Welcome to the Hood

Have you ever busted a hole in your wall all the way to your neighbor's house?

I have. Welcome to the vent hood.

Installing this house's first vent hood was a big job; having it vent to the outside was even bigger.

Father brought his arsenal of power tools, The Squirrel (brother-in-law) brought his energy, and I brought enough worry about possible disasters for all three of us.

We started by making shims with a saw and a hunk of wood I found in the shed.

Turned out to be cedar! The shims leveled the bottom of the cabinet so we had something flat to mount the vent hood to.

We marked the new duct hole on the wall, found the center, and drilled a hole straight through EVERYTHING. The drill bit emerged perfectly in a mortar joint on the other side.

Using that hole as a guide we drew the duct pattern on the outside of the brick and used a grinder to cut the edges deep.

Then, we perforated the edge with a hammer drill...

...and chiseled the brick out.

After cutting the inside wall and dropping power from the attic we were ready to dry fit the duct piece.

Wow, there really is a hole in my wall!

The rest of the installation took a little while, but went well.

The outside is really nice! A good and clean job, and well caulked too!

I'll show pictures of the finished product a little later.
Right now, I have some plumbing to take care of...

Crazy Light, Fan, and The Squirrel

Cabinet Guy came and did an excellent job, but I'll show those pictures at the end of the project.

Time for lights!

Check out this crazy sink light Wife and I picked out:

(I know what you're thinking: "Not as crazy as your awful point-and-shoot photography skills!")

Installation was pretty easy and clean looking.

The warmth of this type of light is just what we were hoping for.

In celebration of our first light switch, we keep turning the light on and off just for fun!

SO, in case you feel left out...

Turn my light on!
On	Off

Admit it: You tried it. And you liked it.

I'm not going to lie: I installed the fan twice. I didn't notice that the first fan was bent, so it wouldn't level properly and scraped the housing. I troubleshooted (or is it troubleshot?), uninstalled it, exchange it, and re-installed. Blah!

Father used his powers to plan the best rafter brace approach. For crawling around in the attic I took my brother-in-law, The Squirrel, up on his offer.

The Squirrel can navigate any crack, crevice, or attic, and he has a good head on his shoulders for building supports and helping me with wiring.

Super happy with this! A huge "thank you" to Father and The Squirrel!

Man, this is really starting to come together...

Primer, Paint, and Cabinet Guy

Blah! I've been sick and have fallen behind!
I had better get on with it.

I thought it would be a lot easier to paint before the cabinets went in so I would not have to tape around them and be so careful.

But first, these walls needed some serious priming.

I put two coats of primer on EVERYTHING:

Then I used a ceiling white for the ceiling, and a two different colors for the walls (daring, I know).

Why paint behind the cabinets?

The colors Wife and I picked are sort of a cream color (same as our living room) and a blue from the slate or country family.

It's working out great so far! We used the cream on two facing walls and blue on the other two facing walls. From the living room looking into the kitchen you see continuous cream that blends nicely. You don't see any blue until you enter the kitchen, so it feels more contained and doesn't clash with the rest of the house.

Now that painting is done Cabinet Guy can come anytime!

"Cabinet Guy? You mean you are not hanging them yourself?"

Correct. I like saving money and doing things myself, but that is too much. Cabinets are not cheap, my plaster walls are hard as a sidewalk, and I am not in the mood to experiment!

We bought our cabinets in an off season for remodels, so they were discounted several times over. Free upgrades, free hardware, free lots of stuff. The labor costs were low and the work come with a warranty, so I jumped on it.

Cabinet Guy it is!