After - May 2010

We love having a tv in the kitchen

View to the garden - the arch used to be here

We removed two windows from this wall and we do not miss them at all

I love looking out the new windows.

We have increased our counter space by 80%

Love the Island and the our calacatta marble

Red stools to give the kitchen some color

Before 04 - March 10

2004 when we bought the house

I ripped off the wallpaper and took the white cabinet covering off the two cabinets

The plate standing upright on the counter was actually covering up a hole in the wall

Another view of the kitchen

New and improved. The microvave hid the broken tile and the all paper was removed to make way for orange paint (left over paint from our apartment days)

We really tried sprucing the place up with the orange paint

....Almost done!

Here are some pics of the final project.  We still have a few more items left to be done like getting the door to the pantry installed and getting some hardware in the 1/2 bath installed.

Week 10

Nothing much has been going on the last two weeks. They are waiting on the counter tops to come in before the can start installing the backsplash and the appliances.  We have to push the end date to May 21st for various reasons.

Crown molding installed throughout the room - the wall color is Hot Spring Stones from Benjamin Moore

Refrigerator is almost there! The TV area is going to be painted a flat black.

View to the dining room (which is a big mess); The crown moldings made such a big difference in the room. It has a finished looked to it.

1/2 bath with Orange crackled tiles in a classic subway pattern.  The floor from the kitchen is carried in to the 1/2 bath.  The wall color is Desert Tan from Benjamin Moore

Another view of the paint color with the orange tiles

The tiles do not go all the way up to the ceiling

Week 9

Nothing much going on this week! They are waiting for the countertops to come in and then tile, paint and wrap up.

Within the last two weeks, they installed crown moldings around the room and primer the 3 rooms.  They still have a lot to do to make a May 7th date.  They have to finish up the brick work outside, finish the dining room plaster work, paint, etc. 

Michael and I can't decide on the paint for the power room and and the pantry, but have decided that it has to have some sort of brown tone to it.  I picked something that is a little lighter than latte and he picked something with a bit of yellow in it. Our designer will be the final judge.

The kitchen is getting the same color as the rest of the house. It is a historical color from Benjamin Moore and the name is Hot Spring Stones. It has a whiter base than what is portrayed in the picture.

Hopefully things come together the next two weeks. I am ready to have the kitchen again.

Counter tops

We chose Brazilian soapstone for our outer countertops.  It's called Barroca Soap Stone and is dark charcoal with occassional grey veins. This is a classic slab. It has to be oiled to have the charcoal color or it turns grey.

Just another view with the greyish veins.

Calacatta Marble for the Island - I am still not sure how we are going to keep this from getting stains or chips

Almost there - Week 8

All the cabinets are in. We just found out the sink that we like is back ordered, so cannot get the countertop for the outer cabs yet or we go with a new sink.  Our contractor is calling around to different distributors to see if they can find the sink.

Just another view with the floor and the cabinets. I love the truffle color cabinets for the island. A white base calacatta marble with grey veins will be installed here.

So many cabinets. I can't complain about storage now.

The 1/2 bath

Cabs are going in

I took this with my blackberry so not a great shot, but they started installing yesterday and will continue for the next 5 days.  These are Omega Cabinets in Natural Red Birch. The line is Madrid and the style is shaker style

A Kitchen for Mother's day???

It can happen! We are at the beginning of week seven and the progress has been tremendous.  The floors are done and the 1/2 bath tiling is completed.  The arch has been constructed to match the one between the TV room and the Living room and they started to fix the plaster in the dining room. The walls in the kitchen have been primered as well.
The cabinets have arrived and are getting installed today.  They look amazing! The Truffle cabs resemble a piece of rich dark chocolate.

Michael and I are going to start tackling the basement this weekend.  We have to clean 3 inches of dust and wipe everything down. I hope we have enough clorox to clean up!

Tiles & More

The tiles in the bathroom is almost complete.  It looks amazing. We blew our budget on this tile. It is handmade and no two tiles are the same. Some are cracked and some just a darker shade of burnt orange. It is fabulous. 

The floor is completed! It looks amazing.  I saw this on Friday evening when the grout was still wet and thought it didn't show well. By Saturday the grout dried to a lighter shade which made the grey tiles stand out even more. Stone Peak ceramic tiles and the color is Arcadia.

I am truly impressed that the arch created between the dining room and kitchen replicates that of the TV room and the Living room.

It is the middle of week 6

and I heard that they have tiled almost 1/2 of the room and started constructing the arch between the dining and living rooms.  I have not had a chance to go back to the kitchen, but I am really excited to see this stage.  I hope that we are going to have the kitchen by mid May. 

The two windows to the right are the ones we blocked up

Here is the same shot (sort of) with the windows sheetrocked over

We are going to have ample lighting so I am not worried about losing the natural light and we do have the windows in the back and now that the wall is down between the dining room and the kitchen we will have all the natural light from the dining and sunrooms. 

Other things on the agenda! We decided to go with Calacatta marble for the island counter top and soapstone for the perimeter.  I still do not know if the marble is in our budget.  Hopefully we will find out when Kevin gets back from vacation. 

Here's the beauty! We are going to get it honed. I am still debating whether it is too grey. Hopefully Michael doesn't read this.

I will post the soapstone slab as soon as we pick it out. 

Progress!

It was lovely to see the tiler at work on Friday.  What an arduous task! It took him the entire day to put in 3 strips of tiles.  It was nice to go into the kitchen and see progress. I hope that they finish the tiling this week and start with the cabinets next week.  I am hoping for a kitchen by mother's day.

Eight more weeks to go...

It is now officially a month that we have been without our kitchen and the use of 1/2 of our 1st floor.  I checked out the progress this morning and it was really weird that the windows facing west were blocked off. I hope that we have enough natural light from the new windows.  On the other hand, the windows looked into our neighbor's property and that was not a pretty site. 

I will post pictures this weekend with the progress. I want my house back!

It is starting to look like a room

Last week was the end of week 4 and today is the beginning of week 5.  So far, they have installed the new windows in the back, framed the room, completed the electrical work, installed the heating system and sheet rock the room.

Michael & I had a busy weekend. We have been discussing our counter choices and realized that we were not sold on either the black leather or persia brown so off to the granite warehouse again.

When I saw the persia brown stone, I definitely didn't think it would work.  It was very busy and too brown.  I fell in love with the Calacatta White marble for the Island.  We are thinking of going with that for the Island, but still debating the up keep.

We went to M Texiera Soapstone gallery and loved the look and feel of soapstone.  I think we are going to go with a deep black light venata with gray veins from Brazil for the outer counter.  We are going to find out today if it is in the budget.

Other things we accomplished over the weekend - We found a vanity (well Michael found it) and sink for the 1/2 bath and gave our okay to purchase that.  Hmmmm, I think that is the only thing we accomplished.

Insulation of the room

Sheet Rock - This is the opening for the tv

The room is almost completed

I think they are going to finish up with the Sheet Rock this week and start the flooring.