From Drawings to Reality

OK, last entry about the kitchen...for now...I promise.

When we were at the house last year I sketched, on scrap paper, what I envisioned the kitchen should look like.

While sorting thru some papers, I was happy to find that the contractor had saved them. Yay David and Lisa!

So cool to see that the kitchen turned out almost EXACTLY the way I sketched it (will get to that below).

Down to the lamp, just the way I hoped it would look like.

Closing those shelves make the place look so much tidier. 

Great looking wall of cabs - amazing amount of storage!

Here is where we made a slight change. I skipped the plate rack and opted for a spice cabinet.

Amazing what can happen when you get the right team together. Thank you again Lisa and David and the rest of the crew!!

Aloha a Hui Hou

Vermont Bun Baker, revisited

You might remember the corner in the front room

and you might remember my drawing

and you might remember all my talk about it.

Well here it is now

Turned out very close to my vision and we're very happy with it. While we were there the temps dropped to the 40's and we fired'er up. Warmed up the house to a toasty 80F. Roger put in some wood before we went to bed and it was still warm in the morning and there were enough embers to get another log going in the morning.

Notice the blue, vintage coffee pot on top of the bun baker. Another antiquing find. We just used it to add a bit of moisture to the air, but we do have the insides so if we ever wanted to make coffee in it we could.
I love the smell of the wood and am really looking forward to enjoying baking in it....bread...maybe a flamkuchen!

aloha a Hui Hou!

The Reveal

With out further ado, our 50% new kitchen. Let's start with entry...

The North facing wall - Before

After

The door you see leads out to the back porch and to the left are the stairs that take you down to the basement.  I painted the wall with 3 coats of magnetic paint and a final coat of chalk board paint.


Funny story about the magnetic paint. I purchased a quart can and asked the guy at the paint counter to "shake it up" for me. He put the little, but oh so heavy, can in the centrifuge and walked away. Surprise, surprise! When he turned around the machine had shaken itself about 2 feet out of it's cubby space. It was also really heavy to roll onto the wall. I'm glad it was a relatively small area.


Oh and another thing about magnetic paint and chalk board paint. If you have them separate, like I did, keep in mind that by over painting the magnetic paint with chalkboard paint it reduces the strength of the hold your magnets have on the wall. Be sure to get it covered with one coat.

The window over the sink faces South - Before

After (OH! I see the curtains are crooked...guess I can't do anything about that right now, can i?)

We are so pleased with how the tile turned out, the color of the cabs, the granite, the wood details, the sink....everything. It is a beautiful little farmhouse kitchen.

The fridge is on the West facing wall - Before

After

You can see we added a 2nd drawer to the left of the fridge. That's where the laundry cute was.  The lower part is still a laundry cute, just smaller, but it's still big enough for what we have to throw down. Down the line I have to insert something so the laundry doesn't get caught on the water line/rafters.

We originally didn't want to have the ice maker hooked up, and then we went ahead and had it done anyway. Not that we really needed a lot of ice while we were there (we only have a few days over 60), but it's good to know that it works.

This window faces East

Here is our "table"and it is just perfect for the two of us. If need be, a 3rd person could sit at the end. Kind of bummed that we decided to skip the silverware drawer, but I'll get over it.

Oh, can't forget the floor....I love, love love the tile floor. Easy to clean, feels great under my feet and looks fantastic, just like wood. I would pick it again in a heartbeat.

Here you can see the under cabinet lighting. It makes the counter tops and back splash shine.

These are the lights we finally decided on. I really liked the farm house ones, but just couldn't get over the price. These cost under $30 a piece and also have a vintage feel/look. In addition they go well with our appliances and if I ever want a touch of color I could always spray paint the skirt of the light.

Oh and they are on a dimmer, which is perfect for our needs.

Looking in from the entry off the front room.

The light over the sink - originally we had planned to put the same light over the sink as we have over the table - turned out it was WAY TOO BIG, so I had to go out and buy something else. As you can see it has similar lines. A good match to the ones over the table.

Window facing East - Before (original listing photo)

After

Two things I want to say about this photo. First, notice the Sit-a-Bit sign over the window. I bought this sign years ago, when we were still living in Waikiki. Amazing how it exactly fits in the color scheme of the kitchen! Love those little coincidences!

Second, the chairs. You can't believe how hard it was to find counter top height chairs! Sure, we found some saddle chairs, but we have those here, never really liked them and replaced them with a nice set I found at Ross. Most of the chairs we found were so cheaply made we just had to pass on them. One day, when we were driving down the road I spotted a 2nd hand furniture store. We turned around and went in. The guy had these two chairs. They were the right height and seemed pretty sturdy. Not to mention the price was right. The guy at the store was so nice. He asked what colors we have in our kitchen and gave us a piece of fabric (enough for both) that will fit right in! I didn't get around to reupholstering the chairs this time, but I will next time...might even paint some of the wood to match the cabinets....we'll see.

Thanks so much for following the progress of the kitchen - Looking forward to getting some good use out of it!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Backsplash

Got a sneaky peak of the backsplash:

There are only 6" of the stainless tile on the wall, but I'm loving it! Not to mention the reflection in the granite - AWESOME!!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Like Mike Holms says....

It's got to be up to code....so you do what'cha gotta do and for us that means adding a 1" spacer to the wall around the bun baker...I'll have to get back to you on WHY they have to do it - but it's what the fire marshal said we had to do to pass.

Doesn't our table look nice over there??

Another step in the right direction.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

A Quarter of the Pie

They put down the tile! 

Nice lil' corner.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Patty Cake, Patty Cake

So now that we have the bun baker we were able to pick out what matches best and this is what we've agreed on.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Today is the day

Today everyone is showing up at our house :o)

The carpenter is done and they will be putting the kitchen together on Monday. Once that is finished they will start putting in the rest of the new windows.

Lisa also let me know she has the tile and stone samples to hold up to the soap stone to see what matches best.

I guess once all the kitchen the electrician will come to install the under cab lighting and then they will get the painter to paint the cabs and stain the front door.

Bam! Bam! Bam! That's what I call making progress!!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

What it boiled down to..

We've made up our minds and this is the tile we've decided on:

and it will sort of look like this:

It's been ordered and should arrive in about a week or so. Lovin' it!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Time to pick out tile...again...

So, If you remember, I wanted stainless steel detail tile for the kitchen. I fudged this picture together....just to have an idea.

Something I photoshopped together because I couldn't find a tile I really like.....then I found this one

and sent it to Lisa to see if they could find it locally. Today I found out, she couldn't. I could order from them online, but they have 21 days delivery time....kind of long...So I kept looking and came across these:

These tiles can be found at Eden Mosaic Tiles

and like them even BETTER! I like that they aren't cookie cutter, that they will add a little sumthin sumthin to catch your eye and it also plays perfectly with my love of straight lines, but are mixed up enough to not be boring.

The next step will be figuring out how much we will need and then deciding which will fit our pocket book.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

I'm stuck on you...

So I've been thinking and thinking about the kitchen, no real big surprise there, right? A thought just came to my mind about the back splash. I know that I want a subway tile back splash, but was having a hard time deciding what kind of tile I wanted to add to it so it isn't too plain.

Sooo looking forward to all that storage in the kitchen!

Just so you get the idea of what I have planned for the kitchen; the cabinets will be an off white and stained to look a bit more aged, the counter top, depending on the budget will either be Silestone or Formica. Which ever it winds up being, we want it to be neutral color a bit darker than the cabinets, but not too dark so it makes working in the kitchen dark. Our splash of color will be things like the cobalt blue Kitchenaid stand mixer Roger bought for us.

A lucky Craigslist find

As I said, I was thinking about the back splash and it hit me, the decorative stripe should be be stainless steel tile! It will match our appliances and I can hang magnet hooks, my spices and such where ever and when ever I need them with out having to ruin the tile or worry about removing old tape when the hook breaks or I want to change styles over the years. It would look something like this. So looking forward to doing this when we go over next summer :o)