Wiring and Patching Drywall for the Kitchen Remodel

The demo on one-half of the kitchen was done yesterday. Today the plan was to get the wiring installed and the holes patched with drywall.

I had five outlet boxes to install - one for a switch to control the under-cabinet lighting and four for outlets (including the one mounted high on the wall for the over-the-stove microwave. There are a number of ways people go about getting the wiring to each of the new outlets.

I wanted a reasonably straight-forward way of getting the wiring from stud-bay to stud-bay that didn't include running wire all the way up into the attic or down through the basement. What I did was to make the cut-outs for the outlets and then cut out the drywall between them.

I could then drill holes through the studs for the wiring. All the wiring could then go through a single hole in the floor plate.

If I were just adding wiring for the outlets I might have just run the wiring through the floor, but I needed to add a switched outlet for the under-cabinet lighting and tie it into what used to be the power line for the range vent hood. Lots of back and forth, so it was easiest to make an opening to get the wiring through the walls.




Here's a tip which will save a bit of work when it comes time to finish the wiring at the panel. Mark the end of the wiring with a description that makes sense to you. The one shown here is pretty obvious. If you're running a bunch of lines at the same time this will really help when it comes to labeling the new breakers.




Fast forward a couple of hours and the drywall is all in place. I need to clean up the edges a little and then I can start mudding. The patching in where the soffit used to be will be somewhat easier than it looks, as only about 1/3 of the seams will be visible once the new cabinets are in place. The ones which will remain hidden will be taped & mudded, but I won't waste much time getting them perfect.



Jumping back to the "before" picture, removing the soffit does open up the kitchen a bit. This wasn't my big goal though. My goal was gaining storage. Consider that the entire area covered with the soffit (plus more) is now storage. The cost to tear out and patch the soffit was about $20 in material.

Removing Cabinets with Extreme Prejudice

It took about half an hour, but the upper cabinets were removed without too much of a fight. I wanted to remove them without damaging the wall, because that will save me time later on if I don't have to fix it. I didn't care too much about the soffits, as those aren't staying.

I found that the easiest way to remove the cabinets was to simply cut the nails (LOTS of nails...) with a reciprocating saw. I worked a pry-bar between the wall and cabinet enough to loosen the cabinets enough to get the saw blade in and then down they came.

I still haven't figured out if the blue paint seen here was primer or if the room was actually painted this color. I really really hope it was just primer. Over the blue is painted a coat of olive green - not a real improvement in my opinion... You can easily see the outline of where the cabinets were, even after cleaning the walls with de-greaser.

The black spot in the middle is the vent for the range hood.




Tearing the soffits out wasn't too big of a project. I found that the best results were achieved by using the reciprocating saw to cut the inside corners by the ceiling and wall so that the drywall would break away easily as the inside structure was pulled apart. This kept the drywall from tearing.

The structure of the soffit was just 2x4 construction. I was concerned with hidden wiring, and actually got out with minimal wiring to deal with - just the one cable in the corner. I need to look at the structure of the wall to see if I can just notch the 2x4 to make room for it.

This corner also has some water damage from the previously leaking chimney flashing.




With the soffit removed, the kitchen does feel larger. I used some painter's tape to mark where the cabinets are going to be placed so I could make marks on the wall showing future outlet locations. The only outlet on that wall was used by the fridge and microwave, leaving nothing to power small appliances. When I finish this wall, the fridge and microwave will be on their own circuits and there will be a GFCI protected circuit for each counter top. The stove also has it's own circuit. Good thing I've got plenty of space open in the new electrical panel!




I started the electrical work by moving the plug which used to be for the fridge down low on the wall for the stove. I'm switching from an electric stove to a gas stove, so I can also remove the current 22ov outlet. Once the final location for the new stove is determined I can run the gas line for it. I got lucky in that the plug I moved was between the right studs and was just long enough to allow me to use it for the stove.

Now that the electrical line is run and tested for this outlet, I can patch the old outlet hole as well as the hole I made which was too low. Oops... Oh well, nobody will ever see it after the stove is in place and it'll be an easy patch.

Actual Real Kitchen Progress!

Since the water systems are now upgraded I can FINALLY turn my attention to the rest of the kitchen. I didn't want to start this work earlier, because I didn't want to install a dish washer that would just get messed up with rusty water.

That excuse is now gone, and our water is still blissfully clear.

The kitchen work will take place in two stages: South wall followed by North wall. South first because it'll be easier and will allow me to work out the bugs before I do the harder North wall.

First step was to empty out the cabinets and remove the doors. I plan to keep the cabinets in one-piece as much as possible to give them away. While I really hope that nobody would use them in their kitchen, I think they'd make good garage cabinets.




As I'm taking everything apart I find out how "old school" cabinet installers did their work here - by using multiple large nails per stud. Yay. Installing cabinets with screws makes cabinets much easier to install and remove. You can also see here how there are no "backs" to the cabinets. The back wall is actually the textured drywall. For some reason, I find this kind of disgusting. Probably because the walls in the kitchen have decades of gunk built up on 'em.




Uppers are cleaned out and the work has started on the base cabinets. The cabinet to the left of the stove came out easily Only one screw was holding it into the drywall. Not into the stud, but only into the drywall. Nice and secure. This cabinet wasn't original to the house.

The cabinet to the right of the stove was original and was installed very securely. So securely that it got destroyed in the process of removing it. I wanted to save the drywall more than the cabinet, because the new fridge will be installed there and I don't want to patch drywall if I don't have to.




One thing that was bugging me about the cabinets in the house is how the uppers and lowers didn't line up. I figured it was because the cabinet to the left of the stove was replaced at some point with a wider base or because there was originally a very narrow stove. From the paint that was covered by the lower cabinet for the last 50+ years and based on the sub-flooring, I was right. The lower and upper cabinets used to line up properly.



My original plan was to have the whole wall cleared of cabinets and appliances tonight, but we're dog sitting a friend's puppy and I'm stuck watching the dog instead of working. By end-of-day tomorrow I want to have the entire wall demo'd, including soffits, range vent, and flooring. If all goes well I'd like to have the drywall patching started for the soffets and maybe even some of the electrical changes laid out.

New Water Systems are Finally Installed

Just as promised, my plumber showed up this morning (yes, on a Saturday) at 8:15. He worked straight through till 9:00 tonight and got the entire job done by himself.

Here's the water heater I started the day with. That weird looking hose to the left of it is the flexible gas line. I doubt this is up to code. The vent has a pretty long run to the chimney as well. This water heater is around 16-17 years old, and the water shut-off valve is corroded to the point where it doesn't work.




The water softener is probably a decade older than the heater. I think it still works, but it's hard to tell. Our water isn't hard, but the insides of this unit are completely caked in rust and junk from the well. Like the water heater, the valves are shot and need to go.




Hours later, here's the new layout. I didn't use this end of the basement for anything, so even with the extra equipment I'm not losing any usable space.

It may look like a lot of extra copper, but we only added slightly more than was taken out. There is a little back-tracking of the copper runs because we didn't lay things out in the order that the water flows (from iron filter to softener to heater). We decided it was better to put the heater close to the furnace so the gas supply line was short and so that the heater was close to the chimney.

The water softener (blue tank and black brine tank) were placed next to the sump crock so it would have a short run for the overflow vent should it ever be needed. The iron filter went in the middle 'cause that was the only space left.

All new bypass valves were installed, new hose bibs replaced the rusty & leaky old ones, and the system was leak-tested. Enough room was left between the parts to allow for easy access around 'em all.



After we got everything tested and the water started flowing, the system automatically started flushing as was expected. The iron filter can be set to flush every day, two days, three days, etc. so we're not wasting water. We set it for every three days and will see if that's often enough.

The water softener can also be set to flush every X days or after a certain number of gallons of water are used. We set it to flush every 850 gallons. Again, time will tell if that's a good setting for us. I need to pick up the salt for it tomorrow - I forgot to get it when I picked up the water heater.

I had the plumber do a couple of other changes while he was here, such as connecting the hose bibs to the filtered/softened water instead of running straight well-water through 'em. In front that was so we could wash the cars with the water and not have spots or stains. In back, it was because it was easier than running a separate line for straight well water.

I also had him plumb the gas line for my upcoming kitchen remodel. The stove we're putting in is gas and the line needed to be moved. He added a new shut-off valve for me as well.

Overall cost? $3,000.00 for all parts and labor (I supplied the water heater, he supplied everything else). With the water heater it came to $3,340.00. That's $1,000.00 less than the other plumber I was going to use, although the more expensive plumber's estimate included $400 for chimney lining. I figure I can line the chimney myself for under $100.00.

I would definitely use him again, and plan to to move the bathroom closet flange when I do the bathroom remodel.

No Time Like the Present

So the plumber was here and looked the job over this past Tuesday. Nothing difficult. We went over the options and he gave me some ideas. Essentially I'm leaving it up to him to make it all work out. He told me he'd call me Wednesday (yesterday) with a price.

He also said he'd check on some prices to see if it'd be better for him to buy the water softener or if I should get it on my own.

How many stories have there been where contractors promised and didn't deliver?

This isn't one of those stories.

He called, and we decided that he should pick up the Iron Curtain iron filter and the water softener. I can get generic residential products at Home Depot or Menards, but for the same price he can get slightly better equipment.

I told him if he'll buy the products I'll pay him some extra to do so. It's worth it in gas and time savings for me. Plus, even though he's been a plumber for 20 years he's only had his own business for a year and it's good for him to get in front of the suppliers more often. I'll buy the water heater, since he can't really save me anything there.

Price we agreed on was $3,000.00, including re-running the gas line for the water heater. If the water heater costs me the $400 or so I'm expecting to pay, that'll be just over $500 less than the contractor I was going to go with, plus I get to help out "the little guy".

As of yesterday there was no date set for the work to begin. He'd check his schedule and get back to me in a few days.

"In a few days" turned out to be more like "the next morning". He called and said he's picking up the water softener and iron filter Friday (tomorrow) and would like to install everything this Saturday. HELLS YEAH!

Now I'm in a rush to go pick up a water heater. After working 9 hours, getting the kids homework taken care of, hitting the gym at work, and eating a quick salad for dinner (my brother just shit his pants after reading those last two items), it's time to go grab a 50 gallon water heater.

If he doesn't show I'll cry. In a manly way.

The only part that sucks is that the weather is supposed to be in the high 50's and sunny Saturday. Some of the best weather we've had since last fall.

Two Different Contractors, Two Different Solutions

A while back I had a plumbing contractor come out to give me a price on upgrading our water system. New water softener, iron filter, water heater, and a few other misc. upgrades.

$4,000.00. The guy was here on time and really knew his stuff. He even had one of those cool metal clipboards which all the best contractors have. He suggested either lining our chimney or switching the water softener over to a power-vent. The water heater is the only item currently using the chimney and it doesn't generate enough heat to burn off the moisture in the chimney. This could lead to problems.

That's fine with me, since I'd like to take the chimney down below the roof line so I could patch the roof where it currently exits the roof. This removes one major area that is prone to leakage.

The thing I really liked was that he gave me a full written estimate which detailed all of the items that would be done for the price. None of the existing copper from the pressure-tank to the softener and iron filter would be kept, it'd all be replaced with larger diameter pipe, new on/off valves, etc. All new.

Today I had another company come out. The guy who showed up really puzzled me. He knows plenty about pipe sizes and about the water softener/iron filter combination that they sell, but beyond that, he didn't seem to have a clue. I asked about a power vent for the water heater and it was like I was talking another language. That made me nervous. His sales-pitch was pretty much non-existent.

I asked about pricing and he just said $1,900 for the water softener/iron filter, and they'd change pipes as necessary. He didn't know what the water heater would cost but said it might require electrical upgrades. Um, no, it won't. I had those done and pointed out all the dedicated outlets and breakers.

By the sound of it he'll also want to re-use the existing flexible gas supply line for the water heater. Um, no way. It was done half-ass 15-20 years ago and I don't want it like that any more. No written estimate for a job that could cost $3,000 or more, either. Makes me wonder how these guys have stayed in business.

So let's just say the water heater costs $1,000.00. (the first company figured $900). I'll be about a grand less than the first company, but is it worth it? I'm leaning towards the more expensive contractor because he not only spelled out what was going to be needed, but also put it in writing.

In theory there should be no surprises, since they're replacing everything except the pressure tank. I'll talk it over with the wife tonight and make an appointment in the next day or two to have the work done.

The Blizzard Does a Vanishing Act

So we ended up with about a foot of new snow yesterday which gave us enough snow to make this season the 2nd heaviest for snowfall on record for us.

Today temps were in the upper 30's, and about half of the snow has already melted. The driveways are dry and most of the streets are dry except for where the city did a half-ass job plowing.

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 30's and Monday in the low 40's, so I expect us to be mostly snow-free again in a few days.

Weird weather...