The Countertop Affair

We finally just up and did it. We figured out a way to finance some quartz countertops, and get a free undermount sink and sink installation -- which saved us about 750 bucks.

Initially, we'd resisted solid surface or stone because of price. But one of the salespeople (who we didn't actually end up buying from, incidentally) mentioned that investing in granite or quartz could mean the difference in selling the place or not. That sold me, even though I was personally sold on our old house in Waukesha by something as seemingly-miniscule as the built-in clothes hamper in the 2nd floor bathroom.

Maple butcher block for the island, too, by the way. Someday I'll feel like dragging a camera back in there to show you all the "progress". I've grown weary of this kitchen right now, though.

Unraveling.

I can't say enough how displeased I am with myself in our choice of countertops. We ran through a series of options -- solid stones of different varieties, maple butcher, granite tiles, ceramic tiles, slate tiles.

In the end, we decided on maple butcher block for the island -- which I think will be killer -- and slate one-inch mosaics for the L. I like the earthiness of slate, and it goes well with the color scheme we have in the kitchen. I also like the randomness of small mosaic patterns.

But now, after the majority of them are installed, I'm struck at how ridiculous an idea this was. It's like I never put an instant of thought into this thing at all. Which isn't even close to true. We went back and forth on this for months. Robyn's preference was granite tile, which I wasn't into. My preference was (and still is) soapstone, which was too expensive. I thought maple butcher block on everything would be a great compromise, but we both had reservations about over-mapling the kitchen.

But once I had 99% of the tiles installed, I immediately had reservations. I love how it looks. It's absolutely stunning. But I began to worry about the tiles flaking off or chipping. And the unevenness is a little too...uneven. I'd read some pros and cons about slate, but apparently decided to only pay attention to the pros. And the slate that all of the pros were so pro about, was slate from the northeastern US...NOT the cheaper imported Home Depot stuff.

Why didn't this occur to me? Why didn't I spend an extra 400 hours thinking about this, so I could have come to this conclusion BEFORE installation?

I may try to remove the tiles and salvage them for the laundry room countertop, then just go with maple all around. But if we can't remove them, I hope I'm just experiencing a major case of paranoia.

UPDATE: Okay. It's Monday morning. We had some time to think it over, and the slate countertops are currently being delicately dismantled to be salvaged for the laundry room thingy. We're going with maple. It will be awesome. Calm blue ocean calm blue ocean calm blue ocean calm blue ocean...

Glacial Kitchens, LLC

I'm still working on that day-gum kitchen. It's looking like something, sure. Not sure, though, if the something it looks like looks something like a kitchen.

I think it does, though.

A little aside to all of you people out there in computer land who have a deep desire to buy junky pressed wood cabinets for your own kitchen: be prepared to use up a lot of plywood in an attempt to make them strong enough to handle a countertop with the carriage of, say, anything more than formica. We completely blew it when we bought our cabinets, and I will never and can never forgive myself. We'll do better next time, though.

Up next.

So that's done.

I could go into great detail about all the minutiae involved with the new floor that bother me, but I'm too tired. I was up until 3 am last night/this morning finishing things up. A series of tricky cuts around the basement stairs/pantry/other steps area slowed me down.

It's done, though. Now onto cabinets and other things. Hopefully electrical today. Oh yeah, and the oven we bought in the fall of 2007 (!) is coming today, too.

Kitchen floor progress. Day one.

This blog is not unlike a podcast. I do the thing, then post the pictures later. But we'll all pretend it's happening in the now.

So we started this yesterday, working around all the ridiculous things we usually have to work around in our house -- which I won't even bother to go into.

OK, enough talk. Every picture tells a story, don't it...?


Speaking of podcasts, I'm listening to one in the above photo. Or music, maybe.




Ye olde style plumbing, which will need some updating.




1/3 finished.

The floor.

This is my job for the next two days. Or so.

The kitchen is no longer just a black, soulless void.

It's blue!

We're thiiiis close to putting in the maple floor. Just have to do some gas line work for the oven, and we'll be ready. Pretty much.

The beadboard ceiling is painted. The crown is painted. The walls are painted. Once that floor goes in, we can drop those cabinets. Then it will officially be a kitchen again. It will!

Here are some photos of the priming and painting procedure:


Robyn's a UNC hoops fan, but our kitchen won't be Carolina Blue. This is just the primer. Although, I would like this for a kid's room.




A closeup of the detail on that outside miter, courtesy of our carpenter-friend Nathan Geier, who luckily will work for cinnamon-raisin bread.


The final shot of primer-only.


Jonsie, rollin' it.




Sweet Jehova -- a light fixture!


More photos to come...

A Few Shots of the Kitchen, Mid-Reno.

So the thing we're in the middle of right this very moment is the kitchen. It was the first thing we wanted to tear apart (after the carpeting) once we bought the place, because it was so heinous. Please see initial blog post for a photo of it before.

Last Fall we just started ripping it up. Holidays intervened. Financing worries intervened. Malaise intervened. But now we're so close to being done with the thing, and we already have most of the materials, so we're plowing ahead.

The following photos are some I took the day we installed the beadboard ceiling. You may ask yourself, "why is there 1/2" plywood sheathing on the ceiling, underneath that ridiculously warped and knotty (and cheap) pine beadboard?". The answer to that is twofold. First, we installed plywood with the intention of putting up tin, which turned out to be too expensive. Second, we have a major tearout planned for the 2nd floor bathroom, which resides directly above the kitchen -- so, to avoid any damage to our sparkly-new kitchen ceiling, we used the plywood to protect it. Which is kind of why we thought we'd do tin...it's kind of confusing.

Anyway, enjoy the following photos. Within a couple of days, I'll show you what it looks like now, with primed crown molding, a professional drywall job and baby blue primer all over the walls.

Sabbatical, Bloody Sabbatical

I've been away from working on the house lately.

Concentrating more on trying to find a job...and my latest back injury (not a bloody one, as the title may imply, btw).

But I'll be back at it again soon. We do seem to have a need for a functioning kitchen, what with three kids under 7 and all.

Until then, here is a photo of our messed up (roller coaster-like) kitchen ceiling in mid-install: