One more look at the kitchen

The kitchen is finished except for the floor. We couldn't be happier with the choices we made - we simply love our kitchen. Cooking and cleaning up is fun, when we're in such a beautiful place.

This weekend I started decorating with a few antiques and other items. On the right, on the top shelf, are antique film cans from my grandpa.  See the silver disk thing on the top shelf on the left?

I found it at a little antique shop in town but couldn't figure out what it was. So I asked.

The owner of the shop showed me that it's actually a serving piece. The outsides fold down, and a disk in the middle is rotated to be flat.

Perfect for serving cookies, candy, crackers, hors d'oeuvres, etc. I thought it was perfect for my kitchen. The silver complements the stainless appliances.

At the same shop I found these dark turquoise Ball jars. This picture doesn't really show how well they match the platter I already had.

I already had a couple of lighter blue Ball jars and the chicken wire basket so they went up on the shelf above the sink.

At the same little shop in town (it was a great day for me to stop there) I found the vase on the shelf below.

Here's a little bit better look at it. It has more color than it looks like in this picture, and I have a little blue bottle next to it on the shelf which matches it.

Finally, I found this candle holder when I was unpacking boxes. It really looks nice in the corner of the counter.

You probably noticed in the picture of the silver server earlier, that we got our granite counters installed on the kitchen island. We are absolutely thrilled with the granite - and feel so blessed to have this kitchen. I feel like I'm walking into a decorating magazine whenever I go in the kitchen.

It's hard with my little Sony Cyber Shot camera to get a good picture of the granite. So you may have to come for a visit and see it in person!

Craig has finished the wood trim around the window, and he added a nice window ledge. He's become quite the carpenter.

So that's our kitchen. We'll eventually finish the floor, but for now we're just going to enjoy the beauty and function of our new kitchen.

Almost Everything -Including the Kitchen Sink

This week we've made a lot of progress in finishing our kitchen. We now have all our appliances in and working. We have unpacked almost all our boxes and filled the drawers and cupboards. We have kitchen counter tops everywhere except the island (we're waiting on the granite for that). We even have a new kitchen sink and faucet. (Did I tell you before that it took us almost two hours to pick out a faucet? I had no idea that decision would be so hard to make!)
Bottom line - we love our kitchen! It's hard to get a good picture of the counter top with my little Sony Cyber Shot camera, but here are some pictures of the kitchen....

We have found that the colors in the kitchen change with the light - and it's another thing we love about it.

This last picture is of our pantry - which we now call our butler's pantry :)  We reused our old kitchen cabinets in there, and added counter top to match the kitchen. It has become our "beverage station" because we have the coffeepot and supplies, including coffee cups in there. In the left cupboard we also keep tea, Crystal Light, Tang, etc. We also have the toaster in here, and Craig loves going in there in the morning to start the coffee and make his toast.

Our kitchen is almost complete. We are waiting for the island counter top, and then we will need to decide on flooring. Up until now we had planned on having hardwood floors in the kitchen and dining area. But now I am wondering if that would be too much wood and take away from the beauty of the cabinets. So it's back to my books, the Internet, and Home Depot/Menard's to see what other options we might have. What would you suggest?

Adivce About A Kitchen Remodel (or any major remodeling project)

We have been in the middle of a kitchen remodel for over 6 months, and here are some of the things I've learned when trying to make decisions:

1) Take your time. I find that when we take the time to explore options, to do our homework, and to talk over our expectations and preferences, we make better decisions. And, the decisions are easier to make, because we know what we want and what we like. Don't rush - enjoy the process.

2) Do your homework.

• You can go to the library and look at books. 
• You can go online... there are thousands of images and articles available.  Pinterest and www.houzz.com are a couple of my favorite websites. You can also find remodeling tips online. I read this blog about a disappointing remodel and it was helpful.
• You should also visit several stores, talk to salesmen, look for sales, and view product samples.
• Ask friends for tips from their remodeling/building experiences
• Compile a notebook or collection of pictures and ideas for your project. Take them with when you go to talk to professionals about the project you're doing.

Here are two of the pictures I took at one store we visited.  We used both of these ideas in our kitchen.

Here are pictures of the same ideas - in our own new kitchen!

3) Bring samples home! The light in your home is different than the light in the store.  Get as big a sample as possible. You can see here that we brought several samples of counter tops home. I didn't think I like the black granite (4th picture) for our counter top, but when I saw it on the cabinet, I fell in love with it.

 4) Be creative and make mock ups of your room. Either draw it on graph paper, or find an object that's about the same size. Put masking tape on the floor to make an outline.  We taped out the size of our future kitchen island. When we started taking out the old cabinets, we used one section as our island, and a table to simulate counters.

 Tonight we used a paper bag to lay out the kitchen sink and faucets. I couldn't believe how long it took us to pick out this faucet at the store, and how long it took to decide where to put the sprayer and soap dispenser. But once the holes are cut in the counter top we can't change it - so I want to make sure we're both happy with our decision.

 5) Decide what your must haves are, and what things are just wishes. Decide on your budget, and make sure that your must-haves are included. Find other areas where you can save money. I have always wanted a refrigerator with french doors and a bottom freezer. I was able to get it because we shopped when appliances were on sale, and  got it for a great price. We had a hard time deciding on whether or not to put in a dishwasher. We talked to friends and family, but still hadn't decided when we went to make final decisions with the cabinet maker. In the end, I gave up a dream to have pull out baskets for potatoes, etc. in order to have room for a dishwasher. Since we made the decision to have the dishwasher, I haven't regretted it at all.

6) Get advice from a professional. We asked a professional kitchen designer (Paula) to come out and help us, and it was money well spent. Not only did she give us advice on layout and design, she also designed the kitchen on the computer and sent us several drawings with different options.She was a great sounding board for our ideas, and her advice helped us make our decisions. So I guess I should qualify the statement about getting professional advice - find someone who knows what they're talking about but who is also willing to listen to what you really want. The drawings she sent us helped us clarify our ideas, and made it easier to talk with the cabinet maker and others. (One picture is worth a thousand words!)

 7) Be realistic. Unless you're wealthy, you won't be able to get everything you want. And, things sometimes turn out differently than you expected/ planned. For example - the stain color we chose was called "cashew."  The sample board we had was the same kind of wood as we were ordering for our cabinets - knotty alder. Cashew, on that board, was much the same color as a cashew nut. But when our cabinets came, they had a lot of red in them ( a lot of red!). We love the cabinets, and the stain color, now but it wasn't what we were expecting - so it took some time to get used to the new color. Another example is the corner cabinet.

We saw the idea of open shelves in the corner at a design store, and really liked the look. On the drawing of our kitchen they looked pretty big. But as you can see in the picture above, they aren't very big at all. But I still love them.

8) Be ready to have your world in disarray while the project is being completed. I feel like my kitchen has been in boxes forever, and I'm tired of doing dishes downstairs in the laundry room. But I keep the goal in sight - a beautiful functional kitchen!

9) Design your space for the way you live. My husband and I aren't getting any younger. So we built our kitchen with that in mind. We are getting a wall oven so we don't have to bend over so far to see into the oven and get things out. We ordered more drawers than cupboard doors - it's easier to open a drawer to get what we need than to reach way back into a dark cabinet. We are getting a lazy susan in the corner cabinet, and we got pull out cabinets for: spices, trash, and a pull out for the broom and some cleaning supplies.

10) Hire professionals to do at least some of the work. We decided that we could do the prep work on the walls, install the beam on the ceiling, and do all the wiring. But our time is worth money too. It would take us so long to figure out what cabinets to order and install - and plumbing just isn't our thing. So we hired out the cabinets and plumbing. Doing everything yourself isn't always the most cost effective - especially if you've never done those things before.

11) Don't forget lighting! Make sure your space is lit for the way you will use the space. In our kitchen that means pendant lights over the sink area as well as the island, and under cabinet lights as well. I love the lights we chose - and I love that they match!

12) Enjoy every moment - from the dreaming, planning, shopping, and installation. My husband and I have had such fun making our dream of a new kitchen a reality.