Kitchen Remodel Is Finished
Just wanted to start out with a before picture as a reminder of what the space looked like before. I’m currently in the process of remodeling that built in wall unit on the left. I had to remove lots of drywall and metal. We are putting in 3 big pantry sized cabinets (like the ones [...]
Just wanted to start out with a before picture as a reminder of what the space looked like before. I’m currently in the process of remodeling that built in wall unit on the left. I had to remove lots of drywall and metal. We are putting in 3 big pantry sized cabinets (like the ones we have in the kitchen and will include pull out drawers and shelves for the kids shoes, games, toys, and other junk. Even some stuff like luggage that we keep in closets upstairs. I’ll post pictures of that remodel soon.
We went with the Korel tiles from Costco. Measured the area and ordered them online. We couldn’t decide on our glass tiles, plus the granite is busy enough. If you see one section shiny and another not shiny its just light reflecting from that section. All the tiles are not facing the exact same direction and it gives off that half matte half shiny look, but when you stand in front of it its all shiny. I think the flash of the camera makes it worse actually.
Barstools added. We got a great deal on 4 barstools in the style we wanted from The counter also has under cabinet lighting using the Dioder’s from Ikea which are LED lights. They are also used in our under cabinet lighting.
Here they are. Dioders.
The faucet is a Hansgrohe single handle pull out and the sink is Elkay.
We took off our old window treatments and haven’t replaced them yet. Loving all the light that comes in every morning though. You can also see the high bar section on the right in this picture. I really don’t know what to call it – “high bar.” Its where our garbage can and recycling bin are as well as our “home center.”
That red table near the window, also purchased from Ikea, was going to be set behind the couch and used a computer workstation where the display would be projected onto the tv. However, there isn’t really enough room there, plus when sitting on the barstools your legs won’t fit underneath, so we moved it over to the window and we actually think its a better spot for it. One of the things before the kitchen remodel was that we had to replace those high hat lights frequently. However the two above this picture (which you can’t see) are on a dimmer switch and we have rarely had to change those bulbs. So we put a dimmer switch on the main kitchen lights to save energy/bulb replacement costs.
The kitchen and this family room have been Feng Shui’d.
TV stand and shelf from Ikea also. We went Ikea nuts. New TV, HD receiver, Wii, and plant.
IKEA Cabinets Installed Sort Of
We went with IKEA Adel Medium Brown cabinets with the new thinner handle Lansa handles. IKEA just changed over to the thinner model during our order. We opted for delivery service so we didn’t break our backs. Plus with C pregnant, it was going to be my back that was breaking. Let the pros handle [...]
We went with IKEA Adel Medium Brown cabinets with the new thinner handle Lansa handles. IKEA just changed over to the thinner model during our order.
We opted for delivery service so we didn’t break our backs. Plus with C pregnant, it was going to be my back that was breaking. Let the pros handle it for a little more than a hundred bucks. The total weight came out to around 1700 pounds. Yeh no thanks.
We had alot more boxes than this.
Uppers with microwave.
The rest of the uppers and lowers are in.
Looking out to the living room.
We originally had a SBD30 (sink cabinet 30″ for the non-ikeans), but the measurements were off. We went back to the store and got a BD36. Not a sink base cabinet, but a lower 36″ cabinet. We wanted a full door look without the false fronts sink cabinets come with. Nothing is installed yet here. We are doing a door/drawer pullout on the left door, and a hinged door on the right.
Where the old pantry was, we put in a higher bar than our countertop height. We used 39″ wall cabinets on the floor. To break up the space and give dynamic levels. Then we stepped up that bar about 8 inches and put short top around. You’ll see in the final pics.
Added 8 outlets to the “bar” area. Good for charging cell phones, a phone, and if we feel like putting a small appliance there we can.
So we’re going for the built in fridge look on the fridge side, but when the cabinets were ganged, they were installed too low. Actually I didn’t account for the door hinges on the refrigerator when I measured. I would later have to take out these big cabinets and raise the support rail myself. The 36×24 over the fridge was a PITA to deal with.
In this picture you can see the box frame position is lower than the fridge door hinges. So imagine if the doors were put on, they would not be able to open and close. The solution is to raise the support rail where the two tall 88″ cabinets on either side of the refrigerator hook onto as well as the cavernous 36×24 cabinet. Then place 1″ mdf squares under the Capita legs of the 88″ tall cabinets. This will give enough clearance to have smooth door operation.
Now done the right way.
Remodeling Our Kitchen
Some of you know we are remodeling our kitchen. What we’ve done and how we made some of our decisions. New stainless steel appliances. Sears is running a deal till early March that gives a 20% discount if you buy 3 appliances. Done. We already have the Kenmore Elite french door/bottom refridgerator with water/ice on [...]
Some of you know we are remodeling our kitchen.
What we’ve done and how we made some of our decisions.
- New stainless steel appliances.
- Sears is running a deal till early March that gives a 20% discount if you buy 3 appliances. Done.
- We already have the Kenmore Elite french door/bottom refridgerator with water/ice on the door. Its really a rebranded LG I think.
- The three appliances we bought were the Kenmore Elite Dishwasher (Elite UltraWash HE 1315), rated high by Consumer Reports, Kenmore Elite Microwave 8083, again rated high by CR, and Kenmore Elite Oven #46713, unrated by CR.
- Scraping the popcorn ceilings
- Popcorn removal is kind of expensive and I looked into doing myself because its not that difficult to scrape off, but its an extremely messy job.
- There are two options with popcorn removal. The first option which is the most common and least expensive is knockdown. Basically its a sprayed clay or mud that has a stucco like look to it, but flat. The second option which is a flat scrape is the most expensive and most time consuming option. To flat scrape its around double-triple the price and it requires about 3-4x the amount of time and you can’t live in the house when its being done (or so we’re told).
- We found a company who brought in a crew and did flat scrape within 1 day. In and out. Great service and highly recommend them for popcorn ceiling removal in South Florida area.
- Kitchen Cabinets
- We’ve looked at 5 different Kitchen remodeling stores to compare prices. Home Depot Expo, Home Depot, a very reputable local Kitchen & Bath co., a wholesaler for Omega Cabinetry, and IKEA.
- Home Depot EXPO – Retail prices, comfort of someone doing everything for you. Good for the person who wants NO HANDS on the job. Also good for higher end appliances, fixtures, and finishes. Again its retail prices and you pay for the comfort of someone taking care of it all for you. No ability to find best prices. At EXPO you get an account manager that manages all the sub contractors, but they come from different places and they never know what each sub contractor is doing so it can cause frustration for the homeowner when there is a communication breakdown. You can also opt to act as the General contractor and sub out the different parts, but you are still paying a middle man here.
Final opinion: Considerable savings by going elsewhere, but would require considerable work/research/time on our parts. - Home Depot – Retail prices, semi-comfort of someone doing most of the job for you. Good for the person that doesn’t want much Hands on the job. Limited ability to find best prices. At Home Depot you also get an account manager that sort of manages some sub contractors. If you choose to do just the cabinets, then its up to you to get sub-contractors for everything else. You are still paying a middle man here. One bad item for people who choose to do the whole remodel through HD is that they sub out to all different companies anyways based on availability and then those subs tend to not have good communication with the homeowner and between each other. These are some of the reasons why there are a lot of complaints about HD for kitchen remodels. If we went with HD we were only going to order the cabinets from them.
Final opinion: Cost was semi reasonable, but for a little bit more money, we could opt for the best cabinets on the market. So for around one thousand dollars more we could get Omega cabinets vs Thomasville cabinets. Omega is rated the best from Consumer Reports while Thomasville is second best. - Local reputable Kitchen co. – Very expensive – retail prices. Best option for the person that wants nothing to do with the remodeling job. You have one main contractor and he handles all the work. They used Omega cabinets. Very high end kitchen remodel place. This reputable local kitchen co. was even more expensive and charged a huge premium for using Omega cabinetry. There is a large mark up on these cabinets and they are rated as the best.
- IKEA offers a high end look for an extremely discounted price. We have never been to an IKEA and had limited experience with IKEA products. Although we always loved their catalogs. However, that price comes with the hassle of assembly, cheaper quality construction, no customization in terms of special sizes, and limited styles.
- In the end it came down to two things. Style and cost with cost weighing heavily. We loved the looks of IKEA Adel Medium Brown cabinets as well as the Nexus Black Brown cabinets. However, the closer we inspected the Nexus Black Brown style the more we were worried about chips on the cabinets. See Nexus BB is a veneered MDF, while Adel MB is of slightly better quality with solid doors. With two kids running around we didn’t want to worry about easy chips happening in the kitchen, which is what our old cabinets were. The other thing was cost. With IKEA cabinets being about 1/4th the cost of Omega Cabinetry it became a no brainer, not to mention we loved the style of the Adel Medium Brown. We were buying alot of other things, so the savings in the cabinets afforded us to do more around the house, like buy a new couch, new tv’s, a new wall divider, scrape the ceilings, other new furniture.
More to come later until then, here is a video of our old kitchen:
