Installing hardware with two holes: Drilling & Prayin

Stuff just kind of shows up at our house. Via a sturdy combo of Amazon Prime and something called Mic It...correction MICIT Raleigh, I normally have a steady wave of stuff to install or assemble.

Several boxes showed up a week ago containing hardware for our kitchen cabinets. Hardware is one of the smaller kitchen fixes you can do, while also going a long way in refreshing a room's look and feel.

Kitchen pre hardware

Large cabinet doors are easy to do. Measure out one consistent spot on each door (say an inch in and an inch down), drill one hole, screw hardware on, and enjoy! But if your lead kitchen designer is like my lead kitchen designer, momma likes handles for her drawers, and handles have two holes to drill for.

And therein, as the bard would tell us, lies the rub.

Tools for this job: drill, drill bits, pencil (we didn't have one, so pen), and just a general screwdriver

I installed my first set of this type of hardware at our old house, which you can read about at my better half's blog here. The second go round was a lot easier, and here are my tips:

1) Mark the middle point of your drawers, and center the handle around this spot. Stencil/trace around the handle directly on the cabinet. You don't have to do the whole handle, but definitely get VERY detailed with where the two posts will go.

Getting the location of the two posts right is critical. It can result in not connecting the handle correctly (it being super loose), or you needing to get a totally new cabinet drawer....we want to avoid this.

Outline where the posts go!

2) Drill a hole at the center of the outline for each post. My hardware used 8-32 screws (of two lengths: 3/4 and 1-1/4), so a 1/8 drill bit can work here, but it'll be a bit snug. I Googled it and the "proper size" would be a #29 drill bit or a 9/64 (and if you're doing the math, is a bit larger than 1/8). But my beginners drill bit set doesn't get that nuanced.

Going one size up will not kill you. If you measured properly, and drilled the holes in the right spot, the screws will keep the handle nice and snug once they connect, regardless if the hole is a bit larger than it "should" be.

Also, I drilled from the outside in, so no huge need to cover the drill holes with masking tape (to prevent wood and paint splintering). Going this extra step is fine and probably does help preserve some appearance.

3) If you're doing this the first time, it's not a bad idea to stop when one hole is drilled, screw it in, and remeasure where the outline for the second post goes. If it's off a bit, restencil that sucker!!! If you go off and drill the second hole and it's not fully aligned, you're going to have this extra hole in your drawer / the hardware will kind of just be hanging there sad it doesn't have a second screw holding it in.

This would be bad.

4) Drill out your second hole, say a little prayer or do a little dance, and screw in the other post.

5) Congratulate yourself!

Yay! Hardware installed!

I really lucked out this go round (as compared to my first try linked above) in that the posts for my hardware were actual posts, two little prongs that jutted out from the rest of the handle. This meant I could get super accurate with where the two holes should go.

The first time I did this, we just bought the ones we liked the most from Lowe's and the two holes for the two screws were flush with the handle. This sucked. Bad.

Try and avoid this if you can. Doing so will result in you being much more confident about the whole process, it going much quicker, and you feeling much like DJ Khaled...

Removing a kitchen hood and installing a microwave

If you'd like to know what God felt on the seventh day, buy a Dremel. I swear, these things make you feel like you can fashion/create anything. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

We're doing a fairly substantial kitchen renovation and one of the downfalls of being somewhat handy, is your wife knows this. So we've decided to do several parts of the remodel on our own, and for this post we'll chat about what all was involved in removing the kitchen hood over our oven and installing a microwave.

Kitchen before painting and with the original hood

Step 1: Removing the hood & assessing the situation
Once you remove the hood, take a look at the exhaust vent that the hood used to connect to. If you're lucky, it's rectangular. Skip the rest of this and Step 2.

Round exhausts do not match microwave exhausts :(

If you're not lucky, it's a round 7 in. circle exhaust (be sure to measure here and know if it's 6" or 7"!). You'll need to buy a converter from Lowe's or Home Depot. The one I got from Lowe's was less than $20 (maybe $14 or $17), and since my exhaust was 7", it was found behind the appliance section / near the microwaves. If yours is a 6", go to the venting section and you can find the same thing, just the size you need.

You may need to cut off a piece of the existing duct to make room for the added height of the converter. Duct tape / electrical tape will hold it together once you affix the two (it is called "duct" tape for a reason).

Step 2: Bracing / Affixing the exhaust vent
Our house was built in the 40's, so no telling when the last time the kitchen had any work done to it. The exhaust vent had a LOT of sway to it, and several times came crashing down on me. I reconnected it, and to keep it from moving again braced it to the wall.

New best friend

Hanger tape is awesome. Buy this and some clippers to cut it with (about $25 total), and after cutting a good sized piece, use wood screws to affix one end, wrap the other around it fairly snug, and use another wood screw to finish the job.

No more movement = thumbs up

Step 3: Electrical, you'll need a new circuit!
I don't do much wiring. My limits are installing a dimmer or a ceiling fan. With an old kitchen hood there, chances are it was just wired directly into the wall (no outlet was used for it). My hood didn't have a plug, so chances are yours is the same.

Microwaves require a good amount of power, so you'll need to install a three-pronged outlet for one, and you'll likely want to drop a separate line / circuit to your panel for it. If you have an extra nearby line that is used just for an outlet that's being used by an coffee maker, lamp, or something low power, you should be ok. But odds are since you're near the cooking area, the line(s) near there will be powering fridges, ovens, etc.

Each of these appliances draw a similar amount of power to the microwave, and if you use both at the same time (ex: your fridge is always on, you turn on microwave, pop, power's out!) it'll cause the circuit to flip.

We got our trusted electrician to come and drop a new line and route that to a new circuit in our panel box.

Step 4: Removing the back splash
Again, old house from the 40's, so we have some pretty fugly laminate back splash everywhere. I bought a Dremel for $80, measured how much I'd need to cut for the microwave (and went an inch lower), and went to work.

I cut out a large rectangle at first, then cut that into separate smaller rectangles. Then just used a sturdy puddy knife to get behind the cuts and pry it off.

No mas back splash!

Since the old laminate was glued on, it took the top layers of the drywall off here and there, but my goal was to affix the bracket for the microwave to studs, not laminate...so it had to go. (Plus, we're going to remove all of the old back splash to add new tile back splash, so doesn't hurt to get that started).

Step 5: Installing the microwave!!!
Man, a lot of steps to get here. I mean each one of the above took at least a solid night's worth of work to do.

The most critical part of your microwave install is affixing the bracket for it. This is a measure twice cut once sort of deal. Really, really map out what you're doing here. The instructions are very helpful so read those thoroughly.

Devil paper bracket diagram...

I found the paper bracket diagram they want you to tape up to the bottom of the cabinet to not be that helpful. More or less scrapped that and measured it out myself.

Once I did so, things went far smoother than when I was using the paper bracket diagram. (there might be four drill holes instead of where there should be three...).

Step 6: Beer drinking time!
Once the bracket is installed, and the holes drilled for the top of the microwave, you're good to go! Put microwave on bracket, drill the bolts into the holes, and plug that sucker in!

Microwave installed, and cabinets painted!!! (wifey VERY happy)

(EDIT) Step 7: Habitat Restore
Drop off the hood (and should you have one, the old microwave) at Habitat Restore. They'll take it, and it'll be a nice tax deduction come April.

If you're removing a kitchen hood, and a do-it-yourselfer like me, I hope you find this helpful! Stay tuned as I cut out the rest of the laminate, install hardware, and really go for my DIY badge.

kw out

Beijing Stuff

I was in Beijing in December and back again in April, and while I was there managed to shoot a decent amount of footage with my phone (shameless Lenovo plug, it was my Moto DROID 2).

I finally put two short videos together, one that more or less focuses on city life inside Beijing, and the other on the Summer Palace. In the first one you can see the insane amount of control the government has on production/pollution. Literally night and day.

Check em out if you are so inclined!