September 22, 2023
In light of our soon-to-be published Manhattan townhouse project, we figured we would take you behind the scenes of the construction process. Above is the “before” condition, with a poorly constructed kitchen that was leaking and rotting. There were grape vines growing through the walls, and ants had begun destroying the wood around one of the windows. Needless to say, it was easier to essentially demolish most of the existing structure (with the exception of a part of the roof) and build a new one in its place.
The first step after demolition and removals was to essentially frame out the roof so that we could have a clear, covered area to work and build the new kitchen. Our carpenters extended the existing shed roof straight across the rest of the house, and added a temporary shoring wall below it to hold it up while we could prepare the footers.
In the design we knew that we wanted to incorporate a giant patio door opening, so we needed to pour two giant footers that could hold the loads from the vertical posts on either side of the door opening below the header.
Once we had a clear roof to provide cover from the rain, we were able to focus on the framing a bit more. Below, our carpenter is framing the giant double header for the patio doors soon to be our new opening to the rear garden.
After a few weeks, we had a fully framed kitchen and you could begin to see the shell of the new spaces take shape!
After sheathing and waterproofing the outside, we had to go get cladding. We chose a fiber cement architectural wall panel product (the same one used to clad certain Dunkin’ Donuts locations!) for it’s durability and water resistance. We loved the product but found out that the delivery driver could not make it up our narrow one-way street, so we had to meet him at a rest stop in New Jersey in a U-haul to get the panels ourselves!
Once the “shell” was waterproofed, and our plumbing and electrical were installed, we were able to start sheetrock.
Above you can see where the original back of the house, where there used to be a single door and a window that we opened up to create a completely open passage through to the back of the garden.
Simultaneously while working on the interior, we also began prepping the garden for new paving. We dug down about 6″, and placed a layer of gravel and then compacted decomposed granite to create a strong, stable base for our new concrete plank pavers.
The pavers were commercial grade dense concrete planks, and we laid them in a randomized pattern to allow drainage and also to facilitate some greenery to grow through the gaps over time.
After a wait of about 4 months, our patio doors arrived and we were able to officially enclose the giant opening at the back of our house.
Shortly thereafter, our custom stainless steel worktables were delivered, so we were able to see the actual kitchen begin to take shape.
Most of the kitchen was sourced from a commercial grade restaurant supplier, so we were able to incorporate a lot of simple, low maintenance details into the design, such as a seamless, integrated sink with a backsplash mounted faucet.
The rest of the kitchen was sourced from Ikea’s Enhet sytem of base cabinets and uppers, as well as an integrated stainless sink countertop and bowl.
