Zero!

 
After 27 months, dozens of chain links, more floorplans and time surfing google images than I care to imagine, 8 contractor interviews, 4 bids and just generally lots of anxious, impatient waiting, we're there!

We have selected our contractor, are finalizing details for a contract and are mere weeks away from tearing up our kitchen and bathroom! Or rather, coming home from work to find our kitchen and bathroom torn up - this is what contractors are for, after all!

We're thrilled to be about to get this huge project underway, and are thankful for all the sweet friends and family who have listened to us obsess and complain while we waited the past two years. And we're also thankful for all the times they will (hopefully) have us over to dinner over the next two months. *hint*

We'll have lots of updates throughout the project, and look forward to finally having a housewarming party once it's all said and done.

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!!!

I'm sure my not so subtle hint yesterday left very few of you puzzled, but if anyone is still unsure of my activity today maybe the picture above can clear things up for you.

When CJ and I began planning for our kitchen, we looked at granite because that's what we tend to see in kitchens. However, as we kept obsessing over looking at pictures of beautiful, classic kitchens in old houses, we kept seeing beautiful white and gray carrara marble. We quickly decided that was the way to go.

So, I made an appointment today to visit a stone fabricator and select our slab - that's right, the very slab that will become our countertop! Chris decided at that last minute that he couldn't stay away, and was able to sneak away from work for a minute to join me. We were nervous and excited - you know, sweaty palms, hearts racing - and then we saw it!

Isn't it beautiful? This slab should be just about the perfect amount of stone to make countertops on our kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanity. We love the lightness of it, and the grey veining that makes big, dramatic lines across the slab. Needless to say we were obsessed. 

Very obsessed. I hope there weren't cameras in there.

Anyway, after we finished talking business with the sales guy, we went back and just hung out with it for a bit. It's amazing how real this makes everything feel. This exact piece of stone will be in our home, in (hopefully) not too long at all. 

We decided on a honed finish (vs. polished) for several reasons. We prefer the matte look, which helps you really notice the texture and color of the stone, vs. being able to check your teeth in the reflection of it polished. In addition, it is a more durable finish for marble, which is softer than granite. The edge will be a simple, squared off edge with very slightly rounded corners.

In the end, it was hard to leave our beautiful slab behind at the fabricator. To ease our pain (and yours if you're having any sympathy pain for us), I just watched SNL's "Mike's Marbleopolis" skit - which is so silly, but totally cracks me up. Don't worry - no marble columns are included in our kitchen design . . . . . . yet.

Cabinets!

Chris and I and our likely contractor are working through our final estimate, and it's pretty exciting! On Monday we met with a local custom cabinet shop, and we just got our drawings back from the cabinetmaker last night. It's so exciting to begin to see our plans take shape.

Here's the kitchen plan from above:

Isn't it beautiful? I just keep looking at all the little boxes and smiling. Feel free to do the same. When you're finished I'll explain what you're seeing!

Cabinet #8, in the bottom right corner, is our pantry - a 42" wide, floor to ceiling cabinet with roll-out trays. It's one of my favorite little boxes in the picture. Moving down the line, #7 is a set of drawers between the pantry and the dishwasher, and #11 is a wide upper cabinet above both. #6 is our sink base, and next to it is a pull-out trash drawer. Above that, #10 is another upper cabinet. In the corner, #5 is a lazy susan and #9 is an upper corner cabinet. #2, #3 and #4 frame in the microwave, and #1 is a pull-out spice rack next to the range. #12, hanging out all by himself in the corner, will be above the refrigerator.

Here's the window wall from the front (the window is between #10 and #11). The picture doesn't show it, but there will be a shelf over the window with little built-in wine cubbies to connect the two lines of cabinets.

The pantry cabinet, the cabinet above the fridge and all the lower cabinets will all have dark, shaker style doors, like this:

All the upper cabinets will be painted white with glass in the doors. We debated between going fancy with seeded glass, but in the end like the clean look of just plain old panes.

All the door and drawer fronts will be inset, rather than overlay, which means that the fronts fit into the frame when they're closed, rather than sitting on it. This is a bit of an upgrade, but gives it a very classic, traditional look. And as you know we're suckers for that!

And don't forget the bathroom! The picture below is our upstairs bathroom vanity, which will fit the space so exactly it will look completely built in. It's a pretty simple design - two sinks on the sides with a set of drawers in between. The doors and and drawers will be white shaker - in a style that goes along with everything going into the kitchen.

So, we're moving right along and loving it. Tomorrow will be another big day - I'm off work and have an other very exciting remodel-related appointment. You'll have to wait to read about it, but here's a hint.

Spending the Savings

It's strange after nearly two and a half years of saving to be spending our kitchen savings, but it has officially begun! I've got quite a list of things to buy that go into the project, and I've begun chunking away at it. And to tell you the truth . . . . it's pretty fun!

Kitchen Shopping List:
1. island - I just ordered a walnut butcher block island today!
2. 4 overhead lights
3. 1 pendant light for over the sink
4. sink - farmhouse sink I've been drooling over for the past 2.5 years
5. faucet - to keep the sink company
6. cabinet hardware - knobs and pulls for all the cabinet doors
7. appliances - dual fuel range, microwave, dishwasher, scheduled for delivery in September
8. rugs - 2 2x3 rugs for the backdoor and sink areas, gifted from my parents last Christmas

Half Bathroom Shopping List:
1. sink
2. faucet
3. mirror - purchased from my favorite French boutique this weekend
4. towel hook - also purchased from the French boutique this weekend
5. toilet paper holder
6. vanity light - gifted from my parents 2 Christmases ago (originally intended for the kitchen, but plans change in 2 years!)
7. rug

Upstairs Bathroom Shopping List:
1. 2 wall-mount faucets
2. 2 medicine cabinets - ordered this summer during Restoration Hardware's bathroom sale
3. 2 vanity lights
4. 1 overhead light
5. 2 towel hooks
6. 1 towel rod
7. shower curtain rod - reusing our existing rod and roller hooks
8. toilet paper holder
9. shower curtain
10. bath mat
11. bath and shower faucet
12. window treatment - cafe plantation blind
13. cabinet hardware

So, we have a good start on our shopping but quite a bit more fun to come in the next few weeks. We met with our prospective cabinet maker today, so should have good numbers on the project in the next few days. Things are moving along, and we couldn't be happier!

Almost There!

It's hard to believe we're already a week into August - hopefully in about a month our project will be well underway! We've been trucking through the contractor selection process (which has been much more challenging than I thought it would be) and we feel like we're nearing the end, so here's an update.

Remember the contractors we interviewed in July? We had good interviews with contractors 1, 3 and 4 so we've been working through the estimate process with them to make our final decision.

Contractor 1 got us a bid just 2-3 days after our initial meeting. It was within our range (albeit at the high end), but included refinishing hardwoods throughout our entire first floor. We've been wanting to do this anyway, and the result will be completely seamless flooring into the kitchen. This was a huge plus.

After getting this estimate in, CJ and I obsessively regularly checked our email inboxes, work fax machines, mailbox, phones, and any other forms of communication we could think of for the other two. And to be honest, we got very discouraged as the second week passed and we still hadn't received any follow-up from number 3 or number 4. We chatted with an interior decorator friend who said this is pretty common and told us not to get discouraged. He said that contractors are frequently slow to get quotes because, basically, quotes are not fun to do. So, we followed his advice and made a follow-up call to each guy. About two weeks after that (so a month after the initial meetings) we had quotes.

Contractor 4 emailed his quote, and CJ and I both simultaneously fell out of our chairs, as it was approximately 1.5 times the price of contractor 1's quote. Yikes! That took care of him.

And then there were two. We met with Contractor 3 to get his quote, and he was just a hot mess. Even though we'd been discussing our project with him for an entire year, and he'd had a month since our meeting with him (during which we went through EVERY detail of the project), the estimate was full of mistakes, missing entire parts of the projected we'd discussed and (to add insult to injury) full of typos and errors. Long story short, it did not instill confidence that he would have the attention to detail we expect on such a large project.

During that entire time of chasing down contractors 3 and 4 to get estimates, contractor 1 had made several follow-up contacts, given us a revised estimate based on our feedback to his original one, sent references and photos from other projects he'd done - basically he'd been a saint.

Soooooooooo . .  . . . . . . we're in final negotiation steps with our new buddy, contractor 1. He's coming out again this week to finalize revisions to his estimate, and our hope is that we can have him locked down for our project very soon.

This whole bid process has been tough at times, but I'm amazed at how it has worked to show the strengths of one professional against the weaknesses of the others, and has made it abundantly clear who is and is not the right fit for our project. We've valued this process, and will particularly value it when it's all said and done. We're close though, and feel like so long as things continue moving along smoothly we should be able to begin the project on schedule!

Swinging Pretty

Our porch is basically an extra room on our house. When it's not 107 degrees (like it currently is) it's one of the primary spaces where we dine, relax, play, read, entertain - pretty much whatever! We love it.

I bought our porch swing on craigslist three years ago for $25 when we were moving into our first house - a little bungalow we rented for a year. It's a nice, sturdy, Amish-made swing, and Chris refinished the boards recently. When we're on the porch we're frequently relaxing on it.

But our relaxing swing was missing something - a little softness. I'd been eying outdoor pillows for a while, and the other day noticed this great orange one for sale for $13 dollars on West Elm, which go great with the new color scheme we're working on - see it here and here). With shipping it came to $32 for the two - which I find funny because that's $7 more than I paid for the swing - but I think they were quite a bargain nonetheless!

So, our cool pillows are sitting on the swing, and once the weather drops back down to double digits we will be too. I love 10-second projects like this one!