Christmas Kitchen

I have been waiting a long time to write this post. Over five years since we bought the house and redoing the dreadful kitchen was in the project pipeline, and close to six since we first walked through this house while we still lived in California in the spring of 2008. That was when I first started envisioning what you're about to see!

We're not done yet, but it's mostly details that remain. Important details, like finishing the bar counter, the backsplash, installing and painting trim and baseboard and probably other things I'm not thinking of, but it's mostly done. Here's the first round of "afters."

These are the pendant lights over the bar/peninsula, up close.

 This is the fixture over the kitchen table, from Lowe's.

 Looking into the kitchen from the dining room (previously impossible, due to the wall that used to be there).

Standing in the eating area looking south. You can kind of see the sliver of space behind the new slide-in range that will need to be filled with a bit of counter.

Another south-facing picture. The back of the bar, where your knees are if you're in one of the seagrass chairs, still needs to be painted. We picked up the paint to match the cabinets today.

The eating area and bar on the left. Counter still needs to be finished there. It's just plywood right now. Kind of splintery. We also have to figure out what kind of pads to put on the bottoms of the bar chairs. They have feet, but I'm worried about them scratching the floor. Everything I've stuck on so far just comes off, so I have to keep experimenting.

 From the dining room looking in facing east. LOVE the dishwasher.

All the dishwashers with the control panel on the top and just a blank stainless front were $$$$ but this was on crazy sale and really well rated. It's so pretty.

I'm thinking I'd like to get some remote-controlled puck lights to stick under the cabinets. The big upper on the left, anyway. The corner is pretty dark.

Deviation from our original plan, we ended up getting a new slide-in range. Slide-in is the kind without the back, so it doesn't stick up awkwardly above the wall. This was another well-rated, on-sale buy. I went in Monday night to Lowe's to talk with an appliance person and make sure it'd fit our space.

The site said it'd take until Jan 2 before it arrived, so I told the guy that Home Depot had the same thing and could get it to me three days earlier, hoping he might be able to match that. He paused for a second, then said he thought he might have one on the warehouse. This exact model. Turns out someone had ordered it, opened the top of the box and decided it wasn't going to work for whatever reason. So we got our range a full week before we thought we would; it was delivered the day after Christmas. I get to eat eggs for breakfast again!

The counters are beautiful. Next time for pictures, they'll be darker because I need to wipe them with mineral oil to protect them, but we are so happy with the choice.

The new faucet doesn't leak, which is obviously a very positive thing. Unfortunately they sent the wrong hose, so it's a regular braided hose instead of the chrome coil one, but I haven't dealt with that yet. I do love the faucet though, and it's perfectly in proportion to the giant, fabulous sink.

This is the trash and recycling pull-out. It's great. The silent-close drawers and cabs are spoiling us though, and we both have been accidentally slamming other things in the house that don't have that feature.

I have probably about half of the hardware on. All the single knobs are on but I haven't felt patient enough to try for the handles, other than the two in this picture. Lining up two holes is a lot trickier, and I am just plain awful at measuring. I try so hard, double check, and then somehow screw it up. I'd say detail orientation isn't my strong suit, but... have you met me? I'm not really sure what the issue is.

 This used to be the laundry room. I know.

Speaking of terrible measuring, why yes, I did in fact hang the mirror exactly 1.5" off center. How? No idea. Another product of careful measurement. Also notice the doors in front of the washer and dryer in the mirror!

Kitchen from the opposite direction, standing in the mudroom looking north.

 Again...

 Ok just one more. I just love it so much.

And lastly here's the dining room, looking mostly put back together except for the not-pictured old range sitting in the corner (anybody want to buy a five-year-old gas Maytag? It's a champ!) and the to-be-installed dining room light fixture sitting on top of it.

Can't wait to show you befores and afters when all the little details are finally all in place!

SUCCESS!

I spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday listening to obnoxious country music and putting the kitchen together. Since our appliances came and that obscene pink monstrosity is gone, I can tolerate being in the kitchen. Unpacking is a lot like Christmas, except that since I know what I packed to begin with, I know I'll like it. Shockingly, with our stuff settled in, I don't mind the kitchen that much. Don't get me wrong, I've been tirelessly plotting the remodeling plans, but I think it'll be okay for a few months. After things came together, this is how it looked:



I also think bathroom plans might be coming together (cross your fingers). I found a tub that wasn't in stock, according to Home Depot's website, but the store begged to differ. I think we're going to go with a deeper soaking tub (not a whirlpool), and I'm pretty sure that it will be the Kohler Devonshire in white. I though about the Archer, which was $20 cheaper, but they don't tell you that you have to use the $100 Kohler drain thingy, which made it a lot more. Sneaky. We also were considering an Aqua Glass because they make a soaker that costs half of what the Devonshire does, but then I read they crack.  So here's my review of the Aqua Glass Eleganza: given that pretty much the only purpose of a tub is to HOLD WATER, that sort of disqualifies it.



I met with a custom cabinet guy yesterday to duplicate this vanity for the bathroom. I was hoping to go with a lacquered white finish, but he said it would be significantly more expensive and take a lot more time than just staining it, so...maybe I'll get white cabinets in the kitchen.



I think we're going to go with this faucet. Kind of a fun style, huh? Another Home Depot find, knocking off the Pottery Barn. (Really, where do they get off charging $300 for a faucet? It's a FAUCET. It either works, or it doesn't. There aren't really features...)

The only thing that's presenting some trouble is flooring. I'd love Carrara marble (see pic) except that I don't want the whole bathroom to look like a cold tomb. Travertine looks warmer, but I don't want it to clash with the marble, since the marble's a gray tone, and the travertine (in ivory) would be more of a warm off-white. Porcelain is also an option; the ones I looked at looked so much like stone that I couldn't tell the difference till the guy told me.

Out with the old...

Over the weekend, Todd and I waged war on the crown molding in the blue bedroom. It was supposed to take a few hours, and it easily took eight. It did not feature the crisp, neat corners I was hoping for. Actually, it didn't feature corners at all. It featured two pieces of molding jamming into each other at awkward and unsightly angles. Trevor had to come finish the rest of it, which he (naturally) did in about a half hour, much to our rather pained delight.
Our problems began with having two ever-so-slightly different sizes of molding. This, my friend, is why you only buy certain things from Builder's Bargain Center (Southern Oregon's very own scratch-and-dent Home Depot). Also, the walls are crooked, which I expected but got really confused about how to compensate for. My little miter box saw let me down, miserably. But Trevor left his compound power miter saw at the house, so I will be well-equipped for next time.

Also over the weekend, we got new appliances! I didn't take pictures in the kitchen yet, but let us all take a moment to bid a fond farewell to the old stove:

This is what it left behind for us. Fond memories, really...

All together now, YUM! You got your forty-year-old bacon grease, some scrambled eggs, potato bits--that's breakfast!

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so I also spent some time outside pruning the camellias back from the house (so they don't rub on the siding), and hacking back the huge, ugly juniper bush that was taking over our driveway.

Sunday morning, we were talking about what to replace the bathroom carpeting with (it's gross--I'm sure you're shocked...seriously, who carpets a bathroom!?) and then one of us said, "Why don't we just redo the bathroom before we move in?" So we had a meeting with Trevor, who's going to be redoing the bathroom, and decided we might be able to start next weekend! Lest you think this is spur-of-the-moment, we've been planning the bathroom since we bought the house. We have materials pretty well chosen (some combination of off-white subway tile, travertine, a Carrara-marble-topped vanity, electric-net-heated floor...) and I have to go find a tub this week. I'm meeting with a cabinet guy tomorrow; we might have our vanity custom-made to fit the rather specific 40-inch space. I found something that's almost perfect from the Pottery Barn, but it's for the less-than-perfect price of $1500. So I'm going to see if I can get a knock-off custom made for around $1100 less. If everything falls into place, we might (just maybe) have our downstairs bathroom redone in two weeks!

On the list for today: putting away dishes in the kitchen (which Kate so generously cleaned for us. What a champ!) and putty-ing the molding so it doesn't look like a blind carpenter tried to hang it while sleepwalking.

Also, here's a video that's exciting. Or it was, woulda been, like three weeks ago when it was current....