Month: June 2022

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Empty Kitchen

(Post 184 of 263)

Fun fact, my kitchen is about 250 square feet, fully twice the size of the motorhome (not counting the sleeping loft).

Yesterday morning, the carpenter came by to take measurements and to clarify a few things. He thought he was going to have to redo his whole drawing, but once I confirmed that he would do the half with the microwave and counter at 50cm deep and the cupboard at 35cm deep, something that was not reflected on the drawing, I told him it was approved without modifications! We did fine-tune it a tad by deciding that I will have adjustable shelves and he also wants to put in lighting over the counter, but that’s not a design change.

I asked how much more it would cost to do the backsplashes in the grey polished concrete, if such a thing is possible, and I got a wink and a “We already quoted you for that” response! They did the quote high, adding in extras like the backsplashes and drawers in the cabinetry, to account for customer changes and also give an opportunity to scale back. So I’m very pleased with that. I did add in a full paint job and a change of the water heater, so I’ll definitely be over the 60K originally quoted.

I was mostly off work yesterday, so I emptied everything that I could out of the kitchen, leaving only the heavy items — the fridge, pantry, broom cupboard, microwave, and range — for the workers to pull out for me. They were shocked that there was so little to do before they could start on demolition!

Yes, I took apart the Great Wall of Storage as well, priced the shelving to sell, and had it gone within a couple of hours! I accepted a low-ball offer, but was able to sell it without taking it all apart, plus while the pricing for that shelving has nearly doubled in the last year (!), the low ball offer was very close to what I paid, so I really made out like a bandit with it.

Everything is now in the guest room. It just made the most sense to set that up as my kitchen as it has more space, updated outlets, and all that built-in shelving. The fridge is by the stairs, the pantry and range are in the living room and the broom cupboard is in the bonus room!

The kitchen looks enormous:

The wall behind the fridge is even worse than I remembered. It is certainly contributing to a lot of the dust. The fridge is actually pretty easy to move, so I was back there recently (in the last three months) cleaning! They will be pulling that AC for me and filling in the wall, so essentially prepping it for when I put in a minisplit in the future.

Just three months of dust from the wall, eep! This photo also shows how I sacrificed some space behind the broom closet to have it fit flush with the pantry.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to order in a ton during the next three weeks, so I did a grocery order today for salad and sandwich fixings. It won’t be delivered till late, though, so I ordered a salad for lunch from FreshSpot (which is well named). After, I had a cup of coffee and some leftover extra yummy pan dulce from last night served oh-so-elegantly on a paper towel to limit the amount of dishes I have to do. So, yeah, this whole no kitchen thing isn’t starting out great, but, hey, the coffeemaker is set up, so I have my priorities straight. 🙂 And, yes, that is Dr. Strange’s mug from Spider-Man: No Way Home, a client gift this past Christmas! 🙂

We are nearing the first day of demo. As expected, the flooring is not coming up easily. It’s veeeery loud and I’m glad Ms. B is pretty much deaf now and is able to sleep through it.

First reno surprise that wasn’t a huge surprise is that the sink counter was falling apart and I can thank the rebar for it holding on as long as it has. So this really was the time to do this reno as I might have had to do it as an emergency in the not-so-distant future.

I keep questioning my decision to go with the dark grey for the counters, backsplash, and floor, but I couldn’t find tile I liked anyway, no grotty grout lines is my idea of heaven right now, and I can get colour with paint and furniture. If I were to sell the house before I do my dream kitchen, future buyers will be happy with a neutral space. So I think it’ll all work out well, plus I can see from my bedroom just how warm and saturated a neutral dark grey is.

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Kitchen Pre-Reno Tour

(Post 183 of 263)

Yep, you read that title correctly.

So where did this decision start fermenting?

Well, I spend a lot of time in my kitchen and the cracked tile with badly stained grout frankly grosses me out, and has done so since day one. The kitchen never feels clean.

Function-wise, I’ve done pretty well with the weird layout, but I miss having a double sink with deep basins like I had in my motorhome. But the microwave needs a real home and I need the Vitamix and the KitchenAid mixer off the counter for reasons I’ll go into greater detail in a bit.

So dreams of a less grotty and more functional kitchen started from move-in and got progressively more urgent after I became the owner. I made a ton of improvements last year and did what I could with the grout, tile, and sink, but sometimes, all that can be done is to tear out and start over.

I was really trying to hold out, though, until I could do my absolute dream kitchen. I got the furniture I needed to create a mostly functional layout I can see myself living with longish-term, but I just could not see myself cooking in this kitchen for another 10 years with the way the counters and floor are. Plus, the sink counter is a little bowed and I’ve woken up a few mornings with chunks of concrete from under it on the floor. So it was going to require attention sometime soon.

But not in 2022, I promised myself. I was going to take a trip back to Canada this summer and buy a car in the autumn. Well, travelling to Canada right now is a hellscape of horror stories of badly understaffed airports and overpriced everything. There’s also no easy or inexpensive way to Montreal right now from Mérida. And I don’t have a dog sitter and, frankly, am not convinced I want to leave Bonita with a sitter. Finally, I only have one week that I know for sure I can take off and not inconvenience my clients. So travelling to Canada makes no sense right now. So I can take that budgeted money and move it to the house fund.

As for cars, there are long waiting lists and prices are at an all-time high as parts are backordered. This is not the time to buy a car. Moreover, the governor of Yucatán has announced an exciting plan for three electric tram routes that will serve 75% of my needs for travel within the city, have a stop essentially at my door, and be complete by the end of next year! He came through on time for the previous transportation plan, the Va y Ven route that goes around the periférico (ring road) so I’m confident that within the next 18 months or so, I will be riding in style to Costco, Centro, and even the southern end of the Paseo Verde. This plan has completely changed how I feel about my future in this city and I’m super excited about it!

So that’s a lot of money freed up to make improvements to the kitchen. Work is in a quiet time. And my friend Tim is nearing the end of his renovation and his contractor had time to take on my kitchen project immediately. I’m really in a now or never moment to improve the worst part of the kitchens to make it tolerable until I can do what I really want.

A different contractor? Yes, one who is a notch above the one I’ve been using because this is going to be such a visible job.

I’ve got a video at the end of this post that will walk you through all the changes I got a quote for, but I know not everyone wants to sit through 40 minutes of my rambling, so I’ve got some photos here to show what I’m starting with and what I look forward to changing.

Walking into the kitchen right now. The biggest changes to this view will be the floor, wall colour, back counter, and the Great Wall of Storage. The island and the blue cabinet are staying. This is also the only picture I took that shows the super inexpensive LED lights over the sink area that I don’t intend to change out at this time.

The plan at this point is for the counters and the floor to be dark grey polished concrete or maybe chukum, a local material. I love the idea of doing the polished concrete to have a flat surface with no grout lines. I have repeated many times that the floor cannot be slippery! Originally, we were supposed to pour concrete over the existing tile but now the contractor wants to take up the whole floor. So we’re going to talk about that some more and I am going to ask if it would be possible to tint the floor to make it more of a terracotta colour. I’m happy with grey for the counters, but I’m worried a grey floor will look unfinished.

To the left of the entrance door, we can see the exterior door that I am keeping for now but which will be changed at a later date, probably when I do the rooftop terrace. This wall is perfect the way it is, with the fridge, broom cupboard, and pantry that just fit perfectly.

However I would like the old AC pulled and the cavity filled in. That has not been quoted yet, but would be part of the painting scope that also has not been quoted yet as I decided to add it in after our first meeting. So more to discuss tomorrow when they come to take measurements. I do want an AC in this room eventually, an inverter minisplit like I have in the office and bedroom that are inexpensive-ish to run, but when I do that, I’ll be making other tweaks to make the room climate-controlled, which will likely include a solar panel. This old unit has never been turned on since I moved in and is just a dust collector.

The Great Wall of Storage has served me very well and taught me a lot about what I need accessible in my kitchen, but it is even more dust maintenance than I imagined in my worst nightmares. And I tend to not be too bothered by organised clutter, but this is a bit too much, even for me. It also feels like a lot of wasted space and potential.

After a discussion of my needs with the carpenter, this is the first version of what will replace the Great Wall of Storage. The microwave will have a logical place, I’ll gain another worktop (and outlets) for my small kitchen appliances, I’ll have a dust-free place to show off my cookbooks, and then I’ll gain a wide and shallow pantry for things like pallets of dog food, cans of Coke, cases of almond milk, my beer bottle empties, and extra paper towels. He showed initiative in adding those drawers, which I wanted but was afraid to ask for. Now that I see them and have a quote for this (which will be built in cedar), there’s no going back. Drawers! Drawers! Drawers! Believe me, if you had to live for five years with a kitchen with no drawers, you’d understand how I feel. 🙂

The blue cabinet that happened to match my island is staying. It’s exactly the right proportions to split up the kitchen. With the new cabinetry, I’ll finally have a real division, with the back half of the kitchen with the windows for cooking and clean-up and the front half for food prep. The front half does not get nearly a fraction of the dust and bugs that the back half does, hence this division and my desire to get the mixer and blender away from the windows!

Of the current sink area, I want to keep the shelving and baskets that I have to the left of the existing sink. I found drawers units that fill that space up perfectly. Well, I will if the last two get to me. Amazon has been having trouble with shipping them! I’m replacing the sink with a two-tub deeper model, so I don’t think the garrafones (20L jugs) will fit under the counter. So they will move to where I have the microwave now and the existing shelving will be repurposed for something else. I have not decided yet if I’m replacing the backsplash tiles. I don’t hate them and they are in okay condition, but the grout is gross. If I can find something I like better, I may add replacement to the scope. I’m already at a 60,000 peso scope, so it’s not like another 20,000 to bring me to the finish line is going to be a huge deal at this point!

I will confess I was very tempted to replace the range with just a stovetop after extending the counter, but I do like having the option of both my countertop and full sized ovens — very luxurious! So the range is staying.

Across from the range is another near perfect part of the kitchen. The food processor should be joining the blender and mixer on the new counter.

Another view of the sink area. I really think that once this is all refinished and has the new sink and all the drawers, it’ll look really good and be more practical.

Here is a very honest, if gross, picture illustrating why I don’t want to do any food prep or leave my Vitamix or KitchenAid on the counter by the window. That’s lizard poo. That showed up sometime between noon and 4PM today. Everything that touches that counter has to constantly be disinfected.

Can you see how off-kilter that sink is? Water runs towards the floor. The front of me is always soaked by the time I’m done cleaning up. There’s no actual caulk around the sink, just stained white concrete.

I tried caulking around the sink, painting the counter caulk lines, and caulking hairline cracks last year, but it didn’t really last.

Same thing with the floors. No amount of muriatic acid has been able to keep the floors looking clean. The floors are clean, believe it or not!

Just ew, ew, ew, ew by the stove.

This thing needs to go as well. It is clean, just stained. I need it to block out the harsh morning sun. I’m going to see about the cost of a replacement or else I may spray paint this one in the hope of giving it a new life. Speaking of paint, the back part of the kitchen is currently a very light yellow. I think I want to step that up a notch, maybe not quite as bright as what I had in the motorhome, but almost.

And just a few more things that I’ve already upgraded that I love.

My ceiling fans:

My range hood (doesn’t extract anything, but yay for light over the stove!).

And here’s that video tour I mentioned at the start of this post.