The Kitchen - the final frontier ~ Part 1 - Grease is Indeed the Word

Ew...the kitchen was so greasy

No...there will be no sing-a-long involved in this entry

Well, if you want to sing...go ahead

But it will have to be AC/DC...or maybe Queen

No musicals!!!

Ok, this is it. The final project - the kitchen. *insert music of doom*

Small kitchen, but certainly not small project (I don't think any kitchen is).


Yeah, so here's the kitchen:

Blah. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Lots of cupboard space, and all the niceties (love that dishwasher) - but boring as crap. The door at the end leads to the laundry room, and the kitchen is in full view of most people sitting in the living room, so I find it a bit of a boring eye-sore.

There was lots of debate on how this kitchen was going to go down. But once I decided that this was going to be the summer that my condo goes up for sale, I thought I better try to stay neutral on my choices. So for the cupboards, I decided to stay with classic white, and I am going to use up my Hiking Trail paint, from the bathroom, to accent the walls.

I already changed out the ugly globe light...

From...

...to

So that was an immediate improvement. But there was lots more to do.


*As there are going to be a few mini-projects in this particular room, I thought I would divide it up into a few entries, so stay tuned for each "Part".


My first project was the removal of the ever-disgusting exhaust fan:

Ew.




Seriously, it was just covered in grease, and the odd off-yellow colour didn't help. It worked ok, but the ugly factor made anyone doubt it's capabilities. It had to go.

Now, lucky for me, my Dad just recently decided to change out his exhaust fan from white to stainless steel (to go with the fancy-schmancy new stove they got), so he offered the used one to me. Perfect. It was in excellent condition, so it was not a deal I was going to turn down (thanks, Dad!)

Thankfully they were both a standard 30" and, coincidentally enough, the same brand, so the change out seemed pretty easy...in theory.

(Yeah...thanks, Calvin...that's about right)

Yes, once again, I spoke too soon.

Easy? No. Not when it's just you, and you don't have anyone to be that second hand. Its also not "easy" when the vent, that you have to slip the vent connector into, has rivets sticking out on the inside, thus preventing said vent connector from sliding easily into place.



Vent...and the irritating rivets
(sounds like a music group...)

And that vent wasn't clean either. I had to use a scraping knife to remove some of the gunk on the inside.

Ew!!! (yes, that is the remnants of the scraping)

Anyway, I managed to get the gunky old fan off, with some assistance with my guest-host:

"Bucket"

Bucket is good, bucket is wise

After turning off the power and disconnecting the wiring, I had to unscrew it from the bottom of the cupboard. Bucket came to my rescue to keep the other side stable while I removed the final screws.

ok, so it's out.

Now, as my Dad didn't have outside venting from his kitchen, he used the air-return feature of the unit, whereas as I had a vent leading out from my kitchen, so I had to make the adjustments in order to hook the top of the unit into the vent. Thankfully, my Dad had the instructions for the unit, and it actually wasn't overly complicated.

I thought this was a funny statement on the manual:



Yes! Only "Domestic Cooking"! No "International Cooking" of any kind! LOL #noburritosforyou

I have to say, I enjoyed the part where I had to use pliers to remove the metal pop-out sections of the unit in order to attach the vent connector, and allow a hole for the electrical to make its way through. I fully suggest you attempt this part of the installation when you're in a snarly mood.

You can really take your aggressions out on it. The ripping of the metal can be very cathartic.

Now, as I mentioned, getting the unit installed was not easy. Once you've followed all the steps and the vent connector is installed, it should be a simple pop into place. Uh, no. First off, I came to realize that the location of the screws under the cabinet were not in the same place for the new unit. That was problem #1. Then - the big problem: the rivets on the inside of the vent. At first, I had no idea why it wasn't slipping into place. I knew that I needed to adjust the location of the under-the-cabinet screws, but I wanted to get it in place so I could mark the holes properly. But the vent connector just wouldn't go in. Good grief. The swears that came out of my mouth would have embarrassed a sailor. I finally had to take a break and have some supper. I then decided to take the connector off the unit and try to install it on it's own, so I could figure out what the problem was. That's when I spotted the rivets, and how much they were sticking out. After much fussing around, I got the vent connector in, and just left it unconnected from the unit itself. There didn't seem to be any reason to try to install it the conventional way. So I just left the vent connector in there and installed the rest of the unit on it's own. I drilled some new pilot holes, put the screws in, attached the unit (thankfully it lined up with the already attached vent connector perfectly), reattached the wires, and added the necessary light bulbs...and crossed my fingers...

Voila!

Well, bugger me, it worked! (picture me clapping like an excited seal)


It looks so nice too. Just that one change has really updated the feel of the kitchen.



BEFORE

 AFTER

Beyond the epic saga that is the exhaust fan, I stripped off the old caulking around the counter top, in preparation for the painting/creation of the back splash (still not sure what I'm going to do there).

Very sloppily done caulking...need to tidy it up

I also found a good picture for the bathroom. The left hand wall seemed a little bare, so I was hoping to find something to fill the space. I actually saw this picture in Home Sense a month ago and I talked myself out of it at the time. Well, I went back this weekend and it was still there...and it was discounted even more. So I figured that was a sign to take it home. Here's the pic:

Ok, good start...more "fun" next weekend


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