Craftsman Kitchen Renovation Beginnings

Post by **awomanwithahammer** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:08 pm

I wonder if a fake owl would work? I know they can be used to deter woodpeckers and some other critters. But definitely not as cute as Stewie!

Post by **nhguy** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:54 pm

phil wrote:what a beautiful Cat. Stewie has job security:-)
The cabinets and the kitchen look so nice. Very high end. I built mine with my dad, he was a cabinetmaker , then a carpenter and the resulting design of the cabinets look similar.
He showed me some older techniques while he still could which I am grateful for.

That chair behind Stewie also looks familiar. I have a set of 4, two like that, two have arms. the covering is rush (bullrushes) redoing them looks like it might take some special skills. Mine were reportedly brought from England. the problem is you need to remove the covering to disassemble the joints and they are a little wiggly. I learned there is a later product which is sort of like a twisted rope that looks a bit like cardboard that comes in a roll. With that it can be a continuous wrap and I found instructions to do that.
The bullrushes I do have access to you usually can't mess with them for environmental reasons but we have a place with lots of them. I read they used "European bullrushes" but I dont know what the difference is. I considered working on them , tucked them in the attic. I'm not sure if I have the patience for it. I was quoted about 100 per chair to do them with the rope stuff. but old kitchen chairs dont seem to have a real lot of value. One of mine had a little indecent where the plug in kettle got put on an element, picked up and the seat got soaked in molten aluminum

Does a stove like that need a vent or just the hood fan and gas line?

Stewie is a looker it's those dreamy blue eyes, we joke we should have named him Frank as in Frank Sinatra, mr. blue eyes next time. I have a thing for chairs and a have far too many this one is in the attic now with a dozen others as I try and rotate them in and out. I had a few rush seats redone last year @$95 per chair. We have a vent for the stove by Zephyr it has an 8 inch vent plus runs up to 650 cfm. It required us to put a makeup air unit that pulls air into the hot air return through a vent in a basement window. So far ir appears to be working quite well. I wish I had the talent to build cabinets like you and your dad, maybe in my next life. I admire others that can do such work.

Post by **nhguy** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:59 pm

awomanwithahammer wrote:I wonder if a fake owl would work? I know they can be used to deter woodpeckers and some other critters. But definitely not as cute as Stewie!

The plexiglass storm window has changed the reflection enough that there has been no bird strikes since it was installed. I even moved a feeder near the window again as we like seeing birds up close. It's been five days with not one collision. Stewie does like watching out the screen door, but he's more interested in the chipmunks than the birds.

Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:28 am

Great news about the decrease in strikes! Glad to hear you could move a feeder closer again.

Stewie looks like he's rather worldly in that shot.

Post by **Texas_Ranger** » Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:53 pm

phil wrote:those face frame cabinets look so nice! Ive never seen a sink and dishwasher combined like that.

That's actually quite common in Europe and saves you the extra cost of having dedicated plumbing for the dishwasher. Also all the plumbing is accessible under the sink, without having to pull out the dishwasher.

Post by **nhguy** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:29 am

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Well everything was going so well until Saturday night, actually Sunday morning around 12:30am. My wife came in from our carriage house and office to find the kitchen flooded. The shutoff for the dishwasher letgo, then ran for 2-1/2 hours(guessing). She woke me up I shut off the water main, water heater and breaker. The water ran across the floor into the hot air register, then into the whole duct work network including the furnace. The heat ducts are all sealed and insulated. Needless to say it was a mess.
We are having the plumber replace these plastic internals shutoffs with all brass shutoffs. He said he's never had these fail before. I bought and inspected the new shutoffs, so hopefully it won't happen again.

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Post by **nhguy** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:34 am

The plastic internals shutoffs are by Brasscrafters,
The brass internal shutoffs are by Sharkbite
Both are the crimp type pex fitting, the shutoff from Sharkbite are guaranteed to not blowout.

Post by **phil** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 8:36 pm

my dishwasher failed because there is a sensor that tells it there is still water in it. I think what happened is it just stuck, then the pump ran continuously. I opened it up looking for the float sensor but it was difficult to find. I think it just got unstuck when I started taking it apart, then worked since. mine's a Swedish brand.
my fridge makes ice so it has a water line too. one day I stuck a package of stuff in around the ice cube tray. it has a bail wire that goes down periodically to feel if the ice is full or if it should continue making ice. somehow the thing just started pouring water on the floor but I was there. I readjusted what I'd put in and it worked since.
I found that the hose on my dishwasher failed. the plastic ribbing cracked and when I noticed it it had done some floor damage. Its definitely worth replacing the drain hose if you pull one and reinstall it.

I believe there is a contraption you can get that lets the water run for a set period, like 10 mins or maybe 1/2 hour. you can probably adjust the time. It might be an issue for things like sprinklers or long showers but could prevent such a situation with some associated cost and inconvenience. I've been wondering if it is worth it. if the water runs non stop it shuts the water off , perhaps saving you from damage like this.

I wanted to make a wood door to hide the dishwasher. when I looked into it, you can get dishwashers made for that, the price was so much higher. I did find one with a glass door so it looked like the structure might be heavy enough to adapt that one but I never did that. a lot of them have really flimsy doors.

Post by **phil** » Mon Aug 10, 2020 9:06 pm

my hood fan blower was big enough that it was recommended to have makeup air. I guess the danger is that if you blow enough air out of the house it could backdraft the furnace. I just got through struggling with the vent and mine was 6 inch but I couldnt use the 6 inch pipe without a lot of changes so I used what was there. its quite restricted but at lest it blows and no one seemed to worried that it wasn't up to maximum efficiency. I think my house is leaky enough that I have never sensed any issue with the makeup air but if you do a lot of insulating perhaps you could have such an issue. It of course has to come in somewhere. my fireplace never had a damper so that alone is an inlet path , also all my windows and doors aren't air tight. maybe there is a more scientific way to check it but I have never seen the fire or my furnace change in any way when the hood fan was turned on.

I just bought a two speed fan that goes in a 6 inch pipe. I thought I might use it to vent the bathroom, or maybe to blow air out from the attic. I suppose things like that may also contribute to the makeup air.

Post by **nhguy** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:52 am

I thought I'd send one last kitchen renovation post. Our breakfast bar chairs came in this week and they are so wonderful. White oak like the cabinets and the finish and color match perfectly. Made by an Amish an Amish furniture maker, but sold through a Deutsch Furniture in MN. My wife is thrilled with the counters and the range hood. I joke and say it could suck the buttons off your shirt if your not careful. I'm not sure how it will impact our heating bill come winter, but it does remove the smoke and cooking smells from the house for sure. We have about half the kitchen filled, so there are plenty of boxes to empty, but we're taking some time to find out what we really need as we've lived months without some of these gadgets, so it might be time to reevaluate certain kitchen tools we don't use. Anyone thinking of renovating their kitchen the Dekton Fossil counters are great and the Zephyr rangehood. The cabinet pulls and handles, plus the lighting are by Rejuvenation, so they are solid brass and have a matching antiqued finish. I included one of the pictures of what we started with back in April. Thank you for the encouraging comments along the way.