Venting!

You may recall that the new kitchen design requires the oven to move over to the right about a foot.  As the oven goes, so does the vent fan and associated ducting in the wall.  Of course, the new vent fan is centered on a wall stud, which I cut with our Sawzall, and later braced with some spare 2x4's.  I installed a pre-fab 90-degree duct and built a small extension with some nifty right angle sheet metal pieces.  Now we can seal off the wall with some new drywall, and when the cabinets are in place, we will cut out a 10-1/2" by 3-1/2" section of drywall and ducting for the new exhaust.

The next task for today was to install a new dimmer switch for the kitchen under-cabinet lights and an outlet for the counter to the left of the stove.  I snaked some wire over to the stove outlet to tap into the AC power, but found that the original outlet did not securely hold onto the wire that was previously installed.  This was a good opportunity to use a spare GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlet, which should be used in wet environments in any case.  This GFCI outlet also protects the other wall outlets that are wired in parallel.  Just think, we can put our hands in the wet sink and touch the electricity without being electrocuted.  Or, so the theory goes.

Here's the new appliance outlet and dimmer switch with the decorative faceplate removed.  The wire hanging out of the wall will feed the dimmer light above the counter to the left of the stove.  .

The circuit continues along the wall to a second light feed for the corner cabinets.  Tomorrow, I plan to run the final extension of the dimmer circuit to the cabinet to the right of the sink.  The sink will have a separate light installed, and the stove top has lights in the vent that will be installed with the cabinets.

The corner walls of the kitchen  had an exposed gap, so I spackled in some tape to seal it up. Most of this will be hidden by the wall cabinets, but I wanted to close any air leak while I had the chance.

The existing floor boards in the dining room have an uneven edge, due to the original dividing wall. 
          










Our new Dewalt router arrived this week, and I have the 3/4" cutting bit installed and the cutting depth set to 3/4".  We also have an edge guide that we will attach to the router to enable us to cut a straight, smooth edge for the interface to the kitchen flooring that we will install next week.  We have to perform the same operation in the hallway for the existing floor boards in the family room and living room.

The yellow ring reads out the cutting depth in 1/64" increments.  Here it is set to 3/4."