For years, my wife, Jenny, used sagging
floors, drooping cabinet doors and failing appliances to convince me it was
time to redo our kitchen. Her not so hidden agenda was to replace my favorite
color yellow: the Formica counters, floral back-splash and vinyl floor tiles,
with cobalt blue and black that have been taking over the kitchen for a while.
The timing of this project had more to do with our daughter’s summer wedding in
Montana, followed by an October party at our place here in upstate New York. Endless
conversations with Jenny’s two sisters about how much they enjoy their new
granite counters on wood plank cabinets and that have doors and drawers that
close themselves. My contention that our 35-year old decor and limping
appliances still fed us well and provided every amenity was lost to her threat
that if I wouldn't redo the kitchen, she’d hire someone who would.
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| Old Kitchen’s Yellow Counter and Tiles Dominate Cobalt Blue Accessories |
January 10, 2013: Our kitchen is a big room, 18 by 23 feet, with
windows only on the east and west walls so it needs more light both midday and
at night. For years I've wanted to use sunlight to power the lights so we
wouldn't need candles when we lose utility power. Since we have two large batteries
and an array of solar panels for charging them, all we needed were the
fixtures, wire and switches. Solar panels produce direct current like vehicles
use, not the alternating current available from the utility. These panels make
enough voltage to charge 12 volt batteries, the same voltage used in cars, boats,
RVs and many other places. Light bulbs that utilize this voltage are common,
and LEDs, light emitting diodes, are becoming the most efficient devices for
transforming electricity into light.
All but very few light fixtures and
bulbs sold in big box stores operate on utility power though I found two for 12
volts but were very expensive: $25 to $35. Much of the world, though, does not
have access to grid electric power and hundreds of companies are developing
lighting products for cars, boats, RVs and huts that utilize power from a
battery, often charged by a solar panel. I ordered more than a dozen different
designs in three categories: spot/flood lamps, strings for under-cabinet
lighting, and light bulbs that look good in glass globes. None cost more than
$5 with some strings of 50 less than a dollar.
January 21, 2013: Though shipping is often free, it takes a long
time for products to arrive from China. And one out of three items either didn’t
work or were for the wrong voltage. Power in most of the world outside North
America is 240 volts and eight LED bulbs for this voltage arrived instead of
those I ordered. Whoever packs fixtures leaving China must assume that everyone
wants the voltage they use, or else they have too many and know they are
difficult and expensive to return. It costs more for return shipping than the
cost of a bulb and they won’t replace “defective” product unless you return it.
Many of the LEDs worked well and I temporarily
mounted them in our kitchen ceiling so we could decide what look and color we
liked best. Initially Jenny preferred the “warm white” versions, also called
3,000 K because they are the color spectrum radiated by any material at 3,000 degrees Kelvin, but these made
everything slightly orange and were not as bright as the 6,000 K solar spectrum
variety that made colors stand out. I also experimented with dimmers and
voltage controllers. Dimmers allow tailoring light for doing detail work or
leaving the room with enough light to see.
Since I spend most of my waking
hours thinking about conserving energy, I figured that it would be great to
light the kitchen with the power a 60 watt incandescent bulb consumes. When Jenny
saw how good these new LEDs look, and how they dress up the decor, she wanted
more of them. We ended up with 10 spot lights that mount in the ceiling. Costing
less than $2 each, they are super easy to install, weighing only an ounce, and
snap into an opening it takes less than a minute to make with a hole saw. Over
the couch we installed a fixture that has four flood lights that can be pointed
in any direction. And we hung two pendant fixtures with glass globes over the
kitchen island and one over the sink. My wife’s preference for brilliant nine
watt bulbs wrecked my lighting power budget that emphasized three watt bulbs,
but altogether they take less than 100 watts so in four months we've never run
short of power.
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| Display Showing Voltages of the Two Batteries and the Current (Amps) to the LED Lights |
In one corner of the kitchen is a
display panel that shows, in bright blue digits, the voltages of our two
batteries and how much current the lights are consuming. My wife doesn't have
to multiply voltage by current to get watts, but she is getting very
conscientious at keeping the current display below 5 amps (around 60 watts) so
that we don’t run the batteries down. The voltage displays also shows the power
of the sun when it pumps energy back into the batteries as their voltages climb,
when fully charged, to above 15 volts. Regulators on each lighting circuit
limit voltage to below 12 volts so the LEDs last their 40,000 hour life. By
placing them downstream of the three light switches, these DC-DC converters only
consume power when the switch is on. If a single regulator were placed upstream
of the switches it would continually draw power even when we are away or
sleeping. The three light switches have two dimmers each to power the six
zones: island lights, under-counter lights, wood hearth lighting, counter and
sink lighting, refrigerator/pantry lighting and lights for reading on the sofa
and illuminating the book shelves beside it.
February 8, 2013: Installing new lighting fixtures requires making
lots of holes in Sheetrock and support structures for running wires to the
switch assemblies. The new fixtures and switches are in different places, so I
had to remove the old ones and blend the area into the surrounding ceiling and
walls. And the extra holes required to snake the wires across joists and
through wall studs had to be patched.
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| Perspective View of New Kitchen Layout |
February 16, 2013: Making way for new: tearing up the old floor.
The process begins by heating vinyl floor tiles so that their adhesive lets go
and are more easily peeled off the plywood. Next off is the plywood that
covered many layers of floor cover history. The transition from the original
wide pine plank floor to linoleum occurred in 1933. This era was documented by
hundreds of pages of newsprint and farming journals used to shim up the worn
pine boards. This basic portion of the house was probably built in the 1840s
using post and beam construction. Ninety years of boots and shoes wearing down
the floor sculpted valleys between the harder knots. Since power sanders were
not yet available, they filled in low areas with newspaper so the linoleum
would lay flat. The patterns wore away and faded and had to be replaced four
times before someone installed the shag carpeting over plywood that we
encountered in 1978, the year we moved in.
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Linoleum Examples from 1931 to the Shag Era
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Many years ago we had removed the plywood
and shag that covered our living and dining rooms. We sanded, sealed and
refastened the pine boards hidden underneath that are now exposed. I had also
doubled the size of our kitchen in the 1970s and this new portion had only
plywood that has proven too bouncy underfoot. Adding an additional floor joist
between the existing ones made the floor stronger and able to support the much
heavier granite counters. I also used this opportunity to integrate the floor
with the tiled hearth around the wood stove so they are at the same level.
In a December 25, 1932 newspaper,
new cars were selling for $355, kerosene for $0.085 per gallon and coal for $8
per ton. Many of the articles sounded like those that covered the 2008
recession and covered jobs and programs for those looking for work. Some,
though, were very different: getting together a coalition of “dry” senators
with those in favor of repealing prohibition. Filling one valley between floor
knots was a National Farm Journal that featured tires for $3.52 and a one and
half ton truck for $615. Articles included how to rig a water pump for
providing indoor running water even when the ground is frozen and sewing
patterns for dresses and other clothes.
February 24, 2013: Late this afternoon I received a call that the truck contracted to deliver our new appliances was 15 minutes away. When asked why they didn't give me more time to prepare, the driver told me it was not his job. He was only responsible for delivery. The day after Thanksgiving we had ordered a stove, refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave oven for amazingly low prices and postponed delivery to as far in the future as they allowed: three months and then we forgot about it – thinking they would let us know when they were ready to deliver the items. I had time to empty only our seventy year old electric range before the truck arrived. They carried out the stove after they had me remove both the main and storm doors to the kitchen so they wouldn’t scratch one of the new appliances. I had to sign off that we’d keep the other appliances so they could be paid without having carted them off. I had hoped to have the local utility dispose of our old refrigerator but that energy efficiency improvement program had expired in January. Craig’s List enabled us to sell it for $100 and we were happy to have the extra room to work on the floor of the kitchen. I’ll miss all the photos on the old refrigerator door that have been banned from the shiny stainless steel doors of its replacement.
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| Old Electric Range on the Way Out |
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| Last View of Photo Covered Fridge |
February 28, 2013: I arranged to use a neighbor truck to pick up
plywood, lumber and the Appalachian Maple flooring we had ordered. We decided
to replace our vinyl tiles with a native wood after considering all kinds of
engineered laminates, remanufactured bamboo fibers, cork and many others that
involved considerable amounts of petroleum. Our pine plank floors are still
good after 170 years and maple, a much harder native wood, should last even
longer.
March 2, 2013: Began inserting additional floor joists between the
existing ones and insuring that their top faces formed a plane that intersected
the hearth at the proper level. It took a few 16-hour days to accomplish this
and laminate half inch plywood to a three quarter inch tongue and groove
plywood base. Twenty seven tubes of construction adhesive and over 1,000 screws
later, the floor is now very solid. And I feel sorry for anyone who has to take
it apart. I certainly hope I never have to.
Marvin, the cabinet maker, phoned
to tell us he was ready to deliver the cabinets. We chose March 14 to give me
almost two weeks to paint the ceiling and walls and finish the floor.
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| Insuring Level Floor Joists While Installing New Plywood |
March 9, 2013: Now that the ceiling has been painted it’s time to finish
spackling, sanding and painting the walls. Besides working full time Jenny has
been busy selecting colors of paint, material for the counter and a faucet for
the sink. After we rejected manufactured quartz products that are purportedly
better than any natural stone, she decided on granite from Finland called Volga
Blue. Because every natural product has variations, she had me make an
appointment to visit the supplier near Boston to choose the actual slab that a
local artisan fabricated two window sills and the cabinet and island counter
tops. We’ll be living with this most visible part of the kitchen, hopefully,
for a very long time, so we did not want to risk taking a random item out of
stock. On display in the warehouse were hundreds of slabs of not only granite
but marble and soapstone covering an incredibly wide assortment of colors and
looks – some, usually very expensive, were incredibly beautiful but no other
variety fit our decor as well as the one my wife chose.
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| The Finished Maple Floor with the Hearth at the Upper Left |
It took two hours of calculating to
figure out what line the floor should follow. Make it parallel to the front of
the cabinets? Align it with the most visible uncluttered wall, or the hearth?
The kitchen floor is not square, and in fact, it is a trapezoid, more than
three inches wider at one end than the other. We decided to split the
difference and lay the boards so that they form the same angle with the east
and west walls but in opposite directions.
March 14, 2013: Cabinets arrived! During the next two weeks I plumbed the sink and dishwasher, using plywood for the counter. Though I wanted to give our old yellow counter one last hurrah, it was not allowed back into the kitchen, even for the two weeks it took to finish the granite pieces so they exactly matched the installed cabinets, walls and windows. We had lived more than a month without a kitchen sink and dishwasher and were very tired of washing dishes in the bathroom sink.
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| The New Cherry Cabinets with Some of the Lights Visible |
I had only finished the portion of
floor that involved the cabinets by the time they arrived and spent the following
days completing the subfloor and laying down the maple to complete the rest of
the floor. It took an additional week to complete the trim, including the floor
transitions between rooms and cherry frame around the hearth.
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| Granite Counters Installed |
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| Volga Blue Granite Showing Iridescent Blue Streaks |
May 5, 2013: Only one job is left: installing tiles for the
backsplash between the upper cabinets and counter. Jenny has to pick out the
tiles and decide if she wants them all the identical, or to include a cobalt
blue accent strip. Since the planting season is now in full swing, I hope she
takes her time acquiring the tiles.
April 19, 2014: A year later and there are still no backsplash
tiles – but the painted walls are doing fine. We’re just finishing up a great
maple syrup season with 11 quarts from eight trees. The winter was
exceptionally cold and we burned a lot more wood to stay warm. Time to bring in
and process many cords of firewood!
