well, in the spirit of crazy amounts of sweat equity being spent at my abode, here's some kitchen news. Yeah, it's not a garage post, but whatever.
For starters, without my buddy Jim, there's no way in hell this project would get done as nicely as it will get done. My skills are more of the barn building variety. That said, I know a decent amount and am more than willing to learn. And I work hard, so I don't think I've been a bad apprentice
To start with, I hired a young guy to help me demo the space. 6 layers of flooring, a fireplace, all cabinets etc.
Then, I custom cut sleepers to level the floor, and we installed 3/4" subfloor throughout. The floor was out over 2 inches!!!! (but it's not settling anymore, that problem was resolved long before I became owner of the home).
While I was busy doing that, Jim fixed the plumbing and venting from the adjacent wash room. He did a PRO job for sure.
After this day of work, it was time to run the new electrical scheme. We fished wire for new pendants above the island-to-be, a new light above the new kitchen table location, for can lights in two locations. Jim wired a 4 gang box with dimmers so my wife can control all the zones in the room from one spot. I wired countless outlets.
We also had to rip the metal triple-wall chimney out through the building's wall since the fireplace is no longer in the room. We used Jim's metal brake to bend a patch for the steel siding (yes, steel siding) out of flashing material. We framed over the hole, re-sheathed, weather proofed, and then I used pop rivets to install the new siding. Lots of time spent on a ladder.
Finally, we drywalled.
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Flooring goes in this week, and cabinets arrive in two weeks. In the meantime, I'm mudding, wainscotting, and trimming out the room. Wife will help paint. I can also build the kitchen island, and the matching prep station. Both of those will be topped with butcher block to offset the granite counter tops.
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ok, some pics so far: