Old and New

When we made the (difficult) decision to get rid of our vintage kitchen cabinets, I knew we wanted to try to sell them, as they are in good shape, beautiful wood, and still could be of great use to someone....just not us anymore. The main problems were that they didn't allow for much workable counter-top space since they came down so low and the lower cabinets were not deep enough to fit a dishwasher. 

So we asked the demo team to remove them carefully, and then they sat in our basement until we were able to list them on Craig's list. We had a buyer almost immediately, but that fell through when our vacation schedule did not match up with theirs. However, we had about 6-7 others that were interested and a contractor came and picked them up today, paying cash at our asking price! So glad they are going to be re-used!

And now......our kitchen is beginning to look like a kitchen again!
They started installing the cabinet 'boxes' today. Below you can see the sink wall cabinets and the peninsula coming out on the left. I believe the 2 narrow boxes by the front window (on the left) will go on either side of the range. (The big table in the middle is just their work bench.)

Our cabinets will be birch panels, shaker style, but the internal boxes are just the dark grey "TFL" that you see here.

And we have our cabinet staining sample. We think we're going to go with the next-to-last darkest, as it will match the existing wood the best. We are keeping the spice cabinet (re-purposed from an ironing board cupboard), the trim on the existing windows, and floor trim. Next step is to stain an entire panel for a larger sample, then make our final decision.

This is getting real....

We're Floored!

Wow!

Our new floor is in!We've been gone for about a week again, and were so excited to see this upon our return.  It has its first coat of poly on it and we can't walk on it yet, but we were happy to get a glimpse of it before it goes under protective wraps until the end of the process and the final couple coats are applied.

We think it matches quite well with the rest of the house! So gorgeous.

Next this week - the cabinet boxes start to go in, and we finalize some more decorative choices (counter-top, tile, cabinet pulls and lighting).

Oh and the new dishwasher and vent hood arrived today! :)

The Floor's Fatal Flaw

Well, this post *was* going to be called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" but things didn't go as planned.....

It all seemed so perfect! We found Douglas Fir floors under our linoleum. Yes, it was quite thin. Yes, it had splintered in a few areas. And yes, there were a few areas of staining, or areas that needed to be patched due to previous walls. But our flooring guy and project manager thought it could be done and we were really excited to be able to salvage the flooring.

In a stroke of luck, I had come across a posting on the 'Nextdoor' site about a neighbor who was remodeling her kitchen as well - and was also deciding on whether or not to refinish her Douglas Fir floors. (Incidentally she also had birch cabinets to sell, just like us!) She ultimately decided to go with a new floor, which allowed us to use her douglas fir flooring to help patch. (Getting our contractors to coordinate was a bit more of a challenge, but it eventually all worked!) It all seemed to be falling into place perfectly. We were happy to be able to salvage the wood, be green and eco-friendly about it, and save some money in the process!

And then....the wood guy began to get the floors ready to patch. When pulling up the boards around the patching areas, the floor boards began to split and splinter, and our salvageable floor turned into a liability that the floor guy would no longer guarantee or recommend for longevity or sturdiness. I got a call in the middle of my work day to tell me salvaging was OUT - and asking what was IN?

We decided to go back to our original plan of natural red oak - this matches the rest of the first floor. Our timeline won't even be disrupted, as our flooring guy will be able to stagger the demo and installation between this week and next, which was our original timeline. So, though it was so sad to see it all torn out, at least we can feel comfortable that we'll have a lasting beautiful new floor! We'll have pictures of the new floor with the initial few coats of poly next week.

Here's Scott with our old floor all torn out (you can see the new flooring in the back of the truck).

Here is our floor as it currently stands, bare-naked and ready for new flooring. 

And here is our new flooring, ready to be installed after a period of acclimation in our house. 

Next week - windows finish up and the new flooring is installed. And - counter-top/cabinet news! :)

The Shape of Our Kitchen

So it's been a while - we were at Camp du Nord for a week and there's been some progress.

The framing and sheetrock have gone up, as has the framing for the new window above the sink.

We had to have some of the exterior wood replaced for the front window that's getting refurbished. The other two side windows have been primed as well.

And finally, the sheetrock is primed and ready for the final painting - which won't happen now for quite a long time. Heck, we don't even know what color we want it yet!

The most exciting part is something that we don't have pictures of - we've finalized our cabinetry and are closing in on a stain finish (we're sticking with birch with a shaker style, as in the example below), as well as some of the reeded glass we're going to have on the pantry area surrounding the window seat. The cabinets are being made in NE Mpls by Rust Brothers.

                                     

Even more fun  - we went to the shop of our countertop maker (also in NE Mpls) - Element Surfaces. They specialize in recycled glass countertops and we are basically able to custom order the type and color of glass that we want. We're going for a dark look with some dark green, black, and clear glass, including some auto-glass, which give it a shimmery blue-green color.

This sample below (the large tile) is what made us go in this direction - though the picture doesn't really do it justice at all - it doesn't show any of the depth and sparkle. Trust me, it's really cool!

We're having 2 samples made - one with dark black resin and one with charcoal grey resin. Both should be ready next week!