Well, it’s official. Ilise and Ann’s big kitchen renovation project is finally all-the-way complete. We’re living in it, cooking in it, making a mess in it (some of us more than others, Ilise) – you know, just like normal. The major work was done in mid-November so we moved all the pots and pans and dishes and cereal boxes (so many boxes!) back into The New Kitchen … hereafter known simply as the kitchen. Window treatments and furniture arrived over the next several weeks and now the final-final punch list items have been checked off.

It turned out even better than we imagined. This kitchen has form and function. Not only do we like its looks but it also works like a dream. The flow between work spaces is so much more efficient – no more pardon me/’scuse me bottlenecks at the end of the peninsula! Storage to die for! Restaurant grade range and oven whose tricks we’re still learning. Lighting where we need it. We’re in love!
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And guess what, you guys, our kitchen has paparazzi! Okay, fine, one paparazzo. The wonderful design team at Kitchens and Baths Unlimited wanted pix for their portfolio, so there was a professional photo shoot in early January. Check out the gallery with photos by Saundra LaLone.​ Click to enlarge the photos.

​It’s been a full year since Ilise and I began our renovation journey. Time to reflect on the process, share some lessons learned, and offer a few tips for those who are considering your own renovation projects. Oh yes, there will be plenty more pictures too! (Click Read More below for the rest of the story.)

The picture above shows the obstacle course our living room has become over the duration of this renovation. There is no order to the chaos because we never anticipated that every blessed piece of furniture we own and random things galore would be stuffed in there all at once. Surprise!

I’ve mentioned more than a few times that Ilise and I are about ready for this frickety frackety renovation project to be done. We’re still ready, and no, it’s not quite done yet. Almost. We’re now in the punch list phase with our design/build firm, Kitchens and Baths Unlimited, knocking out the final fixits like installation of the last few pieces of cabinet molding, and a hinge or two, and the knob for the spice drawer, and and and.

The painting job begun during Week 9 continued all last week. Remember? Slow but meticulous. It looks great. There’s a little plaster weirdness being fixed this week – one wall looks like it has a baby bump, the other one is concave. Maybe in the grand scheme of things they cancel each other out, but we’re going to be boring and insist that both walls end up flat and smooth. 

This week’s musical selection needs a little explanation. Khalil Fong is an American-born Hong Kong singer whose musical genre is listed as Mandopop, which I did not know was a thing. (He sings in Mandarin, his second language, so there you go.) His musical influences include Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, and D’Angelo. I can hear the first two, but as for the third, well, it’s good to want things. I picked this song for the numbers in the title, tying back to the punch list … but there are way more than 7 items on that list. Khalil’s breezy pop/jazz/soul sound is one I’d like to hear more of. Hope you like it too. 

This will be the last Kitchen Reno post for a few weeks. I want to do a big reveal with ta-da photos once the final elements come together. As requested, I’ll also provide some Lessons Learned about the project overall for any readers who may be considering their own renovation project.

Thanks for taking this dusty, disruptive journey with Ilise and me! If you missed any of the weekly reno recaps you can find them here.

We did not, in fact, paint the kitchen black (thanks just the same, Mick), it’s a variation of off-white instead. After testing several different tints, we finally settled on a color called Feather Down. It’s neutral but not too neutral, if you know what I mean.

There was plaster work done in the dining room, powder room and a small hallway earlier in the project so they’re being repainted now too. Colors: Dune Grass for the DR, Bone for the hall/bath. And since the crew is already here, we’ve added a few extras to the To Do list, namely a fresh coat of paint for the entry area and stairwell. It’s going to take another week before the painting is complete. They’re slow but meticulous. Totally worth it.

Another exciting recent development: Pendant lights above the peninsula. Lovely amber drops of radiance. 
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Continue below for photos and more updates. We’ll show you the cool features inside some of the cabinets. They’ve got beauty AND smarts!

This week’s musical accompaniment is a classic psychedelic rock number selected because the fumes from the super-strong varnish used to finish the hardwood floor induced more than a few spacey head-trips.* Breathe deep the gathering gloom and expand your mind. Far out, man!

As to the headline, we’re flooring it because now the Renovation Finish Line is in sight, just another lap around the track. Step on the gas and start waving that checkered flag! 

I don’t want to jinx anything but we’re probably only 2 weeks from completion, at least as far as the contractors are concerned. (Window treatments and bar stools are another matter.) The new hardwood floor was sanded, stained and finished this week, and the painter will do his thing next week. Then a few more punch list items and we’ll be back to cooking in no time. If we can stand to dirty up our pretty new kitchen, that is.

* Check out the alternate musical selection as well as this week’s photos after the jump.

Backsplash, that is. After lots of research, we picked light blue/gray subway tiles with a crackle finish but were still unsure if it would be just too darn much blue in the room.

Good news: It’s just the right amount!

Bad news: This week we turned into the clients from hell for a short while. The issue was grout. When selecting the color we went neutral, alabaster to be precise, a nice, safe choice. Too safe. We realized (after Daniel the tile man had already grouted 2 out of 3 areas) that the alabaster color was fine but we much preferred the dark outlines around the tiles on the wall that had not yet been grouted. It just looked more modern.

We debated – should we let it ride with the off-white color since it looked okay and he’d already done the work? Or risk pissing everyone off and ask for what we really wanted, a re-do with a darker color to make the backsplash tiles pop rather than blend? I think you know how that debate ended.

I have to say, Kelly at KBUI and the tile guy were remarkably cool about our past-last-minute change, even though it meant that Daniel had to quickly un-do his day’s work before everything dried and then do it all over again, in DeLorean gray this time. Everyone’s bottom line was – you need to love it. And now we do – thanks, you guys!

Continue reading, view pictures, and preview next week’s activities after the jump.

The countertops were installed on Thursday and now the kitchen is REALLY coming together. The material is quartzite, a natural stone similar to granite, and the light beige color we selected is called Taj Mahal. (Ahhh, now the musical selection begins to make sense!)

This week got off to a slow start compared to past action-packed weeks. Not that we’re complaining. The mud room floor was stripped of its dingy old linoleum and refitted with new ceramic tiles. The father and son duo of electricians added outlets and cleaned up the electrical panel while perfecting their comic banter all the while. 

And then things got interesting when the countertops arrived. What a big difference! The plumber returned today to hook up the water and gas lines to the sink and appliances. Our kitchen is technically operational! Not really though, there’s lots left to do.

Click Read More below to continue for photos and a preview of next week’s work.

Well, nothing’s cooking just yet, we’ve got at least a few more weeks of sandwiches, cereal and take-out to look forward to before our pretty new kitchen is functional. But the appliances were installed this week and I’m getting super-excited already thinking about what to cook first.

And honestly, can you blame me? This has to be the cutest little wall oven ever, amirite?!

The wall oven, range top, and ventilation hood are from Blue Star, an American-made, restaurant-quality line of appliances for the residential market, as they say in their marketing copy. Although my culinary skills are laughably far from Michelin-level, I wanted professional grade kitchen equipment like the real chefs use, and the oven had to be gas. (Surprisingly hard to find in a wall oven.) 

The range top has a 25,000 BTU power burner, a low-heat simmer burner, and a griddle in the middle. Awesome! Plus you can customize your look from a palette of over 700 colors. Once we learned that, there was no going back.

Click Read More below to continue reading, see photos, and preview what’s next.

We’re also cabinet-ed, but that statement doesn’t flow nearly as well nor is there a cool song to go along with it.

Monday was more drywall. Tuesday the hardwood floor was installed. Staining it will come later. Wednesday was a day off since the floor guys were so efficient. (So odd – and NICE – to have peace and quiet mid-week for a change.) Thursday the cabinets were delivered – giant carton party on the patio! And installation should be complete by end of day on Friday.

Whee! This is really starting to take shape. Check out the photos on the next page. 

For the past two weeks I've lamented long and loud about construction dust. Well. I’m here to tell you that demolition dust has nothing on drywall dust. Sticky, gritty and pervasive. It’s everywhere and it’s nasty. Luckily there’s only one more day to go for this phase of the project.

Things are coming together nicely. As you’ll see in the photos on the next page (click Read More below) our kitchen once again looks like a finished room (ok, partially finished) rather than a ramshackle old barn on the verge of falling down. Here’s a rundown of this week’s work:

• Exterior stucco repair around the new windows
  
• Re-routing the space pak tubes that provide our central air conditioning and build-out of a soffit to hold them in place
  
• Insulation
  
• Drywall
  
• And a new archway between the kitchen and dining room which replaces the old swinging door
  

The crew has also removed the oh-so-attractive dropped ceilings in a hallway and powder room near the kitchen. We are NEVER going to take on a project like this again, so figured we might as well get it all taken care of at the same time.

Please continue to the next page for photos and a preview of Week 4 activities. 

Week Two was a lot better than Week One – at least we knew what to expect in terms of noise and dirt. (OMG construction dust is worse than almost any other kind of dust! Why is that??)

The main activities this week were window replacement, plumbing, a little more framing of walls and electrical work. Good news: we passed our first plumbing and electrical inspections. Great work, crew!

Continue to the next page for photos and a preview of what’s next. Click Read More below.

Last week I was wishing real hard that the kitchen renovation project would hurry up and get started. Well, now I’m wishing even more fervently that it was done already. Everyone was pretty clear about how chaotic (and dirty and noisy and generally disruptive) it was going to be and they sure weren’t lying.

Demolition started on Monday and by the end of Day 3 an enormous dumpster had already been filled to the brim. Rough work is now underway for the electrical and heating systems. Of course there have been a few surprises (none of them especially good) which is to be expected in a house that’s more than 100 years old. But we’ve got a great design/build team from Kitchens and Baths Unlimited at the helm who assure us that all will be well. (I might need to hear that a few hundred more times, Kelly, but I really do want to believe!)

Check out the photos on the next page. 

Yes, the big day is almost here. Lots of work has happened behind the scenes in the 3+ months since we signed the contract and wrote the deposit check -- building the cabinetry; selecting materials, appliances and finishes; decision-making about window replacements and the like; etc.

Ilise and I have been ready and eager for the demolition/installation work to get underway for a while now, but have had to cool our heels waiting for “soon.” I’m sure it will be worth it to have the A-#1 best contractor and crew on our job, but sheesh, this is stressing me out. Demo is now scheduled to begin on Monday so we’ll pack up the last few boxes this weekend. This song captures my feelings on the subject:

Everyone says it’s going to be a hellish 8-12 weeks while the kitchen is a construction zone and I believe them. Would rather get started sooner so it can get done sooner. We have a big deal social engagement in December – Annual Holiday Open House for up to 100+ hungry guests! – which is now in jeopardy because the kitchen might still be a work in progress.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Find my happy place. I need serenity … right now, dammit! 

Check out pictures (after the jump) to prove just WHY this kitchen reno is a must-do despite the stress.

Have I mentioned that we are embarking upon a kitchen renovation this year? That’s rhetorical, I know I haven’t. It’s all a little overwhelming and I’ve been alternating between giddy excitement and dread. Today excitement wins out.

We began in January, determining our vision for the space and starting the designer/contractor selection process. It took more than 3 months to do our due diligence, exploring our options – Big Box store kitchen, full-service design/build shops, other approaches … although DIY was never on the table. That is sooo not us. We finally selected Kitchens and Baths Unlimited and have been happy to work with lead designer Kelly Thayer.

Our 100+ year old home last received a kitchen remodel during the 1970s – picture linoleum, dropped ceiling, formica countertops, brown tile and wood paneling everywhere. Let’s just say … it’s time for an update.