Over the past few weeks, the majority of the progress has happened "behind the scenes" along with a little progress construction wise (a little bit of a slow down while the stone counter tops are being measured for and fabricated)
The appliances were delivered and are currently being stored in our front Living Room and Foyer until they are installed (the last part in the process after the floors are refinished). The guys had to use a special lift-dolly device to get the very heavy, large appliances in the door. I was having anxiety seeing the two (small boned and about my height) delivery men bring in large, very heavy, expensive items through a smaller front door. All were delivered safely with no damage, phew!
Boxes with the dishwasher and fridge/freezer:
Next step was to select the stone for the counter tops. I traveled to three different stone distributors in the Atlanta area to find the perfect Calacatta slab for the Island that had to be 1. large enough to do the Island without a seam 2. very white in color and 3. have very subtle veining. I am not a huge fan of large, accented veining on Calacatta, it just gets to be too busy. Here is a photo of the final slab taken at the stone distributor's warehouse:
At the warehouse I arrived with my large cabinet panel in hand to make sure the slab was white enough to go with the cabinets. It was the only one left the contractor had not installed yet. The woman at the warehouse gave me a shopping cart (or "buggy" as they refer to it in the South) to put all of my samples in... it was pretty funny....a designer always comes prepared! Here is a photo of the cabinet panel, a sample of our Polished Nickel hardware, and a sample of the Basalt stone we are using for the perimeter counter tops:
For the perimeter countertops, I had a stone in mind since we started thinking about the project about a year ago. It is a Basalt stone from a great source in Chicago that the design firms I worked for have used in many Kitchens. Basalt is a hard, non-porous stone very similar to granite, but in a beautiful medium, warm-grey color. After calling about 12 different stone vendors, no one has even heard of it in Atlanta, so the only option was to have this stone shipped here, as nothing else at the warehouses was the right look I wanted. Thanks to a Chicago-based vendor we made it possible. After seeing several slab photos over email, we found three slabs in the same color lot that were large enough and would accomodate all of our countertop pieces. Exhausted after three days of evaluating slab photos, I was determined to make this happen. Final slab photos for the order were approved over email (I know, a little scary, but felt comfortable as have used this material many times from this exact source) along with two physical stone samples the vendor sent in the mail.
The slabs shipped out last week and arrived safe and sound to my fabricator here in Atlanta yesterday. I visited the fabricator yesterday afternoon to make sure everything looked good and taped off the slabs to label the areas where each counter top pieces would be cut. In the photos below you can see the blue painters tape for the labels and the wood template the stone fabricator made on site (he will use the template to cut the stone to the exact sizes):
I can breathe a little easier now but still a little nervous until all stone is safe and installed next week. The island counter top (Calacatta) will be installed tomorrow and the perimeter counter tops will be installed on Monday.
After the stone madness was underway, you would think it would be the last thing to make a big decision on....not exactly....selecting the paint colors was next on the list. For the wall color, we put up several different Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams grey toned colors (a small fortune in paint sample quarts) on several different walls in the kitchen.
The wall next to the window was the most difficult as almost every color was looking too blue in that light. My "new friend" at the paint store explained that newer houses have UV protected windows and tend to make some colors read bluer in the daytime, and look true to color at night (FYI that is a wall speaker mixed in between all of the paint samples!) :
We put samples on the wall in between the closet door (left) and garage door as well to look at wall colors with several trim samples. We decided to paint the ceiling and trim to be whiter and match the cabinets. The paint colors we decided on are: Benjamin Moore "Super White" in Semi Gloss finish for the trim & doors, "Super White" in Flat finish for the ceiling and closet interior, and "Edgecomb Grey" for the walls.
The wall color Edgecomb Grey is a very light, warm grey that didn't read too blue or
too pink....and looked great with the hardware, floors, counter tops, and the natural linen fabric we are using for the
chairs around the round dining table that will be placed in front of the
bay window:
For door hardware, we are working on selecting a knob in "Lifetime" Polished Nickel finish that is very resistant to tarnishing. Jared has tried to persuade me to use Chrome instead as it is cheaper... good try, but Chrome is just a little too different... he understood once I explained there is a huge color difference between the two. Chrome has too blue of an undertone and would clash with all of our
light fixtures and hardware which are Polished Nickel in the majority of
the house. Thank you Jared for trusting me with the design selections, best husband ever!! :-) Here are the two door knob styles we are deciding between:
In the meantime this week, the contractor and electrician were busy with more construction. The can lights and switches were installed in the final locations. The panel and cabinet near the fridge area were hung, drywall was patched/installed in the ceiling, backsplash area, and several walls:
Also, the only appliance that can be put in before the floors are finished, the vent hood was installed. Our house originally did not have a hood that vented out to the exterior (it just cycled the air around in the kitchen which was totally pointless). With the remodel we decided to do it right. The contractor ran the hood duct work for the venting up the wall and through our attic space above the single car garage on that side of the house. Luckily it worked out perfectly and venting was completed on Tuesday. The hood is the Tim Taylor of vent hoods...the most powerful yet very quiet. We tested out many different brands at the appliance store, and this was by far the most quiet. We wanted something that wasn't too large so all you saw is a huge piece of stainless steel when entering the kitchen. It really helped to have the cabinets above to break up the metal. The hood CFM (cubic feet per minute) has 1800 CFMs with dual blowers. Basically you could be grilling with a lot of smoke or burn something really bad and have it sucked out of the kitchen in a minute or two, which is pretty cool. I'm sure this will be one of Jared's favorite items as it the most "manly" and powerful of the appliances. You can see in the first photo, they finished the paneling on the island as well, hooray!
As for photos of the furniture and all decorative items we are selecting, visit my Pinterest Board "Kitchen Remodel" which you can get to through this link:
http://pinterest.com/stephaniewiesel/kitchen-remodel/ or through my website:
www.stephaniewiesel.com
More photos to come once counter tops are installed Friday and Monday. Monday/Tuesday is scheduled for installing crown molding, drywall sanding and painting. Tuesday/Wednesday the electrician will be back to finish the lighting and install the under cabinet lights, dimmers, and possibly the decorative pendants. Thursday through Sunday the floor guys will be sanding and refinishing the entire kitchen floor. Door and cabinet hardware install after that. Appliances will be installed the Monday following the floors (Oct 15th). The appliances are the last item to install to finish the kitehcn. As of now our kitchen is tentatively scheduled to be complete by October 15th or 16th, we will see if the contractor can make that happen.... as everything always seems to take twice as long when doing construction as so many different tradesmen are involved.
Have a great weekend all and thanks for reading!
