Cambria Countertops…Installation

It was fascinating to watch the Quartz Surfaces crew install the Cambria countertops in the kitchen of the “L” Shaped House. I arrived at the house as they were about to place the third section of perimeter countertop material along the back wall of the kitchen. This posting will serve as a step by step documentation of the process.

• The material is carried into the house (preferably by a couple of big guys)…

• The sections are carefully placed on the base cabinets…

• The “L” Shaped House has five pieces of Cambria. The island and desk are separate pieces. The perimeter countertop comes in three sections…

• The perimeter countertop is glued together at the two seams using a tinted epoxy. The separate pieces are aligned and clamped for gluing using a vacuum holding fixture…

• The process includes a glue gun with a mixing tip, two sets of vacuum clamps, a few wood working clamps, a handful of single edge razor blades, and a bunch of paper towels…

• Once the countertop is in place the sink is attached and the faucet arrangement laid out…

• The gas cooktop is “dry-fitted” in the cut-out…

• The faucet holes are drilled…

• And finally the faucet layout is tested…

Painting…Day 18

With all the excitement surrounding the new kitchen countertops it might be easy to overlook the progress Rick and the crew from Carmichael Decorating are making on the cabinetry at the “L” Shaped House. The first photo below shows the window seat in the living room after Rick sprayed the first coat of sealer on the maple and then stained the cherry tops. The second photo shows the upstairs laundry cabinets after Martin finished sanding the first coat of sealer. They have all the cabinetry upstairs ready for finish spraying and have started sanding the dining room hutch on the first floor. They will probably be done with the stain & varnish phase of the job early next week...then its on to the distressed white cabinets.

Cambria Countertops…Evening report

The Cambria countertop installation this afternoon is the sort of event that deserves a second look. Deb and I stopped by after work to admire the countertops and found Paul Winters cleaning up behind the Quartz Surfaces guys.…making for a perfect photo opportunity. The photos below pretty much speak for themselves. In them we see the Oakhampton perimeter, and Oxford island countertops in place on the cabinets above the natural cork floor. We are thrilled with the results!

Cabinets…Cambria Countertops

Our friends from Quartz Surfaces in Plymouth were out bright and early this morning installing Cambria countertops in the kitchen. I arrived at about 11:00 to find their truck parked at the top of the driveway…

Inside they were just setting the last piece of perimeter countertop material in place…

The photo below shows the crew installing the sink in the 3 mm material along the back wall of the kitchen. It is also the only good shot I have of the 6 mm material on the island (believe me…I’ll be back for more photos later)…  but WOW!   it all looks GREAT! As you can see there were a lot of things going on at once as the Quartz Surfaces guys worked to install the tops.

The next photo shows the countertop along the back wall of the kitchen after drilling holes for faucets (more on this later) and cleaning up a little. The last photo shows the kitchen desk area with the Cambria in place.

Cabinets…Arches

The Great Woods Cabinetry folks dropped off a load of arched supports at the house early this afternoon. The first photo shows the kitchen desk with a new arched support at the end. We made this change after the desk was installed with an angled support that looked a little out of place beneath the beautiful arch leading to the laundry room. The second photo shows the three cherry brackets that will provide support to the cantilevered Cambria island scheduled to be installed tomorrow.

Painting…Day 17

Rick from Carmichael Decorating is spraying polyurethane varnish at the “L” Shaped House today. All the preparations of the past week or so have made this a big day for the painting crew. The first photo shows the linen closet in the kids bathroom with the first coat of varnish barely dry. The second photo shows the production spraying operation of support brackets for the book nook shelves taking place in Anna’s room.

The third photo shows the stained cherry vanity in the master bath just minutes after spraying. The varnish deepens the tone and brings out the rich character of the cherry very nicely. The cabinets look fantastic!

The last photo shows one of the built-in maple desks in the book nook. We decided to apply clear polyurethane varnish directly to the maple as a part of an effort to have a variety of wood finishes throughout the house. I think the select cherry laminate tops (hidden under the masking) set off against the maple will make the desks look fantastic.

Electrical…Day 8

Master Luke from Wire-Rite Electric is back to start filling all the empty holes they left behind. He spent the morning installing receptacles and wall plates throughout the first and second floors of the “L” Shaped House. We took the opportunity to place one of the recessed reflectors in the kitchen corner fixture to see how it looks. The photo does a nice job of showing the light spreading out under the fixture.

The second photo shows the pile of parts Luke is working from as he starts to add electrical devices to the house. The list includes receptacles, switches, wall plates, reflectors, smoke detectors, etc.

Cabinets…Knobs & Pulls

Deb and my sister Martha spent a couple hours yesterday carefully going through each room selecting knobs and pulls for every cabinet drawer and door in the “L” Shaped House.

The drawing below shows the fruits of this effort. They have marked up cabinet wall elevation drawings identifying the type and position of hardware for each cabinet element.  They plan to double check the drawings and produce a color coded set to be used in the installation process.

 

The photo below shows samples Deb picked up at Lowes to use as she and Martha worked through this process. The bin-pulls and knobs are very close to the ones we will will use from Twin City Hardware. The handles are going to be a little different (they will have the little fake screw heads at each end). See them on the Amerock website here…

• Bin Pull
• Handle Pull
• Knob

It’s the Middle of March…Wrap-up

Here's a scene we have not seen in a while…the back side of the “L” Shaped House with hardly any snow! I was able to navigate back to this vantage point without walking in snow…a little mud though. It’s nice to see the back yard again after a long cold winter.

The next photo shows the progress Brett continues to make on the basement sheet rock. He has made his last pass with joint compound and plans to start skim coating the ceilings tomorrow. Then it’s on to sanding.

The last photo shows the GE cooktop un-boxed and ready for trial fitting in the Cambria countertop scheduled to be installed Thursday. The Quartz Surfaces guys already have the Elkay sink and by Thursday night the kitchen should be completely transformed…

Sheet Rock…Day 32

Brett from Big Sky Construction spent another day mudding sheet rock joints at the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the basement family room from the bottom of the stairs. He has the most of joints in both the family room and guest bedroom out close to the 16” width.

The next photo shows the basement stairwell and the doorways leading into the “Harry Potter” room under the stairs and the bathroom next door.