Finally Getting a New Kitchen!

[rosarugosa]

I realize that I've been fussing about my kitchen for as long as you folks have known me (actually much longer). Well it looks like it's finally going to happen. We have a design from a kitchen designer, an agreed price with a contractor, and the designer and contractor are coming today to work out the final details of the plan. We've selected our appliances, cabinets and fixtures. We will need to go to the designer's office to work out final details like drawers vs. shelves and select the hardware, and we'll have to pick out a countertop. I think these decisions will go fairly easily though, since we pretty much know what we want.

Mother Hubbard's Cupboard will not be remaining, sigh. As fond as I was of her, she ultimately became an obstacle to us moving forward, and there was just no way to come up with a decent layout with her in place. Right now our kitchen looks like "OMG, how can anyone live like this?!" so it is time for us to move forward. DH has been preparing good food for us under primitive conditions for almost 40 years, and he deserves a real kitchen with a counter and such. Just imagine, in our adult lives together, we have never had a kitchen counter! We are the most excited about a counter and a range hood.

Cabinets will be white. I've been saving pics of cabinets for decades and the cabinets are always white, so I'm not just following current trends. Appliances will be stainless, so yes to current trends on that, but I think white and stainless are a pretty clean and classic look, and I like a light and simple palette in the small spaces of our little house. We are not getting a dishwasher or a microwave.

I will keep you updated!

[Tradd]

How exciting! Staying with current type of stove (gas/electric)?

[happystuff]

That is very exciting! I'm jealous!!! I hope all the work goes quickly and smoothly. Looking forward to pictures!

[catherine]

Very exciting, rosa!!! Keep us updated on the progress!

[iris lilies]

This is super exciting! White kitchens are classic, I love them and they are stylistically right for your cottage. What do your cabinets look like?

yes, counter space is a necessity. It is too bad about Mother Hubbard but functionality reigns.

i have a tiny dishwasher in my condo and have never used it. Couldn’t live without a microwave oven, though.

[rosarugosa]

We are going with a gas stove, which is what we've always had. We seriously considered an induction stove, but heard too many horror stories about maintaining the stovetop. I am concerned about indoor air quality, but we will have a range hood which should help with that.
Let's see if this link works. This is my inspiration picture, except that we'll go with a traditional stainless sink instead of the farmhouse sink, and no glass doors on the cabinets (I already have enough glass to wash with our 28 windows).
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Thomasvi...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

[iris lilies]

Nice! I have a gas stove too and it is nothing fancy not even a self cleaning oven. It’s really a throwback retro stove.

Also, I don’t like farmhouse sinks so we got a stainless steel sink. I don’t know why I didn’t get a porcelain sink, I guess because I just like stainless steel I find it easy to clean.


I do have four cabinet doors with glass because I do like the look of that.

your kitchen will be very cute. Are you getting a backsplash of Subway tile?

This is my kitchen inspiration: celery cabinets, black counter, red accents. Our floor is oak, though.

IMG_3847.jpg

[rosarugosa]

We are doing a white subway tile backsplash, and we're installing the same Bruce prefinished oak floors that we have in the rest of the house. It's actual oak strip flooring, not the floating engineered hardwood.
I do like the look of the glass cabinets, but we have 28 windows in this 900-SF house, so that's enough glass washing for me.
We went to the designer's office yesterday and finalized cabinet door selections and picked out the hardware.
Funny story: when the contractor, carpenter, and designer were here Tuesday, there was a bit of discussion about whether there was any extra clearance to be gained in the ceiling once it was gutted. It was an important consideration, since our ceilings are low it would make the difference in the size of our upper cabinets, and the cabinets could be ordered once this was ascertained. I said go ahead and make a hole, it's all crappy looking anyway and it will be ripped out soon. Designer and contractor looked at me like I was crazy, but carpenter carefully punched a hole in the ceiling. Conclusion: no extra space to be gained.
DH said later, "Well we had a hole punched in the ceiling by an actual carpenter. That's more progress than we've made in years!"
Here's a picture of our progress. I decorated it, lol.
POW.jpg

[iris lilies]

Hahaha POW indeed!

we too have oak floors laid plank by plank that are real wood, not engineered. I love them, and don’t regret the money spent on them at all, the only possible improvement would’ve been to get a grade lower in oak because it would be a better match for the existing floor in the living room. This is a modest house, and it didn’t have top grade anything.

[rosarugosa]

Does anyone have any kitchen faucet wisdom to share? I'm finding faucet selection to be the greatest challenge, oddly enough. Picking out a car was much easier.
Criteria:
Not more than 12" tall
Brushed finish
Doesn't suck
I'm leery of the pull-down and pull-out models that are so popular, because a kitchen faucet sees a lot of use, and I would think the whole "pull" thing would be a point of early failure. However, I would consider a pull-out if I found one that didn't suck. The pull-downs tend to be too tall for our space. I don't really want one with the whole touch feature either. That seems pointless. I just want a normal faucet that works, which apparently is like asking for the moon.
I was thinking of getting the current model of our old single-handle, classic, inexpensive Delta faucet, but apparently those are not so well made anymore.
While I appreciate it when utilitarian objects are also beautiful, my kitchen faucet does not need to be an exquisite sculptural wonder. Every time I think I've found the perfect faucet, I find a bunch of reviews saying it leaks, fell apart after a month, etc. among the reviews saying it's the best faucet ever.