Kitchen, Here We Come!

It's about time for another update. I've been working on this one for a week, but I just haven't been able to get it out. We've made some good progress lately and things are moving along.

A few weekends ago my grandpa helped us get the new electrical panel in. It was a little nerve wracking working with the wires coming into the house while they were live, but according to PG&E and my grandpa's uncle who was an electrician, that's what they do. Basically we had to cut the wires coming into the house while they were hot. Once we had those cut and out of the way we took out the old fused electrical panel. Then we ran new service wires from the roof to where the new panel would go to support the upgraded service. The 3 wires pulled through the 1 1/2" conduit much easier than expected considering each wire was 1/2" thick!

Once the service wires were in place we closed up the wall since the old panel sat inside the wall and the new one sits on the outside of the wall. We pulled all the wires for the new circuits through the siding and ran them into the new panel. Once we got the panel mounted we hooked the wires back up at the roof and hooked up the existing house circuits just as daylight was fading. It was time for the moment of truth as we turned the main breaker on.

I wish I could say that everything worked perfectly, but it didn't. Most things worked as expected with the exception of the lights. None of the lights were working! I spent some time double checking the connections and making sure it wasn't a bad breaker, but couldn't figure out the problem. I decided to give up for the day and resort to a romantic, candle-lit evening. The next day I discovered the problem: the original wiring in our house does not run in pairs of hot and neutral wires like wiring does today. The original wires have two hot wires sharing a single neutral. Once I discovered this I was able to hook up the wires correctly and got everything working.

Since Monday was a holiday, I spent the day getting the panel organized and getting the rest of the wires for the new circuits hooked up.

This past weekend was spent getting the cabinets ready for the counter tops which will be installed this week. There were a few base cabinets left to install that I was putting off since they intrude into our existing dining room. The existing heater register is also in the way of where these cabinets go. So, with the help of a friend, Saturday consisted of tearing down the rest of the wall between the old dining room and laundry room, moving the heater duct and register, removing some of the hardwood floor so the base cabinets could be set on the sub-floor, and installing the two final base cabinets.

We were originally planning on having a little overhang with bar stools on one side of the peninsula that extends with these cabinets, but last minute decided on a bookshelf for cookbooks and things. We started building this as well on Saturday and are trying to make it match the cabinets. We need to have it completed and installed in time for the granite installers on Thursday.

So, this week the counter tops will be installed which should make for some exciting pictures for the next update. To finish the kitchen we need to trim out the windows, tile a backsplash, install the finished flooring and install the appliances. Hopefully we will be in our new kitchen in March!