FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jenise]

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Hooray!!!!!!

Congrats, Jenise! I can only imagine how good it must feel to see those cabinets going in. Here's to having a completed kitchen soon.

Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

It's been tough having a Dishwasher without a kitchen. Congrats.

We want to see lots of pictures when you get it all in! Please!

Congratulations on the momentous moment!!!

Looking good!
I hate to say it, but there is at least one more moment of searing suspense, when the countertops are being installed.
I was lucky with Mom's kitchen - the countertops went in jsut fine, but the refrigerator didn't fit the next day. With a call to the Main Man and a little figuring, the whole thing sorted itself out in about an hour. NBD!
I hope you have that kind of good luck the rest of the way - you sure deserve it!

John

[Jenise]

We want to see lots of pictures when you get it all in! Please!

It's all a big jumble down there right now with stuff stacked everywhere, but I can't wait to see it all put together. I wanted a look that would be fresh and contemporary, timeless yet unconventional, elegant yet organic. I couldn't find any design already in existence that would do all that and still have the mid-century California modern look I wanted, so I found a cabinet maker who makes everything from scratch and who was excited about collaborating on something completely original. The cabinet faces are all solid hickory, a wood with a lot of character that we tamed by turning sideways while playing up the natural patterns of the wood by book-matching every straight run (you can kind of see that in the two cab faces in this picture, but it will make even more sense in the pictures I'll take this afternoon). They're lightly stained teak which neutralized the wide variation in color and created a smart contrast with the reddish brown mahogany floor and blonde-blonde birch I'm using for all the doors, trim/banisters/etc everywhere else (this is a complete first floor remodel), and which fairly effectively matches the large 12 foot wood sliding doors opposite the kitchen. In direct defiance of current trends toward dark woods, I wanted my world to turn golden. The countertops and all the furniture will be black.

Black countertops? Are you using the solid black granite? A good friend and neighbor has solid black countertops. No movement, no specs, just black.

[Jenise]

Looking good!
I hate to say it, but there is at least one more moment of searing suspense, when the countertops are being installed.
I was lucky with Mom's kitchen - the countertops went in jsut fine, but the refrigerator didn't fit the next day.

Fortunately, we won't have that issue--the fridge is separated from the cabinetry/countertrops by thick end panels. (My moment of suspense might be when the refrigerator goes in.)

[Jenise]

Black countertops? Are you using the solid black granite? A good friend and neighbor has solid black countertops. No movement, no specs, just black.

I'm actually using two granites. In the main work area of the kitchen itself, we're doing Absolute Black with an 'anticado' finish. Some type of acid is applied that makes it a mildly rough, matte surface. Kind of looks like leather. I've bought the thick, 3 cm granite which will be finished with a square flat edge, no hanging parts. Should be a very forgiving surface that won't show spots or fingerprints. For the 10 foot long bar top as well as the identical 10 foot buffet top in the dining room we're using a different granite that's as dazzling as the Absolute Anticado is demure. They called it something-Kosmos. Where most granites are from large quarries where there's lots and lots that looks alike year in and year out, this one was an exceptional and different block from one particular quarry and there was only a bit of it. Of the four major marble people in Seattle and Portland, only one of them got any. It's a black background with rivers of fools-gold like minerals running through it with veins of caramel and a few big clods of white quartz, and all the slices were over 120" which is larger than most (110" is typical) and the size I have to have. At the point I started looking some architect had had all of it on hold for over a year; so one of the benefits of how long all this has taken on my side was that I could put off purchasing the granite until that architect figured out that he needed all but one slab. We'll have enough to make the 11" wide elevated serving counter between the working side of the kitchen and the bar top out of the Kosmos too, which will be hand-chipped to create live edges. I have a picture of the slab here somewhere, I'll see if I can copy it into my photo file and post it.

[Jenise]

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Wow! I love the hickory for cabinets and the granite you posted is awesome looking. Good going!

[Jenise]

Wow! I love the hickory for cabinets and the granite you posted is awesome looking. Good going!

Thanks. You're going to love picking out all this stuff for yourself. Are you drawing up plans now?

Very cool Jenise!!
Ditto exactly what Robert R said.

[Jenise]

Thanks, Carrie. I was just down there looking at what they've got done today. Wow, is that a lot of cabinetry. It looks a lot bigger full of cabinets than it did empty--how is this possible?

Wow, that granite has a lot of razzle, dazzle, the movement is awesome. My daughter-in-law is a geologist and after our granite was installed, she starting reading back to me what she was seeing deep down into the granite. She even spotted an insect that was entombed. It was very interesting.

Wow! I love the hickory for cabinets and the granite you posted is awesome looking. Good going!

Thanks. You're going to love picking out all this stuff for yourself. Are you drawing up plans now?

Sort of working on the plans. We've come up with the bones of a floorplan, but have to tweak it some before it is turned into blueprints. Lately we've been to busy trying to get this house sold, and beginning work clearing a drive and building site on the land. If the rain holds off tomorrow, we'll be back at work with the chainsaw while our realtor is having another open house here.

NICE granite, Jenise. I went granite browsing with my bro when I last saw him--he and his wife are redoing their kitchen...I discovered the finish you are talking abt--this shop actually called it a leather finish. I don't see doing a kitchen in my near future (I am going to be a contractor in my next life. Doing other people's kitchens would make me so happy), but I wrote the name down anyway. I LOVE stone.

I LOVE the Kozmos, too--so much movement. When I DID do a kitchen, I had to really push to get something with so much "flow" to it--G wanted something with a really regular pattern...hmmnnhh. This was liquid once...appreciate it! I cannot wait to see it all. When are you hosting the offline?

When are you hosting the offline?

Great idea, I`m in!

[Jenise]

NICE granite, Jenise. I went granite browsing with my bro when I last saw him--he and his wife are redoing their kitchen...I discovered the finish you are talking about--this shop actually called it a leather finish.

Really? That's cool. I called it leather for lack of any better term to describe how it's smooth but textured, and how it's non-reflective. I've never seen it done in a room--I just saw some 5" chunk in someone's drawer and went OH YEAH, THAT. Going that plain (and cheap, actually, as the base granite we're using is one of the least expensive) gave me a subtle, low-maintenance surface in the work zones and freed me up to do something as drop dead wild and pricey as the Kozmos in the two places I'll put that.

When are you hosting the offline?

How about next summer during crabbing season? We can have a cook-in.

[Jenise]

Sort of working on the plans. We've come up with the bones of a floorplan, but have to tweak it some before it is turned into blueprints.

That's good; live in it in your head for a bit. Then show the plans to everyone who can stand it just to get every good idea you may not have thought of.