Fireplacefromapicture

= D & J Construction =
Kitchen, and Decks, and Patios....Oh My

It's late winter of 2006. We are in Little Falls, NJ. Hired by Mr. & Mrs. Reyes to gut their outdated kitchen, and rebuild it with all new cabinets and appliances. We are also putting two decks in the back yard, one is a grade level deck and the other is a raised deck. We are also taking out an old concrete patio and sidewalk, and installing a drain from the back yard to the street, then we are pouring a new patio and larger sidewalk. We are also going to replace the blacktop driveway.

We have started to take the old cabinets down. Nice brick...huh?

Getting all the appliances dissconnected.

Free counters provided by Andale.

The vent pipes had to be moved from the soffit area.

All of the insulation was replaced on the outer walls.

Six recessed lights, three hanging over counter and one over the sink were added.

The kitchen above is what we started with. After removing all of the appliances, and water lines, and gas, we started to take down these cabinets. The cultured brick did get a bit messy though. After we got started, or first "Oh No" appeared behind the soffit. It was plumbing for the bathroom upstairs, (and a live wire, left uncapped just sitting on the pipes. I of course thought it couldn't be live, so I grabbed it to pull out and ZAP it shorted out on the copper pipe.) which had to be moved because the new cabinets go to the ceiling. Once the sheetrock was down, we needed to insulate the exterior walls, as the old insulation was in pretty bad shape. Our rough electric went in for all the new lights, and many outlets around the counter. Did I mention we also upgraded the electric to 200 Amps to accomodate all this new stuff. The floor was vinyl, but under it was a fiberboard which had to be removed....that was fun. We installed a cement backerboard for the new tile floor which the Owner wanted to do. I thought I got pictures of the finished sheetrock, but who hasn't seen finished sheetrock?

We tarped off the kitchen from the rest of the house.

This is the tile work that the Owners did over the weekend.

The base cabinets are in now and we test fitted the "Viking" stove and hood.

The upper and lower cabinets are now in. The Owner, Yvette Reyes, purchased a "Viking" industrial stove and hood. Now I've had fun before, but this hood was about all the fun I could handle. Due to the height restrictions, I had to custom make an exhaust vent because the one that came with it would have vented out in the bedroom above. But after many cuts from the sheet of duct material, I finally got the vent to vent properly to the outside world. The dishwasher, a "Bosch", was also tons of fun.

The upper cabinets are almost finished, and the doors are on.

Here is Mrs. Reyes dreaming about her first cooked meal in her new kitchen.

We had to come up with a design for above the hood because the stainless steel one they bought wouldn't fit.

The fridge is now set in place and hooked up.

This is another view from the living room.

The LCD T.V. really finishes off this end of the kitchen.

The kitchen is now completely finished. The Reyes's couldn't wait to get back into their new kitchen, as witnessed from the pictures below. The granite counter top went in without a hitch, the sink is now in and faucet hooked up, and the dishwasher is connected and set in place.

The countertop is in and we are doing a few touch ups.

A view from the doorway into the new kitchen.

A view from the living room into the new kitchen.

The granite counter fit nice around the corner and into the pantry.

A real nice picture of how nice the sink looks with the granite.

We now go on to the two decks we built. We built one deck at ground level and the other deck seven feet higher. I designed them so when you exit from the stairs on the upper deck you can walk right onto the lower deck. These decks were built with a composite board and railing system. The "Timbertech" decking is really nice to work with, and is completely maintenence free. Before we built these decks, we jackhammered out the old concrete patio, which pitched toward the house causing rain water to sit against the house. We also took out an old sidewalk to the shed in the back yard.

This is after we took out the old concrete patio.

This is after we took out the old concrete walkway to the shed.

We completely filled up this 20 yard dumpster with all of the concrete.

Here is what seems to be a mess, and it is...for now. The lower deck is started.

The frame is finished and the decking is started.

The decking is now almost finished, a couple of pieces came in damaged so we couldn't finish.

The lower deck is complete and we have started to put stone in for the patio base.

The deck footings and sub structure are in.

We have started the railings. After marking out the distance for the posts, they are bolted to the frame and a composite cover is installed.

We are marking out for the posts, I got caught in the kitchen window.

All the railings are finished on the deck, and now for the fun part....down the steps.

Both decks are now finished and a concrete pad is poured for the bottom of the stairs.

Now, keep in mind we didn't do these jobs in order. We started outside then went inside, then went outside again, and so on. All this work took us five weeks to finish up. Now with that being said.
We installed a drain system from the back yard, along the side, (tying the downspouts from the gutters in) through the driveway and into the street. We also installed a retaining wall along the back yard, and poured a concrete patio and sidewalk.

Here you see the catch basin and pipe for the drain system.

Here is the pipe along the side of the house, with another catch basin.

Here is the pipe along the side of the driveway and exiting into the road.

Here we dug down about 12" and are putting about 8" of stone, to be compacted before laying the block.

All of the retaining wall block are leveled and secured with an epoxy.

That step you see will be filled in with concrete to finish it off.

This was an odd thing to find...a telephone pole used as a border. We cut it up and got rid of it.

This patio was really tuff to pour because we had no access. We used motorized buggies to carry the concrete from the street to the back yard.

We also installed a spot light on the shed in the back yard to give light to this beautiful concrete patio.

This is the view walking into the back yard from the side of the house.

And this view from the back yard towards the driveway.

The sidewalk on the side. Notice the downspouts in the drains.

Now to finish up this job, we have takin out the old blacktop driveway and are installing a new one. We had to keep in mind that the heights have been changed and we wanted to maintain the pitch to keep the water away from the house.
Now, I don't think I forgot anything....well I did, like the new outlets and lights outside, and we moved the post for the gate in the rear....Yeah that's it. See you in Lambertville NJ.

The old driveway is out and the new base has been leveled and compacted.

We are here waiting for the delivery of the blacktop.

The blacktop finally arrived and was spread. We are now rolling it.

We are just about finished. The driveway can not be used for at least ten days.

We are finished. The driveway can not be used for at least ten days.