a wooden floor put it.

I think you'd probably then want to *cover* it with something.
Kitchens, IME, want to be easy to "mop clean". Too easy for
things to get spilled, there.

Now that the construction is done my wife and I both gave the floor several
good cleanings. Though it's 25 years old it's really in decent shape...just two
very small cracks that are almost invisible.
A while back we paid a friend who needed money to clean it and they basically
put sealer over the dirt and pretty much gummed things up...and it took several
good scrubbings to undo that mess.
Now that it's clean it looks pretty nice...we have not even put the shiner on yet.

We have (ceramic) tile, here -- I guess it's a "southwestern thing". It's
great for cleanup (damp mop) but unforgiving when it comes to things
being dropped onto it (e.g., glass jars). While a wooden floor
might have a *tiny* bit of "bounce", this just causes everything to shatter
on impact.

Additionally, I wanted to be able to *tie* the shelves into the
walls (instead of just *setting* a shelf on a support) so that I
could use them to attach sliding drawers/trays, lazy susans, etc.

So, I've been fabricating supports out of 1/2 x 3/4 cold rolled
steel bars in which I've drilled holes every inch along the
length. A bracket on the underside of each shelf will spring-load
pegs into these brackets (two on each side) so the shelf won't
be able to move up, down or in/out until they are retracted.

The 1/2" thickness was chosen to coincide with the thickness of
the drywall on each side of the pantry -- so the supports are
*in* the wall instead of *on* the wall.

Had this sort of thing been left to a (sub)contractor, we'd have
ended up with COTS shelf supports and much *smaller* shelves!

Yep...it's usually good to make your own stuff...a contractor would use "off
the shelf" product that would work but possibly not 100% ideal for the situation.

A lot of folks don't have the imagination or skills to be able to
formulate their own solutions to varied problems (e.g., my dishwasher
replumbing).

One other comment:

Since we ended up getting rid of a lot of junk we did not need from the
kitchen....I surprised my wife and for the last few weeks have been getting my
30 year old crap out of the attic and basement. I got rid of so much clutter I
was now able to find a few things that I wanted but could never find.

Wit the flat "frontier style" roof, we have no attic. And, on a slab,
no basement. Add to this the fact that the garage gets VERY hot for
a large portion of the year (we average 65 days above 100F) means we
can't even rely on *that* for certain types of storage!

This limits *what* you can squirrel away -- as well as *where* you
can stash it! Hand tools, cables, etc. all fare well in the garage.
But, some of my electronic stuff has to find a home *indoors*
(under beds, in closets, etc.) as it won't tolerate the heat.

One of them was my little pin-ball machine from when I was 5 years old...It's a
great antique that I will put in my office after I get all the dust cleaned out
of it.

I have a full size pinball machine stored in the garage. Prior to moving
here, I gave away two others along with a "Tempest" arcade piece (full-size
upright). I'd like to set the pintable up on the back porch but fear the
neighbors would quickly tire of the bells, etc. (it's an old electromechanical
machine so you can't just "turn down the volume")