The kitchen remodel – part 3 – forward progress

After two weeks of demo, we finally got to the point where we’re starting to make forward progress on the kitchen. Last week we tore out the wall with the window and rebuilt it. After building it, we covered it with exterior plywood. This week, I installed a layer of felt paper on the plywood to waterproof it. We’re expecting some rain so that became a priority.

Plumb, level, and straight

Next up was plumbing up the exterior wall – the one behind the fridge. Not water pipes, but rather level vertically. This wall was about an inch out of plumb and wasn’t straight. The fastest way I found was to install furring strips vertically on the wall and then shim them out accordingly. That worked well and now I have a plumb wall to set cabinets against.

The sloped ceiling

The next area to get furred out/straightened was the sloped ceiling over the kitchen sink. This roof has 2×4 rafters which work fine but have begun to get a belly in the middle from years of gravity. I started furring them down with 2x2s but as I tried to plane them all out, it became too much work so I aborted that idea. I then sistered 2x4s to the side as it was much easier to straighten everything out. Done.

The inverted beam

Next up was the inverted beam in the ceiling. Backing up, there used to be a full wall between the kitchen and the dining room. We removed about 3/4 of the original wall leaving just the area at the corner cabinet in the dining room. This wall supported the ceiling joists of the dining room and the kitchen. When we took it out, we took out the support for the ceiling joists. To remedy this, I added a beam above the ceiling joists, which is slightly unconventional as beams are usually below the joists. Doing the inverted beam meant a more open feel between the two rooms. However, with the inverted beams, you have to secure the joists to the bottom of the beam. To do this I used some heavy duty joist hangers. The joists had sagged a little bit since we took out the wall a few months back. No problem. I took a heavy duty clamp to them and was able to clamp them up while I put the hangers on.

Rafter clips

Speaking of hangers, the next item on the list was to add rafter ties to all of the rafters exposed in the kitchen. I added them to the vaulted ceiling rafters at the exterior wall, at the beam in the middle of the room, and to the rafters on the opposite side of the beam.

Range hood vent

The next item was ventilation for the range hood. I used solid metal pipe for this. I wound up using 4″ ductwork to where it will connect with the hood and then reduced to 3″ ductwork to fit out the opening above the wall to the exterior. I strapped it in place and called it good. There was about 3″ of space between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof sheathing. This made running the duct easy but also caused us to lose all of our A/C every time the wind blew. I wanted to seal off this gap so this next job became a priority.

Rafter baffles

We will be insulating the sloped ceiling with fiberglass insulation. To keep a bit of air space to allow excess heat out and or to allow the removal of any condensation, we installed baffles. These are the funny looking black plastic pieces on the underside of the roof. They allow a small area for air to move from the soffit (at the bottom) up to the vented area in the main attic. Once I had those installed, I then installed a small piece of insulation at the bottom to seal up the gaps. In the future, once we’ve done the siding, I’ll install vents at each one of the black pieces to allow intake air to flow freely.

A/C move

The next project was centering up the A/C unit. When I originally installed the A/C unit, it was centered on the space that was there. However, with our new layout, it wouldn’t have been centered. Fortunately, it was pretty straightforward to slide it over. I clamped on a handful of support pieces and then unscrewed the ceiling joists holding the unit up. It was now held up by the clamped boards and free to slide over. I got the unit moved over to the center and then screwed the joists in place.

Lots of wiring

Time for electrical. There’s quite a bit of wiring in this kitchen. I started off wiring for two 4″ recessed cans over the sink. These will be controlled by a switch near the window. Next was relocating the two 6″ cans in the main part of the kitchen ceiling. I located them in the center of the room and got their boxes screwed into place. After that, I laid out for all of the outlets around the room and pulled wires and home runs (wire to feed an outlet that has its own breaker in the electrical box) throughout the kitchen. I added home runs and outlets for the dishwasher and microwave.

Wired in for a range

We’re planning on having a propane range in the kitchen. The propane will be one of the last projects that we’ll get to on the house. So for the time being we’ll keep an electric range in the kitchen. For this, I pulled a wire over to power the oven. The last item was a big one – the undercabinet lighting.

Undercabinet lights

I will be adding lighting to both the toe kick area of the cabinets as well as under the upper cabinets. I expect that we’ll use the toe kick cabinets as our night light, and they’ll be on nearly all the time. The uppers will either be task lighting or accent lighting. I say all that to say that we want them switched individually with dimmers on each area. To control all of the toe kick areas together and to control all of the upper cabinet areas together, I had to pull a wire from each section of cabinets and tie them back to a single feed. I opted to install a junction box to combine all of the wires for each area of cabinets behind the stove as it will be hidden yet easily accessible if needed. I pulled wires across, under, and around the kitchen and brought them back to these junction boxes. Lastly, I pulled wires from the junction boxes to the switches near the door. That way they can have their own switches with their own dimmers.

Termite treatment

Once the electrical was done, Oceana mixed up a batch of termite treatment spray and soaked all of the new and old exposed framing. The old “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. The termites will be back. We’re just hoping to make the lumber unappealing to them.

That’s all, folks

That’s all for this week. Thanks for following along!