October 1, 2014

#Victory…

..on two counts.

(Side note:  I'm going to start hashtagging every major remodeling task with #victory when it's complete.  It feels like we just won a war against the sad state of the way this house used to be. )

Victory #1 The quartz countertops have been installed and the reason why I was so anxious over it was because this is the FIRST thing we've hired a contractor to do.  When you're depending on someone else's timeline, things get complicated.  However, it was also nice because there wasn't much for us to do (after Scott spent 3 hours on Sunday night making sure the island was level, while I wined my way through Once Upon a Time…).

Here's your BEFORE…

In May

And AFTER:


I'm impressed!

The countertops are also our big ticket item.  Between those and the floor, that's where we've invested our money.  A lot of people budget x number of dollars for cabinets when doing a kitchen.  We've redone the cabinets that are already here and spent a minimal amount on solid wood cabinets that we can paint.  Scott has also built custom cabinets for those spaces where pre-made ones just won't work. You can see that we've actually rebuilt the island, but I'll go into that more when it's actually done.

Just a countertop in search of a backsplash…

We chose to over mount the sink because we're paying for that copper and we want to see it.  A lot of people under mount.  The guy who came to measure for the counters kind of gave Scott a hard time on that one.  


We extended this counter by about 8 inches. It adds extra storage and, above, we're going to put in a wine rack.  And probably paint it teal to match the closet door.


We're ordering doors for all these soon-to-be cabinets.  I can't tell you how fantastic it is to have the oven at standing height.  




I'm not sure what you know about induction cooktops, but we had our heart set on a gas stove.  The time and effort it would take to run gas lines to the kitchen wasn't going to work for us.  So, we looked for an alternative that was not the dreaded electric cooktop. Induction cooks faster than gas and you can boil water in less than a minute.  Also, it only heats certain kinds of materials so (while this did cost us some new pans), it won't burn plastic or anything like that.  We didn't believe it until we saw it for ourselves.  We're VERY happy with this purchase.  Originally, spending a lot on this wasn't a priority, but a nice electric range is over half the cost of induction and so…so it goes, right?  I obviously do cook a lot so it's not like it won't be worth it in the end.  

We ordered our countertops from Home Depot and got a good deal, but I do have to say that we don't even have THAT much counter space and it still wasn't cheap.  The turnaround time from order to install was about 3 weeks, but Scott did all the measurements and filled out all the graph paper order forms before we even went to the store to order so that sped up the process, I'm sure.

The plan is to add a wooden bar to the top of the island.  We can't decide between a butcher block style or something with an antique look to it.

There was originally a bar there.  We took away a bit of counter space when we added the cooktop to the island, but we extended the island and when this bar is added back in, all the space should even out to what it was before.

Anyway.  That's a load off our minds.

Victory #2 Another thing that's a load off my mind:  my glucose and insulin-resistant tests came back normal.  This is a relief.

Now we can move into the fall season with clear(er) health and space to bake cookies.  #Victory.

14 comments:

  1. I love the countertops, they came out great!

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  2. I am SO DANG JEALOUS of your kitchen!! Oh, swoon. I'm coming with a bottle of wine and we're going to toast to it (and to your glucose test being normal)! K? :)

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  3. Love the new counters! I'm glad it went smooth. Also before you explained the title I laughed; a #victory, indeed!

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  4. LOVE the kitchen! I'm honestly normally more of a fan of under-mounted sinks just because I like the look of the seamless counter top, BUT I think I agree with you in this case - you paid for all that copper, show it off!! :)

    Your photos are making me want to hurry up and get our stupid floor done so we can get back to the kitchen. I want cement counter tops.

    AND YEAH!!! For all your levels being normal!!!

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  5. Wow!! Your kitchen is looking amazing!! Those counters are great and I'm so excited to see it all come together.

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  6. Your kitchen looks so great! Love all the work you've done to it!
    xo Southern Style

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  7. I am so jealous of your kitchen. Looks like a great place to bake and cook. That sink is amazing!

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  8. I love it. Especially the sink, the standing height ovens, and the turquoise accents. Most of all I love that it's together and functioning for your sanity, my friend!

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