THE POLKA DOT DEBUTANTE

Finis!

lee — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:09:19 +0000

The kitchen is finally finished.

Everything looks exactly like I imagined it. I’m happy with all my choices: lamps, countertop materials, hardware, paint color, tiles, just everything. I need to send a major shout out to our kitchen designer, Rebecca of Alight Design, who did a wonderful job. Her design provided us with an efficient, roomy layout, with a great flow. And we could not have picked a better contractor. Cascade Contracting is a great firm that does quality work. I was so impressed with the guys who are full-time employees, and the subs they used were all fantastic. I would recommend them in a minute.

I am looking forward to having my house to myself again, but there is a part of me who will miss all the fellas. Nolan, José, Eric, Max, and Dennis. Thanks so very much.

We have paint!

lee — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 05:18:16 +0000

We’re almost there! The paint went up this past week, in the kitchen and the dining room, and the old fridge went out to the garage. The color, Sumatra, looks wonderful throughout both rooms, especially with the morning light.

We’re still waiting for the cabinet and drawer fronts, and there’s a problem with the range — which will hopefully get resolved on Monday — but the end is in sight.

closing in

lee — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:34:04 +0000

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!! They put in the pendant lights over the peninsula today and they look great. It seems like ages since I picked out the lights and the tiles and the counter top materials and to finally see it all together is so gratifying. I’ve second guessed myself a bit since then, hoping that everything works the way I pictured it in my head and I have to say that I think I nailed it. The only other things I’m waiting to see are the wall color and the knobs and drawer pulls.

Tomorrow the paint color goes up on the walls so I’ll have pictures of that and you can see what you think. On Wednesday, the cabinet doors and hardware goes up. And on Thursday, we should have the final walk through. I can’t believe we are finally at the end. I’m still just in awe of the whole thing and can’t believe this is really my house. I wonder how long it will take this feeling to wear off? I hope it lasts a long time.

Appliances, tiles and counters, oh my!

rick — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:09:18 +0000

A quick post with quick pix: the gang busted their humps today to get all the appliances in, the place cleaned up, and most of the tile laid. We’ll post more later, but it looks like we’re only a week away from the finish!

primed and ready for countertops

lee — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:58:30 +0000

We’ve been dealing with paint for the last four working days. The cabinets and the woodwork are Polar White and are looking really good. Today we pulled the plastic off one of the cabinet insides to see the difference between the Polar White and the white of the melamine board. I was quite surprised; it’s quite a difference. The Polar White has an almost pink undertone. It’s very warm and inviting. I can’t wait to see what the wall color is going to look like with it. I’ve picked one of the Devine colors called Sumatra for the walls. There isn’t a lot of wall space for paint so I think the darkness of the Sumatra will be fine. We shall see!

Tomorrow the granite countertops go in so things will look quite different by the end of the day. I’ll try to get pictures up.

(click to see the images larger)

moving on to the painting

lee — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:56:06 +0000

I don’t know if you can see how much has changed since the last post but here are several pictures. Maybe you just have to be here everyday to see the little changes. But since the last post, all the carpentry has been finished. The crown moulding and the toe kicks are in. The moulding around the windows and doors are on. The side edges of the cabinets are all on. And the shelves are in the cabinets. I’m writing this on Wednesday and the painters started today. Nothing to show yet but by Friday, we should have white cabinets and “sumatra” colored walls. Yeehaw!

cabinets going up

lee — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:18:57 +0000

These pictures show what we had by the end of the day on Wednesday. Dennis is saying that they should be done with all the woodwork, including the crown moulding, the toe kicks and window mouldings by the end of this week. They will make the pattern for the countertops on Friday so the fabricator can cut them. Those will go in next week and the painter will come next week too.

I’m having a terrible time finding pulls for the drawers. I had planned to reuse the knobs from the old cabinets. They are a brushed nickel and I really like them. But it turns out that all brushed nickel is not the same color. Mine are a very blue silver and the pulls I bought are a very pink silver. They really do not match. When I go to return them, I will remember to bring the knobs with me to try and match them. I just hate the thought of not using perfectly good knobs and buying new ones.

(click to see the photos larger)

This is really getting exciting now. Rick and I are like little kids when we go in there at the end of the day to see what’s been done. You can really get the sense of what the kitchen is going to be like when it’s done. Yeehaw!

getting ready for the cabinets

lee — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:53:18 +0000

It’s been a week since I’ve posted and it’s mostly because this past week wasn’t very exciting. The contractors finished some small stuff like getting the shelves back up in my closet, getting the holes in the basement replastered, and getting the gutters up on the front of the house.

The other big excitement was getting the kitchen totally prepped for the cabinets. They covered the floor and brought some of the cabinets over on Friday. They will start attaching them to the walls and doing all the finish carpentry this coming week.

We had to finalize the choice for the countertops and the peninsula this week so that can be procured and I had to finalize my choice of paint color. That was fun. Can’t wait to see what next week brings.

(click to see the photos larger)

floor’s down

rick — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:58:47 +0000

The floor is down — white oak — and it’s beautiful. They’re going to sand and finish it over the next couple of days, so that it looks closer to the color of the floor in the rest of the house.

(click to see the photos larger)

It’s looking like a room

lee — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:27:04 +0000

We got some drywall last Friday and today and the kitchen is looking like a real room. Wow!

We went from this (click the images to see them bigger):

to this:

Actually today they finished sheet rocking the arch and it looks great too.