The Home Improvement Thread

Pretty cool! Looking great. When is the move in date? :slight_smile:

We are finally starting to see some good progress here as well. Kitchen cabinets and appliances are in, minus the range hood, and it was painted today. The master bath/closet are drywalled, the new doorway to the master bathroom was cut through, and the subfloor for the tile placed today. I still think we won’t be done until the middle of September but we are finally seeing the finish line. Still a little sad that our daughter wont see the finished product until Fall Break. We’ll have to do a FT tour when it’s done.

NRE, one reason a range projects is to prevent radiating heat from damaging the adjoining cabinet faces. There are unobtrusive heat protector bands that can be installed. I don’t know how much you’d need them with your range and set up, most people, of course, aren’t using them. But it’s a consideration.

And love the mwave install. Very neat looking.

@lookingforward That’s an interesting theory. It wasn’t sticking out at the appliance store, and Jenn-Air’s own literature shows it as being flush:

https://jennair.com/assets/images/pages/appliances/galleries/JDS1450FS_Feature_550X550_P140255_15.jpg
https://jennair.com/assets/images/pages/appliances/galleries/JDS1450FS_Feature_550X550_P140255_19.jpg

Plus, the sides are not finished, I would think if it was designed to stick out that the visible part would be in stainless steel and it’s not.

ETA: the depth with the door is 26 5/16", without the door is 25". So the doors are going to stick out, and the controls will stick out a little.

I caught this for the fridge, it didn’t occur to me to check the range. Dang… oh well. It shouldn’t be too noticeable.

What are your plans for the opening under the micro? I can see a warming drawer going in there! :slight_smile: KitchenAid makes a good one. No need for 220, a regular 110 outlet will do.

https://www.kitchenaid.com/major-appliances/warming-drawers/p.24-slow-cook-warming-drawer.kowt104ess.html

And it also works as a slow cooker! :slight_smile:

There’s a cabinet drawer that goes there, for some reason my builder didn’t put it in.

The microwave is a Jenn-Air microwave with ā€œSpeed-Cookā€ - a ā€œsystem which combines the power and speed of microwave cooking with the heat and browning capabilities of true convection cooking and broilingā€.

The range has a baking drawer at the bottom which can be used as a warming drawer.

@notrichenough, my range sticks out but aligns with the edge of my counter - so it’s really not noticeable at all. I actually had to just check to see and I’ve been living with it for 11 years!

Your kitchen looks great!

And big ā€œYAYSā€ to everyone else whose projects are nearing completion.

Next week my landscaper is going to give me estimate for a patio off the deck.

We recently replaced an old range with a range top & ended up with an entirely new island, nothing I wanted fit the old hole. Fine, we dealt with it. Then the countertop guy says he cannot template without seeing the appliances, then the interface between the rangetop and downdraft is too difficult to imagine, we have to pay the installer to come out and set them in place, not install, but put them where they will be. The countertop guy comes out and measures, all fine, but we realise that the cabinet is not bumped out. Cabinet guy comes out and makes a new bump out to add to the cabinet.
Then, nearly a month after the original installation date, the appliances are installed and the cabinet bump out is still a bit short of the right spot, the guy redid it again.
The countertop guy did a super contemporary swoosh effect for the bump out rather than the traditional quarter round as his swoosh looked better than the traditional.
We are happy with the result, but it was annoying not to have a stove for a month, including Thanksgiving and annoying that the professionals struggled so with the dimensions, given that I gave everyone all the specs.

Wow. What a pain! The templating guy had the specs for the models built into his software. He showed me how huge his catalog was; virtually, every model of stove, cooktop, downdraft, and sink from every known to me and some unknown to me makers was in the software. He did not even look at the appliances or sinks I had purchased, just got the numbers off the boxes. Amazingly, everything fit like it was supposed to! The installers glued the sinks under the countertop, and Mr. B installed the cooktop.

We are getting templated tomorrow, and the countertop people required that the appliances all be on site, including the faucet.

I haven’t been on site since the appliances were put in place, so I’m not sure exactly how far out it sticks, and whether it will be past the countertop.

Or maybe they can do a little bump-out so that it lines up. Hmm.

I was told to have appliances and everything else on site, too, by the scheduler, but the templating guy said as long as they were not from obscure Chinese companies that sell on Amazon, he did not need them. With faucets, the biggest issue is 1 hole or 3. They place the hole and drill the smaller one, then it could be adjusted by the installers. Then there is the dishwasher airgap or garbage disposal button. We chose to put a hole for it even though we did not need either. I have a soap dispenser in it now. So if we have to sell, that would not be an issue.

Don’t know how I missed this thread before. We’ve been working on a bathroom remodel at home. Got a local contractor - he’s doing the master bath first. Over two weeks in, the remodel is close to complete. All the old stuff was ripped out, new tile floor, pedestal sink, tiled shower - it’s starting to look good.

Question for folks. This bathroom has a window facing the front of the house and the street. What kind of window covering would you use? We had a roller blind in there before - but I am wondering if we should get something that would let in the light, but provide privacy.

We are having the same issue. Our MB is facing the backyard, but I just don’t feel comfortable with no window coverings. In our previous house, we had Hunter Douglas aluminum miniblinds in our two corner MB windows. We kept them lowered all the way down and just a tiny crack open to let in the light without compromising privacy. Maybe that’s what we will do here, too. There are roller solar shades that are 10%, 5%, 3%, or 1% residual light. I am thinking going with one of these.

https://www.theshadestore.com/shades/solar-shades/custom-solar-shades

I like the honeycomb shades that raise from the bottom or lower from the top. No cords. Light can come from the top but privacy. And energy wise.

I was short 3 pairs of shutters, one window on the least visible side, two lower windows in back. The missing were obvious, but not unless you really notice these things. (Where I live, lots of attractive older homes but so many are in some sort of transition.) I figured next year we’d go looking for salvage. New would be very expensive.

Lo ans behold, a friend was headed down to a big salvage place and brought me back all I need. Almost perfect matches (he’ll shorten one and lengthen another.) These cost a whopping $10 each. I’m hoping the painters will sand and paint them.

Such an unexpected favor.

@arisamp
ā€œThis bathroom has a window facing the front of the house and the street. What kind of window covering would you
use?ā€
We use windows with the crackle glass- lets in lots of light but gives us total privacy.
here are examples
https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+with+crackle+glass&client=firefox-b-1&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=JCW1HeO3-X-K8M%253A%252CmnrjGRxOVjYyGM%252C_&usg=AFrqEzfW671vxkjGwh1O1OY8cMNPIeZK_w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiauPyP-ezcAhWrjVQKHdwpAQ4Q9QEwAXoECAQQBg#imgrc=qMPHouzUsRQzoM:

Those top/bottom shades work great if the window is tall enough to leave the top down without any privacy loss.

Many modern shades are now cordless, too, and some come with rechargeable batteries (or wired in option) and a remote.

I put the privacy glass in one bathroom facing the street and now wish I’d left it clear glass as I’d rather see out. On the other large window facing the street in a different bathroom, I went with a woven wood shade that is top down/bottom up and we keep it pulled up to chest level, allowing most of the window to show, it really depends on the angle of the window to the street. My shaded window is above the street and the one I put in etched glass is below where people walk on the street so it seemed smart, but I don’t like it as it feels a bit claustrophobic. It would have been easy to pull a shade just for showers.

We had top down honeycombs in one bathroom and silhouettes in another. Not sure what we will be doing in this house yet but we will need something.

Neither of the two main bathrooms in my Cape house have a window, so…

However, the weather has finally been cool and cloudy enough that my builder has finally been able to install the sun tunnels into the bathrooms and hallway. He is impressed with how much light they bring in and told me we made a good call putting them in.

:D/

Not too worried about anyone climbing up on the roof and peaking down the tunnel. :smiley:

I’d recommend light filtering top down/bottom up. We bought ours online from selectblinds dot com and there are plenty of other similarly priced vendors.