Kim, yours is a kitchen I've been waiting to see. It is beautiful! as is the whole space. Congratulations on a labour of love. Every choice looks perfect.

We need more photos!

{{!gwi}}

Happy cooking,
Eliz

I love it -- crisp, clean and modern. But we definitely need to see more photos! It looks like you have a large skylight and suspended the pendants from it -- could I see a better shot of that, and how they are powered?

Looks nice! Will you give me some more details about the Rubio Monocoat? Awhile back I had asked a lot of questions on another forum about this product, but the only responses I got were from the same person (who registered the day I asked my questions!) So I've been dying to hear from a real consumer of the product. What did/do you think about the appearance? durability? application process? and cost, relative to other products? Thanks.

Have gone through all the photos in Picasa album. Impressive! Light, airy, integrated design and integrated with the adjacent spaces, useful, classy, and what an ambitious set of structural changes you have made. That little one will grow up in a place that sets an aesthetic standard that will affect adult decisions later on. And the green ideal is laudable.

Lovely kitchen. It's modern and sleek yet still totally in character with the overall aesthetic of the house. Nice job!

Very nice. I also love the bench with storage off the stairs. Great idea.

Hi midwife...

I found the 10 shots of your kitchen and I think it looks great. I like that you kept it in the era of your home, and that you are sensitive to the environment. That is really special in my opinon! Love your counter!

KA:)

I LOVE what you've done with the kitchen as well as the bathrooms!

I think it looks sleek and neat ;) The color wood on your lowers is quite lovely. I like how you have the mix of finishes to keep it cool yet warm. You and Sochi are making me appreciate contemporary more and more. I am trying for a vintage contemporary in our kitchen with slab front doors and hope it comes out as nice as yours has (while looking older).

I'd love to hear more about the RM for the floors. Can you go darker with it? I'd like to darken my floors a little when we re-do the surfaces.

Add me as another vote to see more about your ceiling as well.

As someone who is trying to go as green as possible, I'd love to also hear more details about your choices.

You have crafted a lovely, livable, timeless incarnation of "modern." Sitting in the nook by those huge windows is going to be heavenly. Although I suspect it felt like a long year, the public space alone was more than worth waiting for.

Congratulations on your most excellent remodel! How do you like your countertop? I was interested in ECO waaaay back when (having had and liked my Silestone in a previous home) before it was even in stores--loved that it incorporated recycled materials!

Very nice! Did you buy your table new? If so, where?

Congratulations - you renovations are absolutely lovely! I never saw anything like it in the 50's! You have so much light, counter space and beautiful surfaces to work with...WOW!. Also love the the painted uppers and the stained lower cabinets.

I love the look you've achieved. The light in your home is beautiful.

OK ... um WOW!

That is awesome! I'd love to live in that space.

And nothing against cherry, but can I just say that yours is the first kitchen in which I've really LOVED cherry?

Just love this kitchen.

So beautiful! (And hello from another Oaklander! :) Are the circles on the ceiling solatubes or lights/speakers of some sort? Also curious to hear how you like the ECO---we've been looking at that on and off as well.

In real life the bulbs in your tech lights would be brighter if the transformer was put behind the plate (up high), not "remote". Low voltage lighting systems lose power as the low voltage current travels down the wire, so the closer the transformer the more power the lamps get which corresponds to what they were designed to receive. Better.

Other than that, there is nothing I would change. Congratulations!

{{!gwi}}
Click the pic for more...

Thank you for all of your praise. I can't believe I'm one of the people with a finished kitchen. I thought this day would never come!

I will try to answer your questions...

Skylight/ kable light: I added more pics. The cables span the space and pendants hang from the cables. There is a bit of sag, as we chose two heavier (relatively speaking) glass globes. It is a 12v system with the remote transformer which is TOO bright, actually. We haven't installed the dimmer yet.

FLOOR with Rubio Monocoat: I added more floor pics to picassa. It was $300 for enough oil to cover 1200sqft and our wood windows (we have cork downstairs- it doesn't need oil). Our flooring guy covered it on one day. Zero odor- we slept in the house that night. Walked on it 3 days later. That's it. We've been in for 3 months. The floor never looks shiny-new, nor does it look bad. It just looks like smooth wood. Some pale lines where furniture without pads moved. We love it. It comes in darker colors. We went with natural.

COUNTER:
It is made from 75% recycled commercial porcelain and mirrors, bound with corn resin. We got one red wine ring, but it came out with bon ami and no scratching. Very happy.

"GREEN" choices: Since it was a whole house remodel, we had many places to go green. We have a hybrid water heater (tankless with a mini reserve). We have 100 sqfr of cork floor. We used all no VOC paint (Freshaire in Distant Star eggshell from HD). Decks in composite material. FSC wood windows. 98% efficient 2 zone furnace. Plywood cabinets. Direct vent gas fireplace. Energy star appliances. All florescent bulbs (whole house) except the dining room chandelier and the 2 halogen pendants. We used every piece of cardboard packing to sheet mulch our front and back yards (a "lasagna" of cardboard, chicken manure, and mulch which enriches the soil and kills weeds.)

@ artemis: ceiling has speakers, and a few small can lights.

@ numbers junkie: the table is a hand me down from my SIL, and she got it at a thrift store! IKEA chairs surround it.

Thanks again!
Kim

@ wi-sailergirl:I felt the same way about cherry, until I saw the raw wood color and variations possible. Our cabinetmaker picked some great sections that have a more modern vibe- but there are others that are real earthy too.

@elizpiz: Your presence on this forum- and your amazing kitchen were inspiring to me. Thank you.

Nice, clean and wonderful look in your whole space. Sunny and bright, too. I envy your fireplace view. :-) Enjoy, enjoy!!!

You have given me new hope for my 1980's slab-front white cabinets (which are still in good condition). :) Thanks for posting, your kitchen is beautiful!

Great job midwifekim, what a lovely space. You've done a wonderful job. I love the sky lights and the cherry cabinets are gorgeous. I'm really interested in your non-VOC oil based finished. We went with a water-based finish, which has had its problems. Aside from environmental/smell issues, we went with water so it wouldn't 'yellow' our light birch floors. I'll have to do some research on Monocoat.

Good luck with your backsplash!

@sochi: We chose white oak for its brown, rather than yellow tones (in many other woods). RM really brought out the richness in the wood (we have a #1 common grade for the character). I haven't noticed any yellowing. We will be using the same oil on all of our birch doors- I'll let you know if we have any issues.

Thanks so much for the further info! I bet you helped a lot of people here ;)

Beautiful!! So light & airy, and I'm in lust for that big island and all that countertop! Your new kitchen looks like it absolutely belongs in your home. Enjoy!

I could never have envisioned your "before" turning into that gorgeous space! What a vision you had. It's simply beautiful. Wow!

One question, is that soap dispenser a stand-on-the-counter-on-its-own type? It's not built-in, is it?

Enjoy your beautiful and eco-friendly space!

Breezygirl- the soap dispenser is a $20 topper for the air gap. we got it at Home depot. It doesn't hold much soap, so we fill it once a week.

Thanks for the info on the dispenser. Does it just sit on top of the air gap thingy that pokes up? Is it meant for that? Sorry for the non-technical description. A plumber told me the other day about I need that stupid air gap, and I'm looking for ways around it. I don't want ANOTHER thing around my sink besides the single-lever, pulldown faucet and soap dispenser. And I don't really understand the point of them anyway. TIA!

Fantastic space with a nice mix of materials.
Your cabinet maker did a great job of matching the horizontal wood grain. I love the clean contemporary look.

I love it....and I LOVE MIDWIVES!!

I've got to agree with sabjimata. I think the kitchen is gorgoues, and I think midwives rock!

The dispenser sits on top of the actual air gap. It's just a tall version (that holds soap/ had a pump) of the little cap you need to put on anyway (to make it look like other than a plastic cap).

Thanks for the cheers for midwives. I love my job!

Wonderful kitchen. Love the sky lights, the horizontal wood on the island the the dining room chandelier. Enjoy.

Would it be possible to get a couple photos of your countertop at different angles and some close ups? It looks very white from these photos but when I got a sample home it looked more grey than white? Your thoughts on the color?

The counter is definitely white- but favors cool rather than warm, overall. There are tiny warm brownish flecks, but they are offset by the bits of mirror (which is a cool color, I think.

Reflecting a bit of blue from the skylights above:
{{!gwi}}From New Kitchen

Next to the kohler basic white sink:
{{!gwi}}From New Kitchen

Against white walls and cabinets:
{{!gwi}}From New Kitchen

Amazing space. I love the cabinets with the different uppers and lowers and I love that your home fits the architecture. Timeless! And those windows!!!

Beautiful! You did a fabulous job!

We used Rubio Monocoat on our floor, too, but did chocolate (I think that was the color) on hand-scraped walnut. It's been about two years, in a house full of kids, and I love how well it is performing. We haven't touched it up at all, but when we finish our remodel and get the rest of the wood floors in, the kitchen may get a refresh. I was pregnant when we did the floors and searched to find something with no VOC's.

Your bathroom pics are great, too. I love the colorful tiles in your kids bathroom-who are they made by? I want to do something bright and cheerful in our laundryroom.

I like midwives, too-I found a wonderful midwife for the birth of my last baby. :)

Amazing! I am in the bay area and loved your stairs, can you recommend the company that did your railing?

Enjoy!

Thank you.

That is so sleek and sophisticated and just danged cool!

Love how clean and polished, yet breezy it is!

Great space! Enjoy!

I love that your kitchen feels sleek and contemporary, and yet right for the period of the house. I'm really loving those natural cherry lowers with the horizontal grain. The skylights are great too. The whole space just feels so fresh and open.

Thanks for posting pictures of your stair railings. I was thinking of doing railings like that for our deck, and now I have pictures to show the contractor.