New Crew

The new crew that we found came by for their first day of work on Friday. Finally, we’re making progress again. While they did uncover a few problems, there is also tangible improvement: no more improvised blue tape handles on the cabinet doors, and my dishwasher has its front.

First and foremost: it’s amazing to have a permanent way to open all the cabinets. We chose some nice minimal black pulls to go on all the cabinet doors. If I’d had the budget, I would have liked to get a kitchen with a channel along the top of the boxes, so I could go handle-free. That was also an option with my design, but I wasn’t a fan of the push-to-open mechanism on the pull outs. When I visited a few showrooms, it always seemed a bit too finicky and unreliable.

The refrigerator and freezer doors require somewhat more substantial hardware, which hasn’t arrived yet. That will go in later.

Also exciting: the new finish carpenter made a stab at getting my dishwasher fully installed.

Importantly, the cabinet panel has been attached to the front. This had been a real frustration since without it I had to use my foot to hold the door open loading and unloading the dishes. The hinge is designed to work smoothly when there’s a heavy cabinet door on the front.

Now that it’s in, I’m back in bliss. The hinges that Miele puts on its dishwashers are amazing.

I’m a bit less convinced some of this new dishwasher’s other features are really that important. The interior lighting looks nice. I’m not sure it makes anything easier. The knock-to-open feature is fun. It’s also a bit of a hassle versus pulling the door open normally.

Installing the dishwasher did, however, uncover new problems. Apparently the sink cabinet was installed a few millimeters further forward than the other boxes, so there are some issues getting everything to really line up nicely.

On the plus side, the new crew is definitely confidence inspiring. They’ll be back Monday to take care of a few other remaining pieces, like finally getting my vent hood installed and remediating the panels in the new entry area.