Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Almost everything has been chosen....hurray!!

Now that we have decided to go for it!!!! I spent the entire evening last night picking all the elements that will one day once married together finally create my "dream kitchen"....have a looks see - do you think it will provide that by the water beachy feeling of an open and bright gorgeous kitchen.



Single apron front gorgeous pendant oak butcher block white cupboard door





paint colour floor plan faucet with pull out chrome pulls


Gorgeous glass knob pulls
Now to create the budget and time line.........
Cant wait to wear the pink tool belt I got for Xmas!!!







Tuesday, May 13, 2008

We finally decided - we are renovating the kitchen - hurray!!

With a ton of help from my friends at www.ikeafans.com I have decided to rip out the old kitchen and finally get the kitchen of my dreams....

Here is a snip of a post I have on ikea fans......

Hubs and I have been like a fish out of water flip-flopping back and forth and back and forth about our own kitchen - reno the small space we have or put the addition on. We have met with a few planners and have heard conflicting answers - not to mention the cost of some of the quotes we are getting in for this small space - makes me get an instant stomach ache.


Now to the news - Hubs and I decided today that we are going to proceed with the kitchen space we have now and just plan to put a small mud room on in the fall to elevate the back door so we can change the grade of the backyard....I have a huge property but small house - allot of my friends who live in new homes have gigantic homes with gorgeous kitchens but no property.....I get jealous when in friends homes with huge kitchens and I would love to have more space but would rather spend my money on family vacations and the like - I also don't need the added pressure / stress of this big reno.

We are just going to do what we have to in order to fix the grade problem and not make it into a "might as well...." project as somethings sometimes snowball into.

Hurray - a final firm (I hope) decision. I smile when I read posts of how long peoples actual renovations takes - our planning has been almost two years of yes / no / now / later / addition.

Hubs and I are also building a small bunkie on his parents property up north on the lake this summer (for those of you who do not know what a bunkie is - think tiny tiny cottage) so allot of time is going to be spent on weekends working on that. So we are going to work on our kitchen Monday to Thursday here at home. The joys of a small space - we can get the cabs in and done in a short period of time - just the little details will take a ton of time.

I can see some cabinets going in the bunkie as well The plans were submitted to the township for the building permit for the bunkie and just waiting for the rubber stamp from the township. We have been planning on doing that for sometime and looking forward to this project....It will also give us a ton of experience building a structure - Hubs mom is a true "handy woman" and has more tools than anyone I have ever met - they built their cottage (gorgeous home on a gorgeous lake) with plans of retiring there which they did - she sure is a talented woman and we will learn so much from working with her.

I digress back to my home kitchen......This is the plan attached - you will see a wonkie upper cab layout on the left of the sink - i am thinking of using a blind corner and changing the width of the glass door to bigger - i can honestly say i hate corner cabinets.Looking at the fridge - On the left of the tall cabinet i am going to be building the broom mod so that is why the space is there - have yet to figure out what to put on the right of the fridge - still mulling about that right now my dog bowls are there - do not want to put anything big or tall there as i think it will box the room in too much.

Going with Adel white - 39" uppers - glass knobs and nickel cup pulls. Lots of under cabinet lighting and also task lighting / over all room lighting on a dimmer and a milk glass school house lamp over the single dosjomo sink with a fantastic faucet yet to be found.

Flooring will be traffic master allure flooring -- it is going throughout my entire main level - currently have it in my bathroom - love it.Going to do some custom crown / trim work where the cab's meet the ceiling yet to be determined - also thinking of going with a dark brown toe kick and adding some modified toe kick upfront closer to the front of the cabinet to make it look a bit more like built in furniture.Counter - thinking of going with numerar oak (would like it much darker though) or maybe a walnut counter - do not want to do granite or similar yet until I know I will be keeping the space the way it is.

If I find that i must have more space we will discuss the merits of an addition again next spring - the joys of of the Ikea system is that we can reuse the cupboards in the new space if we do put an addition on. So that being said - do not want to spend a ton of money on the counter if it might be changing - i do love the look of wood (darker the better) but i am a bit worried with the three boys and hubs that water will not always be wiped of as quickly as it should - or grape juice - or the like....I have read allot about the sealers some people use and the tung oil - that I still have work that out....

I am excited!!

Oh a kid note - Andy has started hockey - he is a tropper and really excited -Rob is still doing music lessons on thursday........

Long weekend coming up - so lookign forward to it - we are moving the shed - hurray!