Kitchen Coming Along

In preparation for the counter tops arriving sometime in the next day or two, I worked on the peninsula wiring and installing the range hood and associated ducting. The roughed-in wiring was already in place but needed to be tidied up. The space under the counter for the dishwasher also accommodates a GFCI outlet and switches for the dining room chandelier and pendant lights that hang over the peninsula. While not difficult, the openings for the electrical boxes have to be cut into the decorative wood panels. My dremel tool came in handy for this job, but a steady hand is required as you can't easily repair a gaffe like you would if the boxes were being installed in drywall. The result looks great!
Installing the range hood was much more involved, requiring a 4" hole in the wall to the outside and a series of galvanized tin pieces. The hole went right through my precious cabinets, but was not such a big deal after cutting the 3.5"x 10" opening for the range hood exhaust itself in the bottom of the same cabinet! The range hood installed under the cabinet quite easily with only 4 pan head screws. Hooking up the wiring was a snap as was installing the breaker in the panel. A little metallic duct tape to seal all the joints in the tin parts and we were ready to go. Well, almost...I had to install the 2 LED downlight bulbs into their sockets, and then...Bazinga! It all works! The fan is very quiet, which was one of my requirements and the lights illuminate the stove surface perfectly.