A Remodeling Adventure

[AquaticNerd]

Thanks Al! A lot of the functional choices of the kitchen were of my own doing, since, like you, I do about 90% of the cooking for my wife and myself.

I spoiled myself a little bit with the appliances - the stove has an induction cooktop and the fridge was a bit larger than our last one. On top of that, I wanted all drawer cabinet bases because there was just so much wasted space with the regular box bases with doors. Everything is soft close. Also went with quartz countertops (the waterfall edge was my choice) since they're non-porous and hold up well.

[brady]

Sounds great, unfortunately I can't see the pictures. When I click on the attachments I get a message saying
invalid. Why is that?
Jay

[AquaticNerd]

Hi Jay,

I'm honestly not sure what happened to the attachments. I see the first couple of posts have images showing, but not any others. I'll reach out to the admins and see if they have any info.

[SidJones]

Post 6 on, no photos for me either. Project looks very nice. Heck, the before pictures would have passed as the new completed project to me.

[AquaticNerd]

Hopefully now I've fixed the images that were attached that somehow went missing.

[Second Hand Pat]

Totally gorgeous Jake and very well done
Pat

[AquaticNerd]

Thanks Pat!

[pastry]

Okay, in our previous house, I would have loved that ever living hell out of this thread! It had the worst kitchen layout and Design. I love our current Kitchen in our new house, but still nerd out on diving into your details and mind process. Lots of brilliance between you and your wife! I love the balance of doing it yourself and realizing certain things probably should be contracted out. I love her drop down lamps that look like stars and a whole functionality of your new layout. If I had to figure out one thing that I questioned and it would be the color choice olive green with dark marble/slate top ( both our colors I love but just curious... have the same time, totally not kicking the two of you in the balls because I can only hope to have brilliant thought processes like that and skill. Even your taste with tongue and groove, knowing what you like in sliders, lay out, etc... definitely a standing ovation from me! I will kick myself in the balls for bringing up the Wonder on the choice of army green and if you are close enough then I'll let you kick me in the balls too but please don't let that get in the way of how awesome I think you all did!

[AquaticNerd]

Elliot - I appreciate your insight.

The cabinet color doesn't really come across very well in the picutres. If I recall correctly, the color is 'Eucalyptus', and it is much lighter in person than in pictures (almost like a sage green). My wife loves the 'country' style kicthens, and I wanted full modern, so we compromised at mid-mod. Some of our inspiration came from images such as these: https://www.countryliving.com/home-d...reen-kitchens/. Our reasoning behind getting dark countertops was that everything else in the kitchen was going to be super bright, so wanted to have some contrast between the cabinets and countertop, along with the bright white subway tile and light paint color. I think the additional, practical bonus, is that since it is a dark countertop, stains aren't noticeable at all where white quartz could potentially show stains.

We went back and forth a lot with countertop options. My wife was really sold on butcherblock counters until we discussed the amount of maintenance they would require to appear and keep clean. You gotta baby that stuff with oils, water stains, etc. After nixing butcherblock, we discussed white/white w/ grey, and black w/ white, and ultimately chose black for the contrast.

[pastry]

"I think the additional, practical bonus, is that since it is a dark countertop, stains aren't noticeable at all where white quartz could potentially show stains."

Ok... THAT freak'n makes a ton of sense and I love that angle/thinking. I go nuts with my boys dirtying up our very light gray painted walls, especially up and down the staircase while yelling at them the same question over and over: "...why the hell do you two and your little turd friends have to touch the damn walls?!?! Growing up, I didn't need to touch the damn walls going up and down the stairs!" LMAO

As for the butcher's block, I don't have one but I am definitely a fan! What about one of the two following options:
1. Butcher's block on wheels at the same counter level or whatever level is best? ( it can even be a very stubby 30 inches long by 16 in wide yet on a dark charcoal powder coated metal frame with three or four inch coated iron cast Wheels they can keep around the kitchen and wheel it in and out as needed?)
2. ...or, a 20-22"L x 12-18"W x 3-4"H block now you can store in the kitchen when you're not using it

Hell, I think I'm really asking myself those two questions. I want one!

[AquaticNerd]

I have a large butcherblock that I add on top of the countertop when needed to do a lot of chopping. Bought a 4' section from the local hardware store and it measures 30x24.

[Charlyc11]

Nice job looks great and I like the contrast in colors from dark to light. It gives me memories when I bought my house in Stony Brook LI NY. I also got ambisius and ripped the kitchen to the studs and became my own contractor. I could use a remake of the kitchen in my house in MD but I have some do first projects. Bathroom needs it the most.
Enjoy your hard work Jake.

[jwcarlson]

Very well done, I like a nice, bold cabinet color. My wife convinced me to re-finish the ones that were original to our house (early 70s). We didn't do a full rip and replace, but we used some sort of "chalk paint" in a fairly dark blue and changed all the hardware. It's held up better than I expected and less bland. Also used white tile for back splash, but octagons. Nice contrast.