Finally! All Finished

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and loading the kitchen back in has been no small part of that craziness!  I haven't taken pictures of the kitchen with everything loaded back in, but wanted to get a post out there, since it's been a while.  Everyone loves before and after pictures, so here they are:


Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Anyway, I thought I'd give a couple of thoughts about the whole renovation process, in case anyone else is thinking about doing this any time soon. I think, for us, this is the last major project that we'll hire out, except for new flooring upstairs, but I wouldn't call that major, just a pain in the ass.  :-)

So, in case you are looking for advice, here's some for you:

Go with a company whose representatives you trust, with whom you have a good rapport, and that has a good reputation.  We interviewed three different companies, and we ended up choosing Case Design because they have been around a long time, and I really liked the kitchen designer with whom I worked.  He wasn't put off by some of my more quirky ideas, but also knew when to edit and/or jump in with his experience of what might work and what might not.

Also know that the kitchen designer you worked with will not be the one overseeing the project.  So you also need to trust the Project Manager who is assigned to your project.  You should meet him at least once before you sign the final contract.  But also know, at least in our case, the Project Manager will not be on site every day.  Ours was very responsive if we had any questions or concerns (I had his cell phone number and his email, and he was always very prompt in replying). So, that being said, you also need to like the crew that's going to be in your home on a day-to-day basis, but unfortunately, you're not really going to be able to choose them.  The guys who were on our project were really great guys, were very efficient and knew what they were doing, for the most part. I'll get into what "for the most part" means in a bit.

Go over every part of the contract and the design very carefully, even if you keep it for an extra couple of days before you sign it. Just because you talked about something or another, doesn't mean it will actually make it into the contract, so go over every detail to make sure it is exactly how you discussed.  Case in point: we discussed using a tinted (light gray) grout for the backsplash, but when they installed it, the grout was white.  I asked the guy doing the tiling, and he showed me the part of the contract where it specified white. Turns out that, while we discussed it, neither I nor the kitchen designer confirmed that with each other, and he specified white in the contract.  They were going to come out and make it right, of course, but we decided that we preferred the white, so it all turned out for the best in the end, but just keep that in mind.

Also, I found it really hard to make decisions about stuff based on little samples (squares of this and swatches of that), so part of you just has to trust yourself and your vision (or your designer's vision). That is why it's important to look at lots of pictures of kitchens (or other style inspirations) so that your kitchen designer knows where you are coming from.  I found Pinterest to be enormously helpful for putting my ideas and inspirations in one place so I could look at everything together, and our kitchen designer joined Pinterest so he could see my kitchen board and get a feel for my style. Another thing I liked about David, our designer, was that, when he came to our house for an interview, he asked to look around the whole house, to get a sense of what our style was and how we lived (which would have seemed like "pig pen" style on the particular day he was here, but he's a professional and had vision).  :-)

Now,  a word (or two) about specific design elements and installation:

For us, because we had chosen cork flooring, which is kind of softer than other types of flooring, I should have insisted that the floors go in as late as possible, perhaps with the painting done as soon as all the electrical and wall prep had been done.  Also, to have someone there to put the appliances back in place as the floor was installed underneath, but before it was put in the rest of the room (to minimize scratches and scrapes from moving those heavy pieces). As careful as our crew was, there were still nicks and dings to the floor, and some small paint drops here and there, but because of the texture of the floor, it was hard to scrape away.  It's a little disappointing to pay for a brand new floor, just to have it "worn in" before you even get to move your stuff back in.  The Case crew touched up the nicks in the floor, but I contend that it's easier to touch up the paint on the walls than it is to fix scrapes on the floor or paint drips.

Under-cabinet or task lighting is a big thing in kitchen design, but I'll tell you one thing to keep in mind: those lights get really warm if left on for very long -- to the point where the bottom of the inside of the cabinet got warm.  Because of that, and where I chose to put my spices and oils, I've turned off about half of those lights. If I had known that, I would only have put task lighting in on one bank of cabinets, rather than all, which would have saved some money.  I hate paying for things I won't use.

Now, for the minor details. The one thing I was disappointed about was the lack of attention to detail in the installation phase. One of the reasons we chose Case was because they've been around a long time and (I thought) had every aspect of the design-build process down pat. And they did, for the most part, but it was the little things that bugged me: a new outlet that obstructed our pocket door (they actually caught that themselves before I said anything, but I did notice it right away after they had left that day),  a phone jack that didn't work, sloppy caulking, exposed wiring to our cabinet lights (which you could easily see, because it's right at eye level) a crooked switch plate, a finishing nail that pierced through the back of one of the cabinets, rough edges where they had to bore holes through the cabinets to run wires, a leaky pipe under the sink. I also contend that the moulding used at the top of the cabinets is a different color and finish than the cabinets, but I'll get the opinion of our designer when he comes out in a week.  None of these were big deals to fix (except maybe the leaky pipe and the outlet), but I think should have been caught if the crew had done a more careful "once over" before the project manager came out for the final walk-through.  Perhaps there would have been more things wrong if we had gone with a different company, so maybe my expectations are set too high, and I realize that they can't get everything perfect the first time.  That being said, our crew is very concerned that we are happy with the work and have said to call them whenever we discover something that needs to be corrected, and (more importantly) they follow through.  I don't think we would have gotten that level of service with, say, Home Depot.

Now, understand, we've never done this type of project before, and we have no other frame of reference to compare Case to, so I am willing to concede I'm being very exacting and nit-picky.  Would I recommend Case to others? Definitely!  Are they the best company compared to everyone else? That, I can't say, because I only have the interviews to base that on, not the execution, so it's impossible for me to say that Case performed better than another company's crew would have.

All in all, I would consider this a very positive experience, and we are definitely going to enjoy our new space for a very long time! And for that, I am grateful for the staff at Case Design.  :-)

Kitchen Remodel Week 5: Almost There!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel!  I know that 5 weeks might not seem a long time for a kitchen remodel, but for what we're having done, it kind of is. I'm getting antsy to get things moved back and organized, because it drives me crazy when I can't find stuff.

But it's looking really good, and the anxiety about how the shelves would look was unfounded.  I really like them!

The grout was supposed to be a light gray, but somehow that didn't get into the contract.  They were going to come back and fix it with the other stuff they have to do, but we actually like the white and think the subway tiles give enough texture to the back splash, so we're keeping it the way it is.

Thanks again Virgin Timber Lumber Co.! If you ever need custom wood working done (shelves, tables, etc.), these are your guys!

There are still a few little things that need to be taken care of, which means we can't fully move back in, but we can start in the areas that they won't need to work on.  And, hopefully, by the end of Tuesday, it'll be really finished.  :-)

 Here are a couple of shots with the lights all on.

This is the small butler's pantry, which is now a beverage station, with a beverage fridge, coffee maker, electric kettle. It's hard to see at this angle, but the fridge is sitting kind of tilted back, so that's another thing they have to fix.

 And here's the other side of the room.  It's not put together, yet, but you see where we're going with this...

There have been a few challenges, which I'll discuss in my next post about lessons learned, but all-in-all, it's been a really good experience.  I think it turned out really nicely, which is good, because I don't think we'll ever do something this big again!

Kitchen Remodel Week 4 -- Floors are In!

So, in preparation for week four, we had to clear most of the first floor, most of which went down to our basement.  Below is how we're living for the next 10 days or so:

I feel a little like how it might be like living with a hoarder.  Stuff piled all over the place.  And this room isn't even the worst.  All of the little stuff is in our guest room, and I'm too embarrassed to share a picture of THAT!  Even though the floors and carpet are all in, the painting starts on Monday, so we figured we'd keep everything cleared to help our painter out. Fewer things for him to work around.

But the floors are in, and they are great!  I love the cork so much!  Thank you to Bruce Brown at Floor Max  (http://www.designbiz.com/net6/CompanyWelcome.asp?CompanyID=62345). He gave us the best price, the crew was really great, and even though there were a couple of minor hiccups, they followed through and made everything right.  Below is the finished install.  It's a little hard to get the full effect, with all the crap in the middle of the floor, but there's a close up to get a better view of the detail.

In case you were wondering, here's a link to the product, which is Almeda brand, style Tira, color Cinza. The only bad thing is that I'm now so paranoid about getting them scuffed or otherwise damaged, especially since we still have a lot of workers coming in and out this next week.  I've been making everyone take off their shoes right when they step inside the door.  Yup. I'm going to be the crazy lady making everyone walk around in stocking feet.  :-)

Also, the shelves from Virgin Timber Lumber Company came this week.  Here's a picture of the two smaller shelves:

They are gorgeous!  It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the striations are part of the wood grain, with lots of interesting marks, and I can't wait to see them installed!  The only thing I would have done differently is maybe made the shorter shelf (which I specified at 12 inches) a couple of inches longer (like 15 inches -- nit-picky, I know!), but that's my fault.  The folks at Virgin Timber made these exactly how I specified, even finding the the exact same wood (maple) and the same stain (gunstock) as the cabinets that make up the island. They're still gonna look great!

Hopefully, with this next week, we're looking at the last of everything: paint, counters, sink and the last of the lighting.  I'm glad, because I think we're all getting a little tired of the close quarters, sandwiches, salads, eating out and microwave meals. The chaos is starting to take a toll, emotionally, on all of us.  It'll be nice to get back to a regular structure and routine.

Kitchen Remodel - Week 3: Cabinets!

The cabinets finally came in!  So after 7 idle work days (is that an oxymoron?), I was glad that they were able to get back to work.  All was going really great until Thursday night, when we discovered that (I'll let you infer exactly how) the workers punctured the waste pipe that draws the waste from the two upstairs bathrooms downward when they were reinforcing the upper cabinets along that wall. Not cool.  Maybe that was why there weren't cabinets on that wall in the first place...

That darker area?  Not supposed to be there.

I called the project manager right away, and he had the guys come back out.  I felt bad that they had basically just gotten home, then had to turn around and come right back (not bad enough for us to wait until the morning, though). But they did, and were relatively cheerful about it.  Got to work right away and stayed until it was right.  They had to put in a new section of pipe, seal it, then patch the drywall back up, then hang the cabinets again.  They had to at least put the lower cabinets back, because the granite guys were coming in the morning to measure for the counters.

Prophetically, I had just read an article that same morning about kitchen remodels, and part of what it said was to plan for at least one nightmare.  If this is the worst of the nightmares, then we will hopefully be okay. (Crossing fingers!)

The project is really starting to take shape, with the cabinets in and the handles on.  I love the handles I bought from Restoration Hardware for the island:

Close up:

The granite guy came to measure for the counters.  Good thing I was around to make some decisions, because there seemed to be some confusion about what kind of granite was going where.  :-)

So, here's where we are after week three:

Next week, we can look forward to getting the floors and (maybe) the counters.  Unfortunately, they pulled apart the powder room (it's the only bathroom on the main floors) so the flooring guys can lay the cork...on Thursday.  Not sure why they needed to do it today, but we still have three bathrooms to choose from, so I won't complain (much). It just makes getting a glass of water that much more of a chore.

Kitchen Remodel - Week One (and Week Two, unfortunately)

The first week of the remodel went as smoothly as one could expect.   All the demolition was done more quickly than anticipated, and the workers got going with electrical and wall repair. So far, my husband's favorite thing has been the zipper door.  They hung a sheet of plastic over the doorway (on the right), then stuck this blue strip down the middle (turns out it's a zipper), then pulled the zipper and it cuts a doorway.  Ingenious!

The most exciting thing that happened was that they were able to install the new ceiling fan and sconces.  Not to brag or anything, but we now have the coolest ceiling fan ever!

 

 
Watch:

In general the place doesn't look a whole lot different than it did after day one, because a lot of what was done was kind of "structural" in the sense that it was behind walls or under floors, so, once they patched everything up, you can't really see it.  But I know it's there, and it's going to be awesome. Really.


Hardware and Shelving Drama:

We ordered the cabinet hardware, but we had to go with our second choice, because our first choice was backordered until the end of April.  THEN, the shelves we were going to use for the kitchen turned out to be too deep, so we tried to order our second choice and those were on backorder, too!  I was getting really nervous about all of this, so I looked on-line and found a company in West Virginia called The Virgin Timber Lumber Company that uses reclaimed wood to build all sorts of things, including shelves.  So I emailed one of the owners, who was really nice and accommodating, and ordered 3 shelves from him, in the exact lengths and depths that I was wanting.  Maybe things work out for the best, despite ourselves.  :-)  Of course, the brackets we wanted were also on backorder, so we went with a different kind, but I'm just so nervous that all these different parts are going to come together and I'm going to hate it in the end.  I have actually lost sleep thinking about all of it.

Not only that, but the narrower shelves are going to only be 4 inches deep.  Little did I know that it is hard to find brackets for a shelf that narrow.  Luckily, I hope, our project manager said he might be able to float mount those. Still nervous about it all coming together, though.

That's about all for week one.  I'm not sure how well week 2 will go, but I'll keep you posted!

[One week later...]

So here's how week two has gone:  see week one.  Our cabinets AND our flooring have been delayed, so there was absolutely no work done this week.  Super awesome because, of all the weeks they could have taken a break, next week would have been so much better, because it's spring break.  So, instead of sleeping late and lazy mornings, we'll have workers in here at 7:30 all week. Apparently that's to be expected (but really, that's pretty lousy planning, people). So, I'm going to give myself a break and not take any new pictures or do a separate post, because there's nothing to post about.  :-)

The good thing that happened was that the shelves can be float mounted, so that's a plus. And all of our cabinet hardware is in, so once our cabinets are in, we can rock and roll.  :-)

I expect by the end of next week, there will be all sorts of new stuff to see, so tune in then!

Kitchen Remodel - In the Beginning

After living in our house for over nine years, we finally bit the bullet and are remodeling our kitchen.  I know I haven't posted in a while, but that's because we've been organizing, purging, and cleaning out the kitchen in preparation of the work, which started this week.  Here are some "before" pictures. I'd like to say that the kitchen is a mess because we're packing it up, but that's only half true.  It generally always looks that cluttered, although we don't usually have a trash bag in the middle of the floor.  I am so excited to get more cabinets, counter space, and a bigger room, in general.  See that half-wall and column (below)?  It's gone.  :-)

 And this country border that lines the entire back half of the house?  It's going, too.  Buh bye!  I'd like to say I'm sorry to see you go, but I'd be lyin'.  I forgot to get a close up picture of the vinyl floor, but it had hearts on it, too.  Yeah, I'm pretty excited.

 Here's what the kitchen looked like after the first day:

The most worrisome part for me is not having a kitchen for four weeks.  I think the longest I've ever gone without cooking is maybe a week, when we've been on vacation, so this is going to test my patience (and waistline).  On the bright side, it forces us to try restaurants that we've been wanting to try but haven't because we rarely eat out.

We do have a temporary set up in the dining room for now, with a toaster oven and microwave.  I'm also working on a way so my husband can have his coffee, otherwise we'll have to bump the remodel budget up about $500, which is approximately what he would spend at Starbuck's and Dunkin Donuts if he has to buy coffee every day.  I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Luckily, we have an extra fridge in the basement, so we have cold stuff -- milk for cereal, sandwiches, and salads will do some nights.  For tonight, I'm trying to cook some frozen meatballs from Ikea that we bought last week.  I'm giving it a go in the crock pot, bought some liners, so the only thing we'll have to wash is the cover.  I'm not sure the gravy will work that way (I just dumped the mix and water in the crock pot, gave it a stir and dumped the meatballs in), but we'll know in about 8 hours. I'm either brilliant, or...not.  :-)

I'll keep you posted on the progress, but, needless to say, I won't be posting any recipes for a while.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

Monster cookies with dark chocolate chips, smoked peanuts, bacon bits, and bacon meringue crumbles.  Crazy?  Not until you taste them!  So, you know from my earlier post that I had some left over bacon meringue crumbles (crumbs, whatever).  I put a lot of sweat and tears into those babies, so I wasn't about to just throw them out!  It just so happened that I had a jar of peanut butter that my kids didn't like so much (the texture wasn't smooth enough), so I was thinking monster cookies.  Also, I didn't have enough peanut butter, so I added a little bit of this chocolate almond spread I picked up at Trader Joe's.  Don't be fooled: it's not Nutella.  I don't prefer the flavor as much, so I'll be using it up in some baked goods or maybe a frosting in the coming months....but I digress.  Because the peanut butter I was using was natural, which tends to be oilier and looser than more processed peanut butters, I did add a little bit of flour, so you may quibble that this is not a true monster cookie.  But you can get over all of that, especially when you take a bite of these bad boys.

Now, if you don't have bacon meringue crumbles, by all means, just use bacon bits and call it a day. I happened to have both, so I put both in.  No sense in doing things half-assed, am I right?  Also, you can leave the nuts out if you want, or just use regular peanuts or almonds.  I happened to have some smoked peanuts (which I mixed with plain roasted almonds) that I wanted to use up as well (are you sensing a theme??), so in the dough they went!  But really and truly, these were tasty!  Chewy, with a sweet/savory/salty thing going on that was heaven!

If you've never made monster cookies before, the real key is to not overbake them.  They will look a little under done when you pull them out, and it's essential to let them sit on the baking sheet about 5 minutes before you take them off.  Honest. Then you take them off the cookie sheet and let them cool all the way on a cooling rack.

This is what it looks like when you combine the eggs and sugars.  It's very loose, but just wait, things will tighten up when you add the peanut butter:

And after you add all of the dry ingredients, the cookie dough becomes really stiff.  I had to sort of knead in the chips, nuts, and bacon bits.  This is what the finished dough looks like:

Here's a shot of the finished product while they are still cooling on the sheet pans.  You will definitely need to line the pans with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

4 eggs
1 1/4 granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz natural peanut butter
3 oz. Trader Joe's cocoa almond spread
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3.5 cups oats, not instant
2/3 cup flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped smoked almonds and/or peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup bacon bits (or 1/2 cup bacon meringue crumbs)

Beat sugars and eggs together thoroughly.  Add butter, salt, vanilla, peanut butter and cocoa spread.  Cream all together. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until combined, then stir in nuts, chocolate chips and bacon.  Dough will be stiff.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined large baking sheets. Flatten each cooking down slightly. Leave 2 inches of space, because they will spread a bit. I could only fit about 10 on a large sheet pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.  The cookies should still look a little puffy and only lightly browned when you take them out. Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before taking them off the baking sheet and finishing cooling on a cooling rack. You do not want to overbake these cookies so that they'll stay chewy and delicious.

Makes a lot -- 4 dozen or so.