Kitchen Envy Thursdays!

I'm going to try and post some design feature / appliance / decorating ideas I come by and post on Thursdays.  We'll kick it off this Thursday with dishwashers!!

At our beginning stages of research on kitchen appliances we seemed set on getting a Bosch dishwasher. Going German seemed like a natural thing for us, since we both have German cars and let's face it-- they are better than American cars. However I've recently found (read - over researched) the Bosch dishwasher and found a few design elements in where I favored the American design. Most Euro dishwashers lack a heated dry, have smaller/less flexible tines and I've read small particles of food can get recirculated and get stuck and dry to dishes.

So one Saturday I came armed to Sears with my Fiestaware and tall glasses hoping to find the perfect dishwasher.  I've read good things about Kenmore dishwashers so I was really interested in checking them out.  My requirements for a dishwasher were: quieter than current dishwasher (old dishwasher was super powerful, but sounded like jet engine was taking off, it was nearly impossible to run while in the house), stainless steel, hidden controls, fit my Fiestaware, have a time delay and an adjustable top rack.



We found this puppy on sale for almost $500 off the full retail price. 
Isn't it pretty?
I came home to tell my hubby we found the perfect dishwasher and later that night we agreed to purchase. We returned to Sears on Sunday...only to find out the price had increased $300.  We ended up having to get management involved to have them honor yesterdays price and then apparently the inventory was too low so they couldn't place the order. AHHH!!! Luckily the dishwasher appeared back in stock on Monday and I was able to order the dishwasher for the price we wanted! So excited to have ordered our first kitchen appliance!

Demo Weekend

This past weekend:we did the demo on our kitchen. Most people who are re-doing their kitchen can probably get away with just taking down the cabinets and tearing up the floor. Let's just say ours was a complete teardown and we took everything down to the studs. 

Here's a taste of what we did this weekend. Friday started with removing all of the "stuff" from the kitchen cabinets and relocating it. We put most stuff we won't use in a large tupperware bin and some glasses in cardboard boxes. Most of the rest we re-arranged in the dining room for now.  We've tried to organize the best we could and have easy access to some small kitchen appliances like a toaster oven and griddler/panini press.  Our microwave is currently plugged in the living room.

Saturday was complete demo day. I say we'd completed 90-95% of the demo with the help of my brother and parents.  Sunday we finished up the demo and started on the electrical work and plumbing work.  Not too many surprises underneath the walls. We found out a few things --- that our last kitchen renovation was in the winter/spring of 1983. We suppose this is how old our dishwasher was as well.  The cabinets came apart super easy -- must have been the great craftsmanship of the 80's.  We found some mold/rot near our large kitchen window which is directly below the shower.  We believe this was an old issue that was later fixed. We plan to correct this by installing a header and removing the rotted wood.  We also found out that our sink drain was leaking.  If you can see the first picture there is a pool of water and you can see large expansion of particle board near the bottom.  Probably the BEST surprise is we have gorgeous hardwood underneath!

Here are some pictures from the demo weekend.

Under sink base showing water and expansion of particle board

J flattening a wall cabinet

Takes about 5 seconds to flatten cabinet out

J removing wall corner cabinet

There is a method to the madness. Cutting the countertop near the sink allows us to keep the sink base and allow us to reconnect the sink

Bringing down the ceiling

Chipping up the tiles

Insulation that was on top of the ceiling...now looks like a disaster area

To the bones kitchen

Yup, we got a 30 Yard Dumpster. A tad bigger than a bagster. We've probably filled 25 yards

Hardwood!!!!

What Is Behind Those Walls?

What can possibly lie in those innocent looking walls that tighten up our kitchen you may ask?  It started out by just cutting a hole in the sheetrock (see picture #2). Shortly this evolved into taking down the trim, deconstructing the walls, and eventually demo-ing the entire eat in area. 

 Soo---to answer the question: What does lie in these walls? Let's just say the plumbing for the rest of the house: water supply,  heat pipes, vent pipes, and main stack. Unfortunately for us, removing the pipe chases is key to our kitchen design. We're designing in a peninsula starting near where the garbage can is now. We need this precious space to have a good sized peninsula while still having a functional walkway. 

The current kitchen had two vertical pipe chases and a horizontal run of pipes hiding underneath. 

This is how it started. If you look closely we've got some sweet brass piping. You don't see that anymore.

Decorative pieces that framed out the wall...my guess is that they were the original kitchen cabinets and re-purposed. 

View looking up of the pipes that were hidden in the chase

Kitchen with some plumbing moved and new header.

State of the Existing Kitchen

When we were house searching we had some trouble finding a decent sized kitchen in our price range. If it was updated, it was usually pretty tight.  When looking at this house, we ended up really liking the kitchen space...or shall I say, this was one of the largest kitchens we within our price range.  The larger kitchen allowed us to have a sizeable eat in section of the kitchen as well as enough room to cook. Additionally the half bathroom on the first floor right off the kitchen was also one of the largest we viewed during our home search.

It appears our kitchen last updated in the 1980's. This lovely renovation in the 80's afforded us some ill constructed soffits, formica countertops, some tile (which is now cracked), interesting craftsmanship, and just a very neutral (too neutral) pallet.  Here are some shots of the kitchen from 2010.

Eat-in portion of the kitchen looking out onto deck

Half bath off of kitchen

Sink in half bath

Dishwasher & Sink Area

Stove/Refrig Area

Today, well technically a few weeks ago, our kitchen looks like this.

View from living room door looking into Kitchen

More cluttered dishwasher/sink area

Our kitchen table has found its way into the dining room...and hasn't come back yet.

Some of our favorite features:

Some obvious confusion about backsplash here. Wallpaper or countertop material?

The "Appliance Garage" that takes up precious counter space

The soffit.

Strange placement of outlet.

Let's Get Rolling!

In April 2010, we were the lucky buyers of a lovely 1931 tudor style house still loaded with tons of charm! Shortly after moving in, we did some painting and tore out carpet and refinished the hardwood underneath. Since then we've been itching to redo the kitchen. Well the time is finally here and we plan to let you know all about it! Here are some before and after pictures:


Master bedroom before:

  

Master bedroom after:

Guest bedroom before:

Guest bedroom after:

 

Dining room before:

 Dining Room After