My half-baked kitchen (cross post)
mtnrdredux_gw
10 years ago
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robo (z6a)
10 years agolocaleater
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Me and my half-baked kitchen
Comments (93)You are (too) kind Voila, and I welcome all ideas! Here is my thinking on the sink skirt. While I do want to repeat turquoise somewhere, there are other, competing goals for the room. I want the kitchen to look old, and I want it to look somewhat utilitarian (since it is unfitted, first and foremost). To me that suggests a simple linen fabric with some texture, in colorways that suggest primitive dying. Handily, i do want to nod to the navy in the chair anyway, and navy is a color that fits the fabric i'm imagining. Hence I am looking for a navy and off white fabric. I did originally think that there was some elusive fabric, whereby people who know what they're doing had already found a good palette for turquoise that I could steal. But all of that fabric feels wrong to me as a sink skirt. The closest i have gotten is this Robshaw print (below), but I still don't think it is the best choice. All of this may beg the question, why buy a turq fridge then? Mostly because I want one, but I can create a logic to it, too. And this is a concept I credit to Palimpsest's postings. I used to think one had two choices for decorating a room. Today, or the original room. It never occurred to me that you could time travel. That you could have a room that says "wow, they haven't touched this kitchen since the 30s. Except when they had to buy a new fridge sometime in the 50s". That is my kitchen's story line....See MoreHeated Floors under tiles anyone?- cross posted in kitchen forum
Comments (14)Everyone, thank you again for reminding me to do two connections for the radiant heat and how wonderful it will be on my cold feet as I have a home office and throughout the cold NJ Winters, I am sitting at my desk with my feet getting cold. I also feel the cold coming up through the wood with the rooms not as warm as when I have those beige wall to wall carpets that were always dirty that I steamed cleaned twice a month. Thank you Carriem25 for letting me know that you have radiant heat throughout your home and feel it was one of your best choices that you made when you built your home....See MoreHow did you find your GC? Cross posting in Kitchen Forum
Comments (5)I knew of one guy who had done work before for me. He was not interested in the job. I did not know anyone who had used a GC before, so I started looking at cabinets at cab shops (have their own crews), big box stores, and hardware/lumberyard stores. I was at a lumberyard that sold Merillat Cabinets and they really were cheaply made cabs with those drawers with short little sides on them. I have a problem with blatant honesty. Can't help but say what comes to mind. So I said something about why do real estate ads put "Merillat Cabinets" as a bragging point? The salesman explained about the different grades of their cabinetry and we got into a conversation. I asked him if he had anybody he could recommend for installing cabinets and remodeling and he showed me pictures of a beautiful deck he had made by one carpenter. He said the guy did general carpentry and remodeling. When I met with him, Jim showed me his book of photos and gave me some phone numbers of customers to call. He also had his GC license displayed in the book, along with insurance certificates. Best of all, he was INTERESTED in my job. He asked questions, got out his measuring tape and checked to see if what I was thinking was possible to do. He made suggestions to do it better or easier than I had been thinking of. We meshed and it was clear we would make a good working team. Guy #2 I got in a similar way, he was someone who one of the cabinet sellers sometimes used to install. He came out to look, showed little interest, and never gave a bid on the work. Guy #3 was from another recommendation from a lumber yard. He came out and listened to my ideas without getting very engaged, gave me a bid on doing the work and talked about how to cut back to save money. He did not understand from my conversation with him that I was after a good-looking area first, within a reasonable cost, but that I was willing to pay what was needed to get what I wanted. It was a complicated job. The kitchen was like a 16 ft long galley kitchen. A room off of the back half of the kitchen used to be a porch and was now sort of a sun room. There were only three steps for the 31" drop down from the kitchen, and that was what got us needing the remodel. But adding more steps took away floorspace in the 10 x 10 room, making it unusable as a dining room. (Because of stupid remodeling done to the other end of the kitchen before I bought the house, this stairway was the only entrance to the kitchen and basement for any large items like new fridges and furnaces, so the staircase could not be less than about three and a half feet to four feet wide.) The back door being smack dab in the center of the wall opposite the kitchen did not help. Because of the shed-style roof and the placement of the other back door, we could not move that back door left or right along that wall, either! We had dogs going in and out of that room, so a dining set was an impediment to herd movement! On top of that, our small back yard had a black walnut tree. Tree + 3 dogs + squirrels taunting dogs = mud. We needed a paw-washing station at the back door. We had tried damp towels, buckets of water, a coiled hose that attached to the kitchen sink and stretched to the back door and we could use to spray muddy feet in a basin. Nothing worked. You should have seen what happened when you lost your grip on that coiled hose when the spray was on and it slammed its way back against the kitchen cabinets! Jim was the only one who was enthusiastic about my assertion that the plumbing in the basement was not that far away and could possibly be used. He was willing to figure out if we had enough slope for a return plumbing run for waste water. He was willing to go into the auxiliary basement under the back half of the kitchen and insulate it properly, then do the plumbing to get the water and waste pipes to the old back porch. He was a real joy to work with. Jim took the drawings the cabinet guy and I had made and planned out the kitchen remodel. He faced each new challenge with a few choice words, a swipe at his brow, and a, "Nancy, can you come here, I need to show you something," followed by options for remediation and cost estimates (no support post on the right side of the "header" a previous owner had made going between kitchen and old back porch, three live electrical wires found with wirenuts on them left hanging in the walls, moldy drywall and rotted out rafters in that shed roof...) Pretty soon, Jim was checking EVERYTHING before closing up a wall, given that doodlehead's idiocy. I am sure Jim saved us a lot of trouble and heartache, if not our lives. He has done every job on both of my houses ever since, too....See MoreHelp! Need Paint Color for Kitchen (Cross Posted in Decorating)
Comments (25)Breezy- You are not a pain!! You are wonderful and very helpful. If it would not be for you I would have a misplaced prep sink!! I was just looking at the paint chips. And then today I went to BM and one of their consultants helped me. She did not like the idea of the beige colors or the true grays. We both really liked "Gray Wisp" which is almost identical to RH Silver Sage (she had a color chip for it)and "Quiet Moments". The first is more green and rich and the second lighter and more blue. I am really leaning towards the first. She gave me really large swatches to take home and try out. So I will let you know what I find out. Also the mud on the drywall is taking longer to dry so the earliest they can paint is Friday. So I have a wee bit of time to figure this out. Slush- Would love to see your photos of Revere Pewter and Carrington Beige. Since the living room/hallway is all monroe bisque is probably a good idea that I stay away from beige for the kitchen/dining area since those two rooms open into the LR and that is just a lot of beige. Lavender- Thanks...See Moreblfenton
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