Kitchen Remodel Mania!

Done! `

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:39:00 +0000

Ok, I'm calling this project done. Yes, there are still some little things we are arguing over with the company but they are mostly cosmetic things.

Check out my attempt at a view matching the original designers' concept drawing:

Blurry picture with the buffet thing in it.

We love the new kitchen! We've been moved back into and using the new kitchen for a couple of weeks now (minus a week-long belated honeymoon in Hawaii).

Thanks everyone who helped make this possible.

Painting!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:27:00 +0000

We are almost done! Sorry for not posting for awhile but things have really slowed down for the past week or so while the last couple of things on our punch list get fixed. Supposedly everything will be fixed today.

In the meantime we decided to start painting. This was the one thing that wasn't a part of the services offered by the one-stop-shop we used for the design and installation. They did everything else, including patching lots of holes in the drywall and even re-texturing them. As a result the walls and ceiling had lots of patches of different shades of white. Unfortunately we'll probably have to get the entire ceiling repainted since it will be almost impossible to match the paint color we currently have and just pain the impacted areas. So bear with us since that might take a few months to schedule someone to come do that.

In the meantime someone was busy this weekend masking everything off and repainting it:

Cathe after masking pretty much everything.

Color! Cathe in the midst of adding some color to the kitchen.

Lights, Appliances, Disposal! We're almost done!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:33:00 +0000

Wow, things are really starting to wrap up now. There isn't really anything left to do expect make a final "punch-list" of things to fix before we sign-off that everything is done. A lot of seemingly little things were accomplished over the last couple of days.

Our tile floor and back splash have been sealed and are done

The tile floor.

Back splash with new outlet.

The electricians must have been by today to finish up all of our light installations. We now have our new pendant lights installed and they look better than expected.

Pendant/Accent lights.

Our under cabinet lights were also installed.

Buffet with under cabinet lights on.

All of our appliances have been re-installed. Unfortunately our dishwasher door has started squeaking.

A dark picture trying to show off the under cabinet lights

Apparently one part of the design was to extend the cabinet above our microwave a bit. Unfortunately that covers the exhaust vents for the microwave so that has to be fixed somehow.

View of the cabinet over the microwave. Notice how the other door is covering the vents.

Our new sink and disposal are all hooked up.

Pork Chop doing an inspection on the new plumbing.

The next step is preparing our punch-list of things that need to be fixed. Our preliminary list:

Fix the microwave so the vents aren't covered up
Fix the seams in the granite
Stop the squeak in the dishwasher door
Level the oven
Make sure all the drawer faces are in line.

If you have any other suggestions on things to fix/test let us know.

Appliances homeless no more

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:27:00 +0000

September 26, 2011

Today we returned home to find our appliances homeless no more. Instead of oddly hanging out in the living / dining room, the fridge, stove and dishwasher all happily sat snugly in their familiar pockets of the kitchen. We need to work with Kevin to refine a few elements - the fridge tilts to the right and the stove tilts downward to the backside.

Also, the floor-to-ceiling plastic tarp that served to separate the kitchen and the living / dining room is gone. We can really tell how open the area feels/looks now. And with the half wall gone, it makes a fantastic difference! We are super happy with the layout change.

We're still curious about the tile floor as it wasn't cleaned or sealed before moving the appliances back. Seems like a step might have been accidentally missed. Hopefully we run into Kevin on Tuesday and get things take care of before the project concludes.

By the way, tomorrow (Sept 27, 2011) is when they will start building the new 21-story condo next door (in the Football stadium parking lot). We have 40 days of pile driving ahead of us. As a point of documentation, Jeff and I took pictures of our kitchen, especially the granite, to show that it has no cracks or damage prior to the start of the Condo project next door. Hence, that's why you see the yellow Post-it note that Jeff's holding. It say Sept 26th... Here's to no issues for our kitchen and for our entire condo building (approximately 100 units encompassing 6 stories...yes, the new building will dwarf us horrifically).

More pictures...

Back splash looks "blah" as we don't think it's done yet.

Actual seam line on the main peninsula.
The other one is above the dishwasher.

All this in one week?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Week of Sep 19 - 23

This week, we really saw the kitchen come together. Highlights include:

Floor tile laid and grouted
Tile back splash laid and grouted
Bonus cabinet roughed in and mudded to create a flush-to-wall built-in look - neat!
Cabinet fronts added
Cabinet slow-close brackets added...these rock!
Faucet installed (and functioning)
Garbage disposal installed...Had to put it on the other side of the sink...ARG!
Glass inserts added to Buffet
Hardware installed
Microwave installed...Needs to be redone as the top-vents are covered by the upper cabinet...ARG!

First, the floor tile was installed. We chose 18" x 18" tiles that were a warm brown/grey color (it's hard to describe, but it won't show dirt or wear easily - yea!). We have 1/8" grout lines in an appropriate "Espresso" color. Go Team Starbucks!

A HUGE tile saw that was on our balcony

Lots of water for the tile process

Pork Chop thinks the tile is GREAT, especially for back scratching!

Second, the tile back splash was installed. We added a special back splash behind the wall with the stove and microwave. The hope was to offer another bold visual element when sitting in the living or dining room and looking into the kitchen. We chose a cool slate grey mini-tile pattern. While most back splashes run horizontal, we opted for the vertical layout. This would mimic the vertical grains of our bamboo cabinets. And boy does it work well together! The grout is done. A coat of sealer and/or a general wash off may be needed - as we don't think it looks done yet. Haven't had a chance to chat with Kevin yet about it.

Back splash without the silver-grey grout

Third, the bonus pull-out cabinet and wine cubby were installed. AKA, this is the hole in the wall where Pork Chop went exploring. It's great to have the cabinet roughed in. All in all, we like this feature a lot. We do wish 2 more wine cubbies could have been added - we weren't sure if there was enough room in the design phase so we downgraded to a 6-bottle cubby.

Wine Cubby and Pullout Storage. A new thermostat for the wall heater is to the right.

Fourth, check out this killer kitchen faucet (Dad, don't worry. It's a Delta!!!!). The bowl on the right is a bit bigger and deeper than the left. That detail proved to put a kink in the garbage disposal install, as now the disposal must go on the LEFT side of the sink. As I (Cathe) am the official dishwasher of the house, this will be a BIG adjustment for me. Hope the adjustment process is quick and painless.

HUGE Faucet head with Pull-down sprayer - Love it!

Check out the new hardware. Jeff was inspired to have long handles on the European slab-style drawers. Looks pretty cool, don't you think!

36" long cabinets - Top ones are 6 inches tall. Bottom two are 12" tall.

Lastly, here a few fun pictures of the finished Buffet. The glass inserts have texture that resembles a light Seattle rain on an office window. We thought it would be funny.

Buffet wall with Cabinet fronts and hardware.
The under mount lights are the last piece.

Seattle Rain...don't you agree?!

Emergency Cat Extraction

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:34:00 +0000

Help!

The last cabinet to get installed in our new kitchen is a wine rack and liquor cabinet type-thing. The way the designer figured out how to do this was to insert it into the wall in the corner where we just knocked down the wall dividing the kitchen and the living room. When we cut into the wall we found some mold so we had to cut the hole a bit bigger so Cathe could get in there and scrub the wall down and repaint it.

Why does she look like she enjoyed scrubbing mold off the wall and then repainting it?

The mold!

We were worried about someone getting in the hole in the wall during construction so we covered it with paper and some painter's tape. This wasn't a problem. Then we got our counter top installed on Friday and this apparently gave Pork Chop the height she needed to get in the hole. So while we were watching a movie Saturday night we heard a strange noise. 20-30 minutes later we noticed Pork Chop was missing.

What is left of the original paper guard.

The hole with the new counter.

What followed was an entertaining yet stressful 40 minutes of trying to figure out how to get her out the wall. This included using scrap cardboard, our ironing board (Cathe's idea), and a reusable shopping bag rigged up with belts (my idea). What eventually worked was sticking a step ladder down in the hole and putting some treats just outside the hole so she could climb out.

The rescue ladder.

Now the hole is covered up super-secure so no one can get in there again.

Uba Tuba is Installed!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 01:16:00 +0000

Our Uba Tuba counter top was installed today. (Or should it be plural counter tops since there are actually counters on the kitchen counter and the buffet?) It is amazing how much more the kitchen looks "completed" after this installation. The color exceeds my expectations and looks great under our lights and should look even better once our pendant lights are installed.

The buffet with the new counter top.

Here is a better picture that shows the color in the granite a bit better. You can see how much tearing down that wall opened up the kitchen. Notice the 12-inch overhang on the right of the counter so we can actually have it be a functional counter where people can sit and eat or drink, or eat and drink.

A better view of the Uba Tuba.

A wider view of the whole kitchen,

This is a follow-up from yesterday. This is what the box looked like that our lights showed up in yesterday. The condition of the box scared us until you opened it up and saw that it was filled with some sort of alien, green, super-duper bubble wrap. Hopefully everything is ok. It looks like it should be.

Our accent/pendant lights.

If anyone wondered why we wanted so many Home Depot gift cards, this is one reason. We stocked up on all of our switches, outlets, switch plate covers a new thermostat and a dimmer.

Parts galore!

Lots of New Changes!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:17:00 +0000

We haven't posted in a few days and a lot of stuff has happened with the kitchen project over the last couple of days so I'll try to cover it all here.

The cabinets that border the living room were installed and they have some massive drawers in them. They are quite impressive at 36" wide and the bottom two drawers are both 12" deep. They also have reinforced hardware so we can load them up with all of our pots and pans and they will be able to support them. Check them out.

Hey I just discovered how to put captions on pictures!

On second thought, you may not be getting the feeling for how big those drawers are from that picture so Pork Chop and I posed beside it for scale and had Cathe take another picture. See how big they are in comparison to Pork Chop. They are so big that they rival the size of my guns in this picture. (Yes, ladies, I'm married now, sorry about that.)

Gotta love the (mild) farmers' tan

One other thing that suddenly appeared was our new sink. It isn't fully installed yet since it will eventually be an under mount with our Uba Tuba granite on top (I like saying "Uba Tuba" since it sounds kind of funny so get used to hearing it.) Yes, the two bowls of the sink are different sizes. The bowl on the right is deeper and bigger then the bowl on the left.

The blue stuff will go away once the Uba Tuba is installed.

The next big installation was something Kevin keeps referring to as our "Reefer Cabinet" which is the cabinet that goes above our fridge. I've wondered why it was called a "reefer cabinet" and am thinking that maybe it is because that is the hardest cabinet to get into so you might want to stash your reefer up there since it is the last place anyone would want to look for it.

Pork Chop searching the reefer cabinet for reefer.

The rest of that wall (as Cathe would say the "west wall") had the rest of its cabinets installed today.

It will look much better with the Uba Tuba installed.

We've also been busy making some of the last minute decisions and sign-off kind of things such as confirming all of our tile choices, making final decisions on the edge and overhang on the Uba Tuba, purchasing new outlets, switches, dimmers and a new thermostat and trying to figure out how to get the place painted. We also received our accent lights in the mail today. Unfortunately the box is kind of beat up so I hope they are ok. (We already have the glass shades so we should be fine.

Rumor is tomorrow might be granite installation day! So we might have some Uba Tuba to show everyone!

Buffet...better than we anticipated!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 23:47:00 +0000

September 8 & 9, 2011

This week, Kevin began constructing our custom-made Buffet with pantry cabinets. It is housed along the hallway wall directly across from the kitchen. The unit includes two floor-to-ceiling pantry sections with a buffet-like serving cabinet in the center. The goal was to add cabinets while lengthening the kitchen space to the full width of the condo. And it worked!

The skeleton was completed by Friday. Next week (or so), doors will be added. The top center section will include doors with glass inserts. We picked glass that looks like a soft rain running down a window...you know, very Seattle like. =)

Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Thursday's progress

The initial shelves were added.

Friday's progress

All shelves are adjustable. The company gave us lots of extra shelves in case we ever need to use them.

View down the hallway to the front door.

The top cabinets (the ones with the glass door fronts) include our bamboo finish on the inside. Very neat!

Lower section.

The rest of the progress this week pertained to finishing the can lights, patching/mudding the holes (in the ceiling and side walls) and in prepping a few other lower level cabinets.

The cabinet on the far right will be the sink (top has not been cut out yet.

This is our new vertical cookie sheet, pizza pan cabinet. It's 12 inches wide so lots of room for Jeff's pizza peels and Cathe's baking sheets - yea!

We added 5 can lights (4" with reflective trim kits) to light up the main cooking/prep areas. The two squares in the center were where our old 6" cans used to be. We'll repaint the entire condo once the kitchen is done.

Two more 4" cans were added to the hallway area right in front of the new buffet. This will not only light up the buffet area, but also the walkway into the living/dining room (which was dark before).

Currently Not So Spacious

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:55:00 +0000

When we got home from work today our wide-open kitchen area was no more. The big airy spaces had been replaced by lots and lots of cabinets, the cabinet bases and other stuff that will end up being our kitchen.

It is kind of like being a kid on December 23rd and having to try to guess what is in each package based on its size and shape.In particular I'm confused by some large but flat packages. I think I know what they are, but I'm not a construction expert. Anyone have any guesses?

The other big bonus is that we got a new power saw! I'm not sure I know what to do with it after the kitchen is over but it just appeared today. Check it out.

-- Jeff

Electrical homework

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:56:00 +0000

September 1, 2011

Thursday night we returned home to find a 5-page handwritten note from Kevin. Apparently the electrician is coming the next day and we have a lot of questions to answer. HOMEWORK!

After scurrying over to the Mariners baseball game, we returned home to answer the many design and logistics questions. It was kind of fun as we could write (in pencil) on the wall. "Put double-outlet here", "Move this there". The ceiling can, recessed lighting was the most intensive. Using pennies for the can lights and dimes for the pendants, we created a paste&stick diagram on the paper diagram from the engineer.

During the project, PC wanted to help Cathe by peeking over her shoulder. WHAT IS IT WITH THIS CAT AND HER CLIMBING ON CATHE'S SHOULDERS?! LOL!!!

Carpet in the Kitchen!?!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:50:00 +0000

September 1, 2011

It's funny to learn what's truly underfoot everyday things like a cabinet. Once the cabinets were removed this week, we found CARPET. We were aware the prior owner added wood flooring, but little did we know that she must have added/upgraded a few cabinets in the kitchen. Underneath the outer edge of cabinets was a small rectangular patch of carpet. It butted right up against the edge of the wood floor. Instead of removing it, they built on top of it. Crazy.

Anywho, you know who LOVED this hidden treasure??? PC. She thinks this whole project, again, was for her benefit. She loves on this carpet daily. Clawing on it. Rolling around on it. Meowing loudly like its Christmas or her birthday. What a goofball.

We'll definitely have to save this piece for her and incorporate it into the finished project somehow...

Demo Week - What a big space!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:38:00 +0000

September 1, 2011

Demo Week Day 4 - By the end of Day 4, everything and I mean everything is gone. The cabinets, the plumbing, even the half wall that separated the kitchen from the dining/living room. It is SO OPEN. It surprised us how BIG the space was - wow! Knocking down that wall was definitely the right choice.

Before the half wall was removed:

This is the half wall. It's not load-bearing. We will loose the 3 upper cabinets, but our new buffet area will compensate for those lost and then some.

Kevin removed the lower cabinets first.

Uh Oh. Water damage from our dishwasher...or the prior owner???

The grey tile backsplash is gone!

It's so naked looking!

Here are the cabinets and counter top that were removed. All was picked up and removed from our condo by Thursday.

After the half wall was removed:

Kevin first stripped off the dry wall to expose the metal studs (a standard in condos).

Notice all the upper cabinets are gone now - wow!

Side view of the metal wall.

Don't you agree - a big space!

We were intrigued by all the wires buried inside the wall. Most will be relocated to the wall to the right. But one thing is certain, the Land Line for the phone is GONE. Who uses a LL phone nowadays?!

By Thursday, the metal studs were removed. Underneath it was a beautiful, old wood flooring. For those who haven't heard the history of our condo building, it was originally built in 1901 right after the great fire of Seattle. It served as a Sawmill for the city. Then 90-years later, the building was converted to condos. I'm guessing this is the original floor from 1901. What a find!

Demo Week - Attack of the Plastic wall

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:23:00 +0000

August 30, 2011

Demo Week Day 2 - Living in an open-air condo can prove tricky especially during a remodel project. To help limit dust, Kevin hung ceiling-to-floor sheets of plastic, thick plastic. For a place with no walls that run to the ceiling to begin with, this look was really surreal. The best part is the swaying sound. Not like a nice ocean with waves softly crashing but something uniquely familiar.

And PC (Pork Chop) has taken a liking to racing & sliding along the edge of the plastic that touches the floor. Hours of running and playing...As long as she doesn't rip it down from the ceiling, its all good for us.

The wall separating our kitchen and living/dining room.

This separates our bedroom from the kitchen.

Not sure what Jeff is doing here...

Pork Chop and Jeff (on the other side of the plastic) are playing.

Kevin also put down pink (yes, pinky-red) heavy-duty paper to cover our wood floor. It runs from the front door to the kitchen, plus he put some in the guest bathroom to help keep the area cleaner and damage free. Very impressive and most appreciated! He also put down thin pieces of smooth plywood to again further protect the flooring underneath. Great move by the company to protect the homeowner's floors!!

Demo Week - Adios appliances

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:15:00 +0000

August 29, 2011

Day 1 of Demo - Upon returning home Monday night, we found the appliance removed from their original homes and relocated to a nearby wall in our living room. Weird, but at least we can still use our refrigerator.

Before:

After:

Meet Kevin!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0000

August 29, 2011

Bright and early on Monday, August 29th, we finally met our Project Manager (PM). His name is Kevin. What a nice, down to earth guy! We spent about 2.5 hours that first day reviewing the engineer's plans, exploring our condo's layout and fielding Q&A about what would happen this week. And it appears that Pork Chop even likes him.

Let the project begin...

Anyone want to join us for dinner or brunch?

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Our kitchen appliances are all officially out of service for the next 25-45 days. Cathe would be perfectly happy (maybe even happier than normal) if we just ate things like cold bread spread with cold bbq sauce and cold slices of cheese on it for dinner every night. I on the other hand am looking at this period of time as an excellent opportunity to do two things: 1, catch up with as many friends as possible and 2, try out as many different places to eat as possible. If we can combine the two all the better!

If anyone is interested in meeting us out for dinner let us know and we'll schedule something as soon as possible. Also, if anyone has any recommendations for places to try let us know and we'll add it to the list we are starting to put together. Anyone want to meet us? Got any good dinner/brunch recommendations?

--Jeff

The Last Supper

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:42:00 +0000

August 28, 2011

Tomorrow is the big day - the start of the renovation project. We spent today packing and prepping the kitchen for its final farewell. In total we have 28 boxes and various piles of items strewn about the condo. Crazy, totally crazy. But I think we're ready.

In tribute to the kitchen and all it has offered in the past 20 years, we hosted our final sports pregame event on Saturday before the Sounders soccer match. Barb, Cliff, Jerry and Kathy joined us for a few beers, chips/salsa and grapes (really, we had nothing in the house left to eat!). Good times with good friends.

This Sunday evening, Jeff opted for one last cooking session. This proved eventful as most of the items (spoons, pots, knives, cutting boards) had been packed. In MacGuyver fashion, Jeff created a masterpiece. A wonderful pasta dish with sweet italian sausage, fresh mushroom, ricotta and a marinara sauce, paired with from-scratch garlic toast with parmesan cheese. OMG, so good. Gotta love the little skillet pan he used to saute the garlic.

Jeff says "LET'S EAT!"

Lumens, Trim Kits, Watts vs Volts...OMG

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:32:00 +0000

August 26, 2011

This day was spent running around to various Lighting stores to finally select our can/recessed lighting and undermount lighting. Again, overwhelmed with the vast amount of options. We held true to staying local yet again and purchased lights from Seattle Lighting, a mere 3 blocks from our condo. Andy, the sales guy, was great. Super helpful and frank about what is/isn't necessary. Cathe stopped by in the AM to design a quote, then Jeff stopped by after work to audit the recommendations. Within 45 minutes, we finalized the order and then headed off to dinner at El Puerco Lloron at Pike Place Market. Yum!

We still need to solve for the pendant lights (at Rejuvenation in SODO), but that can wait for another day.

Ding, dong, the mold is dead!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:28:00 +0000

August 25, 2011

Over the past week, Cathe has focused on killing the mold in the dead space behind the kitchen sink wall. The catch was she could only cut out a portion of the dry wall since cabinets would be inserted into the wall. So...she cut a rectangular opening 10 inches wide by 36 inches long/high. That's not very big.

Good news, all the mold was removed via a good hand-scrubbing of 5 parts water, 1 part bleach. Once dry, that was followed up by two coats of mold-resistant paint (whatever the Sherwin-Williams guy told her to buy)...by the way, she carried the gallon of paint in her backpack and walked all the way from SODO to the condo (about a mile). This hoofing element may prove to be the most humorous part of the entire experience. Great memories!

Pictures of the AFTER results.

Goodbye teal green tile!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:58:00 +0000

August 15, 2011
Today we visited the New Face Kitchen showroom to select tile. Fortunately, this was a surprisingly easy event. Our designer, Debra, helped us refine the choices down to three tiles. All offered durability, stylistic compatibility and easy upkeep. Within 30 minutes, we had our choice made - a 12"x12" tile in a light brown/grey color with mild texture and a 1/8 inch grout line. No pictures as we totally forgot to snap a few. But trust us, it will look great!

IKEA...here we come.

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:02:00 +0000

August 11, 2011

After visiting the granite yard, we decided to continue the shopping adventure and headed to IKEA...via Bus.

Yep, we made it. With two transfers and a small fee of $2.75, we traveled from SODO to Renton, WA in about an hour. It was a fun trip which even include a scenic drive by the Boeing Airfield. Neat!

The mission at IKEA was focused on cabinet Handles and Pulls. Jeff, the excel guru, created an awesome excel spreadsheet outlining how many handles/pulls were needed, how much space each handle would consume on the 42 cabinets PLUS how much space would remain. And the best part, it had the price of each handle included so we can stay on budget. Cathe, the finance girl, was ecstatic!

We loitered in the IKEA cafeteria for 1.5 hours with the architect's drawings and a tape measure strewn about the table. Victory, we finally landed upon a design that rocked. We hustled to the checkout line. Then we realized, we had a 1.0mile walk to the bus stop...LOL.

The saga of the urbanite home renovators continue - game on!

Lansa Door hardware

IKEA was great for generating ideas of other styles and functional approaches.

What's best for rolling out pizza dough?

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:47:00 +0000

August 11, 2011
Yep, that is what Jeff asked the Granite sales agent. Classic!

The experience at the Granite Yard was crazy, but awesome! We visited Meta Marble and Granite in the lower SODO area. It was a large warehouse with hundreds of granite slabs. This was super helpful to transform our perspective of a little 12"x12" granite sample into a monster 10'x6' (that's feet, people) slab. We could see the movement, or flow of each granite style. The sample we thought we liked before entering the granite yard proved not to be what we finally chose - again we're so happy we had this opportunity to see the slabs in person and in full size.

Our granite aide, Brandy, was a bundle of energy. She knew so much about the process, the stones, everything. She was also moving a mile a minute. Jeff did a good job slowing her down a bit and used humor to get Brandy to support us. Before long, the little bobcat vehicles with huge claws drug out 3 slabs. Two were in the style of our initial sample - Tropic Gem. A third was one we had never considered before - Uba Tuba, a sleek black granite with flecks of grey and gold intertwined. Very quickly, we fell for this new selection.

What sealed the deal was the honed finish option. Most granite is polished, super shiny, almost glass-like. With Brandy's help, we learned the maintenance and daily upkeep of that crystal-like finish would be troublesome. A honed finish, such as silk or leather, has a softer, warmer texture that demands less upkeep. And yes, it works very well for rolling out pizza dough...

Here's what Tropic Gem looked like (honed - silk). On a larger scale, this slab wasn't the one for us.

Cabinets...decision time!

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:18:00 +0000

July 25, 2011
Who knew so many cabinet options existed?! The volume of choices were overwhelming. Fortunately, we quickly agreed on a style - Bamboo. It's simple. It's earthy. It's contemporary, yet warm. It's perfect.

After choosing the type of bamboo layout (we selected flat pressed), we had to choose a stain color - caramelized, burnt, cinnamon, bare, etc! We opted for the light natural finish of no stain. Let the bamboo shine on its own. The color is great and will help create a bright, airy atmosphere.

Uh oh...MOLD

noreply@blogger.com (CatheP) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:51:00 +0000

July 25, 2011
That's right, we found mold about 1 month before the project was to start.

Behind our kitchen sink wall, there is a dead space about 18" deep where the upper condo units plumbing runs down to the underground sewer lines. Well, about 16 months ago, our upstairs neighbor clogged his pipes with rice which ultimately burst his plumbing. All that gook flowed down into our unit. Most of the noticeable water flowed out of our can lights in the main kitchen area. We thought all was taken care of until we cut the drywall and found the dead space behind the kitchen sink. And we found a 7' tall x 5' wide patch of mold. Gross! Since we're installing new cabinets into this wall space, it's time to CLEAN!