That doesn't even include the prep time on the wall! Many thanks to my wife for help out at times, and Scott who dove in and got busy. He really did great, and found things I had missed and fixed them on his own!! Another reno junkie in the making?
The space had a fridge in it when we started, and as you can see once removed there was gaping holes in the lath and plaster, and a terrible lack of vapour barrier and insulation. Once taken down to the studs, the 2x4 walls built out to 2x6, new electrical, new gas supply and some plywood finish to stand in for drywall, we get to putting in the range hood.
The new stove is about as professional as you can get at home, and can generate more BTU's than my furnace. A 36" BlueStar with built in grill and two 22k BTU burners. And now a hood to match!
I should mention that this is just planning/staging/proto-typing of our kitchen. We're thinking green, with a white subway tile backsplash, maybe stainless steel countertops, etc, etc, but so far we've just re-done the back door, and this 6 foot space. Maybe we're crazy to do a bit at a time, but this is what works for us. I could really make a good argument for working through decisions and planning this way in stages, rather than trying to plan the whole stinking thing at once. We weren't planning on starting the kitchen yet, still other things in progress. I just found the stove at cost, and knew that I would have to pay almost 3 times the price to order anything of this magnitude at regular prices.
The hood is a Broan 36" shell, with a external 1200 cfm blower. Ok, according to the formula one uses to determin how big your range hood needs to be, 900 cfm would have been enough, and twice as much as the typical kitchen blower. But with that grill, I wanted to *make sure* I didn't smoke up the house with the grill.
It's turned out better than expected! At about 1/3 power, I pull enough air to match 'normal' exhaust and it's very quiet because of the commercial style baffles and the motor outside. At full bore, it's enough suction to easily handle my pork chop test drive, and more I'm sure. Standing outside, it is amazing the down draft coming out of that thing...
So far, so good. The first chops disappeared quickly. I love cooking with all the horse power and look forward to working her hard!
