WOWEEE! That's an incredible transformation! I absolutely love your new kitchen!
Astrid

It's gorgeous Carol!! What a lot of work.
Looks like you'll have plenty of room to can next summer and hey! There's still apples, pears, pumpkin yet this year!! LOL

Funny: When I opened New Kitchen #2, at first glance I thought there were windows UNDER the sink....take a look.
Nothing in my house will ever be shiny enough to reflect the outdoors like THAT!!

You guys need to spend some time just enjoying now. :+)
Deanna

So that's what Annie was talking about! She thought there were windows there too. The granite is very reflective. In fact, I took a picture of a pie and suddenly realized what I was seeing in the viewfinder was the reflection in the backsplash.

This kitchen will never look so good again. It's getting real use. As soon as the jars finish in the dishwasher it's canning time!

Carol

I love that row of cabinets under the dining room window. Wonderful buffet area. Kay

Beautiful

Wonderful job, Carol!!!

You will love...love...love that 6-burner Wolf! I love my Wolf and am so glad I was not influenced by others! Having 6 burners is so nice for canning and you have so much room. I can even cook dinner and can at the same time! Amazing! And I've even had 2 BWB baths going at once!

Adding the lower cabs under the window in the eating area is such a nice touch and look at how much more cab space you have.

Michelle

I am IMPRESSED!!!!!!!!!!!! Very nice!

I love your new kitchen! Nice job.

Nancy

It's strange sometimes how things work out. Originally I was going to re-furbish my 20-year-old Gaggenau cooktop and keep that. Until I discovered it would cost $1100 PLUS an additional slab of granite around the drop-in. By going to the bigger Wolf with the griddle (DH's idea, not mine) we got by with 2 slabs of granite for the entire kitchen, knocking $1250 off the price of materials plus the additional for fabrication.

I don't mean the Wolf was a "bargain" but in odd ways it turned out to cost no more than re-furbishing the old cooktop (which I sold).

The fabricators did an excellent job, squeezing out all the counters from the two slabs with no seams. And no glue-lam edge. So the island is one solid piece.

I do love the buffet. That was always wasted space as the window was too low for furniture below. But my favorite thing is the lighting. It gets darned gray here in the winter; in my old kitchen I spent 9 months of the year cooking in shadows. Now I can actually see the counter under the cabinets.

DH's favorite thing is the knife drawer.

{{gwi:943206}}.

The cabinet-maker de-constructed a maple cutting board and made the drawer deep enough that all knives hang without touching anything.

Carol

Fabulous ! Maybe I should take a drive over and see it in person. I think my next stove will be Wolf. I have Dacor and it is pretty good, but somethings I am not happy with. Wish I had known about Wolf back then.
I am so happy for you ! Oh, and if you find some kind of cleaner that you love for the stainless, please, let me know. So far the only thing that seems to work on mine is lemon oil or some new Pledge with orange oil. I bought so many things and nothing would work on the front of mine. It was always streaked and smeary. For the burner area I use oven cleaner once in a while. The repairman told me about that trick.
Thanks for sharing your lovely new kitchen and dining room with us !

Talk about high-tech, Linda Lou. The Wolf people recommended I clean the black enamel top with a paste of baking soda and water. I guess it's just hard to beat the old standards.

I know what you mean about stainless cleaners. I went out and bought about 10 different things, including those Pledge Wipes. I didn't care for them much, plus they're expensive and wasteful. On the appliance forum, Pledge has gotten good reviews, but I've been most satisfied with Weiman Stainless Steel Cleaner and Polish. It seems to do the best job I've found for stubborn streaks and I've noticed it takes a while for fingerprints to do their damage.

Carol

G'Day Carol. Stunning! I enjoyed the demo photo with the sawsall, grain shovel, and gorilla bars (been there and done that). You and your husband have outstanding taste. The cabinets are really fantastic. I imagine that your Wolf can do about 17,000 BTUs. No problems with the BWB, eh. Enjoy everyday--who wouldn't with that dream kitchen and dining area. Best wishes, Gary

Sorry Linda Lou, I missed your other comment. Of course you're welcome to come look at the Wolf if you decide to change.

But I only have the rangetop. If you're interested in a range with ovens, either dual-fuel or all gas, you might want to check with Bradlee Distributors here in Portland. They don't sell Wolf products themselves, so they aren't going to pressure you to buy. But they do have a great showroom with model kitchens and Wolf products you can actually cook on. We found them very low-key and helpful.

Also, have you checked out the appliance forum? You might get some helpful ideas for your Dacor. I know it's frustrating to buy something and then not have it be what you hoped.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Bradlee Distributors

Thank you Gary. I really wanted the materials to speak for themselves.

You will appreciate this story about the sawsall. Helping us with demo was a fellow who occasionally works for the contractor. He's called "Big Al" and he loves to destroy things.

I wasn't thrilled when I saw he'd cut through and left a lovely hole in the laundry room wall.

We were very fortunate in our cabinet maker, who charged no more (less, actually) than we would have paid for many mass-produced cabinets. The cherry is beautiful and all the drawers in the island are full-extension with 500 lb. industrial guides. They will hold all the cast iron I can imagine.

Dan (the cabinet maker) told me we're nearer than we might think to a time when such wood simply isn't available. That's a sad thought.

Carol

Carol,

Thanks for sharing your lovely new kitchen and dining area. Fabulous! What I would give for that cabinet space.

John

The knife drawer is a great idea. I have a small lower cab that is not very wide that would have worked out perfectly. Too bad I did not see this idea earlier...dang!

Weiman Stainless Steel Cleaner

I've tried several brands but I think Weimans does the best job so far.

Michelle

Carol, your new kitchen and dining room are beautiful! I had to laugh at Deanna's post - I also thought there were windows under the sink, in fact I *still* thought so and when I read her post I had to go back and look again! And I love the knife drawer, I may have to see if we can do something similar - although we don't have quite the collection of knives that you do!

Enjoy!
Ann

LOL, "I" don't have the knives, DH does. Well, I use them, but he loves a good knife, including those fancy-schmancy Japanese blades. I just feel very fortunate that I have someone to sharpen them. He's got about every stone in the world including a Norton tri-stone that rotates in a tray of oil.

Michelle, if you have a similar deep drawer, you could have someone construct something like this. Dan actually made the knife-slot as an insert to fit into the top of the drawer. It's fully and easily removeable so the cavity underneath can be cleaned. I could pull it out and have an ordinary drawer any time I want.

I have pictures of the empty drawer that shows the maple insert being removed if you want to see what I mean.

Other than that, most of the drawers are just drawers. Dan said, and I think he's right, that he's built a lot of custom set-ups that people end up never using. One nice thing is he can always come back and add more shelves for cupboards, etc. That is, if I'm willing to wait. Dan's good. He's not speedy.

Carol

That is just beautiful! Cooking there must be a great pleasure!

> I just feel very fortunate that I have someone to sharpen them.

Carol,

Lucky you! Knife sharpening is almost an art and some of us love knives way beyond what a normal person does. When I was a kid almost every boy carried a pocket knife to school. My dad's woodworking tools were Japanese and the best in the world according to him. Same round handles. My fav stone for many years is a Norton too. And for touch up I use an original Crock Stick.

jt

Ah hah! John, you and DH would get along well as he collects Japanese woodworking tools. (And uses them, though less now than before.) The chisels and the hand saws are just wonderful. He also has a number of books on Japanese carpentry.

Carol

Carol, you are blessed to have him keep the knives sharp. My husband gets after me when I allow mine to get too dull. He just uses Crock sticks on mine, but he is picky about the knives. It would be nice if he had the set up your husband has.
We got our set of Case knives as a wedding gift nearly 34 years ago. Still using the same set. I never put them in the dishwasher and they are hand washed, dried and put away in the wooden case they came in. They do not get put into the sink, either.
I cringe when company comes and mistreats my knives ! One gal bent the tip on one prying something with it !!!! My husband repaired it the best he could.
They cut open plastic packages with them, too, when they use them. We don't treat ours like that.

Linda Lou, I understand. I've never heard of Crock sticks (Ok, do you mean a ceramic sharpening tool?), but I would NEVER put knives in the dishwasher or allow them to sit in the sink. My first knife gift from DH 30+ years ago was a full set of Henkel knives. He's added "fancier" knives since then, but those are still my favorite.

Good knives should be treated with respect.

Carol

Carol, yes, they are ceramic rods for sharpening knives. I am not sure how good they are for sharpening, but that is what he uses. He does have a small whet stone and some oil. He doesn't use it on my kitchen knives, though.
I agree about the respect for knives.

Oh, Carol, thanks so much for sharing.

I am happy to live vicariously through you! (Luckily it's incredibly late --- am waiting for my third batch in the canner --- so nobody can here the noises of lust I am making at all this Kitchen Porn you have posted. They might not understand.)

Only thing my kitchen has in common with yours is sharp knives. Mine aren't particularly good (a Henckel larger than a paring knife would be a step UP for me). But fiance is a woodturner; sharpening tools is all in a day's work for him. So if a knife is dull I just send it out to the shop.

(We didn't register or anything for the wedding --- not our style --- but we made a short list of requests to send to people who really wanted suggestions, and a good chef's knife was right up at the top. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will get one....)

Enjoy that kitchen. It looks about ready to turn out gallons of applesauce!

Zabby

Carol,
It is beautiful! I'm sure it was worth the wait. I'm glad you are putting it to good use.
Melly

Wow! That is some kitchen! Enjoy it, Carol, it certainly looks like it was worth the wait, it's gorgeous!

Carol

Carol, all I can say is "WOW!" that's some beautiful kitchen.

"Kitchen Porn" LOL. Zabby, I hope you do get that knife as a wedding gift. Will we get to see some pictures so we can "join you" vicariously?

Carol

Occasionally Henckel knives show up at garage sales. Got the first one, a Henckel boning knife for twenty five cents. Great knife! We also found a carbon steel chef's knife made in France and not Solingen Germany where most of the good knives seem to come from other than Japan. At the same garage sale we found the French knife, we also found a carbon steel wood handled Henckel butcher knife. Those were more expensive, though, they were fifty cents each.

I had wondered why there were windows below the sink. It kinda looked interesting but I couldn't figure out why!

That is a fabulous kitchen. I also had a very long remodel. Its so nice to eat food not microwaved or out of the toaster over. (fast food too far away).

As one who has struglled and struggled w/ the stainless and the black ceramic stove i know. I will try the baking soda paste. But i think i have found my perfect stainless cleaning solution. I put lemon oil in a spray bottle and simply use a rag on it and when there are fingerprints i use a dry paper towel and it looks great. Once in a while i gets "dirty" and needs to be cleaned as lemon oil is great for polishing but not really cleaning. I use the method stuff from target and strip off all the dirt and lemon oil, let it dry then do the lemon oil. All in all it takes me about 10 minutes a week to keep all of my appliances looking good. (of course I dont have kids so all of you with little ones might have more work). One more thing the lemon oil works great on the black parts that mine have but i dont see them in your pics so you must have all stainless.

Good luck and happy cooking!! you did a great job there I hope you feel it was worth the wait.

readinglady, all I can say is WOW! I'm so impressed with your design! I love your cooktop and hood. Is your cooktop 48 or 36in? Which hood did you choose? It looks fantastic with the Wolf cooktop.

Happy cooking!

Gill

The rangetop is 48". That's 6 burners and a griddle. I was planning on a 36", which would have been more than enough, but DH saw that griddle and it was love at first sight, LOL. As I mentioned above, it turned out to be cheaper to buy the bigger rangetop anyway because we got the whole kitchen plus the buffet and hutch out of two slabs of granite rather than three.

The hood is Ventahood. In some respects it would have been nice to have a larger one (hood was purchased before rangetop) but most of my cooking is "slow" with the occasional stir-fry or canning session, so I just position pans accordingly to keep steam and grease off the sides of the cabinets. I'm probably over-compensating anyway. I think that hood would suck all the air out of the kitchen if I let it.

Carol

The first thing that caught my eye was how wonderful the lighting is for kitchen work :)

I'm thrilled for you, Carol. May you have many happy hours in your beautiful kitchen!

OK, for the record, STILL lusting...

BTW, Carol, we didn't get a knife, though we did get a fabulous deep orange Le Creuset kettle, which would sure look even more fabulous on a new black cooktop! ;-)

But I think I am going to go cruise some garage sales in Hawaii.... ;-)

Zabby

Hey, Le Creuset is hardly a poor second!

I'm sure the right knife will find you.

Carol

I love your fabulous rooms.. beautifully done! My dreams are for your flooring.. very nice down there too!

Crystal... Still living in the PsittacineJungle

Carol,

I have no complaints! The teakettle is something I actually leave out all the time on the stovetop (there is no reasonable storage place for it anywhere near the stove, and I use it daily in any case at least in winter). So I'll get to show this one off AND use it.

But I reserve the right to envy your knives and kitchen nonetheless, and sneak back to this thread for regular glances. (Yup, it's kitchen porn, no doubt about it.)

Hope you're LOVING using it this fall!

Zabby

Every day I enjoy it more and more. I've only found two minor "quibbles" so far; I'd be foolish to complain. That range is really nice for big canning kettles. However, I've already "melted" two of the rubber pads under the burner grates. Apparently it's pretty common. Wolf sent me an envelope full of replacements.

However, right now we're back to the tarps and mess because we've been painting the ceiling (re-painting actually - one of the few jobs that wasn't satisfactory) and walls, re-doing baseboards and window frames and digging up staples in preparation for the new carpet in the adjacent living room.

I live for the day I can cook without being surrounded by mess and construction. (At least, beyond the mess I create all by myself!)

Carol

Carol, that is a beautiful kitchen. It has a real sense of warmth to it. I am happy for you and seriously jealous. My kitchen is tiny and a hodge podge of ugliness.

I have realized the kitchen solution for us will be to move the kitchen to where the living room is now. (living room is actually supposed to be a bedroom). The added benefit of that is we could still use the kitchen during a remodel. however that will have to be on hold for a while, unless I can find a way to do it for free ;-)

Enjoy the new kitchen.
Robin

What a great idea, Robin, especially keeping the original kitchen during the remodel. Not having any sort of kitchen beyond a two-burner camp stove and a fridge in the shop was a huge disadvantage.

This remodel took us thirty years to get to, so you'll be considerably ahead of us even if you do have to wait for a while. We just didn't have the resources when we were young. One of life's great ironies - when the little ones are racing around and you could use the space you don't have it. And when you get the space the kids are gone.

Carol