Cabinets and Survival

We are 8 days in and we are surviving.  So far we have been spoiled by friends having us over, a school fundraiser dinner, and takeout.  The most challenging thing for me is packing my children's lunch. This is a good time to point out [if you don't know Steve and I well] is that we make a lot of effort to only surround our family with natural food/products/lifestyle.   We cloth diapered our son, preservatives and food colorings are strongly avoided,  I'm obsessed with Tata Harper, and I am still not sure if Steve owns deodorant...etc.. Having a non-processed life with no oven or cooktop makes eating during a renovation REALLY hard.   Basically, I'm at Whole Foods every other day.

Ok on to the most important decision for a kitchen...cabinets!  Refinishing the current cabinets was not an option.  While I have zero doubt they were top of the line in the 70s (they were built in place), they aren't in the right room configuration and are not our style. The cabinets also had the soffits built down to the cabinets, instead of the cabinets to the ceiling.  Thus, making our 8ft ceilings look even shorter than they are.

We knew before we bought the house that the kitchen would be taken down to the studs and the main wall removed. Side note, we did have to replace the double oven and refrigerator when we moved in, or we would not have survived the past 5 months.  Therefore, the new kitchen had to accommodate two pretty major pre-design appliances.  Minor hurdle.

Once this wall is removed, the kitchen will be open to the living room

I met with two different contractor/designers that both were recommended to me to dip my toe in this process.  The first company, we will just call them John Wayne & Co [because they are pretty well known in the area], was really cool and listened to everything I thought I wanted at the time.  As it turns out, one of my inspiration kitchens I had a photo of [off of Pinterest] was designed and constructed by them!  The conversation was very detailed and they scoped out the entire house.  48 hours later I had a quote in my email. Of course it was a bit of a sticker shock [FYI, HGTV is WAY off on their renovation budgets...like CRAZY off] and they needed $5k down just to meet with me again and show me a rendering of what my kitchen might look like.  As I understand it, that is pretty standard in the industry, so I kept them as a contender.

Then I met with Holly Thompson Homes [https://hollythompsonhomes.com].  First of all, a Farmhouse Style is NOT my style.  Not only is it not my style, but it wouldn't work in this old colonial home.  Since farmhouse is what put HTH on the map, I had to make sure that traditional/classic was also in their wheel-house. The two ladies I met that first day [not Holly at this point] assured me that it was and that we should talk further. The next week [after I royally screwed up times and was totally unprepared for the meeting, not even sure if I had a bra on] HTH came over, measured, looked at my inspiration pictures, and then said they would be in touch.  Way more different/casual vibe than John Wayne, I was pretty skeptical.  Then the next day they called and told me to stop by their showroom when I got a chance. I showed up and they had my entire kitchen 3D rendered with a GIGANTIC island in the middle that I hadn't really imagined in that way. Holly's husband actually came over a second time to double check a few measurements.  THEN they introduced me to the construction team they recommended and THEY took some additional measurements and made a huge suggestion that actually might be the biggest game changer in the functionality of the kitchen,  recess the dining room wall 18ins. This was all before one penny was exchanged.  At this point, we had built a relationship and I couldn't have imagined of using anyone else.  Donna, Kim, and Dave had already realized that I was going to over-manage the whole process, and they still wanted to work with me. Sorry John Wayne & Co, but just sending an email to follow-up just didn't measure up.

Picking my cabinets from this point was super easy. I knew I wanted white shaker cabinets with soft close drawers and a VERY simple, straight line design.  I also wanted a wood stained island. It might someday be painted white, but I liked the contrast between the island and the perimeter.  I also wanted some glass cabinets. Not all of them, I'm not that organized, but a few to add a bit of sparkle. I started to over think it and Donna placed them on each side of the window. Boom. Done. I also want to open the window back up [it was inclosed with a wood shade at the top] to add more natural light back into the house. I ended up ordering a completely new picture window, the other one just did not let enough light into my already sun thirsty house.

Just couldn't work with this...

The two biggest design challenges with the cabinets are:

1) How the doors will open in the corner by the hood. I really want to make sure all the cabinets are functional.  Honestly, still not sure how this will work out...stay tuned [or if you are an 80's child, Stay Tooned]

2) I want to move the original crown molding that was hanging in the middle of my living room on beams [that have been taken down and preserved], to become part of the cabinets.  Now not only will custom Starmark cabinets be going in, they will also have the dental crown-molding from the home as the trim.  While I want it traditional, I also want it to be unique.

The only change we made to the cabinets after we placed the order was to put in a custom wine rack above the refrigerator.  We just had a cabinet there, but after I came home [and opened a bottle of Rose'], we realized we had not built anywhere to put wine bottles.  No one [of my stature] uses the cabinets above a refrigerator anyways.

So far, I'm really glad I went with a smaller local business for my cabinets.  If something goes wrong, I have personal cell phones to call and a team that I know really well that I have no doubt will take care of it.  Delivery is scheduled for the first week of October!