Archive for December, 2007
Our Kitchen Cabinets Are Like Brangelina
So gorgeous it’s unfair.
The cabinets came a long way today. In fact our installer is done with everything except for that reversed corner cabinet which is in the process of being reordered (and the baseboard, which he’ll put in once that cabinet arrives). He hung the microwave, put up all the doors and the brushed nickel hardware, and added all the crown molding- which really was the icing on the cake. Bellisimo. But enough chatter. Here are the pics.
This is the view of the kitchen from the doorway that we widened in the living/dining room:
Here’s the left side of the kitchen (note that the stainless steel hood is still covered in plastic and missing the “chimney” that covers the ugly vent pipe on top- and the stove still needs to be moved under the hood after the reordered corner cabinet comes in):
And here’s the right side. We especially love that glass door in the corner- it keeps things open and will house all of our pretty plates and glasses. Oh and the blue stuff you see on the dishwasher and microwave is also that protective plastic that we have yet to remove:
Now if only that reordered cabinet would hurry up and arrive so we can get our countertops going. It’s supposed to be here by the 17th, but I’m not holding my breath. Fortunately I’m pretty sure the finished kitchen will be worth the wait. And speaking of the wait, I’ll just go back to counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the 17th.
Done In A Flurry
Richmond got its first taste of winter yesterday in the form of some light snow. Sadly, nothing stuck and life went on unaffected (no snow day for John).
Well, mostly unaffected. The precipitation kept the installer inside all day, instead of outside sawing the crown molding and cabinet baseboards. That meant progress was limited to getting the last couple cabinets in, sliding the dishwasher into place and getting 99% of our range hood hung (he still has to add the stainless steel “chimney” which will cover the big pipe that goes up through the ceiling). Admittedly, they’re not the most exciting update pics, but here they go anyway. Note: the dishwasher and hood are still covered in a protective film which will be removed to reveal their glorious stainless steel finish when the job’s done. Oh yeah and the installer’s junk is all over the place:
We’re hoping today is the last major work day, but with crown molding, baseboards, doors, hardware and microwave installation still on the to-do list we wouldn’t be shocked if it spilled over into Friday. Plus we still have at least one more day of work in about a week when that reordered corner cabinet comes in (it’ll go where the stove is above, and the stove will move to the left to be under the new hood). Then our granite peeps can finally come and take measurements for our new countertops. It’s nice to be at step 426 in this 500 step process (ok I’m exaggerating, but not by that much).
Our Kitchen Cabinets Are Like Mariah Carey
They’re notoriously difficult to work with.
Yesterday was cabinet installation day 2 and, not unlike Monday, it came with its fair share of ups and downs. We’ll start with the ups this time. Almost all the cabinets went in, including my new favorite thing: the built in refrigerator! Totally makes our existing fridge look like some fancy schmancy custom appliance. And that opening to the right of it will make our microwave look built in as well. Yippee skippy.
Here are photos of yesterday’s progress:
Ok, now to play Debbie Downer. The minor hiccup of the day was discovering one of our existing wall outlets is too high and needs to be lowered so it doesn’t get blocked by an upper cabinet. No biggie because the electrician was already scheduled to come out anyways. It’ll just be another few bucks down the yet-to-be-installed drain.
The MAJOR hiccup involved our new microwave. When the installer opened the box to our 30 inch under-cabinet microwave, we discovered that it was actually a 24 inch countertop microwave. Lowe’s didn’t just sell us the WRONG microwave, they special ordered the wrong microwave (we waited three weeks for it!!!).
So last night we made an emergency run to Lowe’s, returned the countertop microwave and bought the right one. The bad news is that it was $75 more than the other one. Ugh. But here’s where Lowe’s went and totally redeemed themselves. The manager gave us a sorry-for-the-trouble discount and sold us the new microwave for the price of the old one. I guess we’ll forgive them for the mix-up.
Now things seem to be in order for a productive day 3 of installation and as long as the kitchen doesn’t go all diva on us again, we’re hoping things will end on a high note.
Our Kitchen Cabinets Are Like Slugs
As in, they take their sweet time. Yesterday was installation day 1, and it didn’t quite go exactly as planned. But then again, nothing in home improvement ever does.
It can best be compared to Christmas morning as a child when you can hardly sleep the night before, anxiously awaiting the crack of dawn so you can rip into all of those carefully wrapped gifts from “Santa.” John and I stayed up late and woke up early excitedly chattering about the long awaited installation. Remember, we’ve been completely kitchenless for close to two months (no cabinets, no counters, no sink, no nothing) so imagine our excitement at the prospect of seeing all of our cabinets out of their boxes and into their final resting places.
And the day started out well. It wasn’t until about an hour into the installation when I got the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news. One of our two corner base cabinets was reversed. In other words, they sent us two righties instead of a rightie and a leftie. Although KraftMaid has rushed to correct their mistake, it’s still gonna be about 2 weeks (!) before the new cabinet arrives. Boo! The kitchen was on schedule to be done by the 19th, but now we’ll be lucky to have a finished kitchen by early January.
And that’s how the Grinch stole our Christmas kitchen.
In the meantime, our installer has decided to forge ahead with all the other cabinets. Here’s what the kitchen looked like on Sunday night:
And what it looked like on Monday night:
We can’t believe the amazing amount of storage in our extra tall 42 inch upper cabinets. Burger (in his Christmas sweater) and I can practically live inside:
I guess the cabinet debacle is just another lesson that nothing ever comes easy… but when it’s all said and done it’s nothing short of miraculous. Even if our kitchen is fashionably late, at least we’ll have the rest of our lives to enjoy it.
Watching Paint Dry
As I type this the walls are drying in the 2nd bedroom after what I can only pray is the final paint project in unifying our house with a consistent color scheme. A couple of months ago we noted how the warm, neutral wall colors in many model homes inspired us to tone down the rainbow theme we had going on. Especially since we had read that repeating colors in a small house can really help make it seem larger.
So, as of just about right now, our house painting is officially done…for a while at least.
We decided to use that fancy floorplan we created using Floorplanner to demonstrate the change. Oh and these colors are taken from Glidden’s digital swatchbook so the color on your computer screen is only as accurate as your monitor.
Color Scheme: THEN
I know, I know. It looks fun and cheery – but it was a little schizophrenic. In fact, the only color we repeated at all was the bold turquoise color in the 3rd bedroom (which was the dining room at the time) and the 1/2 bath. Now we understand that in a small house you want continuity and rooms that feel like they flow- and not like they’re chopped up with different color schemes.
Color Scheme: NOW
Only the master bedroom and the sunroom escaped the repainting massacre, and while it may not look exciting on screen – it totally made the house feel bigger, more connected and a lot more grown up. Here’s the final report on the paint colors, in case you’re looking for some inspiration yourself:
Ok, now I’ve gotta go wash some Sand White off my hands. It feels good to be done. Although a homeowner’s work is never really done…
