Kitchen Granite

We finally got our granite installed the day before Christmas Eve. The installation itself had a few bumps along the way, but we did get them worked out. I was hoping to post pictures before now but with the busyness of Christmas and wanting to spend time with my family, I didn’t quite get around to it. I do absolutely love it though and am very glad about my choice. I could have gone with something fancier, but I wanted a more neutral color scheme to work from. Here are a few shots of the kitchen with the granite.

And a close up.

The way they made the template for the granite was completely fascinating.  I had never seen anything quite like it. The template person used a system of dots to make the template. He took several photographs of the dots and ran this on a specific computer program to get exact dimensions of the granite, even taking into account uneven walls. The process is called photogrammetry.

We were able to test out the functionality of the kitchen a few times over the last several days. It is a million times better than it was. Two people can work in it very comfortably. My daughter, Lauren, and I made homemade wonton soup and General Tso’s chicken from scratch yesterday and didn’t bump into each other once. The second sink has come in very handy as well and I am so glad Patrick suggested it. It was an added luxury but I love it.   

The Perfect Place for a Christmas Tree

Normally, I have the tree up Thanksgiving weekend, but with the busyness of our lives lately, I finally got it decorated this morning-3 days before Christmas. You know the saying, “better late than never.” Well, it definitely applied to me this year. Tim and I went shopping for it yesterday morning. We went to Menards and were pleasantly surprised that every tree in the store was $5 and they were also buy one get one free. We passed on that since we really don’t need 2 trees. They were pretty picked over but this one wasn’t too bad. It is a little uneven and I had to prune a few stray branches, but for $5 we couldn’t go wrong.

The remodeling left me with a “no-brainer.” The perfect place for the Christmas tree-right in front of the stairs. I didn’t have to move any furniture at all. If you remember, this was open to below before we remodeled.

I now have some additional square footage that I didn’t even think about when we closed in the stairs. I’ll probably find the perfect furniture for this area by this time next year, but for now it is home to the Christmas tree.

Appliances

Its been a week since my last post and I feel like I haven’t slowed down at all. Every minute of every day has been full, yet not much is picture worthy. Kathy came over and helped paint the living room. Tim and Tanner have continued with mudding and taping the areas that still need it and I have been cleaning, and cleaning and cleaning. The dust never ends and I don’t think it will until we are completely done with the mudding and taping. I’ve also spent a good deal of time catching up on office work that I had put off for the last couple of weeks.

I shared in a post last week a little about our appliances. We were debating whether or not to spend the money on them right now or to wait a while. The appliances came with the house and all of them seem to work fine, but they have their limitations when it comes to a family using them and not a bachelor. The fridge was definitely on the small side and the dishwasher seemed to hold 1/2 of what my old one held.

The range and microwave were OK, but the question was should we replace them all at the same time or not. Plus, I was leaning toward a stainless steel look and all the current appliances were white. Since we are going with granite, the range I was hoping for would need a small strip of granite behind it, but the old stove would not. We decided to at least see what was out there and what the prices were on new appliances.

The research began. I spent an entire day going to 4 different stores and then more time on the internet shopping at additional stores. I also took some of the recommendations that seemed to be consistent from sales person to sales person and checked the reviews.

This is what I came up with.

• Samsung makes a  decent refrigerator.
• KitchenAid makes a decent dishwasher (so does Bosch, but they are made for the European market and have a smaller capacity.)
• The ranges and microwaves don’t have a really strong company or weak one either. They are fairly consistent quality from brand to brand.

My last stop of the day was Lowe’s and they seemed to be having a fantastic sale the week before Thanksgiving. No one was even close to their prices for the most part. I also checked their clearance appliances and found the exact model of refrigerator I was looking for, reduced $160 off the sale price because of one tiny-and I do mean tiny-dent on a side. You can barely see it in the center of this picture.My son works for Best Buy and can get an employee discount so I asked him to check on pricing for me. I was curious if he could beat the Lowe’s clearance price. I was on pins and needles waiting to hear back from him scared that someone would snatch up my find. He couldn’t even come close to Lowe’s prices.

I immediately went back to Lowe’s and claimed this refrigerator.

I also spotted the KitchenAid dishwasher I wanted on clearance because after it had been delivered it did not fit the space-nothing was wrong with it. I questioned the clearance price being higher than the sales price and they came down significantly lower than the sales price.

My last major purchase was going to be the range. Unfortunately, they were not on sale at Lowe’s but I remembered their low price guarantee-that they would beat any competitor plus 10%. I showed them my quotes from another store with a lower price for the same model and they gave me another 10% off that price. The microwaves were already on sale and I couldn’t find a clearance one that would work for us, but I did get one for what I felt was a reasonable price and is a companion to the range.

All in all, we saved about 40% off of retail. I am excited about my appliance finds and feel confident that we got the best value for our money.

Now on to Christmas-it is the end of this week after all and I am so unprepared for it. Normally I have a tree up right after Thanksgiving, but not this year-been just a little busy!

Remodel Day 14

Day 14 was the final day of the major remodel. There wasn’t much visual that happened, but nevertheless many important tasks were finished up.

• The closet had insulation and drywall added and the first coat of mud was applied
• New door knobs were installed.
• Light fixtures were hung
• Trim work around the stairs was finished
• Outlets were made functional
• Door jams were hung

There were so many little things going on that I am sure I missed a few. Patrick and Chad headed home this morning, so progress from here on out will be slow. They only had two weeks to be here, but it is unbelievable what they got done in those two weeks. They worked 140 hours each during the time they were here, plus we had a lot of help from other family as well, as their schedules allowed. (In case you haven’t figured it out, I have an awesome family!)  

Even with all the help and the killer hours, we had to pick and choose what our priorities were because they couldn’t do everything-close, but not quite everything. We chose not to have the tile laid in the laundry and bath, mudding of the laundry and bath and the new woodwork installed in the main living areas so that we could get the closet in the office, a window in the laundry room and a new back door in the garage.

Here are some before and after shots of the kitchen and living room areas.

 

 

 

We will still keep picking away at the things that need to be done, but the house is very functional and livable now. We can go at a pace we feel comfortable with to finish it up. All we have left is painting and woodwork, at least in the living room and kitchen, then on to the fun stuff-decorating.

Remodel Day 13

In some ways it seems like we moved backwards as far as the mess goes. I started putting my kitchen stuff away and it is like putting together a puzzle. First I had to wash EVERYTHING. As careful as I was trying to keep things from the dust, it didn’t work. As I started working dishes and food back into the kitchen, they piled up on the countertops along with the tools and other items needed for construction so it really added to the clutter and made it difficult to think through the process of putting things away. John came back over to help and added the bead board around the island. The base trim is still in process and needs to be painted black.

Meanwhile, Pat finished the stairway and the hardwood floors. They look amazing.

 

Chad began adding the closet  bump out to the office.

The office had been home to all my living room furniture and other items that we needed to clear out of the way. We moved everything out of there and back into the living room and dining room area.

It will be nice to have a sense of order to our house again. I know it will be soon.

Remodel Day 12

We are finally out of the kitchen except for a few odds and ends. The project shifted to other areas of the house. I'm most excited about the stairs.

Pat set the newel posts on the newly stained base. It took him a good chunk of the day to do this.

 

I needed to leave for a basketball game and when I got home I saw this:

I’m so glad we decided not to use the old railing pieces. I love this. It is not quite finished, but shouldn’t take too much longer.

Meanwhile, Chad was busy installing light fixtures in the kitchen.

We decided to keep the plastic on this one since we don’t need it at the moment.

He also installed the window in the laundry room and the door for the new entrance into the garage from the back yard.

Tanner is anxious to update the hall bathroom and has been working at sanding the old finish off the cabinets in there.

I put a second coat of paint in the kitchen and started adding knobs to the cabinets.

Seems like a lot of visual progress was made.

Remodel Day 11

Pat and Chad finished setting the cabinets and put down temporary countertops for me. I have a nearly, fully functional kitchen. I actually ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher and they all came out clean. (The old machine wasn’t consistent about getting the dishes clean so I am happy about the clean dishes.)  The waterline was connected to the fridge and we almost had a functional stove except for purchasing the wrong cord but that should be resolved soon. Crown molding and under cabinet trim were added. It really makes a difference on how the kitchen looks. Chad also ran under cabinet lighting. Here are pictures of the kitchen from various angles.

Remodel Day 10

The project is really coming together. I am so excited. Kathy came over and helped paint the kitchen around where the cabinets are going. (We didn’t bother to paint the entire wall since cabinets would cover it anyway.)

Patrick & Chad pulled out the first cabinet and started working on the island while Kathy and I finished painting.

I decided to be bold and do black with a silver glazing as an accent color for the island. It was a hard decision, but I decided to go for it. Tim’s not quite sure what he thinks of it.

Patrick put a plywood top and my old sink back in so I could have a functioning kitchen until the granite is installed. I love the soft close-full extension drawer. I don’t know how many times we took turns opening and closing it.

When they were done with the island, they started on the upper cabinets.

   I chose soft white with a chocolate glaze for the bulk of my cabinets.

By the end of the day, I had my fridge moved, and the microwave functional. I can’t wait to get the knobs on and start putting things away. I think I already have more storage space than before, with just 1/2 the upper cabinets installed.