Kay Nimitz Smith -- Writer, Mom, Goddess in Training: June 2014

Kitchen Remodel: Cabinet Door Dilemma

So we had a kitchen door dilemma. After looking at pictures of black and white door profiles, trying to figure out what on earth they translated into when it came to actually looking like a DOOR, we found ourselves in a pickle.

The websites we were given to choose from were not terribly helpful. What we thought we want didn't turn out to be doors that we liked. Door after door after door and I thought we'd never find something we liked.

Here are a few rejects:

Then we found one that we could live with:

Now for the color:

Cherry Cordoban on the left reject door, Cherry on the right reject door.

Which do you prefer?

We can't decide. We like them both. So I stained the door with my own color,

and this is what we came up with.

What do you think? I think it's going to be just fine.

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Kitchen Remodel: Granite Counter Preview!

I am hoping to get better pictures from our granite fabricator of our two book matched slabs, but here's a lousy preview picture of our Typhoon Bordeaux granite

Here is the full slab, hiding behind a fence. Evidently, they didn't want me to try to move the slab myself. Strong woman that I am. One THOUSAND pounds of granite, and they think I'm going to move it by myself. Hahahahahahaha!

Here's my most FAV part of the granite. It's all red and has lots of movement.

Here's the bottom corner that I dislike the most. It's all gray and dreary. It would look great in my gray bathroom upstairs though! Let's see if there's enough granite left over for counters in the upstairs bathrooms too!

Then, I took a floor plan of our kitchen, and super imposed pictures of the granite onto the floor plan so that I could envision what the kitchen would look like with the new granite. Here's a preview!

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Kitchen Remodel: Backsplash Revisited

When we first calculated how much tile we would need, we never accounted for a tile backsplash behind the window. My old window had no backsplash. So then we bought a new window. And now we have room for a backsplash under the window.

So THEN we had to buy MORE backsplash materials to make sure we could cover the five foot long area beneath the window.

After fussing a bit with my previous backsplash model, I settled on the following pattern.

What do you think?

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Kitchen Remodel (Day 15) - Baseboards!

So half the baseboards were installed yesterday. Yay! They look amazing.

We picked a moulding with lots of movement in it and a larger height than our current molding. I wanted BOLD. I wanted DARING. I wanted CHANGE! And mostly, I wanted WHITE!

Then we decided to pay a wee bit more for Hemlock, rather than Pine or MDF. We're pretty hard on our baseboards. I didn't want MDF on the floors. For the crown molding? Sure. No one will ever touch that stuff once it's up. But for the baseboards, I wanted real wood. The pine was so soft that I could dent it with my fingernail, so we opted for Hemlock. We ended up paying $1.75 per linear foot for our 3 ¾ inch hemlock moulding, vs. $1.31 for a 4 inch MDF at Home Depot. So it cost me $123 more for the Hemlock, and I think it was worth EVERY penny.

I painted the baseboards, we had a finish guy cut and install, and then I caulked everything and touched up the nail holes, and gave it a quick touch up with paint. Looks spectacular.

I'll post more pics as I get them done. The area around the newel post, for example, is outstanding. But until the new carpet goes in, it won't look as spectacular as it should. But here are some preview shots:

The hardwood floors moved out, and the baseboards moved in. Painting 14 foot planks was fun!

Before

Wow, look at the size difference. Who says size doesn't matter?

After

WOWZA, what a whammo zammo difference!!!

Before

After

Just imagine how much better it will look when the 24 year old carpet is replaced next month!

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Kitchen Remodel Day 14 - Hardwood install

The BEST transformation EVER!!!

Our floor guy is absolutely a genuine artist. Such beautiful handiwork throughout!!!

A preview of the finish product! Lovely, lovely, lovely!

Stacked up in our living room with the washer & dryer, toilet, sink, dishwasher, trash compactor, and closet door. Ah, I miss the days when the room had furniture!!

And so it begins...

The front entry way. Gorgeous!

Yes, yes, it shows EVERY speck of dirt. But I don't care. I LOVE IT!! This is PRE sweeping, mind you, and there's lots of sawdust involved in putting down hardwood floors.

The trap door to our crawl space

Powder room. Look ma, no toilet!

The finished work!

The wood is an African Acacia Walnut, with a Terra Roma stain. It is quite lovely, and glows red in the sunlight. So lovely! It is going to look absolutely beautiful with our cherry cabinets!

Thank you, Dan!!

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Kitchen Remodel (Day 10 - Day 13) - Plywood install

I loved coming home to the smell of fresh plywood on our floors!! No more delicately walking around tetnus hazards. No more "Shoes Required!" every time you wanted to tip toe to the potty. Yay! Floors!!

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Kitchen Remodel (Day 9) - Installing the new window

My one disappointment in the whole renovation has been the installation of the new window. When the contractor told me that we'd have to have a new window installed, my first instinct was to say, "Yay me!" I've never liked the side to side windows. I much prefer the up and down sort. Needless to say, things were going fine until he pointed out that it would have to be several inches shorter than our current window. Fine, I thought, several inches isn't that big of a deal. But it turns out that several to his Hungarian mind was closer to 7 inches, and several to my non-Hungarian mind was three or four.

The result? A much too small window, closing off what limited light we already have. Sniffle. I'm very disappointed in the window. And no, we couldn't send it back, because they'd already installed it and taken off the packaging before I realized what a tragic loss of light we'd discovered. So alas, we're stuck with a smaller window for now. I'd actually contemplated making the window a three-long window, to let even MORE light in, but then we realized that would require more effort and electricity moving, etc., and so forth. And my contractor is going on vacation to St. Martin in a week, and I'm wondering if we should just give in and give up. Is it REALLY too late to have a bigger window installed? Is now REALLY the time? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!!

But here are the pics, and you can see for yourself.

I should really get a bigger window, shouldn't I?? Shouldn't I??

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Kitchen Remodel (Day 8) - Painting

Painting was a cinch. The new texture needed to be primed with special dry wall primer, but the paint job was fast and easy. Plus, I didn't have to paint behind the new pantry. Less painting! Less paint!

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Kitchen Remodel (Day 6 & 7) - Ceiling and wall texture

Next up was the ceiling and wall texture. The goal was to match the current ceiling so that, after painting, one could never tell that there used to be a lowered soffit ceiling. I think they did a terrific job!!

First Steps: Install a Dexter Kill Room