Beautiful kitchen. I love your staircase!! Where did you get the runner? I really like it and really need one.

Congrats!

kitchenkelly,

It's actually not a runner, it's installed, tacked down carpet. The stairs were just built to look that way.

Great kitchen, love the centerpiece and couldn't find anything wrong. clues please!LOL

Jayrenay --

Hi. I'm going to highjack your thread for your poor pup!

I rescued my English Setter, Blizzard, 3 years ago and from day 1 he had "stomach issues". The vet said he had colitis. I'd tried all kinds of foods...more fiber, less fiber...all premium dog foods. Finally, a month ago I tried something new to my pet store: Eagle Pack Holistic Duck and Oatmeal.

It's a miracle! I can't tell you what a difference it's made. I'm sorry folks, I don't mean to be gross, but he's finally got solid stools (not just in the morning) and much less gas. The last in itself is fabulous! :)

I mixed it with his old food gradually over a week until he was eating just that. I know all stomachs are not the same, but after such a drastic change for the good in my dog, I just felt I had to tell you about it. Who knows? Maybe Tina would do well on it too.

Good luck,
Kathy

PS: Stay away from food with high corn content, for sure!
Link: http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Duck.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Eagle Pack Duck and Oatmeal

Love it!

So well coordinated, nice job!

OOOOOH, she said, as she drooled over your beautiful kitchen! It's wonderful!

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with your cabinets, but they are truly beautiful and you selected such great detailing in them. Very, very rich looking, gorgeous finish you chose. Your hood is wonderful, too.

Love your granite and your backsplash. OK, so you made me look and look at your gorgeous centerpiece. I can only assume (NOT THAT I WOULD HAVE OTHERWISE NOTICED) that perhaps the center tile is upside down? Whatever is wrong with it, you sure can't tell.

And the crack in your pretty pendants? We can't see a crack!

And your staircase, girlfriend! It's fantastic! Love the wrought iron details. And am I correct, that the wood is on either side of the carpet but not underneath it? I wanna do that, too!

kchaconas,

Thanks for the link! Tina doesn't have a problem with her bowels, her problem is vomiting. It's been happening since the day we brought her home in February 2004. She started throwing up blood in late July, early August and got to the point where she couldn't even hold down water. She lost 2 1/2 lbs in one month. The Dr. thought for sure she had Addisons disease. About $2000 later, we found out she didn't have Addisons disease and decided to treat her for Inflammable Bowel Disease without doing the official stomach biopsy. So far the treatment is working. Right now she is on prescription dog food, duck and potato. They said I don't have to keep her on it if I can find something comparable at the pet store. I will definitely be checking out your recommendation! I'm glad to hear that it's working for you!.

oofasis,

Ding, ding, ding! You got them all correct. The centerpiece is indeed installed upside down. And, the staircase is wood on each side of the carpet only. I love the look! Considering everything we did downstairs, the staircase was the biggest transformation and I love it! Although, it didn't happen without problems too. The last day of installation, one of the wrought iron pieces fell down the stairs and took a chunk of wood out of my first full wood tread. =(

It's like that kids magazine, Highlights, in the doctors waiting room... and you have to find 20 hidden items in the picture. I studied your splash for quite a while, counted the tiles, looked at the direction of swirls and I could only imagine that if there was something, it had to be the centerpiece. Nobody would have known it was upside down.

Nicely done. I echo the love.

That staircase is a study in excellent. What a perfect marriage of glass, wood, metal and fabric.

Yum!

Steven

If I could redo my kitchen (again) I would do it JUST LIKE YOURS! It's STUNNING! Love the floor, the paint (what color is that btw), the granite (I'm using that in my bathroom remodel) and that drop dead gorgeous backsplash! Excellent job! Staircase is beautiful as well :)
Monica

Thank you everyone for the very nice compliments! They sure mean a lot after all we have been through!!

The main paint color is Sherwin Williams Latte and the accent walls are SW Restrained Gold. Turns out there isn't much difference between the main color and the accent color. NOt sure what happened because I tried them both out and there seemed to be sufficient variation. Anyway, we had the painter from hell -- and I mean from hell! It was was so bad that is made all the other issues we've had seem like minor inconveniences! At some point, I plan to lighten some walls so that the Restrained Gold (which is beautiful!) stands out more, but for now it will do just fine!

"Everything that could go wrong went wrong." That's been my experience too! Incredibly, there's not one thing in my new kitchen that I can point to that something didn't go wrong with!!! Your kitchen looks perfect. I never would've noticed a thing wrong with the backsplash centerpiece. Now that I know, all I can say is, it looks GREAT upside-down, lol!! When mine's finally finished, I'll be thrilled to pieces if it looks anything close to as good as yours does. I won't say "as good," just close. I'd be happy with that.

Jayrenay,

Glad to hear Tina is doing well...funny that her food is duck and potato! The duck must be much easier on dogs' stomachs I guess.

Anyway, I was so focussed on dog issues that I never told you how much I really like your kitchen. You did a beautiful job!

AND I love your kitchen/table chairs. Who made them? I've got a thing for round tables, probably because I can't have one. My spot needs a rectangular table. Do you know if yours came as a rectangle? I've always loved that kind of metal chair too, but have wondered are they heavy to push/pull in/out?

Sorry for so many questions!

AND I love your staircase too. I printed out a picture to show my husband!

Thanks,
Kathy

I love it!! I won't repeat all the praising on the kitchen, because everyone is right! It's beautiful! :) But I really would love to know the type of carpet you used on your stairs...I need to pick something out this week and I really love the look of yours!!!
Thanks!
Tara

It is too beautiful for words. I am so happy that you have a great finished product considering the hurdles you must have jumped through to get there!
I want to know about your outlet covers! They look like they are surrounded by your tile. Very well hidden!

Thanks for the info on the stairs! I like the color too. I keep thinking that I need a pattern but I think yours looks perfect. (Doesn't take away from the railing.)

lily1342,

Good luck with your kitchen. When it's all said and done, you'll start to forget the nightmare of getting there. I know that's hard to believe, but I can almost laugh now!

kchaconas,

You're right, I think duck is good for sensitive tummies. I forgot to mention that Tina's flare up was due to the stress of the remodel -- poor Tina. But be careful with Blizard and stress, it can really do a number on a sick dog! We bought the table and chairs at a place called Living Spaces. I think it's a local store in So. California.

lmhall2000,

The carpet is Shaw. It's called No Second Chances, or at least it was at the place I bought it. Turns out some carpet names are changed from store to store -- makes comparing prices tough. The color is called Praire. Anyway, the shaw website is great! You can look at hundreds of different kinds of carpet and use the filter to find what you're looking for. I concentrated on patterned nylon carpet with a high wear rating. I also had an area rug made and that carpet is called Caliente. The wear rating isn't as high and it was a less expensive carpet, but it is sooooo soft! I love it! It's not a pattern, it's a two tone twist.

http://www.shawfloors.com/carpetDetails/Caliente-Leather

rileydog,

I bought the outlet covers through Amazon.com, but they came from fastfloors.com. The color is called Noce and they match my walnut travertine perfectly. It was a great buy -- although the shipping was like $50!

http://www.fastfloors.com/style_18637,0/Questech-Dorset-Switch-Plates--Noche.htm

kitchenkelly,

My carpet is considered a patterned carpet, but it is very subtle. I have a lot of different patterns going on, especially with the floors, so I thought I better go easy on the carpet pattern!

jayrenay

Jayrenay, I showed your staircase to my husband last night. He agreed that you gave it one of the prettiest design treatments we've seen, combining all the elements of the wrought iron with wood and carpet.

I wonder if I could impose and ask some $$ questions, please? You say your staircase was remodeled, so I'm assuming you started with unfinished stairs - correct? Was your choice of two pieces of wood per stair more costly than installing an entire plank per step? Would you mind sharing what the project cost you?

In the pic I'm not sure if your bottom step is wood, or if that's the floor I see. If it's the step, I love the look! Have you found any slippery-issues transitioning to a bottom step of wood?

Trying to look closely at your carpeting...looks like there's a pattern there? I love it. Can you post the manufacturer and color, please?

It all came out so great! Enjoy!
Love that puppy face!

It's Beautiful - love the colors - and you are the only one who should know the back splash piece is upside down - it looks great to me.
Enjoy!

Your kitchen is beautiful and I didn't pick up on the upside down center of your backspalsh design.
Just wanted to let you know we built a new home and had the following experiences with a high end custom builder:

Cabinet finish and design flaws

Incorrect floor installation

poor granite seams and grain matching

poor backsplash installation

Appliance issues, of course
. incorrect plumbing installations

First hood did not work, second one installed incorrectly and resulted in a damaged cooktop and cracked granite!

Incorrect lighting installation

I don't think I missed a trade, did I? This was just the kitchen, we had similar issues in the bathrooms and don't even get me started on the central vac or a/c/heat pump issues!
What is with the building trades these days? Does no one take pride in their workmanship?
Sorry for the rant. I now have to go take up where I left off with my landscaper over the issue of 50% or more of my plant material being dead or dying!

Wonderful! Warm and cozy, yummy colors. Nicely done!

oofasis,

I'm not sure if doing the two tone steps were more expensive as we didn't price out any other way. We also never priced out doing full treads as our stairs are VERY steep and full wood treads just weren't an option. The first step is full wood tread as are the top two to left of the landing. The total cost of the stair remodel, including demo of the original stairs was $10,000. I'll post some more pics and even throw in a before pic.

Btw, the carpet is Shaw, No Second Chances, Praire

Before:

After, 3 different views

jillypie,

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience also! My dh and I are just convinced that you can't get good help anymore. It's been a very dissapointing lesson! Although, I feel very lucky that I came out with such a beautiful home after all the heartache! We still need to do the upstairs, but neither of us are ready to jump into that one! Plus the money tree is a bit barren these days ;)

Good luck with the landscapper.

That's just an absolutely stunning staircase :)
DH is a carpet installer and does a lot of custom stairway installs (at a ridiculous price) Most of what is done down here is a printed carpet (like the ones he did in these photos below) or "seagrass". He hates the seagrass stuff. I don't see how people walk barefooted on it.
Here's a couple of staircase he did a few years ago.

GORGEOUS!!! I saved the pics of your kitchen in my kitchen file. Would you mind telling me the name and contact info for the person that made your backsplash over your stove? I LOVE IT!!

I'm sorry, but I'm in the middle of planning my second remodel (because my first isn't finished and I'm giving up and buying another place LOL)

We need to change out the rails on the stairs. Can I be so rude as to ask if you know or are willing to share the cost of the ironwork specifically? Or was that part of a package deal (since you mentioned the 10k figure I wasn't sure).

I'm in love with the whole package and if my houses aren't done soon...we're moving in with you!!!

monicakm,

Your husband does beautiful work! It must be very difficult to lay printed carpet like that and match everything up! No wonder he charges a premium! What is seagrass?

Ideamom,

I bought it online through andersen ceramics. I'll link it for you. He does GREAT work!! If I could do it over, I'd pick a slightly darker color as I wanted more contrast, but it was hard to do over the internet.

igloochic,

I will look for the contract and see if the numbers were itemized. I don't think they were, though. I got a quote from another guy and I know his were itemized, so I will look at his and that will give you a rough estimate. I'll try to do that today. Good luck with all your remodels!! LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Backsplash

jayrenay -- What a beautiful space! Or rather, beautiful spaces. So many fabulous kitchens have been posted here lately -- I lovelovelove getting to be a looky-loo. Thank you for sharing yours.

Monica: thank you for posting the pics of your husband's work, esp. the one on the curved stair. We have a curved stair, similar to (although not as tight a curve as) the one you pictured. When we purchased the house it was carpeted (full tread): because I couldn't come out (we were living in a different state) to supervise inlaid carpet being installed (we wanted to have our collection of Turkish / Kurdish kilims pieced together), we just had the whole tread done in wood. But with two little kiddos and a puppy on the way (plus it gets cold here in CO!), I'm reconsidering .... And now I have your great photo to share. Thank you.

Well I think you have a case of all's well that ends well. We've had more than our share of headaches too, but I think that any of us who walked into our homes with the kitchens already in place would probably be happy -- and that's the goal.

I am in LOVE with your kitchen, the tile, the backsplash, the cabinets - the staircase - OH MY!

Walnut tumbled travertine 3' x 6" brick backsplash
Please give more info. I was looking at a 2x2 sort of the same color but I like the brick.
Very nice kitchen

Add me as one of your kitchen lovers. Everything looks beautiful. Although everything went wrong, at least you have a beautiful finished product.

Can your husband come visit my stairways in Alaska? Heh heh I'll throw in a fishing trip!

igloochic...you just name the date (can't be during the Tx deer season tho) (g) and WE will be there! We're SO wanting to visit Alaska and the colder the better :)
Monica

Beautiful kitchen and beautiful dog.

Wow! It's beautiful!! I can't imagine anything going wrong...it all turned out so beautifully!

Jayrenay: I have what may seem like a strange question...how much space is there b/w your wall cabinets and your hood?

My KD has 6" b/w cabs & hood on each side (in addition to the hood being 6" wider than the cooktop); I was thinking of reducing it down to 3" or even 0", but now I'm not sure.

I really like your hood cover and am now thinking I may want to do this...but later since I'm 99% sure we're way over budget as it is (no hard #s yet except for wood floors on 1st floor...and that was more than I thought it would be!!!)

TIA

Again...gorgeous kitchen!

Just finished my kitchen and although I am happy with it, I wish I read more about granite ahead of time. I used Peacock green, which I love, but the two sides of my kitchen look different to me. On side has many more large blue "bursts", and the other has more gold veining giving an overall browner look.Friends say I'm crazy and need to get used to the variance in granite. Will I get used to it???
Also, how do I copy a picture into my message?

LMAO Monica...We'll book your trip for February. I should have stairs then, and the temps in Anchorage should be tropical (for Alaska) somewhere in the negative 20's or so. We can always send you up to the slope to see the teddybears (we are partners in a hotel up there). I think the temps in February are in the negative 60's to 70's about that time of year. BRING YOUR WOOLIES!!! heh heh

Igloochic, you can convert your wood rails to iron - parts and installation available at

http://www.stairpartsusa.com/article_a/113.htm

summertime_fun,

You've got me questioning the walnut color now. I, too, looked at small walnut colored stones, but I preferred the brick. I wonder if I am getting the colors confused? I'll have to do some research.

buehl,

My hood is installed about a 1/2" to the cabinets. They were initially installed with about 3-4" on both sides and I hated it! Just wasn't the look I invisioned.

igloochick,

I found a quote from the first I guy I talked to. It looks like he was charging me approximately $40 per wrought iron piece. I'm not sure if labor is including in that or if he wrote that in somewhere else.

Have you tried the interactive stair designer at Stairservice.com?

Thanks again for all the nice compliments!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Interactive Stair Desinger

Your kitchen is beautiful. Would love to see some before pictures if you have any. What finish and color is your centerpiece? Walnut tumbled travertine 3' x 6" brick backsplash - did you get the backsplash tile at Lowes? I am working with Neal on our backsplash - he is so nice!

dstocker,

No, I didn't get the brick from Lowes. I ended up finding them at Bedrosians (might be local to my area) for a cheaper price and a color I liked better.

I don't remember off the top of my head what color I got from Neil. I *think* it was Warm Taupe. I'll look into it, though -- might be tomorrow before I can. In retrospect, I wish I had gotten more of a contrast color like the Bronzed Terra Cotta or Dark Bronze. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

What tiles are you ordering??

I just talked to Neil today and he is sending samples. The pictures on his website are just too hard to tell what the real color is. I liked the floral best - he has some really nice designs, but yours is the one I liked best. I might order some more when we remodel our bathroom - if we make it through the kitchen remodel!!!

I just verified that it was warm taupe that I ordered.

I don't really have any before pictures, but I'll attach some during pics along with the finished pics. They are sort of taken at the same angle. You can see in the first pictures that we were in the process of removing the soffet and in the second pictures that we removed a panty and added cabinets and countertops -- it is sooo much more efficient.

Thanks for the info. Your during and after pictures really give me something to look forward to. We are in the very beginning. I am still waiting on the final plans for the cabinets.

jayrenay - may I archive your kitchen in the Finished Kitchens Blog? If so please submit the FKB Category Checklist. Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchen Category Checklist

I'm sorry I didn't see this message until today. I will try to get to the category checklist ASAP. Thanks!