Busy, busy, busy

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since ordering the cabinets. As part of the remodel, Ken decided to get rid of the big, gas fireplace. He had disliked it since he first saw it. I was ambivalent, but it was big and limited the room arrangement possibilities too much. So our contractor came in and started whaling away at it. It took much longer than he had predicted because it turned out to be solidly filled with broken brick and cement instead of hollow like he expected.

Original fireplace

And now it’s gone

Partway through the repair.
That’s a 6 ft radius so you can see how much space was opened up

While that was going on, we borrowed a cabinet color sample from Home Depot and headed down to Arizona Tile to pick out our granite slab for the counter tops. We thought we were just confirming our choice of “Nova Brown” that we had selected at Home Depot. But that turned out to be just OK. Too boring, too safe. As we wandered around among all the slabs, we found one we both really liked – Kashmir Cream. Just enough swirl to make it really interesting, but not as wild as some. Check.

Ken holding up the cabinet sample while I take a blurry picture with my cell phone.
One of these days I’ll figure it out

Finally, we had to make some lighting choices. Those ugly wrought iron things in the kitchen and foyer obviously had to go. But the dining and living room fixtures are nothing to brag about either. The kitchen lights will become recessed cans but we needed something over the dinette table, a chandelier for the dining room, and two ceiling fixtures for the living room and foyer. All harmonious. And brushed nickel. (Oddly enough, the wife of the guy who helped take out the fireplace actually wanted those wrought iron monstrosities.)

So it’s off to the Lighting & Fan store to see what we might see. We had a nice talk with Jessie about possibilities and she walked us through the quirks of their website. Now we just need to spend some time looking through it.

Really ugly wrought iron in kitchen and dinette area

Dining room light is blah. Living room puck is really out of place.
I’m guessing it’s replacing a fan.

Another ugly bit of wrought iron in the foyer

 

[written 1/14/14 – Ken’s recliner is now in the former fireplace corner]

Time to Remodel the Kitchen

This is our current kitchen mid-morning about a week ago. High time to remodel, don’t you think?

The outside (sink) wall with the original avocado green double sink. Faucet replaced before we moved in since existing one leaked. I’ve been hand washing dishes since mid-March.

And the inside (stove/fridge) side with the matching avocado green range. Had to borrow an oven rack from the previous house since they were missing. The little desk/phone area is a nice touch but anybody sitting here would block the way.

And the kitchenette area. Just enough room for a small table for four.

I took some careful measurements and headed over to Home Depot to consult with a kitchen designer. Ken had some pretty clear ideas on what he wanted: wall oven & microwave, stainless appliances, granite countertop, arched recessed panel doors, light but not white cabinets. I was a little more nebulous: a counter area big enough to prepare things on and would always (mostly) be clear, a place for the toaster oven & cutting boards, pullout bottom shelves, coffee pot stays in current location, more drawers. I would have preferred non-stainless appliances (cleanability) and white painted/plastic coated cabinets, but not enough to make a real issue about it.

That consultation was a long, drawn out affair ending up with a couple of not really satisfactory results. I left to think things over a bit more and the lady said she’d email a couple more configurations. She did, but I wasn’t happy with them either.

The designer kept referring to a huge book from the cabinet maker with all their sizes and configurations in it. The little booklet I was given didn’t even compare. How could I come up with a design if I didn’t even know what was available (and what wasn’t)? Luckily, Thomasville had the information on their website (after a bit of rummaging around). I printed out the appropriate cabinet styles/sizes, got out a piece of quadrille paper, and went at it myself.

After several efforts, I came up with a final design we thought we could live with. I had to sacrifice the wall oven & microwave, but I was able to find an upper microwave cabinet so it didn’t have to either sit on the counter (a Ken no-no) or be over the stove (a Mary Lou no-no). Here’s the final design. Cabinets were ordered a day later (today) – I wanted a day to go over the listings and make sure no mistakes were made. (I did find one. The designated cabinet was 3” too short.) Projected delivery day is 4 weeks – July 30.

Kitchen wall. She forgot the sink, but it’s under the window. The counter between the sink and the pantry will be my main work counter.

The inside wall. The toaster oven will sit underneath the microwave. The counter to the right of the stove will be the inevitable junk collecting surface.

BTW, the floor will remain the same. We want to redo the whole house in the same tile and are *not* ready to tackle that one yet. That’s a couple years down the road.

[written 1/13/14]