Final Day of kitchen floor remodel... NOT!

 The day did not start off well.  My alarm went off and I assumed it was 7:30 AM as that is when I told Alexa to wake me up.  Miles and I did our normal snuggly, waking up routine and then I disarmed my alarm system, turned my lights on, and then got out of bed.  As I did that, I glanced at my clock and it was 6:00 AM.  How I did it wrong, my alarm went off at 5:30 AM and not 7:30 AM.  But I was awake and so my day was beginning.

So, I had a lazy morning of coffee and getting ready for Eric to appear again and finish putting down the floor.  And I was well coffeed by the time he arrived.  His vehicle arrived at exactly 9:00 AM and he dug right into the job of laying our new, vinyl planking on the kitchen floor.

My job for the day was to head out to our local Lowes and get the dishwasher kit to add a plug for electricity and the waterline to get water to the unit.  I figured I would need to go to the plumbing department and then to the electrical department to get what I was going to need.  Upon arrival, I headed to appliances to get some assistance.  I found a lovely gentleman sitting at a computer terminal and explained what I needed.  He hopped right up and headed into the heart of the appliance department.  I am sure he was grinning behind his mask as he went to a display and pulled out a package hanging on an endcap.  It was an installation package that had the needed plug and water line, everything one would need to install my new dishwasher.  Duh!!!

I picked up some more trash compactor bags since I was in Lowes and headed home.  I gave Eric the kit and turned the remaining jobs over to him.  I am not an electrician nor a plumber and I was paying the handyman service to install the items!!!

I had taken a couple of pictures about mid-morning showing the old floor disappearing under the new floor.  I failed to notice that the SD Card was not in the camera, so you will just have to settle for pictures of the new floor.

Here is the entrance into the kitchen from the steps and the living room.  The transition plate has not been put into place.  Eric is coming back tomorrow (Friday) morning to finish that part.  Once Rob comes back to help me, I will be moving the rolling spice shelves next to the fridge and the coffee/tea center along the wall with the plug.  The floor goes completely under the fridge, so when we move it to clean, it will look just like the floor you are looking at.

This is the view from the wall where the coffee center will go.  Isn't that floor beautiful?  It is vinyl planking.  This is a floating floor, so no glue.  If we ever need to replace a piece, while not easy, it can be done  It just all fits into place.  The floor is waterproof, durable, and beautiful... much better than the old, worn-out hardwood strips.  Note the new trash compactor on the right.  The new one was just small enough to leave a quarter-inch at the top of the opening.  It will be so nice to have a working compactor upstairs.  I have been bringing my trash from the lower level upstairs so I can fill it up enough to use it!!!

Here is the floor by the stove.  Again, Eric filled in the hole in the floor to close in the place where the metal vent was found under the stove.  Then the whole floor under the stove is covered with the new planking.  So when the stove is pulled out to be replaced or the floor cleaned, it will look like the entire floor is covered with the planking.  I know it sounds like a weird thing to do, but to me, it looks much more like a properly done kitchen.

This is the opening for the dishwasher.  It is not in place... more about that in a bit... but you can see how the planking goes completely under where the dishwasher will be going.  It gives such a much better and more finished look to the kitchen.

Here is a view from the dining room side.  It looks good in either direction.  One thing that did change was the height of the stove.  If you go look at any of the old pictures of the stove, the top of the counter is just about at the top of the top part of the oven door.  When Eric moved the stove, he found it sitting on top of two strips of wood under the feet and on top of a thick piece of plywood.  We are guessing that one of the stove's feet fell right where the vent hole was, and rather than fill it in, they just covered it up with more wood.  So the stove now sits directly on the floor.  As you can see, the countertop is now almost level with the countertop.  I think I will like it better... but just in case, I had Eric save the board that would raise the height of the stove another 1/2" or so.

This is the new trash compactor.  It is sleek and clean... stainless steel front with lighted buttons to run the crusher.  No rust in the bottom.  No smells from rotting garbage, it almost seems wrong to put anything into it.  But the smells will not be as bad with this one, as I have a garbage disposal to grind up the foodstuff that might start smelling.

It was almost a perfect day.  I had gotten everything that was needed to install the dishwasher.  Eric had read everything in the instructions and followed them to attach the plug so we can just plug in the appliance instead of hardwiring.  I was watching as he took it over to the opening, it moved into the opening a bit and then stopped.  I could see Eric shining a light underneath and looking and looking and looking.  Then, he came down the stairs to tell me that there was a problem.  You may remember the little pipe and valve that ended up in the opening for the dishwasher.  It had rested under the old dishwasher, so we expected no problems.  But it turns out that the rails and feet of the new dishwasher are inset and fall EXACTLY where the water supply is located.  Not slightly to one side or the other... but EXACTLY where there is a solid rail from the bottom of the dishwasher to the floor.

So, for now, the dishwasher is living in the dining room, Eric and Garrett will be putting a plan together to finish the install.  I will find out in the morning.

So we are close, but not there yet...

Stay tuned.....................................................