Why I love my kitchen ( part one)

I think the story will explain why I love my kitchen. It was truly everything I wanted do while still living in the same home. We built out home in 1973 and have lived here our whole married life. In 1973 there were not as many choices as today or maybe I just wasn't aware. I had no true idea of what I liked....antiques? No, how about dark pine and new? Ok so people and tastes change. Anyway back to my kitchen...

If you did not see the story on my kitchen remodel you can look HERE. I did a brief story on this and always meant to get back and do a proper post. We renovated the kitchen in 2007. We started the research and development on the project about 2 years before that. We drew a floor plan and quickly realized that I couldn't fit all I wanted into the space we had. My basic u shaped kitchen would always look the same if we didn't make a change in the structure. We took more pictures and couldn't figure the roof lines ourselves. So we called an architect, we met with him, showed him our ideas and told him our stumbling blocks. A few weeks later he came back with plans...they were perfect! He had really listened. He figured a way for me to get my much wanted pantry, my oversized window and more storage. We could bump the wall out, but only a certain amount due to the location of our septic. We could not make it wider without losing porch apace, which would be a step down or the dining area which is the perfect size for us now.

This was the back of the house before. We gave this picture to the architect to show the roof lines. The hot tub and one porch door will go away,(there were four) along with the brick step. Notice my typical small over the kitchen sink window.

 Then came the demo of my old kitchen. We had painted the cabinets Bennington Gray and I loved it so much we decided to use it for the new cabinets. Plain and Fancy would use any Benjamin Moore color. I loved their product so we used them for our new cabinets. Here are the three most important men in my life hard at work. My hubby, my son and my grandson.~ smiles~

Our best helper! He loved the demo part of all this.

                           The brick step  & patio had to be removed. The brought in a giant saw to cut it away from the foundation.

 

Then in came the machine to lift it all away.

This is the poured 7 x16 addition to my kitchen. We lost one door on our porch, but gained a walk in pantry. My cute grandson loved the adventure of it all. Time flies, he is almost 20 yrs old now.

 

     When they cut the brick step they also cut a doorway from the basement to the new area which would become a great storage closet later on. The huge hunk of cement went right in the hole for the addition.

The outside is weather tight and you can tell it is getting warmer here. See my five ft. window and it is bumped out so I have a nice deep window sill. 

 

The contractor was great he kept my dishwasher and sink connected as long as he could. We had most of the kitchen set up on the porch and used the grill a lot. Eating out  or doing take out when you have to gets old fast. Having your kitchen torn apart is no fun. I just had to keep my eye on the prize. We pulled our permit on May 1st 2007 and it was October when we finished. There were bumps and glitches along the way. pssst can you see the small window that will be my pantry :)

 

 New doors on the back of the porch and shingles on the outside. Let the clean up begin.

Now we can move inside, yes my sink is gone, new plumbing and electrical is all roughed in. The pantry has a door ( a pocket door) and there has been a lot of painting going on.

The appliances are here and we switched over to the new refrigerator. The stove isn't hooked up yet. Waiting for the gas company was the longest wait. My hubby decides that we should do a new heating system and switch to gas also. So more people, more disruptions. Gosh I was so tired of there being workers at my door every morning at 7 AM. I am kinda of a nut...I wanted to be showered, dressed and makeup on when they got here. So we had many early mornings to say the least. 

 I was so nervous the day the cabinets arrived, what if I didn't like them? What if, what if?

 Then came a major glitch. The designer forgot to make a change that we needed to do most of the upper cabinets. Now they took six weeks to get these to us...the custom color makes it a bit longer and they are six weeks out to start with. They can go no further with the installation. (Funny thing is when the right cabinet came it must have been dropped off the truck and guess what it was broken....we needed to order another one. I did cry, honestly.) Vermont Soapstone is scheduled so the installer did get all the bases in so they could come on time. Which by the way if you ever want soapstone they were the BEST people to deal with. The BEST of the whole project. They were on time...polite, kind and just plain wonderful. I love my soapstone. The designer tried to talk me out of it and I stuck to my guns. I wanted soapstone. I spoke to several people who had it and they loved it. I got prices from a couple other places. I have to tell you this company that does only soapstone had the best warranty....life of the stone! Everyone from the girl on the phone to the installers were the absolute BEST to deal with. The prep sink was too big for the cabinet. It was non returnable too. I called the designer three times and she kept assuring me it was the right size. Guess who was right? ME plain old me. My hubby drove to Vermont and got a sink from Vermont soapstone to fit my bar, So the installers kept working and he got back in time for them to put in the sink the following day. The installers came up with the solution and it worked. Now I have two soapstone sinks. It was like a four hour drive each way. My hubby is the best too. Needless to say if you are considering soapstone check out the website for Vermont Soapstone. I am not being compensated by them. I am just a consumer who loves them!

I think this is a good place to stop. I will be posting pictures of the finished project in my next post. I know this has gotten a bit long so until next time. Stay warm!