Well, hello! Since I last checked in, our cabinets have been installed!
This means I got over my issues about the color and we kept the cabinets as-is. In fact, as many of you suggested, I am already wondering what all the fuss was about. :)
Did I mention how un-level our kitchen is? In this photo you can see how far the perimeter cabinets are mounted off the ground. (On the far right out of the picture they are resting on the floor!) Fortunately the kick-base trim should cover the gaps.
Also visible in the photo above—the new track light spotlights we mounted above the fireplace. Before there were simple recessed can light fixtures that didn't really point at the fireplace. And with the new can lighting in the kitchen we wanted to set this light apart a bit.
This next photo was taken the next day in natural light, so you can see how much the lighting affects the color. I didn't color correct these photos or edit them at all. Obviously. These are very much "in progress" shots with no styling whatsoever. Or cleaning. Construction zones are messy!
We laid cardboard out on the island to test the island counter overhang and make sure we would have enough walk space between the counter and fireplace. We are going with a 9" overhang—shorter than the recommended 12" for a counter-height bar, but more than the original 6" I thought we'd have to live with. On the other side of the island we stuck with the 42" isles most kitchen designers recommend. Overall things feel spacious and comfortable.
The granite guy came to template yesterday. Yippee! This might just be the most exciting step yet! The installation of the ovens, cooktop, and sinks all ride on the timing of the counters.
Last night we moved the dining table back to it's home in the dining room. In fact we ate our first meal in there with no paper dishes! It felt like a celebration. Above right, the microwave is installed, but the power isn't turned on to it and we haven't tried it out. The cooktop is also resting in it's new home, but it won't be functional until the granite is installed. In fact, we are trying to solve a teensy propane leak—I'll rest a little easier when that is taken care of.
The oven cabinet is resting in place temporarily. We have to pull it back out to assist with granite installation. When the granite is in place we can anchor it in permanently and then install the cabinet above the refrigerator to the left of it, and of course install the new ovens! For now we moved the fridge to the pantry spot to get it out of our crowded living room.
You might have also noticed the new light fixture above our table. Yep, we ended up with the Firefly pendants from CB2, although there were also many votes for the drum shade as well. I wanted to wait and put the fixtures up last as the "icing on the cake", but Tom couldn't wait.
You can see a sliver of popcorn ceiling in the living room where it meets the dining room—you can bet I can't wait to get the rest of that out of my house!
Today Tom has begun ripping out the flooring in the laundry room so we can finish the tiling in there. Bye bye forever filthy brown carpet!
Starting construction in the laundry room might make things interesting given we are still using that space as our kitchen. I'll have an enormous pile of laundry to catch up on when we are done. It is a small area and the tiling should go pretty quickly though.
I don't think I ever showed you the old original avocado carpet that was under all the brown carpet. (They left it in place because it is glued down!) Except for the edges that were cut away for the tack strip, it is in surprisingly good shape and ironically looks better than the dingy brown carpet over it. It strikes me as funny that all the carpet left in this house (except the new stuff in the basement, of course) is original. All the newer stuff is gone. I'd say that shows they don't make carpet like they used to, hmm?
So there you have it—the good, bad, and ugly. I could have new counters as early as a week from now—can you tell how excited I am to move back into my kitchen???