Aug 27, 2008

Kitchen Renovation Project: installing Range Hood

We started installing the range hood on Sunday morning. If we don't get done today, we will be in trouble.

We worked in the attic first. First, we cut out the space where range hood was going to fit. Then We cut out the beam that was going to be on our way, then installed two new beams that would also support the range hood. But there was no head space at where we had to work at, so we had to be on our stomach the whole time to get this done.



There were bunch of glass wools exposed everywhere. So I placed some pieces of plywood to cover them up and got on the plywood and started working, but using the hand saw whole being on your stomach was not fun at all.

As soon as I was done with cutting, then I started installing the 2 x 6s which will support the range hood. The place was so narrow with existing chimney there. We could not even use drill driver to get the screws in. So I had to tighten all the screws with my hand tool only, while lying on my stomach still. I was so sick of being in this position.




Finally finished this miserable work. The 2 pieces of wood yon can see are the new beams.




Then we had to cut out part of the chimney and joint with the flexible one to it would go into the new range hood properly. Then we placed support frame. Again, there was not enough space in the support frame to use power tools, so we had to screw in 4 big screws to mount the support frame to the beams we just installed. It was really, really hard.



By then, we started driving kids to help us out. Somebody had to hold the support frame still while at least 2 screws are placed to mount the support frame. It was heavier than it looks. This process felt like endless process.

Then we added lower support frame.


We stared to work on installing the chimney cover, and started wiring range hood. The boys still had energy left, but my wife and I were totally exhausted,



We had more screws to go, but it was well past 7:00pm. so we went out to get something to eat, We resumed the work around 8:00pm.


At 9:30pm:




We are DONE!!!







I was so worked up that I just could not fall asleep.





Glad it's over now.




I like working DIY stuff since was a low teen,But this was the most challenging work ever.

But, hey, it looks really cool. I am glad we did it.



Aug 26, 2008

You can slice a bread with MacBook Air

I had no idea.... you can actually slice a piece of bread with MacBook Air.

I must say this guy is either creative or crazy, or both.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=549457&page=5#post6100113




I don't know if I want to spend $1800 for a bread knife that's really difficult to use.

I think Apple should add stuff like can opener, screw drivers, measure, nail clipper, etc etc to turn MacBook Air into multi-Tool computer.

Aug 25, 2008

Kitchen Renovation Project: Removing Cabinet

So now that I got the island range hood, I decided to get started on this. Well... the problem was that once I got started on this, there was no turning back. I even would not be able to use the kitchen again unless I finish the installation of the new range hood.

On top of it, I only had this Saturday and Sunday to work on this. I'd better finished this in 2 days or else I was going to be really screwed.

If you compare this existing cabinet to my size, you can see how big it was. I thought it out before I got started, and I created a stand with 2 x 4 studs to be place right under neath of the cabinet, This way, even if anything happens, I know I am going to be safe and would protect the burners.

I started off with removing all the cabinet doors.



I removed the range hood, all the doors, ethernet cable and TV cable that were coming to this cabinet.

Then I removed the chimney and lastly, I started removing the screws that were attaching this cabinet to the wall and the ceiling.



But....






This cabinet did not come off!!

Eventually, I discovered that on top of all the screws, there are structaul support between the cabinet and the wall, which really attached the cabinet to the wall very firmly. Removing that was another major work!!

I eventually managed to get it out.

The kitchen seem so big now.



I ended using whole day Saturday on removing this. When I finished all the work, it was getting dark outside.

The next day was hopefully to be the last day to work on this kitchen renovation project.

Aug 24, 2008

Emergency Ass wipe

Have you guys been in a situation where you really got to take #2, and ran to the restroom, do your thing, then find out that there is no toilet paper.

I guess you could sacrifice your $20 bill and wipe your ass with it, or hope that your ass is dry and you don't need to wipe your ass, and just pull up your underwear.

Well, over 20 years ago, my father told me how to wipe your ass with very small piece of paper. Never actually tried it, but this is how it works.




Have fun and good luck to you if you ever have to do this for real.

Aug 23, 2008

Kitchen Renovation Project: Buying Island range hood

I spent quite a bit of time in picking the right range hood for my island kitchen.

The first consideration was the size. I did not know but there are generally 2 sizes to range hood, either 30' or 36". The one which was currently installed was 36", so I decided to go with 36".

The next thing was the design. There aren't whole a lot to choose from. Basically, there were 2 types to choose from. One was entirely made out of stainless steal. The other type had hood made with glass and the chimney part was made with stainless steal.





Price. It was all over the map. Some are in mid 400's and some are over $2000. I did really extensive research on this and ended up picking up this one. It was sold for $750.



I placed the order. I was expecting to take at least a week to get to me, but in 2 days, it was delivered to my house!

So I decided to get to the "real" work on 8/16. This is the last weekend before the kids get back to school and things get very busy again. Got to finish this on the weekend.

Aug 22, 2008

Kitchen Renovation: Installing Ethernet

Before I was able to begin remodeling my kitchen, I first had to relocate my wireless access point. Why? Because the wireless access pointed was sitting right on the top of kitchen cabinet that I was looking at removing. The wireless AP was where the red circle is in the below picture.



I decided to take this as an opportunity and reroute my Ethernet cable to go to other cabinet.



So I got into the attic. The Attic was bigger and wider than I had expected and easy to work at. It was more difficult to identify the exact location of the kitchen cabinet that I was planning on installing the wireless AP. I took very precise measurement of the location in my kitchen area and mapped it over to the attic and nailed the location.



Another pain was to put cat5 connector to this cat5 cable. There are 8 different cables within the cable.

Then this Ethernet cable come out to the small cabinet above the refrigerator. There are 2 cabinets and one on the left is where it is at.



I got the power from the power plug for the refrigerator.



Now the wireless access point and all the cables that goes to it are all hidden and the space look bit more cleaner without any visible cables.

Now it is time to select a range hood that I would like to install.

Aug 20, 2008

Painting garage walls



Now that I am done with applying compound, I have moved onto painting my garage walls. The color that I applied is called "Swiss Coffee" .... it is just a white paint with slight bit of yellow mixed.

I used 2 paint rollers and 1 sponge brush.





My wife helped me out big time and it went FAST.



Munching on a piece of browny while painting.


This is before drywall was applied:


This is with painted drywall:


The next place to work on is the garage floor. Not sure what I am going to do yet.

Aug 19, 2008

Kitchen Renovation Project

Since I bought my current house, I've been wanting to install island style range hood. I got an island kitchen and I think it would make my kitchen look like ones you see on the food channels or something.


Here is my current kitchen looks like:




I took this picture a few days after I moved into this house. The the cabinet right above the kitchen counter has the range hood built-in. but I just did not like the way this cabinet looked. It looked heavy and blocked the sunlight from the window to the kitchen, making the kitchen look dark and dull. I've been wondering if I can convert this to something like below:



So I kicked off my kitchen renovation project and just completed it. I will be posting some details of this project

8/10/2008 Ethernet cable installation
8/13/2008 Buying the island range hood
8/16/2008 Removing the range hood and the cabinet
8/17/2008 Installing new range hood

Stay tuned!