Kitchen Refresh

Since we bought the new house in Sugar Land, both of us have had some niggling issues with the kitchen. I was unhappy with the shallow double sink and low faucet. It made cleaning up after meals (my normal duties) an aggravating task. And my lovely bride was unhappy with the performance, or lack thereof, from the Jenn-Air downdraft cook top and Kenmore wall oven.

So we embarked on our own little campaign to stimulate the national economy. We bought new appliances at Sears and a new deep-bowled single sink with high neck faucet at Lowe's. Did I buy installation as well? Of course not. After all, I am an engineer. I can do anything!!

Last weekend, I installed the sink. We have granite counter tops, and I was very careful to buy the replacement top-mount sink in the exact same (standard) size of 22x33. Taking out the old one went quickly and easily. ("This is going to be a snap!", I thought.) I unpacked the new sink and tried to set it in. You guessed it: the opening in the (rock-hard) granite was too small. I trundled off to the Home Depot (Lowe's is about the same distance but in a higher traffic area, and besides, its important to spread the wealth in a campaign to stimulate the economy.) to buy a tool to enlarge the granite opening. I was unable to find a tool which could both cut through granite and not produce any dust or suck it up in the process, so I settled for a 7" blade for my circular saw. When I started to cut the granite, I noticed that the amount of stone dust created by the whirling, diamond-coated blade was prodigious. So I got the vacuum cleaner out and held the hose near the blade while cutting. It didn't work so well. Ultimately, I got the sink installed. Then I spent the next several hours cleaning up stone dust.

My wife came home, it was dark, we were tired, we went to bed. The next morning, I took off on a business trip. I called when I got there, and she was somewhat less than thrilled by the presence of stone dust throughout the house. I apologized and promised to help clean when I returned.

By this weekend, she had cleaned up most of the mess I had created the previous weekend. She went off to class and I started in on the next installations. The LG stainless steel dishwasher went fairly well. It took a bit longer than planned, but no serious problems, and only one trip to Home Depot for some pieces of hardware. Next, I removed the wall oven and microwave. Easy. I took careful measurements of the new stainless steel Kitchen Aid wall oven with upper mounted microwave/convection oven. I had to make some modifications to the cabinet to get the mount shelf at the right height and the opening wide enough. But no serious problems. I had to help from the lawn guy to lift the oven up and into the opening. It is about 200 lbs.

Finally, it was time for the cook top. The old Jenn-Air came right out. Of the granite-topped island. You guessed it. The new glass-top downdraft Kitchen Aid cook top (black with SS Trim) is the same overall size, but the under mount part is 1/2" wider. But this time, I was smarter than the first. I emptied the cabinets of the island, masked off the areas outside the well below the cook top opening, and then built a tent out of the plastic sheeting that surrounded the wall oven. I put on a dust mask, and climbed into the tent with my trusty circular saw, and cut the opening a bit wider. Clean-up was so much easier, just me and the island area inside the tent. And the cook top slid right in. One more trip to the Home Depot for some 6" ducting to get the exhaust vent connected, and it all worked the first time. I was quite relieved, and proud of myself too.

I'll post some pictures this week some time after my muscles stop aching.