Kitchen Progress — The Last Of The To Do List (The Final 13)

Last Updated on December 24, 2015 by Kristi Linauer

I’ve been saying for a few days now that I only have a few final touches left on my kitchen, and yet I could swear to you that these “few final touches” are multiplying like rabbits right before my eyes.  Every time I think I’m nearing the end of the list, I see more things that need touchups, or caulk, or a bit of paint, or trim.

So last night I took one final inventory of every single thing that needs to be addressed before I can, once and for all, call this kitchen remodel finished.  Almost everything, with the exception of one item, is a relatively small thing, but I want every single small thing addressed because I hate the feeling of having small things unfinished and moving on to a new projects, and being constantly reminded of those unfinished small projects each time I enter the room.  Nope, I don’t want that.  They all need to be finished, no matter how small.  This will be the first room in my house that is 100% finished, and what a great feeling that will be to have such a huge remodel completely done!

So here’s the final list of what I still need to finish.

1.  The trim that I added at the top of the tile needs to be caulked, primed, and painted.

2.  The trim around the opening/doorway needs to be sanded, caulked, primed, and painted. (That’s the big item that’s left.)

3.  The corner needs to be caulked.

4.  The trim to the right of the wall of cabinets still needs to be caulked and painted.

5.  The cabinet feet on the refrigerator wall still need touchup paint.  All of the feet got messed up when I stripped the floor (using chemical stripper around the feet) and refinished the floor.  The other two sections of cabinets (wall of cabinets and peninsula) have been touched up already.  Only this refrigerator wall remains.

(Clearly, everything is covered in dust and still needs to be cleaned.  I’ve kind of given up on trying to keep things dust-free in here until I take care of the unbelievable mess that is the breakfast room, but I’m not counting “cleaning” as one of the to do items.  But it will get done as soon as I stop doing things to create dust in here.)

6.  The overspray on the ceiling needs to be painted.  I got that finished on the wall of cabinets, so I just need to do touchups on this refrigerator wall.

7.  The trim against the tile needs to be sanded and painted.

8.  More trim against the tile needs to be sanded and painted.

9.  The cabinet hardware on the refrigerator wall still needs to be installed.

10.  I need to figure out what to do with my undercabinet lighting.  This little connector is hanging down and is visible, which is clearly not a good look.  As long as it’s like that, the lights work.  As soon as I attach the connector to the underside of the cabinet, the lights stop working.  Obviously there’s a short in there, so I need to do some rewiring.  Oh, joy.

11.  The outlet covers on the refrigerator wall need to be painted.  I had originally used this one on the end of the peninsula, which is why it’s green.  Then I decided that I didn’t like the white outlets showing on the peninsula, so I got one of those paintable covers that covers everything except the actual slots in the outlets.  No more white outlets showing on my green peninsula.  So now this one obviously needs to be painted white.

12.  The baseboards need to be sanded, primed, and painted.

13.  I’ve got a few paint touch ups here and there, as well as a few places where I got paint on the tile that needs to be scraped off.

And that’s it!  Just thirteen things, and twelve of them relatively small, left to do on my kitchen and then it will be finished.  Actually, finally, finished.