Challenges Of The Kitchen Remodel – Success!

As many of you know, this was our third kitchen remodel and we thought we learned from the first two. Happily, that seemed to be true. The big difference this time was the construction methods used in Mexico, namely, everything is constructed with concrete. That meant that all of the walls where the plumbing and electrical go are all solid cement. Can you say dust, dust, dust?

In addition, no permits are required for any changes, even though we removed a bearing wall. We did talk to a few architects and the building engineer before we started. Everyone said that we needed to leave a 10-inch post and another 6 inches at the top of the wall to support the stairs above. Fortunately, our contractor was also an architect. When they were done they were sure we would have enough support even without the bulk of the wall.

Demolition of Kitchen

We planned to do the demo of the existing kitchen and the wall while we were still in Argentina, thinking this activity would generate most of the dust. Boy, were we wrong. While the contractor demoed most of the wall while we were gone, there was plenty more dust to be generated. To make matters worse, for every new outlet, a hole had to be made in the cement walls large enough to locate and pull the wire. The same is true for the new plumbing connections.

This is what they had done before we arrived from Argentina with a few before pictures for comparison.

The contractors covered the furniture and closed all of the doors in the hall but the fine cement dust got everywhere. Then, we had another four weeks of dust from making holes for electrical and finishing the walls. Every little change from the previous kitchen required cutting into the cement walls, generating more dust.

On the plus side, the same contractor was doing the structural changes, plumbing, and electrical work. We worked hard to make our communication straightforward and mostly in English.

Demo and Structural In Progress

Here are demo and wall reconstruction photos that continued for at least another four weeks after we returned to Playa.

As with any project of such scale, there are surprises. Our biggest surprise on this job was that we had to leave a 10-inch section of the wall for support. This wasn’t part of our original plan for electrical or cabinetry. My kitchen designer continually told me over the next six weeks, “Don’t worry”, we will work it out.

Temporary Kitchen

Originally, we thought we could just move the kitchen basics into the dining for the duration, but the noise and the dust precluded that plan. It took us a few days to get most of it worked out. But after moving some of the furniture in the second bedroom, we set up the kitchen. We were able to put extra shelves for food, dishes, the microwave, toaster oven, hotplate, and water dispenser in there. The refrigerator had to remain in the living room and we decided to use the guest bath for our sink.

Mike turned the two mattresses on top of one another and put the plywood bedboard on top to make a counter. He did attempt cooking during the 5+ weeks we didn’t have a kitchen. However, I kept things to a minimum and focused on protein shakes, coffee, yogurt, and fruit. We got some takeout and we frequented the small, local taco places for good, inexpensive food.

Construction Part 1 – Electrical and Plumbing

We returned to Playa on April 22nd and we committed to complete the kitchen by the first of June. We figured the long pole in our project would be the delivery of the cabinets, which was correct. Our expected delivery date was around May 9th. I had hoped that the plumbing and electrical would be done by then. While originally that was true, after the demo, we found some other things that needed to be fixed. This caused the electrical and plumbing to take a week longer than planned. They were completed on May 17th, still ahead of the cabinet delivery, so that worked out pretty well.

Unfortunately, demolition and construction noise was frequent and often loud until all of the installations had been completed. My neighbor across the hall began complaining about the noise. She had rented her place during this time and didn’t want her tenants to be disturbed. This just added an extra dimension to the project. Mike was getting so stressed out about the complaints I took neighbor duty over from him.

Even after I reached out to the neighbor and assured her the noise would stop in the next week or so, the building manager showed up for more discussion. April marks the start of the off-season, so the manager had requested this period to do construction and we certainly weren’t the only ones making noise. Oh well.

We Had to Be There

Finally, it became clear that if we hadn’t been there to supervise every day, we would not have gotten the end product we wanted. While our contractor followed the plan in the kitchen, all of the other work required daily decisions. The floors, a new fuse box, and new electrical all required our input. This being our third rodeo, before leaving for Argentina, we decided to extend our stay in Playa by a week. This turned out to be a good move because things slow down when we aren’t onsite to talk to people.

They did a really good job of cleaning up at the end of each day. But the downside of us living there was that I cleaned day in and day out and I had intermittent asthma issues. There was dust gathered in door frames, every vent, all of the walls, and pretty much everything else in the house. There were what looked like drifts of dust on the ceiling fans and I think I may have killed my dustbuster. By the time we finished, I had purchased a full-size vacuum cleaner and borrowed a shop vac from a neighbor. Sorry, no pictures of me bending over with the dust buster.

Construction Part 2 – Cabinets and Appliances

Finally, the cabinets arrived on May 23rd, now we work with the kitchen designer every day. The carpenter assembled the cabinets pretty quickly. The first cabinets to be installed were for the wall with the sink, dishwasher, oven, and cooktop. Fortunately, all of the appliances were on hand so the placement of the cabinets could be confirmed before attaching things to the wall. Yes, this process generated more noise, but it wasn’t as bad as cutting into the cement walls had been.

Next, the upper cabinets on the same wall went up, followed by assembling the five cabinets that made up the island. At this point, we started moving some of our kitchen stuff back into the dining room because our new refrigerator was in. With the island put together, we had a working surface. They also assembled the lower cabinets near the stove so that the quartz vendor could come and take measurements because we were already short on time.

The Inevitable Slow Down

Then things started to slow down, mostly due to the cabinet vendor. Our pullout pantry didn’t have complete hardware and it couldn’t be fixed onsite. We wound up with quite a bit of extra space on the wall we removed, which was great. But it required a reconfiguration of the doors above the refrigerator. We also had to figure out the configuration of the corner where we had to leave the wall. That required several new doors also. The cabinet vendor also didn’t ship our drawer inserts. There were a few other things that needed to be addressed near term, so our contractor put a new order through to the cabinet vendor. This was the first serious delay.

Fortunately, all of the cabinet material eventually arrived and was installed around June 10th. In the meantime, a custom support was installed to support the countertop in the corner and we made the final adjustment to the location of the island.

After that, the countertop and appliances were installed.

Tile Backsplash – Why Don’t People Listen to Me?

I had a very difficult time locating a tile that I liked for the backsplash in Playa. Before we left for Argentina, I finally located and purchased what I wanted. A colorful glass time backsplash ties the blue and white cabinets and the gold-accented quartz together. So after the countertop and appliances were installed, our original contractor came back to install the tile. This part of the project went badly.

I have had glass tile installed several times in addition, I consulted Google just to make sure I was correct. I explained to the vendor that they needed to be gentle with the tile and set it using special WHITE material. However, they arrived on Friday afternoon with a dark gray thin-set and continually hit the glass tile with a piece of 2×4 as they placed each sheet. I told them numerous times to stop, but they “knew better” and continued.

Then they insisted on dry-cutting tile for the very top edge. During this, I repeatedly told them that the glass tile needed to be wet cut, but again, they “knew better”. The result was a bunch of cracked glass tile, darker than it should have been, and badly cracked, uneven top edge. I felt like crying. Instead, I started complaining to the contractor and my kitchen designer. I told them that I wouldn’t accept this work and we had to take it off the tile and redo it properly. And, I’m sure I wasn’t very nice about it. In addition, I sent them the information on the tile and some YouTube videos showing exactly how to install glass tiles.

Starting the Tile Again

After much back and forth and apologies, they returned on Monday with new tile and the thin set sold by the tile vendor. I still didn’t think it was the right stuff, but it was certainly better than what was there before. They also brought a different tile installer and I insisted that there would be no tile cutting. The sheets would be cut evenly, between tiles and leave a small space below the upper cabinet.  We would cover any space between the tile and cabinets with a piece of molding, which was a new concept to them. Still, the kitchen designer found appropriate molding, had it painted, and installed it after we left.

Finishing Things Off

The final thing we had to do was determine the microwave and nearby locked cabinet configuration. After lots of discussion, we decided how we wanted the cabinet doors and compiled another list of items we wanted from the cabinet vendor. Our kitchen designer was extremely detail-oriented, so in addition to a painter working two days on touch-ups, she wanted to replace some of the cabinet doors because they weren’t perfect. Something I can’t complain about, but that meant another order to the cabinet maker. Even though we had delayed our departure until the 15th, obviously exceeding our June 1st completion date. We had to leave before the kitchen was fully finished.

So, here we are in the second week of July and the new doors are finally being installed. Fortunately, everything was fully functional before we left on June 15th. I know this sounds like gloom and doom, but I must tell you that I do love my new kitchen. In the few days that I got to work in it, I found it to be super functional and there is lots of space to work. That means Mike can make his lunch at the same time that I’m baking. I really love the dual entry to the kitchen, the fridge doors open fully, and best of all it is easy to get to the garbage even if others are in the kitchen working.

How would you remodel a condo in Mexico?