Backtracking

Well, this was not a good day and was fairly discouraging. As I had to use good sized screws to attach the cabinet railing (#10 2 1/2" cabinet screws), there was a danger of possibly hitting electrical depending on where it was run. I'd placed metal panels where I could when I pulled the drywall off under the window, and had a general idea where the romex was run, but I hit some bad luck.

The breaker tripped and after pulling back the drywall to see how (and if) I could re-run the romex, I discovered there was a real mess of wires, as that wall cavity was where the main breaker to the house was located. 

Just the main feed to the house... no biggie.

Offending cable cut back to be re-run

Smelt like... burning.

Re-run, along with tons of metal protection now.

Back to normal, now with new junction box where cable joins.

Top Cabinets

First step in hanging Ikea cabinets is to create a level line and screw in their sektion rails to the wall to hang the cabinets off of. This took some time to properly find the studs in the walls as using a stud finder in walls that have foil backed insulation doesn't work. I was worried too, that one screw every 16 inches wasn't enough to hold up massive cabinets (and their eventual contents) but was given a good tip on youtube to just add an additional screw directly under the rail as well. This would ensure two screws every 16 inches would keep everything solid.

Had to cut out a notch of the crown moulding for the cabinets to fit.

Railing in place, with extra screws below as well.

First cabinet in place. Had to start with corners first.

Dry fit of most of the top cabinets.

Got some flat plugs so I could get things plugged in for the lights.

Finished panel and door in place.

Drilled a small hole to run the cables for the inside cabinet lights.

Bracket for the filler piece needed.

We have light!

Final Patching and Paint

With the electrical and mudding of the walls done, I can finally move onto putting the actual cabinets up and making the space look like a kitchen. Here's a few photos of what it looked like before and after the final paint.

Mudding all complete. Need to paint ceiling and walls.

A look at the wall and ceiling texture I needed to match.

Hopefully after paint, I matched the ceiling texture...

Can you tell?

All done.

Also completed the window in the kitchen, which was left unfinished because when the new window was installed the soffit was still there. As I was planning to eventually take out the soffit, it sat unfinished forever. Was nice to finally complete the trim around it.

Kitchen Electrical and Drywall

I'm almost regretting doing it, but the cabinets I ordered and will be installing and complete with lighting effects all around. Under counter lights, drawers that light up - the works. In order to supply the power for those, however, I need to add a bunch of outlets in the ceiling and hidden behind the cabinets so I can power them in without all the wiring showing.

Showing two future outlets in the bottom corners.

Fishing electrical though the wall from existing outlet.

Pulling the romex down and through the outlet to connect.

Other side. Had to cut out drywall that I'd already finished.

New box installed.

After the electrical was all done, which of course, took longer than expected. The drywall patching and mudding began.

New drywall added where pantry used to be.

Added chipboard backing for future sink support.

Mudding begins.

All Plumbed

As it was a lot to do for a novice, I had an expert redo all the kitchen and mostly all the laundry water and drain pipes. The kitchen sink is changing from a double drain to single, and will be directly under the window now. The laundry is moving to the adjacent wall for hopefully better space management.

Before

After

Here's a few of the mess of copper that was in place before feeding the kitchen, laundry and outside garden faucet.

Awkward positioning of washer and dryer.

And after. I bought a cheap sink for now which may be permanent or I may possibly make some fancier cabinets in the future with built in sink. For now, it's really nice to have a sink in the laundry room now.

New configuration with sink.

Cleaned up pipes, now PEX.

Now to fix the electrical...

finished up the wall framing.

Clearing out

Once I moved everything out of the kitchen area, and made a makeshift kitchen area where my nook lived, I was ready to start tearing out the rest of the kitchen cabinets and sink.

Temp "kitchen"

I still had the floor to finish before the plumber came by to re-plumb the kitchen sink as it would be moving to a more central location right under the window, and also moving the laundry hookups as I wanted to rearrange the laundry room below.

Initial destruction

Mouse remnants from when the house was infested.

One heavy sink

In order to pull the sink cabinet I shut off the water and cut the pipes. After pulling out the sink I went downstairs and cut back the copper pipes even more to get them out of the way and capped them. With them gone I was then able to finish up the necessary flooring.

Capped pipes with some shark-bites.

Finishing up the strengthening the floor.

Waste pipes exposed, ready for altering.