Egad! That is some drop-dead fabuloso rock, and I'm a notorious granite-hater. There's no way you can pull it up and take it with you, is there ...?

Sympathies from the other Portland,
CP

How sad!! You've taken good pictures. You have good memories. And something I learned along the way is that home is where your stuff is. Once it's no longer your kitchen it'll be easier to let go.

Rather than talking about it with potential buyers who might disappoint you, why not make a Kitchen Care book for the new owners? Include the instruction manuals for the appliances, the model numbers, warranty cards and repair service phone number, the names of the materials, cleaning tips, use tips, favorite recipes, etc. In other words, give them the baby book so they'll love the baby too!

Then find yourself a new home with a kitchen that needs to be torn out, bargain hard, make sure your real estate agent gives you plenty of good contractor referrals, and do a new one!!

I've never seen that granite. It does look like a Van Gogh. I am sorry you have to leave your beloved kitchen behind, especially to those who are less TKO that you... I am sure they have no idea how hard you worked to make it so beautiful. I hope you will have another chance to create another beautiful kitchen!

I'm so sorry. Although we weren't the ones who had remodeled the kitchen in our last house, I absolutely loved it and it made me sick to leave it and move into a house with an ugly kitchen. You have my sympathies.

I'm with plllog - find yourself a gorgeous new house with a nasty kitchen and build a second dream kitchen!

Your kitchen is about the same age as mine. We may be moving too - not something I ever thought would happen when we redid our kitchen. I've been looking at some homes in the new area and even in relatively expensive newer homes the kitchens are seriously disappointing. So far haven't seen any TKO kitchens like yours or others here - if only I might be so lucky to find one. Maybe you will find someone like me who would LOVE to have your kitchen.

Snowbaby, I know that granite well. I fell in love with it. It is called Blue Louise in this area and I would have it in my kitchen if it were not the most expensive stone of all. It figures I would immediately be drawn to it! I also have an induction cooktop. I am sure there are others with similar tastes. One of them might find your house. Good Luck.

That's a beautiful kitchen, Snowbaby. My heart goes out to you. You should rest assured though, that the new owner would learn to love that kitchen if they didn't at the start. Great idea about the baby book.

I thank everyone who took the time to write. I thought no one could understand how I feel -- except someone who put the same kind of time and love into a kitchen. And, I was right. I feel better just having written and been heard.

circuspeanut, I did wonder about taking the island granite with me. I phoned the granite supplier here, and they said "Don't try it." Has anyone tried this? I thought maybe I could have just a small space of Van Gogh in my next kitchen, but here in Portland, the Van Gogh available now looks like the mine has just about run out. No more big bold colors -- in fact, not much color at all.

plllog, I always have put together a care guide for the new owner, including who shovels snow, babysitters, and appliance warranties and guides. And I'd love to get an old house and fix up the kitchen, but DH says he doesn't think he can go through that again. BUT if I do, I'll be right back here asking questions and sharing. My present kitchen (sob) is so much better because of the Kitchen Forum.

I need to remember that there are families who are moving out of their homes who couldn't possibly think about re-doing their kitchens. I'm fortunate that my move isn't into my car or in with relatives. I am trying to think this way. Thanks to each one of you for helping me get a better perspective on this.

I'll always remember that someone once called my kitchen granite a "drop-dead fabuloso rock" That makes me laugh just to write it.

I LOVE your Van Gogh granite -- and how aptly named. I can only imagine how sad you are to leave your beautiful, beautiful kitchen. After nearly 4 years in mine, I would be devastated if I had to leave.

It's clear you carefully thought through the renovation, and your results are very unique and special. Surely your purchasers are very excited at the thought of getting to live in your beautiful space.

Good wishes in moving to your next home. I hope you have the opportunity to create another memorable, special kitchen.

I feel your pain, we worked for 14 years on our 1894 queen anne cottage & only got my new kitchen done 1 year before selling the house to a man who doesn't cook & didn't really understand any of the neat kitchen things I agonized over. I also left him a new Miele washer & dryer & he had never heard of them, wasn't impressed at all.

I'm just about done my new kitchen, which is not as nice as the last one, but I have an extra $300,000 in my pocket from the sale of that kitchen to help soothe me. :)

I'm really sorry you have to leave your kitchen & home behind. That is some amazing granite. Of course the new owners won't feel the same way about your kitchen as you do, it's your baby not theirs and you're still in the house so they haven't had a chance to really appreciate it's wonderful features. But I guarantee you, after they move in and have a chance to experience the kitchen and put their footprint on the house that will change. Once they start making memories, they will love it too. I'm sure this is not an easy time for you, but try to think in a positive direction, you have the memories, the pictures and a future. Since you are needing to move, at least you found a buyer, things can always be much worse and like someone else wrote, it's just stuff. I think the note book with care instructions is a fabulous idea too!

Snowbaby, I hope I didn't sound insensitive in my previous post, during the last big recession (early 80's) I was homeless and I had a child with me, so I really do understand what struggling times can do to you. But staying positive and focusing on "the now" is what got me through it, and if you can manage to keep a positive/focused frame of mind, it will help you to get through this too. --Lukki

lukkiirish, You didn't sound insensitive. I am really trying to be positive about this. As I said, I'm very lucky that I'm Not going to be homeless. Really, I feel bad that I kinda whined about loosing my kitchen.

I grew up very poor and never dreamed I'd have such a gorgeous home and kitchen. I love to cook and particularly to bake. I appreciate my kitchen (and my home and garden) every day! I mean Every Day! And it Is just stuff. (This is me telling myself..."It's just stuff, it's just stuff...) I am trying.

Actually, I haven't found a buyer. Maybe I didn't make that clear. It's just that the people who have come looking to buy are not even interested in cooking or kitchens. I know I need to let that go.

People asked me how I could sell a little cabin I had built. To me, the important thing wasn't the fabulous garden I had created there, or the view I had carefully framed.

The thing was the process I learned. I now know how to make beautiful gardens. I can do it again. The next one will be different, but it will probably be better. Even if it isn't, the effect will be what it is because I chose it that way. I know how to get what I want now. I've done it before. I have the skills needed.

That's more important than any individual temporal creation.

Or so I keep telling myself!

Here's a thought........I'm guessing that you only met the buyers in the context of selling your house. Most people aren't going to be openly ga-ga when negotiating a purchase price! I bet they DO love the kitchen, but were just being cool about it.

Even if I'm wrong, if those people cook at ALL there is just no way they will not grow to love it, even if they dont fully appreciate it now. And as their guests come over and gasp at the *amazing* kitchen in their new house, they'll have to get it......

snowbaby,
i'm glad you aren't having to move in w/ relatives. after i mentioned our remodel in the new house, I thought "oops.. what if she can't remodel in her new place".

We got a smaller house with character and a very non-functional kitchen.. we prefer having a fabulous kitchen than buying a large house with a substandard kitchen (e.g. little island cooktop w/ no ventilation).

I hope you find your perfect house and end up really happy with your new kitchen (with or without a renovation).

I HATED leaving our old kitchen behind after only two years. The new owners will appreciate it as much as you did once they experience your great layout and design choices.

Oh Snowbaby, from one Portlander who sold her house (and kitchen) last year to another, I know how you feel! But take heart - after 8 months of owning two homes and thinking I would never move to the new one and do another kitchen, we found the PERFECT buyers for our house. Not only did they LOVE the kitchen (and the rest of the house which we had completely remodeled) the actually bought all new furniture, dishes, etc. to match all the colors I used. The only thing they have changed are the kids rooms. We actually keep in touch, and they've emailed pictures of some family gatherings and such in my - okay THEIR - kitchen, and it just warms my heart to see such a young, happy family in my first kitchen redo and see that nothing has changed. We're right in the middle of our kitchen remodel in the new house - I should have a ceiling this weekend! - and they can't wait to come see the new space - they have been over to see it in the 'before' state already.

So don't lose faith. There is a buyer out there who will love your kitchen and admire all the work you put in to making it special. Such people do exist in Portland, you just have to wait them out. They show up when you least expect them. . . like the ONE day in 8 months you don't clean up the dirty dishes and have laundry all over the place. :-)

P.S. - I have friends who are granite fabricators here in town. I'll see what they know about getting more Van Gogh. :-)

Here's another thought that may ease your pain: Maybe the buyers like the kitchen more than you know and just didnt convey that info to you via their broker as part of their negotiating strategy. Who really knows what buyers are thinking?
We are under contract to sell our house right now and while we are "hurt" the buyers don't seem "thrilled" with some aspects we like- we are super thrilled to even have a buyer in this market. My analogy is my garden- treasured by me but apparently the buyers don't care much about it (or so I hear from our broker). Good luck and try to let go. You can bring all that you have learned from this forum to your new home!

Hi janwad, thanks for that sharing that thought about taking the skills with you. While I expect that future buyers will not swoon over the colors I'm painting my dining room, what's more valuable to me is how I've learned how to paint a room in the first place. :-)

snowbaby!! How the heck are you?! Want me to come over and smack some sense into those silly buyers? (hm, on the other hand, if they rip out your granite, I can pick it up at the ReBuilding Center cheap... hmm...what to do :))

Seriously, though, that's just unbelievable. That kitchen is brilliant in every respect. I'm wondering if muscat has the right idea -- that people are holding themselves back from expressing their admiration. And maybe the education they'll get from the guide you've created will help them get onto the TKO path...

You know, one thing I've done, and I don't know if there's any element you could do this with, but I put my sicis glass backsplash, which I so carefully mounted tile by tile, onto polycarbonate and another layer of hardibacker so that I could unscrew it and paint the darn backsplash or put in something else if people weren't falling all over themselves over it. No way I'm leaving those tiles and all that work to uncaring inheritors. Is there anything you can do, e.g. put in a lesser countertop and store the Van Gogh somewhere? Or any other element that would make you feel like at least you're protecting *something* from your careful planning and choosing?

Hope you all are doing well and survived the ice and snow without too much plant loss...

Snowbaby, look at is this way - it is hard, very hard to have to sell something you have put your heart and soul in.
However, this kitchen may be what makes your house sell in a market in which NOTHING is moving. Our house, in NY has been for sale for - no joke -almost TWO YEARS! The house is 1930 log home with an unusual floor plan - especially the placement of the kitchen.
With any luck, you will find a buyer that loves your kitchen, and buys your house!
As someone else posted, you really won't know what potential buyers really love about the house until you are face to face at a closing.
Good luck!

justnotmartha, Thank you for the offer to find out about Van Gogh granite in Portland. I'm not sure we would spend that much again, but maybe we couldn't resist it if it is available. And.. do you think it might help find a buyer if I Don't clean and and leave out the laundry? I'd try anything to have this over with.

danielle00, I guess I'm lucky that I had my kitchen for four years. Leaving as you did after just two years would have been very much harder.

flyleft, I've missed you! So much has happened. Don't I wish WE could tear out the granite and at least take the piece on the island with us. Maybe someone else would just as soon have butcher block, which seems to be very popular these days. I wonder how your talented daughter is doing... still acting? Her ability to capture the essense of objects in a drawing was so impressive.

Thanks to you all again, and if you know of a home with a wonderful kitchen in close-in PDX, I'd love to hear about it. I found one such kitchen on the web, only to find it had been taken off the market and rented. I'm sure it was a TKO kitchen too....
Mary

Mary - I'm in Sherwood - how close-in Portland? Your granite is gorgeous!

Mary, wouldn't that be great, to replace that island with a nice Boos butcher block -- could advertise the name *and* keep a usable party favor for yourselves...why not?

What kind of home are you looking for? Single family? Condo? How close in? Single story? East side/west side? The closer in you get on the West side, the less likely you'll find a single family one-story, if that matters...my knees are so happy we remodeled and made a downstairs master. How much property do you want?

And thanks for the kind words about DD. She's as tall as I am now and doing all kinds of things :) I hope the things that have happened have been positive, at least on balance...

snowbaby - if only I had come across a kitchen even one quarter as beautiful and functional as yours, I never would have undergone the remodeling process. I agree with everyone else that your prospective buyers may be muting their emotions to be strategic and that anyone will most likely come to appreciate and enjoy such a beautiful kitchen.

But I read/interpreted your question differently, more like "what is the best way to actually sell your kitchen to these seemingly unappreciative buyers?" And in case you were asking that, my answer would to sell it to them as "a good investment". People always want to feel they're getting the most for their money. I would point out during the selling process the highlights such as the accessibility, some of the specifics of the functionality and emphasize that beautiful granite counters & wood floors and good quality appliances are valued commodities in current times where kitchens have become "the place" to entertain friends and family and not some back area to prepare food that no one ever sees. Almost everybody nowadays at least realizes that when you have a party, everyone hangs out in the kitchen no matter how tiny it is. Without going into hard-sell overdrive, lovingly educate them to appreciate it sooner rather than later. Like others have said, sorry you have to move and hope you find or remodel into a kitchen just as nice.

I remember seeing your Van Gogh granite and falling in love. It is truly a piece of art. I'm so sad to hear you will be leaving it. I was just a lurker on this site back then and it really opened my eyes to what choices are out there. Hopefully you will find someone that falls in love with the stone too to buy your home. Make sure they know how valuable it is!

This may be too late now, but since this got bumped up, I thought I'd tell you that my fabricator said they have taken out stone and moved it a number of times -- once all the stone and only had one piece break. He said other times they have been able to do a single piece or two or had some where not much was usable -- depends on the stone, the structure of it, the installation, the adhesive, the details, the time and care given -- lots of factors including a little luck.

Hope things are going well for you, whatever you decided.

hockeychik, Thank you for your comment about my granite and your sympathetic words. We now wonder now if anyone will ever even come to see our house! We had two couples look before I posted this thread, but since then there has been nobody. The couples who did come through weren't the least bit interested in kitchens, so I may be enjoying our granite longer than I thought. Meanwhile, we are in the process of buying a home with a kitchen that really is to die for. It was fully remodeled in 2003 and while it has no fantastic granite, it has soapstone and carrara marble, and wonderful appliances. I plan to enjoy every minute I can be in it.

lascatx, We won't have the option of moving our granite because the house we are buying has a totally remodeled kitchen. Actually, the whole house has been lovingly remodeled. If we ever sell here, I know I'm going to love working in that kitchen.

Not to sound insensitive but why do you care if the potential buyers are not as enamored with your kitchen as you are?

We are approaching the two year mark on our renovation (date from our first meeting with the architect) and yes it has consumed a lot of energy and time. Yes there have been many decision that the wife and I have gone back and forth on and finding the right pieces of the puzzle is an ongoing challenge.

That being said I could really care less if those looking at the house apperciate what it took to design and complete the project. As long as the price is right take the house and do with it what you want.

The new home owner wants to rip out our custom cabinets or replace the granite, or anything else? Please feel free it is your house now.

Personally I did not go into this thing expecting to be in my current house for the rest of my life. At some point it is going to go on the market. I do not expect the new house to have a kitchen or master suite as nice as what we are building but I would expect it to have some other features to help offset what I will be losing.

As you said at least you are moving for an opportunity and not due to a job loss.

AMG-roadter,
I know your comment was to snowbaby but I had to chime in.
You are so right the practical side is that Snowbaby is
moving for an opportunity. This means she can make a
beautiful kitchen in the next home. And in time can let
these feelings go. The new owners can and should be allowed
to do as they wish. But my sensitive side really
understands snowbaby.

I believe (I could be wrong) that Snowbaby accepts
she is leaving the house to someone else. This is all part
of moving. But she loves her kitchen so much, it has
become a part of her. The sad part is the kitchen
has become her baby. The planning, nuturing, excitement
with each new peice, creating changes, colors, searching
for the perfect granite, wood, cabinets, lighting, trim and the
deep personal investment (not money) will be hard to part with.
She enjoys just drinking a glass of juice and looking
around her kitchen with happiness. Will
she ever have a kitchen as wonderful as this again?

Will someone love her kitchen the way she did and still
does?

The memories of her kitchen will always be with her.
It may sound silly to some. It does not to me. When I look
back at my first move ever. I was devastated to learn the
people who bought my house changed everything I did. They
ripped out the brand new carpet, hated the flooring, wall
colors, and shared this with my old neighbors. I was sad
but my DH reminded me we made a great profit and to let it
go.

I really loved all my old homes. I moved countless times.
And the first move was the most painful. After that
I became more practical. And now before I sell a home,
I take out my favorite lights, or window treatments pack
them all up for a new place and replace it all with a
standard set for the new buyers. I would do well to live
in Europe where I could pack up my kitchen every time I
move.

Maybe this explains a little how she might be feeling.
I do not wish to speak for her just to sympathize with
her position.
~boxerpups

Hi snowbaby, i just came across this post and i don't typically respond if i am unsure, but this one i can TOTALLY relate to.
About 2 years ago, i had just finished (11 months prior... i know the amount of days too, but that is just too scary.)a plato kitchen with commercial appliances, granite and most of all blood, sweat and tears!
the people buying the house actually said they loved the kitchen, but i was sick over leaving it.
needless to say, (our babysitter is best friends with the daughter of the people who bought our house) told us about 2 months ago that they PAINTED our cabinets RED. they were a beatiful maple with a toffee glaze.
but the moral of my story is (if you are still with me) is that now we are in the midst of remodeling the kitchen in our new house and it is going to be so much more beautiful because i know what i am doing and i know what i want.
so... maybe this move for you is for a reason and you will be able to do your bigger and better kitchen in your new home :)