Project #5 New Cabinets and Counter tops

 The cabinets. This is the biggest ticket item by far and I wanted it to be right.

Here is the original kitchen:

I found this kitchen to be dark and depressing. The garden window was badly broken and we replaced that fairly early on. The backsplash was not my style. Many of the drawers didn't work well.

Kitchen after I painted the perimeter cabinets and removed backsplash tile:

I put headboard as backsplash as a temporary measure, knowing I would replace it someday. 

All of my painting looked good and  lasted quite well for over 9 years!

Things I didn't like: gigantic island with floating chairs/step up below it, cabinets that end below the ceiling, horrible floor tile. Things that were ok but would need to change: microwave location, chipped countertop, sink with small and big side with disposal, upper corner cabinet that is hard to use.

I was afraid to lose a lot of drawer space and some cabinet space when I make the island smaller.

Years ago when I was dreaming about this project, I had visited a local cabinet store (more than one actually). But a specific one seemed really good quality and they even gave me a tour of their manufacturing facility and explained everything really well. So in the back of my mind, this was the best place but way too expensive. So everything I looked at, I compared to this place.

As I mentioned before, I had a designer help with the fireplace. She then said she could help me with the kitchen and picking out lights and stuff so we had a cohesive look. She did some preliminary drawings and I did already have a pretty good idea what I wanted. But I was just not sure how to fit things in and what the best layout would be.

Things I knew I wanted: a big island but not as gigantic as the one I had now, NO built in chairs, double oven, cook top, drawers instead of cabinets in the island. Keep fridge and dishwasher since they are not very old and work fine. I wasn't sure how I would like a single sink but I did like the look of them. I also wanted to do a shiplap ceiling treatment in the kitchen. (I kept this one under my hat for awhile in case Frank thought it was crazy)

The designer brought me some drawings. I wasn't loving the layout exactly..some small, weird cabinets and I would have to have a smaller oven due to space constraints. The local place had made me some drawings and also put some weird stuff in there (open shelving over the fridge??). I was afraid I couldn't get what I wanted.

The thing that sort of kept bugging me in the back of my mind was that the designer was giving me these drawings but she was clearly working with a cabinet place to get them. Any cabinet place will do the design work for free. So as we were tweaking the design I just wondered in the back of my mind who was doing the cabinets? She finally had a day when she brought over a cabinet person who did some measurements to make sure the design was going to fit. I questioned this person about how the cabinets were made and who was making them and what the quality was...and I just wasn't satisfied with the answers. They had no samples to show me except a small door sample to show the colors. I just couldn't get past the quality issue. If I'm spending a fortune on cabinets, how do I make sure they aren't crap? They kept saying things like"these are good cabinets! We put them in million dollar homes"

Anyway, I felt just uncomfortable with all of it. partly because my designer had worked with this unknown cabinet place with the assumption that I would buy from them. The design wasn't exactly what I wanted and they also made me feel like I couldn't really have a normal looking vent hood: No room. I had all these compromises.

I fretted and worried over every single step of this remodel so it is no surprise I'm sure that I was suuuuper stressed over this.

I ended up taking some basic drawings to the local cabinet store just to see how close in cost they would be (fully expecting a huge discrepancy). They had already made some drawings as I mentioned but I had a better idea now of what I wanted so we sat down and did a redesign. Somehow they fit more cabinets and told me I could get a full size double oven. I really didn't understand how that could be but I was hopeful. Turns out they are European style cabinets with a frameless design making them more roomy inside (thus fitting a bigger oven). The quote came back slightly cheaper than the other cabinets!!

So after much fretting, I emailed the designer that I wasn't comfortable with the other cabinet place but would pick my own place. She was super nice about it...I mean, as Frank kept pointing out, I am paying her to design. I didn't owe anyone else anything. She really liked one of the door options the other place had and was sad I could't get that but for me it wasn't as big of a deal. But I'm no designer.

So I finally bit the bullet and signed up to get my cabinets made. I chose white perimeter cabinets and a blue island. The designer helped me pick the color though she wanted to go more gray and I was vehemently against any gray. We compromised on a nice blue.

Once we had picked a cabinet place, Frank became quite antsy to just pull the whole kitchen out. I was trying to keep it in as long as possible to make our lives less crazy. He just hates waiting! So we ripped it all out. Of course, he did most of the work but I was helpful hauling crap out of the house.

We set up a little kitchen area in the pantry. Put the table in there as well as set up the toaster, microwave and griddle. It was tight but it worked.

I was still so nervous. I doubted they could make a hood vent the way they said they could. I doubted that everything would fit within my current footprint. I doubted the double oven big time. They sent over a guy to do detailed measurements before beginning the construction of the cabinets and this guy was SO GOOD. He used laser levels and measured everything to the millimeter. He pointed out things in my design that I could change a little to make things better (they were all really good suggestions). He showed us exactly where the new island would be. Frank and I were so impressed and he made us feel completely at ease like we'd made the right choice.

We had the oven in the middle of the living room at this point and the refrigerator moved around as well as they did floors and such. Mostly we had everything in a big jumble in the middle of the living room with walk ways for the fireplace guys to work around. It was a disaster area.

To accommodate the double oven and the cooktop we had to move some electrical around and add some as well. We also added lighting above the island which wasn't there before. We were lucky to find a family member (Josh's cousin?) who is an electrician and could work around our time constraints. He was awesome.

Before they brought the cabinets the manager came do a final walk through and make sure the plumbing and electrical were right. We actually had to move an outlet at the last minute which Frank was not happy about but luckily he is very handy and got it done.

March 4, 2024 Cabinet delivery day! They stacked them all over and I just stared at them in awe.

Huge drawers that I'm so excited about!

There is my vent hood!

March 5, 2024 The installer came the next day and, wow, was he fast!

He discussed with us where exactly we wanted the island. 

He made us feel really secure.

TA DA!

Just needs countertops, appliances and plumbing. No big deal.

The electrician came back shortly after install and put in the under cabinet lights and helped Frank install the oven.

I purchased all kinds of organizational stuff for the new kitchen 

Just look at this gigantic utensil drawer organizer! I was ridiculously excited about it.

March 26th the countertops arrived!

It's always amazing watching people do this sort of thing.

They really have amazing skills!

I love how the veins go over the edge:

The countertop has both gold and silver veining

It took me awhile to pick a backsplash but I eventually did. 

It was installed on May 20th and I really love it.

Simple but also makes a statement but not trendy (I hope)

Finished!

Project #4 Paint and New Doors

This is the part of the project with the most snafus which is a little funny because it's the one part of the project that Frank and I could have done ourselves without that much difficulty. But it would have been very time consuming and so it seemed like a good idea to have a professional do it.  And for the most part we ARE glad we didn't do it ourselves.

First of all, I'm not sure I can express how much I thought about and stressed over picking out the white paint we would use. I stayed up in the night for hours reading articles about how easy it is to screw up white paint. How bad it could look. I discovered that the white paint I had previously used on my trim and in several rooms was actually skewed blue and made the house feel cold. Who knew? But if I go too warm it will look yellow and dirty! Oy!  I almost drove Frank to drink with all my samples and stresses. I did eventually pick one though I'm still not sure how I managed it.

I got several quotes for paint. Professional painting is very expensive. But we have one wall in particular that is very tall, vaulted and over a stairway. I really didn't want to do that part. I also didn't want to paint the vaulted ceiling myself.

So we decided to compromise and have the professional paint the family room/vaulted ceiling. We would paint the hallway, kitchen and laundry room. 

When we started, Frank didn't know I wanted all new trim and doors. But once we started tearing things apart and removing tile (which is damaging to the trim anyway) I decided I might as well be doing it all right now instead of waiting for a year or two. So I broke the news to Frank who was, I admit, surprised. But he agreed as he had already decided that this was my project and he was just going to accept it. HA! We did compromise by not removing or changing trim or closet doors inside any of the bedrooms which seemed wise for keeping Frank sane.

The paint guy told me that he could do the trim and doors as well as the walls and he would paint it all too! Well, I was sold and told him to go ahead with all of it.

The wall painting went smoothly except that since we had changed the original bid (taken out hall, kitchen etc and added trim and doors) I think the paint guy was a little confused and the first thing he did was paint the entirety of the front room (ceiling and walls). I hadn't even planned on that being done at all. But by the time I saw him working it was too late. So he painted an entire extra room. ok.

He patched some spots on the ceiling and spent tons of time here. He was a super nice guy and his painting looks great.

We painted the hallway and kitchen walls. Later I noticed that where the hallway and family room meet, the paint sheens didn't match. That's when we learned that if you want a certain brand of paint, you have to be very specific because the professional painter will likely get a different brand but just paint match the color you want. So we ended up painting the hall again with his brand so the sheens would match. Lesson learned.

He put in the trim and did a ton of masking so that he could spray the trim and get a nice finish. It was so much work. As he was painting it was hard to tell exactly but it seemed like a different color than the walls to me. He assured me it wasn't different but sometime it could appear different due to the sheen difference. There is blue tape and masking paper so it's really hard to tell. But once we removed the masking, it became clear that the trim color was very different from the wall. I sent him a picture since he'd left for the day. I felt sick about it. 

Looks pretty white here but I could see a difference

The color difference was obvious and noticeable especially once the masking was down.

He was surprised because he said he ordered the same color as the walls but just in a semi-gloss. Anyway, I fretted over this. I kind of liked the look of the new color but it would mean that all my trim and doors would need to be that color. I wasn't sure. I asked friends and neighbors their opinions. Frank thought I should redo it all. I hated to have him do all that masking and work all over again! In the end we decided to redo it mainly because we had no idea what color this paint was and we mostly were concerned about being able to reproduce it exactly to do the doors and for touch up. He was super nice about it and just re-did all of it with the wall color.

Then it came to the doors...

I had gone to the door place with the painter to pick out which ones I wanted. The people there said that we could either give them measurements or just bring in our current doors for them to use as a template. I said, Oh why don't we do that? but the guy was like "no, no need! I'll just measure". I am pretty much a complete wuss if I am confronted by a situation where I think I know less than someone else. So I didn't push this issue though it seemed like an obvious choice to me. He proceed to measure our doors multiple times to make sure they were right.

He took the new doors to his studio or wherever and painted them. 

Frank likes to be... what is the word...devils advocate? negative nelly? when we hire anything out. He doubts that the project will turn out. I always doubt people too and watch them as they do their jobs to see if I think they know what they are doing. So basically we are both doubters. But I kept telling him to stop being negative, it will all work out great!

I was at work the day he delivered the doors. The hinges were not in the correct spot on ANY of the doors. It was disheartening to say the least. I'm not sure if they checked the actual measurements of any of the doors because it was so clear that the hinges were wrong. It was decided that he would take the doors back to the door place and have them redo the hinges and he would take our doors as templates. yeah.

So we were then without any interior doors. For weeks.

Turns out I do not sleep well without a door on my bedroom and I really dislike having a bathroom without a door.

We had workmen in our house all the time who sometimes need to use the facilities. And we had no doors.

Not ideal.

But turns out most of the time that doesn't stop them. FYI.

I put up a "curtain" using bedsheets on my bedroom and master bath, which helped. I didn't do more than that because I hated buying the tension rods knowing they'd only be used for a little while. Feels like money is flowing like water at this point.

So after however much time goes by, he bring back the doors to install.

I'm at work again...

Well, some of them just aren't quite right.

And none of them have the area chiseled out for the backplate on the door knob. Frank is kind of freaking out and tells them to just leave.

There were like 5 guys at my house doing this install and none of them read the directions on how to install the door knob...I informed Frank through text that we didn't need that little backplate part. 

It just pops off. 

So that was one headache fixed. 

By a woman who reads directions. 

Who was at work at the time.

I'm sure the door guys were relieved to get my text that they didn't have to once again take the doors back to the door place to get that chiseled out.

But a few of the doors are just not quite the right size. 

Most work ok.

The door to my bathroom from the master bedroom is a little too skinny and I can see lots of light when it's shut. It bugs me.

The double doors to the pantry are just plain wrong.

Frank is so over this by now that he just wants to never see the guy again.

He tells him to just bring back the original doors for the bathroom and pantry...to which he replies he had them recycled.

OY

We can't fix this problem so we choose "stick head in sand" for now.

We will deal with the pantry doors another day and live with the weird bathroom door.

He gives us a discount for those doors and we just pay him.

The other doors are fine and the paint job is lovely and they look great!

The trim work is probably not up to Frank's standards but he hasn't said anything because we are both realizing things are not going to be perfect and we just can't talk about it. hahaha