Very exciting and very proud of you! I would not have known to double check measurements as you are doing. Please keep posting progress pictures!

Excellent! I like the drawers under the window! And I'm jealous of your spice racks already!

Very exciting! I can't wait to see more!!

Well look at that...nice progress!

Under the windows are only ROTS. They were just going to be plain cabinets, the ROTS were a last minute thought. I had zero idea what I'd put there, but I knew that if I left part of that area open, it'd be a junk collector like the desk was in the old kitchen. They were part of the last minute dash to add things that I thought I wanted but thought I could do without to get over the next hump of a discount at HD. Those and my pulls were basically free.

I'm thinking dog and cat food in the no ROTS one (hence the recent thread on that). Or I may end up moving them around some and just have one in the bottom of two of them. Or...who knows. I was terribly indecisive when he was installing them about where I wanted the non-ROTS one.
It is a 4-drawer stack next to them and two 3-drawer stacks flanking the range, plus three drawers in the pantry and another 3-drawer stack on the island. :D Thank you GW.

Guess who else likes the funky low cabinets under the window?

Any thought we had of topping those with something other than granite just went right out the window. We pretty much decided on granite when it turned out our slabs are really big and it'll just cost us the fabrication cost. But now...I think it's a sure thing.

6"d island cabinets backed up to 24"d, past these there will be an over hang, closer to the camera there will be 24"cabinet with speed oven on the side we see, another 6" cabinet behind it, and a bookcase at the end

Sink, 3" rev-a-shelf spice rack, Super Susan (36x33), and pull out trash (the other free giveaway when I ordered...yes please, I'll take the biggest trash cabinet you'll give me if you're giving me the whole thing for free). Things aren't pushed back against the wall yet due to bits of mechanical work to be done back there and cut outs to be done on cabinets

Washer and dryer will go below those wall cabinets, and a utility cabinet will go where all the paint splotches are

I can think of something besides granite for under that window-a nice comfy cushion for your pup to sit on & watch the world?
Very excited for you. The cabinets are beautiful. Your going to love those 6" shelves on your island.
Keep the pics coming.

I'm excited for you. Yay for working on Saturday. I wish mine would...work LOL
Keep the updates coming!

Lots of progress on day one! Yeah! The cabinets are beautiful. Your cabinets under the window with a cushion would make a great window seat for animal (or human). Hope things keep progressing smoothly.

Several people advised me to make the cabinets lower for seating. I wanted storage, storage storage. I didn't think of this until you folks brought it, but I can see the big blue dog using that as a step and I can see him standing on the counter and grabbing things out of the sink. Hmmm, this could be interesting.

Once I saw them, I knew they'd end up being seats for humans. Until DH was asking about the proper height for counter stools, I didn't realize how 'right' those cabinets will be for sitting. Good thing I'm going to end up with a couple extra doors of that size (long story).

I'm sure some of you also noticed that it's a great place to store tools. If you look under the dog, you can kind of see them there. Makes me think of all kinds of possibilities. I keep wanting to get my Kwik-step and see where I think it might live. It might just end up sitting in front of the dryer, or it might make it into one of those as well.

I've been playing with the island. My pseudo-top is a bit droopy.

The cabinet that you can see the back of is the over-fridge cabinet. It's there to stand in for the fridge.

Doin' some math.

Cal- looking great!
Puppy sure looks excited!

I guess it wasn't good to name my thread with Day 1 in the title, doesn't make sense to start a new one. So here's day 2.

The laundry area is the one I've agonized most over, I think. I'm very happy with how it looks thus far. Both KDs were at a bit of a loss. The GC pretty much designed this. I'm pleasantly surprised. There are 1.5" L shaped end panels at the ends, a 2" box-shaped panel in the middle and since we went to the Mieles and they're smaller, there's a 1" filler against the wall...like this:
L II LI

It looks quite pretty. :) Even though the units are only 22.5" d, because of the brick wall, they have to sit out this far because all the mechanical stuff is surface mounted. Weird to be over a laundry area, but I ended up with a deep work surface on the perimeter of my kitchen without trying. :D We're not sure how we'll do the counter top there. Anxious to hear what the counter top guy thinks. (Ideas accepted here too.) I'm thinking of granite that stops short enough to have an access panel of a few inches at the back, maybe made of wood painted to blend as much as possible with the granite.

The uppers over the laundry area were mounted yesterday. I hadn't realized that the old cabinets weren't standard depth there. (notice paint line to the right) I guess that's why things got lost in the back of them. :) DH returned from a couple days away and I pointed this out and said I wished I would have ordered somewhat deeper cabinets. He said he's happier this way. That's some money saved, I suppose.

Since the W/D sit 29" out, I'll only likely be able to reach the bottom shelf or maybe 2. But that's no different than before. And I think the Kwik-step will just live under that tall window most of the time, so that'll be easy.

Plus, my Robot Claw arrived yesterday (thanks to plllog). (What CAN you grab with it...seems quite light-duty).

Having experience with cabinets above the laundry, pull the cabinet forward so you can reach all shelves. No one will ever know, but you and the contractor. Ours built a frame of 2x4 that attached to the wall and the cabinet that was brought forward. You can still screw into the adjacent cabinet and brick wall.

Everything looks lovely. Congratulations!

Having experience with cabinets above the laundry, pull the cabinet forward so you can reach all shelves. No one will ever know, but you and the contractor. Ours built a frame of 2x4 that attached to the wall and the cabinet that was brought forward. You can still screw into the adjacent cabinet and brick wall.

Everything looks lovely. Congratulations!

Ohhhhhhhhhh how pretty. And how very functional! :)

You are keeping that liquor cabinet, aren't you? It's so rustic and vintage and blue it would make a really great accent pieces. If you decide not to, just send it to me. I'll cover the shipping. :)

Your dog is also beeeutiful. And already loving the window. You're right about climbing up to get things. They're so darned smart that way!

Can't wait to see this with doors and drawers. Fanceeeeee!

Ask and you shall receive CEFreeman!
(not the liquor cabinet, just pics)

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He's working on toe kick on this wall right now (waiting on GC to do stuff to far wall)

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I'm going to leave the wall cabinets where they are now. If I tried to change something like that right now, that would throw DH over the edge. If it's horrendous, I'm thinking we could have our local guy pull them and do that later.

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Island without pseudo overhang.

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The view walking in the door we enter through (family and friends entrance, through the breezeway).

Some of the island cabinets came with flush toe kicks, some didn't. He's built out the toe kick on two of the missing ones. The bookcase...he's suggesting not. He says because it doesn't have doors, the furniture base will look odd with the bookcase and it'll look better with the toe kick. I'm fairly ambivalent. I'd think it should all be the same, but I wasn't dying for the furniture base anyway (it just worked out easier to have that to tie some things together). Opinions welcomed. Said it was fine not to flush out the bookcase.

The tall utility cabinet will be on the wall where all the splotches of paint are still visible, between the breezeway door and the laundry area. It's got a toe kick cut. I was thinking that THAT would look good with furniture base. I'll run it by a few other people. Opinions taken on that too. Asked him to flush that one out.

The story with the liquor cabinet is it was supposedly salvaged out of a farm in Texas. We bought it at the Rosebowl swapmeet from a company called Brothers of Industry. We've since got a couple other things from them. I'm betting they bought the place for other rusty things around the farm to make stuff out of and it was a bonus. We love it. Funny story about it. I was trying, best I could, to clean out the inside before we filled it. I wiped down the shelves. I wiped down the inside of the walls. Then I got to the 'ceiling' and bottom side of the shelf. Ewwwww. It was about 3/8" of dirt. DIRT! I chipped away at it best I could. I figure it's not going to hurt alcohol. And anyone who comes over and checks the top of the inside of my liquor cabinet (yeah, I know about some of your MIL's) can just deal with it. (Though I don't know that I mentioned it to MY MIL).

Since I know you like the history of stuff, the clock above it was purchased when we'd been looking for a clock for a LONG time. It's from Japan. Pre-war? During-war? I can't remember the story. I think pre. But DH REALLY wanted a clock that you wind. Yes, it makes a lovely piece of art, but if no one winds it, it's not really a clock anymore is it?

(power was off for a while)

Another bit of progress. The detail the installer does is phenomenal. The toe kicks I saw while looking at cabinets were no where near this nicely finished.

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This post was edited by cal_quail on Sat, Jul 26, 14 at 19:04

It looks so awesome! Um what's that blue paint splotch in the upper left?
Is that Sea Salt?

Wow, Cal_quail! It's really coming along! It looks awesome!

Pretty, functional . . . .elegant.
Your planning is evident everywhere.
I am SO eager to see the finished (and furnished) kitchen!

Power off again, down to 19% on phone. I'm fine sweating without AC, but the thought of no Internet...nooooo.

The color (above the Susan) is Misty.

3" rev-a-shelf exploded on the installer. He put a spacer in and assures me he'll be able to do it later.

Going to work on finishing priming the ceiling and painting it between tonight and Monday am. (SW Snowbound) They mentioned how much easier it'll be before the molding.

...and, the power is back. Once again I'd been in the middle of typing this one when they shut the power off the second time.

Utility cabinet. Did I mention I bought it for a broom closet and it doesn't fit a broom? Didn't think to check that. The door heights are standard, I just had them invert it. I thought for cleaning products and such, I'd rather have them low, being short. I figured the top would be for brooms and such. But since a broom doesn't fit (well, it fits diagonally but that defeats the purpose) I may re-vamp. When I saw them put all the shelves into it...it's a pretty good bit of storage! I think my brooms will move to the entry hall closet.

I'm definitely keeping my Braava, handvac, flashlight charger, drill battery charger etc. in there. I'm having an outlet put into it. There's a light switch mounted inside of it/to the side of it. That's how it was in the old kitchen too. To get the switch to be a three-way (and maybe for the outlet too), they need more wires hence the yellow stuff up top. It'll get covered by wiremold. My other choice was outside but I figured here it only shows the top foot and outside it would be all the way up from the light switch (breezeway light works from inside and out).

GC asked why I didn't go 96" on that cabinet. We had it 96" but then it'd have a center rail on the door, which I dislike. Or I'd have to split the door, which would have taken some more modifications and calculations which I wasn't up to when placing the order. That would have hidden the power cord thing, but we thought it would be too hulking there. The old cabinet there (storage on bottom, book case on top) was a bit shorter than this one.

Also, I need to look into hinges that open less far or something for the wall cabinet to the right of the range that opens next to the pantry.

(shhh, when the lighting is poor, they look like my old cabinets...here's a messy before)

And Terri - you can see we're not afraid of color in the first pic with the liquor cabinet. ;)

And to close out my cabinet install thread for a while, here are the other things installed with doors on them:

I assumed they'd be back to finish Monday. Won't be until Wednesday. Granite guy is coming to template on Tuesday. I was told it'd be a week. He's now running two. And I can't seem to find anyone available to do my floor in a reasonable timeframe. Will cast my net wider on Monday.

Sad panda teacher will go back to school without a kitchen.
Trying not to sound too 'woe is me'. I love what the kitchen is becoming. But this was all planned to start when school got out in June and be done the middle/end of July. Not gonna happen.

Wow! I haven't been free to log on before-so just saw this. Yippee! The cabinets are gorgeous. Do you keep petting them? I want to run my (clean) hands over them all the way from the east coast! I especially love the full height pantries and the low cabinets. That will be a perfect spot for a reading bench.
It is so difficult to wait around GC's timetable isn't it..but it will be worth it in the end. Hang tight!

We purposefully chose a GC who does one job at a time but we have already lost 4 days were nothing got done and we will lose two more days next week when the floor gets refinished. So we won't have cabinets installed till Thursday. Sigh. That is the one day next week I can't take off. :-(

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I do love them.

I do keep petting them. And opening and closing drawers and cabinets.

I realized last night that the tall pantry is missing shelves. I thought there was a second box for it. There's not. I think I was thinking of the shelves for the one by the door. The tall one has two ROTS installed and we ordered two more separately, sort of by mistake/miscommunication. I opened the box to check that and there's only one ROTS in it AND it only has the rails on the drawer, not the part that affixes to the cabinet. That was the pantry where the separate toe kick didn't show up, so they built one. Maybe the shelves are with the toe kick.

I'm sad about the shelves missing because I ordered the Omega Tra Sta dividers and wanted those in ASAP. Guess not (except in the top part, but I'm not sure that's where I want them).

I hear you on work getting in the way. The week that the counters should be installed is when we go back to work. I WILL take a day off for the counters. I won't take off the students' first day or the all district meeting, but I will potentially take off the second student day or one of the teacher work days (for so many years we didn't get more than one day to get ready during budget cuts...I'll manage). I'll just try to go in in drips and drops over the next couple weeks to start prepping.

Hang in there vinudev_liny...they tell me people survive this.

cal_quail:

It appears your floor is a concrete slab. If so and you're installing ceramic tile, don't forget to accommodate the thickness of the tile and thin set, but most importantly, an uncoupling membrane, in your base cabinet installation. If your tile setter tells you it's unnecessary, fire him immediately.

I love your cabinets! So pretty! It's so nice to see wood cabinets after all the white reveals we've had lately. Great choice!!

Cal_quail, you've survived the hard parts. Even if it isn't 100% finished when school starts (they never are!) it's lovely, and getting lovelier by the day, and you'll manage.

Regarding the robot claw, I can pick up cans and individual papers and everything between with mine. That's what I like about it so much. Because it's meant to be a toy, it's designed for a high success rate. It would be a lousy toy if it couldn't pick up much. One's grip strength seems to be the main limitation. For something heavy and rounded like a can, it's just a matter of gripping hard and holding on. When you're ready for some mindless amusement, have a seat and start picking up whatever is within reach. You'll get the hang of it. :)

plllog, I used it yesterday to pull out one of the shipping protectors that was on one of the tall cabinets that I slid under the couch to quickly get it out of the way. :) I started to run for the long tongs (actually knew where they were), then remembered the claw. It worked well! Thanks.

Thanks again Trebruchet!

Love the wood you chose, it's so pretty! Even if you put granite on the window cabinets your dog will still love to lie there because it will feel nice and cool. He/she seems excited about "his" new space. What a sweetie such a beautiful coat. I'm a dog lover : ))) Everything is coming along nicely and looks great.

Dunno how I missed this thread. That's crazy fast progress! What kind of wood are the cabinets made from, and are there washer/dryer doors or will they be open?

gr8day - He's a 9.5 year old Australian Shepherd. AJ is STARTING to act like an adult dog, sometimes. His half-brother is much more laid back.

schicksal - The cabinets are Natural Cherry. The tall cabinet by the door sat in the living room the longest and still had some of it's shipping protection on it and I can already see some of the cherry aging/coloring coming out.

I hope you caught that I didn't think out the naming of my thread too much and that was two days progress. But still, just one guy. They tried to send a helper but he likes to work alone. When he comes tomorrow to (I think) finish, he'll have a helper.

The W/D won't have doors. They were going to be Asko's in titanium color. We switched at the last minute to Miele's. They'll be white for now, but they can be paneled either with a regular 3/4 door-type panel or evidently you can slide some kind of a thinner panel in. It's my understanding that that way, you see a white border, so we'll likely go with wood. But not right away. They'll have countertops over them that will likely be granite. We'll see what the fabricator (templating today) comes up with in regard to leaving access to the trap and water shut-off (old house, seems prudent). I'm envisioning granite to about 4 in from wall, and then some kind of easily lift-out-able pieces, maybe wood, with a finger hole. We weren't going to put granite there, but since our slabs are so big, we'll have enough and the extra cost will just be fabricating.

And since I'm here, I'll show what I did yesterday.

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And someone asked about counters.

Obviously I've got the high stuff on that one wall to go. I'm not 100% sure how the color will come together with the granite, but this was the window of time that I could paint. If I hate it with the granite, I'll paint again over Thanksgiving or Xmas break. I opted for this (SW Wheatgrass) over Edgy Gold because it was the lighter of the two and would be easier to repaint.

DH thinks that the counters need to stand out as the cool element and really they've got both warm and cool in them. When I put both of the colors next to it, it brought out the warmth in the background. But the sample granite we have is much greener than ours. I still think it will work. If not, I now know that I can paint it in a couple days.

As an aside, the door is being replaced with a single light door. I've always wanted one there. But also the breezeway is often a crazy mess. Will have to work on that!

ETA: Someone asked about flooring too (both of those might have been on a different thread).

This post was edited by cal_quail on Tue, Jul 29, 14 at 10:44

Oh, ok. That should go together nicely! I've put in that tile before. It cuts easily and I don't remember any breakage on the wet saw. It's strong stuff.

Love the color with the cabinets. The masonry walls add such depth to the space.

Oh my gosh, I missed so much in just a few days1 It is looking marvelous and I loooove that you painted the existing brick.

Any updated pictures? I LOVE your floors and counters! Your cabinets are very pretty and should get richer and darker with age and be gorgeous.

LONG, long story about GC. Not really ready to go into it here. Waiting on some odds and ends. Should be done, ABB, within a month. I think. Here are some pics I've posted in random spots. The album is public (mostly kitchen stuff).

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen album

Beautiful job ! Love it. Did I miss what brand appliances you got? I love your stove, can't tell the brand from the photo. Also, wondering how you like it so far?
Thanks

I'm close to a reveal, but not quite there. They're RE-installing the fridge as I type (long story). If I don't have my pendants up by a bit into November, I'll do it without...maybe. A guy who does woodworking on the side is making a mounting thing for us and he THINKS it'll be a couple weeks. Or so. No guarantee. ;)

Favorite appliance: Miele Dimension dishwasher. Totally unexpected since we weren't even going to replace our 1+ year old Samsung. But THIS is what clean dishes are supposed to look and feel like. I'm sure it's because it's got a water softener and we've got hard water. A-mazing. Other appliances: Sub-Zero 36" Integrated, 30" Bluestar RNB (Cobalt), 36" Vent-A-Hood, Miele Speed Oven (new model, can't remember designation), Miele W/D.

So far, loving-to-liking everything. Learning to cook on the super powered BS is a bit of a learning curve, but I'm very happy to have gas again (after anemic, slanted, glass-top Jenn-Air). We just cleaned the whole top (all the cast iron pieces) of the BS for the first time the other night. With two of us, it didn't take long and it looks brand new. With one person and a better game plan, it wouldn't be bad either. And it should look like this forever and ever with this little bit of work. That's awesome to me.

Other learning curve is figuring out what we can do in the speedoven (size wise) and what we need to do in the big oven (and the BS is a BIG oven). My only complaint with the speedoven is the swapping out trays thing is a bit of a drag.

(Thank you for distracting me while they're struggling to get SZ flush...again.)

Thanks for the reply. Looking forward to the final reveal. Really love what you've done.