The dryer died while Steven was biking in Washington, DC. Somewhere around 15 years old. Served well in at two houses. But after at least two major repairs, the smart decision is to get a new one.
Jacquela got a killer deal on a model that Samsung discontinued — a model that just happened to be the mate for our Samsung washer.
Lowe’s took away the old Kenmore Elite and installed the new Samsung.
Step 2 — today. Thomas begins by lifting the cooktop out of the counter, then uses a knife and razor blade to remove what remains of the gasket from the top of the counter and underside of the cooktop. Steven stepped in after with paper towels and Goof Off to remove traces of the gunk left behind.
The new gasket rolled up neatly in the plastic bag, and the entrails of the old gasket to the right.Thomas peels and sticks the new gasket to the underside of the cooktop.A close up of the new gasket applied to the underside of the cooktop.Thomas lowers the cooktop back into position in the countertop.
Chris, left, above, and Richard arrived today to replace the glass top of the Wolf induction cooktop.
Why? The glass sometimes displays a fractalizing crack that travels from element to element. It appears. It disappears. We reported this 26 June to Ranserve and to Kristin at Harway. The cooktop is covered under warranty. Harway set up a factory repair.
To remove the cooktop, Chris and Richard used a knife to slice apart the rubber gasket that goes between the underside of the glass and the quartz countertop. This gasket apparently compresses over time and begins to resemble silicon sealant. In the process of slicing apart the seal, several sections of the original gasket were peeled and sliced away, leaving a ragged gasket behind.
The ragged edge of the gasket after it was sliced apart and the replacement glass cooktop installed. Shredded rubber is clearly visible and sloppy.
Wolf supplied the replacement glass — but not a replacement gasket. “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t,” Chris said.
They will need to obtain a replacement gasket. Chris said he would order this and schedule a second service call when it comes in.
Steven is surprised that a replacement gasket was not shipped automatically with the replacement glass cooktop.
Steve flips breakers while Steven in the kitchen watches to see which one actually turns off the oven.
We find it quickly. The “dryer” breaker is mislabeled; it is the breaker that controls the oven.
And, oh by the way, the breaker labeled for the furnace is actually the breaker that switches off the induction cooktop.
Problem solved. Quality control.
With that, the Bosch oven is now, finally, powered off. Steven flips the breaker to the on position about 30 minutes later. The oven appears to have re-set, with the keypad now responding to commands and entries. Jacquela will have to test this to her satisfaction. Steven does not cancel the service call scheduled for 5 July.
Jacquela is standing at the Bosch Benchmark oven in the kitchen, angry, short-tempered, pushing buttons on the keypad. The oven responds with unhappy beeps and refuses to comply with commands.
Steven calls Bosch tech support. They instruct: “turn off power at the breaker for 30 minutes; that usually solves everything.”
Steven goes upstairs to the electrical panel and flips to the off position the breaker that the electricians labeled for the oven.
The oven still has power. The control panel is still lit up. The light inside the oven still switches on when you open the door.
Hmm.
Steven calls Kristin at Harway. She will contact her office in the morning to arrange for a service call.
Steven calls Mark at Ranserve to alert him there is an electrical problem — “the breaker to the oven is not functioning.” Mark contacts Capstone Electric. Scott Breen calls Steven to ask for details. Steven sends pix. Scott arranges to dispatch Steve the electrician.
Steven speaks with Karen at K&N, the service company authorized by Harway and Bosch. A tech is scheduled for 5 July.
Above, Luis from Landers Flooring is back to remove and replace one stair tread. The balusters for this tread were drilled in the wrong place. Today, Luis removed the balusters and existing hickory tread, then fitted the replacement. At the end of the day, he clearcoated it with polyurethane.
Mauricio and the team from Gilsa Construction today began to install the heavy steel edging for the deck off the kitchen door.Mauricio welds the straight metal edging to a rebar post he sledgehammered into the ground.Joel from the City of Austin inspected the boxes and location for the new residential electric meter. Steven called Dispatch to ask the City to install the meter.Binswanger Glass today delivered and installed the obscured glass door to the water closet in the master bath …and the second door to the shower in bath 2, Jadin’s bath — the panel at right, with the long chrome handle.The tankless water heater is installed upstairs in the laundry/utility room.Ron Dahlke asked Steven to start a “punch list” of items that need attention. Here’s the first one — this is one of the showerhead fixtures in the master shower. It’s missing an escutcheon. As a result, the cutout in the tile is exposed.
The microwave, oven and dishwasher arrived last week from Harway Appliance, but the storage drawer to be located under the microwave was MIA.
Steven called Kristin at Harway. Arnold delivered the drawer today, above, set into place temporarily to check the fit.
Arnold screws the storage drawer and microwave together to create a single unit.Steven, left, and Arnold, right, lift the drawer and microwave unit off the base cabinets and begin to pivot it 180 degrees, to slide into the cabinet. Ron Dahlke shot this photo using Steven’s camera. A first. And … this is the first photographic proof in months that Steven is actually helping on this remodel, not just standing around taking pix and asking too many questions.Arnold tweaks the drawer. The alignment of the top corners where the oven, left, meets the microwave, right, was off by a visible 1/16th inch. Arnold added a shim under the drawer to lift the microwave corner just enough and into alignment.The real reason for Arnold’s visit to Emerald Hill was to take out the bow in the chimney stack of the exhaust hood. He discovered it was pushed out of perfect vertical alignment by the outlet in the wall that powers the exhaust hood. Ron is going to work on this with the electricians.
In this special Sunday edition of the remodel that is almost done, Jacquela and Steven discovered that the dishwasher is installed. We missed it, distracted by all the other bright shiny distractions.
For the first time, we are able to confirm that we will in fact be able to stand at the sink, alongside the dishwasher, pull open the drawer for plates or cutlery opposite the dishwasher, then easily unload the dishwasher straight to the drawers, just a short reach away — almost like we planned it.
The other big activity for this visit … Jacquela and Steven measured the interior of each drawer in the kitchen and all the bathrooms. As a result, we believe we need 230 linear feet of shelf liner to protect the drawer bottoms.
Steven is back from a week away at the Consumer Electronics Show. He walked Emerald Hill today with Jacquela.
Steven observes: Ron put in a productive week, playing in the house without Steven underfoot …
Above, the Insinkerator is mounted and plugged in.
The heart of the kitchen — appropriately red. Glass tile backsplash. Induction cooktop. Stainless steel exhaust hood. Pot filler not yet installed. Tile not yet grouted.And the cooktop is wired up.
Steven turned over Emerald Hill to Ron Dahlke from Ranserve while traveling all week to Vegas for ShowStoppers @ CES. Jadin and Jacquela visited the house today. Jacquela said “wow.” She and Steven plan an early visit Saturday to catch Steven up on a whole week of progress without Steven sticking his foot and hand into everything. Can’t wait.
In the interim, Jadin took these photos.
Dad to Jadin via text: “What do you think?”
Jadin via text: “Goodness.”
It looks like the exhaust hood is installed over the cooktop. Is the cooktop installed under the protective styrofoam? And look at that killer red backsplash.That’s the oven to the left and the microwave in the middle. Where’s the storage drawer that is supposed to go under the microwave?The balusters and handrailing are installed! This is the plan that Steven imagined and architect Brett drew before we started demo — made real!