Thursday, August 30, 2007

Things are moving a bit...

DH met the builder and the project manager out at the property on Monday. I guess the grass has gotten so tall they could barely walk through it and the builder said he'll be mowing it down first thing. We're hoping they get started with the excavation in the next couple of weeks. We HAVE to get the house under cover before bad weather sets in, and we're running out of time.

The meeting with the kitchen designer went well. He used some lower cupboards with pull-out shelves, instead of the deep drawers I wanted to use (I misunderstood what he was describing), but I emailed him and explained what I wanted and he said it was no problem and that the cost would be the same, even with the different cabinets.

I saw the actual alkemi counter sample and it was very cool. I'm not positive that's what we'll put on the island, but it's a good possibility.

The only thing from the kitchen design that I'm questioning right now is the center island. The designer made it a 2-level counter (with different counter materials on each section) and I've been envisioning a plain, flat island with no appliances of any kind so that I would have plenty of room to spread out cookie sheets and cooling racks, etc. all around me while I work. I really need to think about how this 2-level island would work for me. Other than that, the kitchen design looks like it will work great!

Excavate, excavate, excavate - maybe if I say it often enough, it will actually happen?? :-D

Monday, August 20, 2007

Kitchen Design is ready!

We have an appointment tomorrow to look at the kitchen design that our designer came up with. I can't wait to see it!

Our designer also has a sample of the Lapis Alkemi countertop for us to look at. Alkemi wouldn't send a sample to me, but they agreed to send one to our designer and it has arrived, so we'll be able to take a look at it tomorrow and see if Alkemi is really something we want to try to use on the island counter.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kitchen countertops

We are looking for an unusual countertop for our island and have been finding quite a few interesting options online. The artistic concrete ones that I showed photos of in my last post (http://www.absoluteconcreteworks.com/) were possibilities, as well as these...



This glass countertop is from http://www.ultraglas.com/ - they have quite a few interesting glass countertops.














The picture above is from http://www.enviroglasproducts.com/ and is a recycled glass countertop. They come in many different colors of background and many choices for the glass color and size.

This blue countertop is made from recycled scrap aluminum. Very unusual...




It is called alkemi and can be found here:
http://www.renewedmaterials.com/

It comes in textured (left side of photo) and honed (right side of photo) and is available in several colors.


This product is made of recycled paper and is called Shetka Stone. The photo to the right is a counter from a bank and is make from recycled counterfeit money!

Here is the link to the Shetka site:
http://www.shetkastone.com/

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Interesting items...

Since I've been on the internet a lot to research appliances and sinks and all kinds of things, I've run across some really interesting items. I thought I'd share some of them with you...

Here is a fun aquarium sink:

When we found out it cost $6,000, we decided it wasn't for us!

How about this couch? I saw this on someone else's house blog:

You can find the directions for making this couch at:

How about red glass stairs?
A funky glass shower enclosure? Well, I guess it doesn't really enclose...


Concrete countertops?


What fun!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Yeah! A Kitchen Designer!

Well, I think we've found our kitchen designer. We stopped by a kitchen place on our way to look at some more appliances and both fell in love with this guy. His name is Mark and he used to be a chef, so he knows what needs to be done to make a kitchen functional as well as beautiful.

He gave us a quick run-down of where he'd put the appliances, and why, and it all made sense. He can put a cooktop vent right in the ceiling over the cooktop (between the ceiling joists) which will keep the view from being blocked by a large vent. He kept the center island free from any appliances or sinks which is what I wanted and he did it before I even told him that's what I wanted. He also gave us some great ideas for the floors in the kitchen and adjoining rooms. He suggested deep cabinet drawers to store the dishes in (as we won't have any space for upper cabinets due to the wall of windows in the kitchen) and the deep drawers are what I wanted to use. He loves cooking gadgets and lots of light in kitchens, so we are right in sync with one another.

I'm excited - I think he'll come up with an awesome design for us! He'll also work with us on designs for the bathrooms.

We also looked at appliances. DH agrees with my choice of the LG refrigerator - he liked it better than all the others we looked at. We also looked at some dishwashers and other appliances, but didn't really make any decisions.

Friday, August 3, 2007

To the appliance store...

Today I headed to the local appliance store to take a look at some kitchen appliances and see if I could make some decisions. I finally decided on this electric cooktop from Bosch:
http://www.boschappliances.com/product494.html

It has some features that sound interesting and I won't have any problem using my large canner with this cooktop. It will be simple to keep clean as it is a smoothtop and the smoothtop we had at one of our previous houses was my favorite range. I've cooked on gas at church, but I'm not crazy about it and it always seems to heat the kitchen up so much...

The salesman recommended getting all one brand, such as Jenn Air, in order to coordinate the look between the appliances. DH and I had already decided that all one brand would be a good idea for that very reason.

I had previously decided to get this refrigerator from LG Electronics:
http://us.lge.com/products/model/detail/home%20appliances_refrigerators_french%20door_LFC25760.jhtml

I still really like this refrigerator and may end up trying to find other LG appliances to match this refrig. The Jenn Air that I looked at today didn't have drawers that functioned as smoothly as the LG and it doesn't have a solid base under the freezer basket which would keep crumbs from falling through onto the floor when you open the freezer drawer.

So, two appliances decided and a bunch more to go! As I said yesterday, decisions, decisions, decisions!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Kitchen Designer

Well, DH made an appointment with a kitchen designer for next Thursday. We have been looking for someone who would be able to do more than ask us what kind of cabinets we want and where we want them. We're looking for some guidance and inspiration.

Now I have to figure out which appliances I want before we go to the appointment. I know which refrigerator I want, but I haven't decided on any of the other appliances. We'll probably just have a countertop microwave and place it in a cubby in the end of the island, or perhaps near the ovens.

So, that means I need to decide on the dishwasher, and whether I want a cooktop and double ovens or a range with an extra oven. I do a lot of baking, especially several times a year when we bake dozens and dozens of cookies to label with our church info and hand them out at local youth days and light-up nights. We also have a couple of church bake sales a year that I do a lot of baking for. I therefore would like electric ovens, which bake more evenly than gas ovens.

I've always had electric stoves, but am considering going with a gas cooktop and double electric ovens. The other option is to get a dual fuel range with gas burners and electric ovens, but those are very expensive. I'm sooo confused about what to get! Maybe having a deadline of next Thursday is a good thing - I'm going to have to really research this week and decide what I want to get.

I've also considered the induction cooktops because they heat very quickly and are energy efficient. I would need to get new pots and pans because mine aren't magnetic-based. My main concern with this option is that I wouldn't be able to use my canner and I've only been able to find aluminum canners and those won't work with the induction cooktop.

Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We know our new address!

Exciting news yesterday - our building permit has been approved and the township assigned us an address for the new house. It's a private road, however, so we can't give the address to people who might want to map directions to our house on the internet, because (at least on Google maps), private roads are not recognized. We'll have to use an address on the main road when we give people directions.

DH left a message with the builder that our permit has been approved, so hopefully we'll hear back from him and can get moving on this house! Our builder is a commercial builder who does a few private residences for people he knows. DH worked with him on our church sanctuary project a couple of years ago and asked if he would be willing to build our house.