Lovely job so far. Those pendants are beautiful and so is the Wild Sea bar top. The sink is really nice too--don't you love it when you FINALLY get a workable sink ? I hate double basins I told my SIL she would have been happier with a single, it is non functional, water goes everywhere. Thanks for sharing this. Looking forward to seeing the birch doors...

Totally cool - I love your choices (and your hubby is kind of a dish!). At some point down the line you may want a boxed-in fridge. In case you do, ask your contractor to cut a piece of birch for you now, so the wood will match and it doesn't throw off any of your spacing. The in-progress images are a lot of fun to see.

Thanks people!

EAM, yes, I married well. :) DH is certainly the best feature of the kitchen.

I had been thinking about putting panels around the fridge. The side panel is easy but then what do you do at the top? Do the upper cabinets above the fridge need to be pulled all the way forward so they are flush with the front of the fridge? Or other solutions? I agree that would be a nice way to go.

Looking good! I heard about the ballon technique but mocked mine up out of paper to the "almost exact" measurements. Here's what my mock up looked like. (Notice there is no handsome husband in the picture! And they don't look illuminated like your balloons did)

Can't wait to see your finished kitchen. It is going to look glamorous!

This post was edited by badgergal on Sun, Jan 20, 13 at 10:50

I love your bar top! It's beautiful.

Such a great and inspiring thread. Thanks so much for sharing. I love the way your cat's wild eyes are reflected in the "sea"... looking for fish no doubt. This is going to be a beautiful kitchen, wishing you guys many happy times!

Oooh, what a great project. The wild tea countertop is GORGEOUS, and your laminate goes so well with it. Fab cabinets too. Love your DH's pendant trial method, very ingenious!!

Oh wow ... I love everything! The birch cabinet faces are beautiful and I love all your countertop choices. You're doing a great job!

Badgergirl, are those rolls of toilet paper?
That's brilliant, too!

I love the in progress. It sounds like it's going so well it's fun instead of the poor nightmares we usually hear.

I happen to think Inga is a perfect accessory to the countertop. After all. Cats are works of art. Sometimes they're just a piece of work, but...

Very fun. I am also impressed with your care about not wasting. I'm of the same vein. and Inga. I've got my own Ingas.

More as you go, please!

I'm so happy everyone is having a good time (at least mostly) with your kitchen remodel. It's nice to hear these things actually go well sometimes.

Your Wild Sea is gorgeous. Your husband doesn't hurt the view either. ;) Sorry hopefully we can contain ourselves and keep the catcalls to a minimum.

My parents have an early 1960s ranch with Birch cabinets. They are lovely and work with so many styles.

I also saw the Kohler Vault sink the other day, and it looks awesome. I know it's a drop in, and the 'lip' is suppose to be very shallow to make sweeping things into the sink easy. Have you tried wiping anything over the sink edge yet?

Looks great! Love love love the stone on your bar.

We used these pulls, I was,inspired by theanimala's pulls installed horizontally.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jamison pulls from Pullsdirect

Aww, you guys are so sweet. What a treat to come home from a day of work (teaching skiing, which is fun, but it's still work!) to lots of positive vibes here.

Badger, your pendant mock-ups do look like toilet paper - too funny! But very handy in a pinch, right? What a beautiful, shapely kitchen that is.

IowaCommute - yes, the Kohler Vault lip is tiny. Amazingly small, like the thickness of a credit card. Stuff wipes up easily, so much better than the silly, bloated lips on most drop in sinks. That was a big selling point with us.

Thanks for the suggestions on pulls. The Jamison is similar to what we had before and we could just reuse them, or perhaps longer ones in the same style. I like the way long, linear ones look, as Badgergal has.

Inga certainly brings glamor to the kitchen, as she does everywhere she goes. As we know, cats and kitchens are a natural combination.

As for sweet DH, he is blushing over here! But he's got a fantastic design sense, particularly when it comes to the spacing of things. So he's involved every step of the way. One of the best things about our projects is how we make design decisions together. We used to have different tastes which always made the process tense. But now we have both converged toward the contemporary style and we almost always agree right away. So lucky!

I will post more pics when we have the cabinet doors installed. Should be the end of the week. And the builder is getting us Blum soft close hinges, goody!

When I boxed in my fridge I did pull the cabinet forward. How far forward you'll want to pull it depends on a number of things including your cabinet height and fridge hinges, but if you're considering it, definitely do it now if you can. Enjoy all your efforts - it's going to be really nice.

Wow, it's really looking lovely! Your silvery countertops look terrific and I am looking forward to seeing your refaced cabinets and the installed pendants .

I'm with Eam44 and everyone else: more pictures of the kitchen and DH too!

OK, here are pics from week 2 of the kitchen resurfacing project.

We had a couple of quiet days while the builders put the finish on the cabinet doors. By midweek the doors were ready and the kitchen underwent a huge transformation.

So that's this week's installment of KRIP! We are still having a great time with all of this and are pleased with how everything is turning out.

Next up is backsplash and lighting, and perhaps cabinet pulls should we ever be able to decide. Thank goodness for the Blue TapeTM method for now.

The backsplash tile is going to be the highlight in here, but the first batch was defective. The whole project was delayed 2 months while we waited for replacements, and now the next batch will arrive on Tuesday. I fear that it may have similar defects, which will be hugely disappointing. So we are holding our breath!

Thanks for posting this in progress report. I kind of like it better than just a final reveal. It's interesting to see how things go along and what tricks people use to figure things out... such as the balloon trick.

It's looking really good! The birch doors look fabulous.

Love seeing the progress! It looks so nice already!

It's nice that you are documenting the progress. I kinda gave it up at one point, but since we were going DIY style, it dragged on for too long.

Beautiful kitties!

We have Wild Sea for our bar tops. I saw it at one yard and called my DH to report excitedly that I found the stone! When he went over and we were walking over to the deep end of yard to see it, I asked him to guess the cool name of the stone. He took one guess and it was off only by one letter!

If your DH's brain operates the same way as mine, he calls it "Wild Seed." That is what we call it between ourselves, then I find myself really watching my pronunciation when I am at the stone yard. :)

Anyway - how cool that you have the same stone. It does not appear to be too common. Have you posted pics of yours? I'd be keen to see it.

More pics of the hubby please.

;)

Love how your kitchen has turned out. It is hard to imagine that this sleek space was once builders grade oak similar to what so many of us tore out. Can't wait to see what it all looks like when it is completed. The views aint bad either.

Oh my -- do they sell those views at Home Depot? That's what I want for my kitchen! The rest is pretty lovely too ;) Congratulations - I think you're doing great work.

That view!!! I would happily volunteer to do the dishes everyday if I were looking out at that!

It's looking great! That view is gorgeous.

Thank you guys for the encouraging words. It really helps!

Leeber, it's a deal! Bring your favorite sponge.

We are so fortunate for the views around here. Certainly that is one of the best assets of the house. The original kitchen window had a big, stupid divider right down the center that blocked the view terribly. It was ironic because both the window and the sink below it had dividers that made them so much less than ideal.

But the actual reason we changed out the window is because we added a bunch of nearby windows in the garage, and when viewed from the exterior the one old window looked cheesy next to three new windows. That is the rule of remodeling, isn't it? Wherever you stop, the adjacent stuff looks terrible all of a sudden. Thus the slippery slope...

Here is a midsummer, mid-construction view that is kind of interesting.

This post was edited by karin_mt on Mon, Jan 28, 13 at 16:36

Karin (Stone Whisperer):
Looking great!
The glow from the view of the mountains reminds me of the pretty glow from the Wild Sea counter....very nice!

Post more whole kitchen pics. I want to see the sink area with the other new cabinets behind! So exciting for you!!!

Karin, it's looking great. I love birch and your birch and modern and your builder seems to be doing a terrific job. In many ways, it's more difficult to remodel without doing a gut job, and I applaud your concerns for keeping the good stuff.

Those mountains look familiar. My daughter goes to school in Missoula. Her old bf has a 'place' near Kalispell/Whitefish and we are MT lovin' midwesterners here.

Enjoy. Thanks for posting now. Keep us in the loop.

Between the window and your hubby, your kitchen has great views. ;-) I really like how everything is coming together with the cabinets and counters. Wild Sea always catches my eye at the slab yards. I am curious to see how the counter edge looks with the laminate after the tape comes off.

Ok, week 3, here we go!

This week's excitement was backsplash. There was some drama with the tiles, which I am really not happy about, but I won't let that derail my overall jubilance for the way everything is coming together.

Behold....

Stay tuned for week 4 (and final for the time being): we get grout, pendants and LED undercab lights. Oh and we even get new switchplates! (yeah, another thing that I totally micromanaged. I got the builder and the electrician to simultaneously shake their heads at me.)

After next week we will pause to figure out a plan for new flooring. The old flooring is driving the builder crazy! We will also paint and do curtains.

Pumpkin bread is all done and smells so tasty. And now turkey stock is simmering away satisfyingly. So life is good in the kitchen world. Thanks for reading!

It is looking fabulous!

I see you considered warmer colors that would emphasize the background color of your amazing granite over the counter grey - did you not like the way these looked? What do you think of something a tad darker than those beiges, like eco-friendly Starglass Urethane grout in Amber below?

{{gwi:1624376}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Grout

Gorgeous! Your palette kinda reminds me of sixyohno's beautiful kitchen.

EAM, I pulled some of those warmer tones out of the sample pack and we'll give them a try. Good thought. I also like the idea of eco-friendly grout. All along I'd just been thinking white for the grout, or very pale grey. I certainly am pulled far to the cool end of the spectrum. Perhaps I'm overcompensating for the former builder's oak?

Remodel, oooh, that's a compliment! I saw her kitchen way back when we first starting picking out the different elements of our kitchen and I was psyched to see a completed picture of the same vision we had. Of course hers is several notches more deluxe than ours, but at least the style is similar. Now I will go look at what color grout she has!

Continuing to look good along the way to fabulous!

Karin_mt, your kitchen looks great! All aspects of it. I see you're in MT. Any chance you're near Bozeman? Would love to know where you purchased your laminate countertops and where you'd recommend looking at granite slabs? Would love to support a local business but we're on a tight budget, which I fear will make that tough? Thanks for the help!

Your kitchen is beautiful! What a great transformation! Love your ceiling fixtures, BS, birch cabs, counters (both granite and formica). Can't wait to see when the pendants and hardware are installed. Keep those pics coming, please!!!!

PS The first kitchen I thought of when I saw your cabs was love2cook4six's. It's in the FKB. She has some really unique hardware, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: love2cook4six's kitchen

Wow- you are moving right along!
My DH would never be able to handle that - he would measure everything for weeks on end!
Thanks for the progress reports!

I LOVE your kitchen. Great choice of materials.
However, I have one question: Your upper doors are now up to the ceiling, but did you replace the upper cabinet boxes, too? On one of your pictures it looks like you didn't. If not, what does it look like when you open the cabinet doors?

Karin, this is gorgeous. I love your Wild Sea. If I had seen that at a stoneyard, it would have been my choice, too. Love the birch, too. And here is proof positive that laminate can be fabulous. The whole thing is coming together beautifully. I agree - it's fun to see it as you go along.

Also very jealous of your view. Maybe I should print it, have it blown up, and paste it over my kitchen window.

Oh wow, I have been remiss about updating this thread. Hard to believe it's been a month since I shared the last batch of pictures. Alas, February is always a crazy, crazy month because it's the thick of ski season and there are no days off to be had! (yay!)

I will get some new pics up asap. We now have grout, cabinet pulls, undercab LEDs, switchplates, a soap dispenser and pendants. We do not have paint and flooring as we are still stuck on both. But I bet if I post pics you all will have suggestions.

Your questions:
MT Wren - yes we are outside of Bozeman, good guess! The stone is from Montana Tile and Stone. They have a huge selection. A delightful place to look at slabs and they have tons of remnant pieces too. The formica is from Simkins Hallin. But the countertop itself was built by our contractor. He does an awesome job so I'd be happy to provide his name if you like.

NoSoccerMom - correct, we did not replace the cabinet boxes so it was a bit of a challenge to make that work out. I will post a photo tomorrow but what they did was build a frame around the top part of the cabinet so it pretty much looks like a continuation of the same cabinet. But, there is no "lid" on the cabinet so you see the ceiling at the very top. It's so far above my head that I don't notice anything, it just looks normal to me.

Flowers - wow, lovetocook's kitchen is amazing! All that interesting wood detail and funky hardware. That is some impressive craftsmanship.

Thanks for the encouragement. Stay tuned for more pictures soon, I promise!

Karin

That's just such a creative idea with just extending the doors. Really looking forward to the pictures of the ceiling high doors and what's behind them.

Thanks for the quick reply. We'd love the name of your contractor, if you don't mind sharing! My email: rmarker1@gmail.com. Many thanks!

For Nosoccermom,

Here are photos of how the extended cabinets look:

Here are a couple shots of the kitchen with recent improvements:

Next, I have some questions. Got paint suggestions?

Thanks for ideas and advice you care to offer! I am off to gather paint chips this afternoon. I love paint chips. :)

Any progress on your paint selection?

Not really. We're still thinking of something in the realm of grey and greenish grey. No particular plan is jumping out as the right one, so we are just admiring the paint chips and waiting for divine intervention, I guess. :)

Thanks for checking in - ideas are welcome!

How did I miss this? You're doing a terrific job. Is that the 25" Vault? It's a beautiful sink.

I am impressed with your progress and your kitchen. I am not sure how to help with your paint color - I am just ogling your gorgeous kitchen for now.

If you go to a BM store - sometimes they have the bigger paint chips to purchase -but still get a sample paint as it does look different on a wall.

Look what is hiding behind my ovens - I wonder what the new owners will think when they buy our house in about 20 years and decide to renovate...

Have fun!

Karen, It looks really great. Do you mind telling me the details about your tile. I love the frosted glass look.

Seems like it might be fun to bring over a green that nods to the new tile for that small wall?

I'd be tempted to go with something dark to ground the half-wall looking into the kitchen. Perhaps a charcoal gray?

Thanks for the comments!

Writersblock - yes, that's the 25" Vault, which also comes in a shallow depth (7" rather than 9.5") to alleviate back pain for DH. It's working out beautifully and is one of our favorite features of the new kitchen. My Mom just bought the same one for her new kitchen too.

Localeater - the tile is AKDO, frosted in a color called Seashell. I also love the frosted look and it seems that options are more limited in frosted vs shiny. Sadly, I would not recommend them to anyone else. Their quality control is terrible and our first batch was all mottled and defective. So we waited 9 weeks for a new lot and many of those were also mottled. In the end it worked out and we love the look but if you can avoid this particular brand I would do so!

A2Gemini - I love the patchwork quilt garage door! Looks like modern art and it might have been tempting to leave it like that. I like the little paint sample time capsule behind the ovens - what a fun little thing to leave behind to make the next occupants scratch their heads.

Steph - those are great ideas, thanks! I hadn't thought of a darker grey for the half wall. We could use the same BM Pewter that is in the living room - that could easily work. And certainly we need a little green paint in there somewhere!

I think I need to take some new pics and do a little photoshop action. Personally, I want a plum color behind the sink to add some punch and pick up the garnets in the Wild Sea stone. DH isn't into that idea but maybe some photoshop might be more convincing?

Thanks for the sink info, karin.