Well, the bastard is hung, after weeks of issues, pounds of sweat, and minor blood loss. I would have to say, "NOT fun" is a gross understatement and you REALLY should have warned us! *wagging finger*
This one corner of the kitchen was left undone in case we needed to get into the wall for the electric. Now we can finally finish the wall. The issues we encountered were: a microwave/fan combo will not fit, return that item. A simple hood fits, but will we be able to exhaust outside or go with self-venting? After cleaning a wasp's nest out of the old vent and poison all over me, the existing vent was too far over to vent this fan. Okay, onto self-venting. We did all the prep on the fan and were ready to hook up the electric. We called over a friend who had done this before and none of the wires in that wall had power and he couldn't figure out the problem.
Next we called an electrician. The wiring in the wall was old and disconnected in the basement years ago, so we needed to run new lines. That done, now time to hang the bugger. No amount of measuring and placing the screws so we could simply slide it into place would work, so of course we'd have to do it the hard way and hold it in place while trying to put the screws in. The screws ended up being too short, the aluminum of the hood bent easy when trying to tighten the screws, and the screwdriver was too short to fit into the 2 inch area where the screws needed to be tightened on one side of the unit.
Next I made a trip to the hardware store for longer screws, wide washers, and a mega-long screwdriver, now onto installing. Taking two people to hold the monster in place while putting the screws in from underneath, and continually slicing my hands, knuckles and fingers on the sharp edges of the metal, the hood was finally firmly affixed to the cabinets above. Hooking up the wiring then took just seconds, and voila! It worked. Good thing too, otherwise it would have become a mangled projectile of aluminum as it flew through the kitchen window.
On a much cheerier note, I have begun to decorate the kitchen, hanging metal pieces to tie in with the iron drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. 
Here are two cast iron trivets I hung on the side of a cabinet. They look much better here than hiding in a drawer. So we're down to 4 remaining items to finish in the kitchen, (1) touch-ups on the lights/ceiling, (2) install shoe molding, (3) install cabinets/crown molding on top, and (4) finally finish wall by stove. We already cut and painted the wall to the left of the stove and only need to put it in place. The wall behind the stove needs to be patched, then the overlay wall can go into place. At least the hardest work is now all behind us. *sigh*
6 comments:
You know one thing about your project. It reminds me how much I hate our over the stove fan.. I love the light but hate the fan. When we had that problem in Kora's room that time and had the guy in here he suggested we take the pipe out from our fan and disconnect it because it was going to fall and ruin my kitchen ceiling..
Lookin good, I really like the color. It is very rich. and the metal, do dad's on wall.
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I'm exhausted just reading about how hard it was to put this fan in...Oh My Lord! You all are beyond brave...You Are Warriors Of The First Order!
You all have done a FANTASTIC job with the entire Kitchen!
BRAVA!
Sorry about that! *grinning sheepishly* I was hoping that yours would go in smoother.
"No amount of measuring and placing the screws so we could simply slide it into place would work, so of course we'd have to do it the hard way and hold it in place while trying to put the screws in. The screws ended up being too short, the aluminum of the hood bent easy when trying to tighten the screws, and the screwdriver was too short to fit into the 2 inch area where the screws needed to be tightened on one side of the unit." (We had ALL the exact same problems.)
"Taking two people to hold the monster in place while putting the screws in from underneath, and continually slicing my hands, knuckles and fingers on the sharp edges of the metal, the hood was finally firmly affixed to the cabinets above."(Got to this point and smart-ass husband says:"It's 1/8" closer to one cupboard." Tough shit, that's where it STAYS!)
Our wiring was fine, BUT we found that, 24 yrs ago, the standard vent for range hoods was a 5" diameter round vent. The first time we replaced the hood, 10 yrs ago, the vents matched.
THIS time, the new standard is either 9" round or a rectangular vent. Our new hood had attachments for both, but no adapter to hook to our 5" round vent. We had to rebuild the vent in the hood to get it to attach to our 5" vent. We amazed ourselves when we pulled that job off!
The fan motor in this hood had better last forever, cuz I'm NEVER doing that job again!
I hope your kitchen doesn't have as many goofy angles as ours does. Cutting molding to fit those angles wasn't "fun" either. I HIGHLY recommend buying a power compound miter saw for that job. Ours was only $69 and was worth every penny!
Almost forgot...the range hood looks GREAT. And don't you just LOVE your smooth-top range?
Hi Tweets, I have no problem with ceiling fans, having replaced them, their capacitors and switches a number of times over the years. This exhaust fan, however, was very deceptive. It looks, small, lightweight and like it shouldn't be that difficult to install. OMG!!! I can't remember any home improvement project being this big of a pain in the ass!
Hi Pat, thanks. M picked out the color. It actually is really gorgeous. It's dramatic and goes with the age of the house and our minor Art Deco flare.
OL, I don't know about "brave" or "warriors" it's just called not having money to pay someone else to do it. *sigh* But thanks for your admiration. ;-)
Tshsmom, I have decided that there are major design flaws with exhaust fans. Like, why do they mount the fan so close to one side leaving absolutely no room to put in two screws that are critical to holding the whole thing up? Are they sadists? Yeah, after we got it installed we noticed it wasn't completely flush with the cabinets, but it wasn't that big of a deal, however, when we looked at the huge hole in the wall from the old exhaust fan I told M, "we probably should have patched the wall before putting the fan up." We both looked at each other, then at the wall, then back at each other thinking the same thoughts, "no way in hell are we taking that bastard down." Oh wow on the vent part. We never got that far because the old vent was so far away from the opening for the new vent. Our old vent is a giant-assed hole, probably the 9 incher you were talking about and the new vent was a small rectangle. Well, at least we avoided that additional headache. As for cutting molding. We do have odd angles because this is an old house and nothing is square. I rehung a cabinet door 3 times trying to avoid making it look like it was crooked because things are so out of alignment. I finally just hung it level and used molding to cover the gap instead. Also, I do prefer the smooth top to those cast iron grills and metal inserts on gas stoves, those are really hard to keep clean.
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