January 15, 2010
It’s not quite ready for “show time” but it’s darn close. After a rather scary roof install project where the entire kitchen was covered in 15+ yr old sawdust and grime, it’s on its way of looking pretty slick. I’m so thrilled about our kitchen – turned out beautifully and perfectly sensible and functional. Here’s to dinner parties to come~ And complete pix to be posted soon.
December 16, 2009
In the final stretch! Cabinets have been installed, paneling of fridge, dishwasher and wine fridge has been beautifuly executed and the track lights now light the sleek, beautiful kitchen that’s ready to be broken into. Waiting for cooktop to get its gas hookup and plumbing to be done and we’ll be all set for Christmas! I gaga over our kitchen every night the last couple nights (*sigh*) - it’s so perfect! Mike picked up some great bargain-priced kitchen stools last night from IKEA – go Glenn and we had our first meal on the island last night of rotisserie chicken by Chicken Dijon. I must also gloat over the surprise gifts from Mike; my first Kitchenaid, Architecture series;) in Cocoa Silver as well as the digital scale to jump-start my cooking. I do have the BEST HUSBAND ever! (only if work work was little more hopeful and bright…) Gorgeous pix to be posted once it’s all cleaned up…Happy Holidays~
December 10, 2009
Don’t know what happened – the last post from 12.3 didn’t upload and ugh – I have to start all over again.
It’s going on week 2 since we moved in around the Thanksgiving weekend. We’re for the most part contained in the master bedroom without any kitchen or cooking until it’s fully installed. There’s been many snafus since kitchen installation including the following:
11/24/09 – Yay! Our Bulthaup kitchen has arrived! And so does the rest of our kitchen appliances including the fridge and dishwasher.
12/7/09 – Michelle from Bulthaup’s really concerned that the kitchen hood isn’t installed yet. I too think that Sean, our GC, is delaying the hardest project til the last. Little afraid. Start freaking out and urgently ask Sean to get going on the kitchen hood installation. Little tricky since it’ll be installed on a post and beam. Crossing fingers.
12/8/09 – Sean H. – our Bulthaup installer – is pissed that the drywall isn’t done correctly. The drywall dudes come and work until 11pm (goodbye privacy, hello drilling, noise and strangers). Crossing fingers that it’s done right the second time around. The hood installation seems to be successful. Look!~
November 5, 2009
Here’s the updated pic of our kitchen – TOTALLY torn up that it’s little scary. And to add a little drama – we stopped by the house over the weekend right when the plumber was on the kitchen floor digging and cutting through the slab. Of course, he accidentally cuts through some water pipe, where the water starts gooshing out all over the floor and he, in his little English-mostly-Spanish says, “Water? Stop!”…and none of us can figure out where the main shut off valve for the water is. After freaking out for what seemed like at least 20 minutes, his partner shows up, finds the main valve (which apparently is near the street) and all’s saved! For few minutes, we thought we were going to live in a soggy, swamp-land of a kitchen. Whew!
One of the blueprints of our NEW kitchen being labored…(July 2009)
With our new house
- kitchen elevation drawing sample
(new to us but needs a lot of work) – Chef Kelly gets a brand new, tv-ready, DREAM kitchen. And documenting the process~
Announcement!
The New Kitchen will be equipped with amazing, to-die-for, and mucho moola-but-worth-it Bulthaup B3 kitchen. Given that the Euros go on their vacation in August, it’ll take a while b4 the cabinets are here, but it’ll be beauuuuutiful! It was the first one I picked out in the design magazines and the one we both fell in love with – the quality and craftmanship and timlessness, unlike some of the other trendy Italian kitchen designers…And our designers, Michelle & Gaby are meticulous and just plain awesome!!!
Fun fact – while we were researching the vendors for the dream kitchen, I found some blogs that Brad Pitt has a Bulthaup too! Maybe he’s a closet cook too?! Also Emeril Lagasse, a legit cook – which is major props for our kitchen selection. And ya – I also heard that Eric Clapton has Bulthaup too…but dunno anything about him since his records days other than I like his music sometimes?
Hoping to have our Thanksgiving feast at our new kitchen by then – crossing fingers – Michelle/Gaby?;)
August 6, 2009 – A fire at Dornbracht factory in Iserlohn, Germany. A possible long (another) hiccup in getting our plumbing fixtures….tbd.
tabula rasa - a clean slate July 28th, 2009 - All the rubble is gone and we're starting with a clean slate. Bulthaup kitchen has been ordered and we're SUPER excited! All the fixtures have been picked out and we have some tile decisions to make. Who knew there were so many tiles to choose from? We did have a hiccup along the way - where initially, we wanted the floors to have a modern feel by having polished concrete floors. Unfortunately, the floors are not leveled well and it'd mean at least 1.5-2 inches of pouring concrete and then polishing it. A lot of work and way too $$$. Narrowed it down to porcelain tile that's easy to maintain and tough~ let the demo begin!
demo! demo! demo!
July 7th, 2009 – Let the demolition begin! The previous owner had awful, rickety cabinets with coats and coats of thick, old paint and acrylic cabinet pulls.
BEFORE
We need to add a pic of the completely empty space, maybe call it “tabula rasa”. And next time we’re at Bulthaup, let’s give them a shameless plug by taking a pic of our kitchen designer -Michele Chen – in the B3 kitchen in the showroom…