A New Kitchen after 17 years!

                              

            

         

So I guess the kitchen is my room ... it's probably where I spend more hours than any other room in the house (or maybe when I was still working for IBM, the home office may have been #1 in those years).  We're here at Moss Rose Court for 17 years now, and I'm getting the kitchen of my dreams ... well, within reason (no knocking down walls or adding on to the building that is).

As we started this journey to renovate the kitchen, it struck me how long I was looking to do this, because at each step where I had to select something ... style of cabinetry, color of cabinets, accessories for drawers or cabinets, countertops ... I knew right away what I wanted.  I have been collecting photos from magazines and the internet and designer magazines forever it seems.  And now it's happening.

So much to tell.

We contracted with American Kitchens in January 2014.  We spent several weeks after that

visiting granite warehouses, tile showrooms and kitchen sink suppliers, doing some appliance investigating online and then hunting for our selection locally.  The granite warehouse was the most insane I guess, walking up and down rows and rows of slabs of granite, writing down the designs we liked and their locations.  Our first list must have been at least 25 items long.  Then back again, each aisle, to start narrowing down the list, until we got down to just one.  Got it -- happy -- got home and advised American Kitchens and then discovered that this was $20 per square foot over the "package" we had selected.  Ugh.  Back again.  But this time we were armed with more pricing information than when we blindly went up and down aisles the first time.  Turns out, $20 SF overage was about average for our choices.  We did alter our selection ... but it turned out to be even over the first choice.  So this is the way it was going to be upon selection of the granite, tile backsplash, sink and new stove.  We are keeping the refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher.

Here is a panorama view of the original kitchen

The old kitchen was gutted.  Another panorama view so it appears a bit askew.  We took delivery of the new stove about the time that demolition began, so that sat out of the way in the breakfast nook area.

     

Meanwhile, all the contents of the kitchen take over my living room and dining room.  A panorama of both rooms . . . 

    

Back in the kitchen, things are starting to take shape on the left side of the room.

 

Another panorama view . . . 

                              

                                        

                    

The island is beginning to take shape . . .

          

                    

                               

Now the range hood is becoming a reality.  

 The sink cabinet and dishwasher space . . . 

               
Cabinet doors going on . . .

  although some cabinet doors are supposed to be glass . . . but that will be fixed later.

                    

Time to select backsplash, counter top, tile . . .  and there is a reason for that backsplash.  

Below is a photo of me in Taormina, Sicily from 2007.  The wall I'm standing at is what I saw in my mind's eye when I spotted this backsplash in the tile design store.  My Italian heritage, and specifically our trip to Italy in 2007, is a very important event in my life.  My father was born in Sicily in 1902, and getting to see the country -- and finding the house in which he was born -- has meant so very much.  To be able to incorporate all of that into my new kitchen ... priceless!  

Mac Mods

Where to begin.

Years ago I was going to start a blog.  What I finally accomplished was my Italy At Last blog.  Oh, Italy.  I can never get enough of it.

But now I want to veer off in a different direction.  I want to talk about BoomBoom II, but maybe not JUST BoomBoom II.  We'll see .

So, we took delivery of BoomBoom II in February 2008, our brand-spanking new MacGregor 26M.

   

Let's fast forward to today:  August 2013.  BoomBoom II now has it's own blog ... boomboom2.blogspot.com  ... so please head on over there to read all about the comings and goings of BB2.