[gail0202]

Ikea called last night to let us know that our doorsand panelsare in, so we're off to pick everything up today. We were waiting for the panels before we could start installing. Now the real work can start.

[Liz H]

Can't wait to see it.

[gail0202]

Phhhhheeeeeewwwww! It's hot out there.

We just spent the weekend in the scorching 109 degree heat, without working A/C (that's another story) installing the first run of cabinets.

I love how it's turned out. It took a while to get it right because we have 1 tall 30" oven cabinet which we had to add the side panels to before installing. Of course, I thought I'd make it harder by ripping down the large 8'x3' panels instead of using the side panels. I wanted the thicker profile and to have the panels sit flush with the doors instead of the cabinets. Well it took a lot of time and effort but the results are awesome.

I'm too pooped tonight but will post pics in the morning, including pics of the stained veneer edge-banding.

BTW - DH is blown away by how much his handiwork looks like custom cabinetry

[designenvy]

Any chance we can see some pictures of the finished product??? Tres curious am I.

[gail0202]

Phew!I would LOVE to show you pictures of the finished product but sadly we're not much further on. Let's just say we're stuck in the middle of remodel **** where nothing seems to be happening on the rest of the house unless we do it ourselves. So we're in a holding pattern right now and it's sooooo frustrating.

Here are a few more pics showing the pile of Ikea boxes and then thecabs installed. We haven't added doors/internals yet. We do have the hardwood floors installed and they're due to start sanding/finishing on Wednesday, unfortunately I don't have pics of that yet.

I've added a pic of the edgebanding with a Nexus brown-black side panel next to it. Bear in mind that this is with one coat of stain and the edges only partially sanded(also some sheetrock dust thrown in for good measure). We'll tidy up the edges, add a second coat of stain and then seal the edgebanding which I think will produce a good finish that closely matches the Nexus finish.

As soon as the floors are finished I'll get the edgebanding finished, add the remaining doors and internals and take better pics.

[img]http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n...t=kitchen1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n197/gail0202/?action=view&current=kitchen2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n197/gail0202/?action=view&current=kitchen3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n197/gail0202/?action=view&current=edgebanding1coatstain.jpg[/img]

[stacylu]

I remember that phase only too well - take heart, it WILL end and you will SOON have a beautiful new kitchen! Hang in there!

[designenvy]

We have been remodeling our house for three years and we are still not done so I feel your pain. The edge banding looks really good though. Can't wait to see more pictures as it progresses. Hang in there.

[gail0202]

Thanks guys. Yep, we have our third anniversary of remodelling this house this month so I definitely know where you're coming from. Now that the floors are stopping us from getting in the house we're heading off to Disneyland with the kids for the rest of the week. I think they deserve a little treat after the time they've had and if we have to pay for a hotel anyway we may as well have some fun in the process

[gail0202]

Just a little (actually a looonnng)update. Still slow progress but at least there's progress so that's a good thing.

After 5 weeks of being out of the house (supposed to be 3) we moved back in on Wednesday as soon as the floors were dry. I started installing the kitchen fittings but discovered that "backordered bits" DH had mumbled something about turned out to be the complete set of 30" drawer fronts that I need for most of the kitchen. Argh! What he had told me was that it was the 30" shallow drawers which I was confident we could live without for a while. Now it seems we're missing most of the kitchen (we have 4 of these drawer sets). On following up with Ikea they're telling us that the drawer fronts won't be available until October! We ordered them in June. Oh well, chaos continues.

I'm returning 3 door fronts due to bad staining but the remaining ones look AWESOME and I'm so glad I chose this door style.

Next problem, I installed the Avsikt doors (all 6 of them) on the family room side fo the island and discovered that 2 of them appear to be a dramatically different glass color. After humming and hawing about the best way to get a complete set of 6 matching doors I realized that the problem was actually the cabinet. One cabinet is bright white the other 2 are a more yellowish greyish white. Pulling this one cabinet out (or perhaps all three in order to get a matching set) is a BIG deal so we've decided to live with it. I'm hoping that once we have things inside the cabs and have installed the bar area over it (15" overhand) the color difference won't be obvious.

Next problem, we discovered that the 24" pantry cab that we installed with much pain and suffering is NOT square. The actual cabinet itself is off and it's VERY obvious when the doorsgo on. I did suggest using a set square when assembling but DH pooh poohed the idea. Now he's miserable and I'm seething (not at him I might add, just at myself for not insisting that we check it when I knew we should). It's all coming out tomorrow and I just hope we can get it all back in place OK now that the floors are in and finished.

We're making a couple of other modifications now that we're in the process. I have a 30" drawer set at the end of the island and the electrician installed an outlet at that end of the island. Of course that means no functioning drawer. So, instead of doing the 30" wide shallow drawer at the top we're putting a drawer partition at the 24" point and installing a 24" drawer with a 30" drawer front. So it looks like a 30" drawer but there's 6" of dead space on the right to accomodate the outlet and power conduit.

Also, we're going to add a 36" wide drawer at the top of the 36" base unit under the cooktop but cutting down a 36" wide rationell deep drawer. As far as I can see we only need to cut down the metal back which I think we can do and finish nicely with an angle grinder or perhaps with some rubber finishing of some kind. Then we'll cut the bottom few inches of a deep drawer front and finish with the stain we've been using for the edgebanding. I think it should work OK. Time will tell.

DH took pics today and has promised to send them to me but he's gone to bed with a headache (no doubt stress induced) so I'll try and post them tomorrow.

Oh we also got the appliances delivered yesterday, all except the dishwasher which they are telling us is backordered. I find that hard to believe, seeing as they talked us into ordering it with them back in early June on the pretext that it would be simpler to keep everything together. We originally planned to get the dishwasher elsewhere. They've supposedly had our order in the warehouse for 2 months waiting for us to arrange a ship date (original delivery date was first week in July but we slipped). My feeling is they gave it to someone else and are trying to get us another one. I'm NOT happy as I really wanted the dishwasher in above all considering we have no way of washing dishes other than in the tub right now (vanity is tiny).More frustrations. Oh well, at least I love how the kitchen is shaping up even if everything is backordered or needing replaced, re-assembled

[designenvy]

Wow sounds like a lot has happened even if the finish line seems a ways away. Can't wait to see the pictures. The nexus bb are backordered in Canada too it seems. It will all be worth it in the end (when it is a distant memory and everyone is oooing and awwwing at your kitchen.)