cannonfodder wrote:I wish [they were all my machines], there is more money there than my car is worth.

Shhhhhhh . . . . not so loud. Anytime my wife comments about my espresso equipment, I remind her a) that she let me drill two holes in the granite countertop, b) she loves the drinks I make for her, and c) it could be worse -- just look at Dave!

Now with Bocote handles from Dave.


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Mark

2 mhoy: very nice story and machine restauration. Thumbs up.

Figured I'd add this to my original thread so that the before/after can truly be appreciated.

Our kitchen remodel happened this summer. Of course I took this as a time to run a dedicated 20 Amp circuit for the Elektra along with a water and drain line. Instead of drilling through the new granite counter, I chose to go through the back, through the wall and down into the drain area. Figured it was easier to replace a couple of ceramic tiles on the back splash instead of plugging the counter top. (Have to actually remember to go buy a couple more of them, we already had to use up our spares to correct something else).



We have move the lever to another area. We've now been using the T1 again since Sept. As you can see, I now have the legs on the system and it fits (by 1/8") under the upper cabinets!



Here is what the kitchen looks like (we are waiting for some red leather chairs for the counter area).



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Mark

Really nice work mate, that machine has come a long way since you first bought it. Really nice kitchen btw, dunno if I could build one like that if I tried, and I've built custom wooden boats (80k € for a small speedboat last time I was on a project crew) and renovated houses for a living.

Sebastian: Thanks, here is the old kitchen....


We've sat in the new kitchen numerous times since we finished and have been awed that we have such a nice kitchen now. We love the induction cook top and the oven (which has a steam option that helps keep baked goods moist).


We live in a house in which the kitchen is an island with major roof supports on 3 sides limiting what we could do. You can sort of see there is a room and a hall way behind the one wall. It took months of layouts, but luckily one of our neighbors did a very similar remodel. So learned from their job of what we wanted larger (the island) and what we wanted with less than one foot encroachment onto an adjacent room. We also had to upgrade our main electrical to 200 amp instead of the original 100 amp panel (this was done a month or so before the kitchen).

My wife managed the contractors, she did a great job keeping them on task and on time. The main contractor was very good to work with and they did a wonderful job in about 8 weeks. I did the demolishing and then they took over (although we did install drawers and handles and such). The cabinets are all Ikea with one of their newest simple fronts. The soft close drawers and cabinet doors are awesome. The granite top took a weekend plus to find. Luckily my wife is persistent.


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Mark

I'm sorry, it's late and I don't feel like reading everything but I just wanted to say that is a gorgeous kitchen. It really is quite an amazing renovation.

Great Work

200 amps!?! Every time I hear about your American wiring I'm glad I live in Europe, here a normal house has 3x20/25 amps incoming at the main panel, and that's enough to heat a 200 m^2 house with electrical heaters, electrical boiler, electrical stove and so forth... And as it's Finland, we also have a 3 phase electrical sauna, it's peaks at about 6000 watts.

Anyhow, amazing kitchen, and Ikea sure has come a long way, I need to go check their stuff out. I remember when Ikea was "cheap particular board crap" as I friend put it, glad that their stuff has gotten that good!

Mark, thanks for posting these latest pictures. Congratulations on what is truly a beautiful kitchen. Enjoy!

Stuggi wrote:200 amps!?! Every time I hear about your American wiring I'm glad I live in Europe, here a normal house has 3x20/25 amps incoming at the main panel, and that's enough to heat a 200 m^2 house with electrical heaters, electrical boiler, electrical stove and so forth... And as it's Finland, we also have a 3 phase electrical sauna, it's peaks at about 6000 watts.

I wish we didn't need 200 Amps too. Mind you the induction cooktop and stove get 240v, so it's not too bad. Wish they insulated down here in Northern California as well as they did in Canada.

Stuggi wrote:Anyhow, amazing kitchen, and Ikea sure has come a long way, I need to go check their stuff out. I remember when Ikea was "cheap particular board crap" as I friend put it, glad that their stuff has gotten that good!

Well.....there was a budget here, so I'd rather think of them as carefully engineered pieces of particle board. If you assemble and don't rack the pieces they will do well, Square walls would help.... The old white particle board kitchen was in pretty good shape, except for the areas that got wet....

Mark

Mark