After walls: installation of new kitchen

In looking for the right kitchen for this renovation I’d been looking online and through magazines. The subject house is a colonial style, and we wanted to match the style of the house with a new kitchen that would be appropriate to the style of the house. I found a kitchen that I wanted to emulate. This is how the kitchen looks when we first bought the house:

Not only was the kitchen small and dark, but we had a rats' nest in the wall.  The cabinets had been hand built by the previous owner, and never did have doors on the boxes.  It was one aspect that our conventional lender rejected when we were pursuing financing, to the point that he asked if we could put doors on the cabinets, and install a stove before we closed on the house.  Below, the image that I found online and thought would fit with the style of our property.

At any rate, I wanted to have lighter colored cabinets up high, because the room has a small footprint and North facing (dim) external light. Thinking about natural light resulted in a choice to enlarge the window opening where the sink will eventually be located, so that we have more light coming into the kitchen. We took the ideas to a custom cabinet company. They sent a rep out to measure the room, and then went back to the studio to draw up plans. Once we agreed on the materials such as the type of wood and the finish, they set about to build and then later deliver the cabinets.

The boxes were delivered before we had the walls and flooring in the kitchen ready, so they sat in the dining room for some time. I will confess that I washed dishes on my knees in the bathtub for a total of three months. :D 

Since we had gone down to the studs, we started with the plumber and electrician to ensure that modern plumbing and electrical service was all was in place. This was inspected by the local building department. Sheetrock was hung, plywood and tile flooring went in. Using shims to level the cabinets relative to the uneven floors or walls, each of the boxes were screwed to the studs.

Once the cabinets were affixed to the walls, we required countertops. Our favorite countertop fabrication crew came out to make a template for the installation of quartz. This involves using a glue gun and thin wood shims. The shims are pressed against the walls and glued into place, so that there is an accurate representation of the wall at the top of each lower cabinet. The fabricator uses those shims to build the countertop, in this case we are used quartz, but they use the same method to fabricate the granite.

Then they bring in the custom piece of stone which fits perfectly against each run of cabinets. There is a seam for the longer stretches, and in our current kitchen, the seam is lined up behind the farm sink. They drilled holes for the faucet and a soap container, as well as for the water filter that we are going to use. My fabricator, Counterkraft, finished the template process on Monday, and began to work on the countertops. It was fully installed by Friday. I paid $1611 after template process and paid additional $1611 due after install. I used LG Viatera “Clarino” 3 cm quartz with eased demi edge, based on yielding 2 slabs.

We chose sink furniture that has to be custom dipped into the metallic finish that we chose. We have a three week wait for the electrolysis process and then the materials to be shipped. Once the faucet arrives, we will hire a plumber to come out and install the faucet and the dishwasher.

It is important the the type of appliances match the level of cabinetry ordered. We chose a professional grade bundle of appliances, as our aim is for this house to have a high qualify finish, so that we reach the appraisal value for which we are aiming. We bought a package of matching appliances at an annual sale, and these were held at the warehouse for several months. We scheduled a time for the pieces to be delivered.

The cabinet surrounding the fridge must fit with a reasonably tight clearance. To achieve this, we presented the dimensions of each appliance to the cabinet designer right at the beginning of the design process. In this photo, the appliances are in, except for the extraction hood over the stove and the dishwasher. Plumber was a week away from connecting the dishwasher.