Eliz, your kitchen is absolutely incredible, definitely one of the best I've ever seen. Beautiful. I love it all, but especially the backsplash, the ceiling, the island, the sink, wow. You've had it for almost a year now - do you love it as much now as you did last December?

Your reno sounds similar to mine - we've got foundation work to do first, rewiring, new plumbing, completely gutting the ground floor, then kitchen, powder room, etc. You give me hope that it will be all worth it.

You nailed it with that kitchen, awesome job.

It really does look like it "belongs" in your home (old, yet new, and updated). It looks great--enjoy it for many years to come!!!

Your kitchen renovation is amazing! I love when the new fits in perfectly with what's there. The art you have also fits in perfectly. You selected a gorgeous cabinet color. Thank you for sharing!

i love your backsplash. is it stone? what kind is it. i may want that for my kitchen too.

Hey guys - thks for the nice compliments! Sochi, can't wait to see how your kitchen comes together. What did you end up deciding on the counter - I may may missed how the "votes" turned out. And cat_mom, I think you know I love your kitchen - esp those super cool light fixtures and amazing backsplash. Gocelts, good luck with your new build!

isajules, the backsplash is from Walker Zanger - it's Antequera Random Mini Brick.

HTH,
Eliz

I absolutely love your kitchen! And I love the cookbook library! I can just imagine sitting in that kitchen with a cup of coffee browsing through a cookbook! My idea of heaven

Oops! I forgot to mention our two Sub Zero freezer drawers on the list of appliances.

Eliz

Of all the times I've seen your kitchen photos, today is the first that I've read you have both induction and gas. The best of both worlds - how wonderful! When I was planning my kitchen from August 08-March 09, I considered that. I wish I would have realized you had both so I could have seen how it looks. (of course with my memory, maybe I saw it and forgot about it - LOL) I thought I would need an enormous hood and I wasn't sure I wanted one that big. Does your 1000 cfm hood sufficiently handle the vapors from the induction? Maybe the trick is getting a more POWERFUL hood (like yours) and not necessarily a larger hood.

I also considered the cooktop between my two windows but we would have had to go through 2 ft stone walls to vent the exhaust outside. Your stone wall looks beautiful.

Your kitchen is one that looks like a great place to work. Love the light and openness the windows provide. And, your antique hutch for your cookbooks - excellent and fitting idea. We had our cabinet maker build a hutch for our new kitchen but I'm still on the lookout for an antique hutch for the dining room.

Thanks for posting the link to your blog. I think I'll spend an evening by the fireplace tonight reading through it and enjoying your photos. :)

Country smile, I've been away from GW for a while - had a house full with our annual Open House and then we hosted Christmas this year for both families. Friends for brunch today and I can finally hang up my oven mitts! :-)

I posted a quick comment on your new kitchen post - it's really lovely!! I can imagine how beautiful the rest of the house must be. I hope you enjoyed cooking up a storm over the holidays.

Thanks so much for your nice comments. In regards to the hood, I was worried about it initially, esp as conventional wisdom dictates putting the hood over the entire cooking surface. As it happens, I generally use the induction as I thought I would - for slow simmers and low heat cooking (other than super fast boiling of the tea kettle :-), so the "lack" of hood is not an issue.

We love the open windows too! and our hutch, as I'm sure you must be enjoying yours. I love the contrast of the creamy white with your warm wood cabs.

Hope you enjoyed the blog - just posted about cooking turducken for Christmas. It was delish!

Eliz

I fall in love with your kitchen every time I see it.
Is your hood copper or stainless steel or something else?

I just got a copper hood and now have to redesign my finishes and your kitchen is totally my inspiration.

Thank you,
Amanda

Hi Amanda!

The hood is stainless steel. Funny story about that - when I ordered it from ModernAire (through a local distributor), I asked for a powder coat matte grey finish with stainless steel bands and a stainless steel lip. We weren't back in the house yet (having moved out for four months because of the major demolition work), the cabs were not painted, the backsplash wasn't up and everything was generally in a state of "half-done".

About two weeks after I placed the order, and on one of my regular visits to the house (to babysit the GC! :-), I had a sinking feeling that I had done the wrong thing - that I should have ordered all stainless instead. Called ModernAire - but it was too late - the hood was in production. :-(

Fast forward a few weeks and the hood finally arrives.

It was ordered incorrectly! Instead of the stainless trim, it was all powder coated, an error of the distributor who placed the order. Phew! We were able re-order and even though there was an upcharge for all stainless, I was so happy. A serendipitous accident :-)

I love hearing that the kitchen is inspirational. It was 12 years and *hours* of time researching to get us to the end result and we love it every single day.

Cheers,
Eliz

Tell me, are you enjoying your Turbochef ovens? I am interested to hear about your experience with them: how did you decide on these? Did you consider an induction cooktop and how did you decide against it?

Lynn

Hi Lynn -

We really do like the Turbochef. The "regular" oven is quite good, and I use that frequently. My favourite things to make in the speed oven are roast chicken (delicious and juicy in 25 minutes) and things like roasted veggies or fish. I can get home from work and have dinner on the table in 45 minutes, including all the prep.

A couple of niggles. Because the temp settings on the oven are on a dial, to go with the retro design, you can't calibrate temperatures. For instance, if a recipe calls for 225F, I can only choose 200 or 250. The increments are more like an old-fashioned oven. So, for instance I don't have 225F, 275F or 475F. Now, I've never had a digital temp dial but I am assuming that I would have more room for calibration.

The other thing is the cleaning. Even though it has a self clean feature I have been advised (by the folks at TC) not to use it. The ceramic plate gets quite dirty. One trick I learned about from this forum is to put 1/2 c of ammonia in a glass bowl and leave it in the oven overnight. The fumes break down the accumulated build up.

Re: induction. I learned about induction through the appliance forum and while intrigued, I didn't want to fully commit, esp. as I had always envisioned a gas range. Plus DH really wanted gas (what is it with men and fire?) I love having both. The induction gives me a bare whisper of heat for super slow or low simmering, which I can't get with gas, and we have recently sarted using our gas grill more frequently with great results. I love the combination!

HTH, Lynn - happy to answer any other q's.

Eliz

We are looking at a Turbo Chef and was wondering how you like yours?
Thank you in advance

Hi Eliz- curious what you think of the TurboChef after 13 years. We have a customer who is integrating a new (display) unit in a kitchen, and wondering if that is a mistake? Or a lucky find for them? thanks for reviewing.