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postquake_angela

Long Journey - New Kitchen after 7 years of planning

postquake_angela
11 years ago

Hi All,

I joined this forum in 2003 and spent 2 years planning a kitchen and started acquiring parts for it. Then, exhausted from restoring the rest of our 1898 Victorian, we decided to put the project off. We lived for 7 years with an extra stove, a fridge that was too big for its nook, and half-opened boxes containing the sink and faucet piled on top of the fridge. At this point, it's been mostly done for 6 months.


DETAILS

Cabinets - Full custom painted poplar inset. We found a local craftsman who we could afford. Loved this guy, can't believe we got so lucky. He has since moved to Spain.

Countertops - Stainless. Wanted marble, but our tomato-sauce splattering ways would have gotten us in trouble.

Island countertop - Hasn't happened yet. Probably do the marble here, or maybe engineered granite

Sink - Baumatic Uragano sink. Got it from some Canadian dealer online.

Faucet - Franke Triflow. Bought during some Homeclick sale back in 2005, they don't even make this model anymore.

Fridge - We found a floor-model Amana on Craiglist a few years back. It was the one we wanted and a bargain, but we had to rip out old cabs and live with a messed up wall for a few years.

Stove - 1950's O'keefe and Merritt. Found on Craiglist.

Hood - Vent-a-hood

Dishwasher - F&P. We like them a lot, with caveats.

Ceiling Lights - Cree CR6. I like the quality of light, kinda wish we'd gotten the CR4, which are the 4" version.

Pendant Light - Restoration hardware.

Undercab Lights - from Environmentallights.com. We rarely use them, the reflection off the stainless is dizzying.

Floor - We kept our existing Saltillo tile floor, which we've always loved.

Backsplash - None! No regrets yet.

Old Kitchen was not as horrendous as some, but the cabs were starting to melt.

New:

Fridge Wall

Stove

Between-the-studs-pantry and pendant

Hutch in Dining room

Island of baking

Here's the link to the whole album if anyone wants to dork out and see how I organized stuff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/renderblue/sets/72157626793760767/


LESSONS LEARNED:

Not to assume what we couldn't afford without asking. We assumed we couldn't afford a local custom cabmaker. We assumed we couldn't afford the Siematic-certified GC that our friend had used and liked. We spent a lot of time getting quotes and finally asked these guys last and their quotes turned out to be lower.

Everything I really like will probably look dated at some point. When I started designing, creamy inset cabs were not ubiquitous. There was a lot of cherry or maple full-overlay cabs with ubatuba counters, or coffee glazed cabs with gold granite. I re-visited my decisions when started up in 2011, especially given some gorgeous design trend that were happening, but I still loved what I loved.

We hated the 2003 restoration so much that we dreaded doing the kitchen and bathroom for years. Meanwhile we lived in limbo and didn't bother to de-clutter or properly organize the space we were living in. At some point you just have to stop agonizing and do it already.

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