IKEA kitchen

I think one of the biggest mistakes a person can make when remodeling their house is to skip over the IKEA kitchen design center.  The hardware and the functionality is the same (if not better) than many custom millwork products - and the price is much, much less.  It's a win-win (except for the custom millwork guy).

From what I've read, a custom kitchen of our size would have cost about $35,000-50,000.  We're paying less than ten.  And that includes soft close drawers, good quality hinges, pull-out shelves, etc.  All of these upgrades are standard at IKEA.  Sure, you don't have a ton of choices for cabinet fronts... maybe 10 or so, but the lack of choice is well worth the reduced cost.

We're going to go with the gray high gloss cabinets.  Something like this:

Someone told me that Europeans do not put any aesthetic value on cabinetry which is why IKEA cabinets are fairly simple, sleek, and detail-less, and I think it is brilliant.  There is nothing that dates a house more quickly than a bad set of cabinets, and maybe some bad tile or shag.  IKEA Kitchen gets it right.

On Black Friday, we braved the IKEA crowds.  It really wasn't too bad.  Maybe because we got to the store 2 hours prior to opening (thanks, Mom) to wait in "line" (we were first, very first)?  Eventually, we were able to spend an hour with an IKEA designer.  He printed a 7-page list of parts that we'd need and we went and pulled everything off the shelves... ha, no way... that would take hours, or days.  Instead, we paid $90 for IKEA to pull everything off the shelves for us AND to deliver and carry everything into our home (up the stairs).  This has got to be the best Black Friday deal I've ever found.  I would have paid quite a bit more for that service, but...shhh.

Yeah, our kitchen came in a lot of boxes (our contractor claims, "hundreds") but we saved (A LOT OF) money, and we got a quality, stylish (and timeless) kitchen with all the bells and whistles.

Can't wait to get it all put together!

Drumroll... The Angled Soffit.

Still siding... but much, much closer

We should have the siding all wrapped up by Christmas.

Grohe Blue

Not gonna get it, but... the Grohe Blue is probably one of the coolest products I've come across throughout the remodel (so far).

This is a Grohe kitchen faucet system that offers three types of water on-demand: (1) cold, filtered water, (2) cold, medium-sparkling water, or (3) full-sparkling water.  We go through quite a bit of sparking water so this was definitely on the "wish list" for a few minutes.  The retail price is over $3,000.  A little steep - okay, a lot steep.  We'll cross it off the list for now.

I wonder how much sparkling water you'd have to drink to make the numbers work?

Still siding...

The soffits are coming along.

If you look closely, you can begin to see the angled soffit design of the Southwest corner.

These are a few of my favorite things

Now that we're approaching the home stretch, it is fun to look at accessories for the new pad.

Some of my favorites:

The "merde" pillow, by Alexandra Ferguson (allmodern.com), because it doesn't seem quite as bad if you say it in French.  I'm pretty sure Santa will still come.

Cozy, wool blankets by Eleanor Pritchard.  (eleanorpritchard.com/)

Everything she does is fabulous!

State shaped cutting boards by AHeirloom.  These look really cool except they are small... cheese plate?








And, of course, the Nest Thermostat, and the Spore Doorbell!  The Nest can be controlled by your smartphone so you can change the temperature of your house from anywhere.

The Spore Doorbell is a family-run, Seattle company.  The owner went to school in Bellingham so we've gotta support him.  And the doorbells are just cool.  The black-on-black, matte finish, is really fun.  sporedoorbells.com

 

Toto Aquia vs. Kohler Persuade

Drumroll... we went with the Kohler Persuade... with the soft close, easy-clean lid.  (I'm only blogging about this because so many people have asked me which toilets we chose... who knew there was such an interest?  It has been the number one question after, what color paint?  And since I don't know the answer to that one, I chose to write about toilets.)

Truth be told, I actually think the Aquia is a prettier toilet.  But the Kohler is made in America.  And although I didn't think it would, that felt important to me.  Maybe since I made the decision in the middle of the government shutdown and I'm a proud American?  Anyway, the Kohler also comes with the "pop off" easy-cleaning toilet seat.  If you're in the market for a new toilet, this is a feature you must see to believe.  (Particularly wonderful for those who are potty training 3 year old little boys.)

It's also about an inch narrower than many other "standard" toilets.  The shape of the bowl and stand make it easy to clean - not many nooks and crannies.

It retails for $551, but a contractor's discount brings it to $317.  Not bad at all.

Soffits - Stage 1

The text from our contractor read, "Soffit dilemma averted," which I read as "soffit crisis averted."  Finally.  We've convinced a team of 3 extremely patient Russians to get started on our project.  They, along with all of the other siding specialists we tried to hire, cannot comprehend why we want the soffits to be angled (and they too tried to convince us to use a flat soffit design), but I held my ground and they finally started piecing together our complicated, angled soffit design.  

The mathematics of it is too boring to explain... but it is actually a very difficult soffit to engineer so hats off to our siding team.  So far, with only one soffit finished, I already think it looks fabulous!  And yes, it was worth the wait...

We are also taking a somewhat unconventional approach by not trimming out our windows.  The siding will meet up with the window frame.  It's a cleaner look for this style of modern house.

Well, only about 2 more weeks to go with this soffit/siding process...

I'm jumping on the band wagon

I know that ombre products have been all the rage for awhile now but I'm just now getting on board.  ("Ombre" - when something fades from dark to light, or one color to another)

 
 
I love the concept.  It's fun and unique and interesting.  That's probably why I was also set on my yellow ombre fireplace idea.  Remember this from way back when:

But I've ditched that idea in search of a better opportunity for ombre.  And I've found it.

Ben came across a company called Hakatai.  They are a small tile company out of Ashland, Oregon, that will do custom ombre glass tile design.  Once we started playing around on the website's custom design tool, we were hooked.  Here are some ombre tile installations that we like:

Not sure exactly where this will end up but we're currently working with Hakatai to create something fun, something unique... and something OMBRE!  Just saying the word "ombre" makes me feel like drinking a margarita.   

Black beauty

I never thought I'd fall for a black sink but I'm kind of digging it!  The picture looks amazing.  Unfortunately, when you get up close and personal, it has speckles in it.  As Quinn would say, "So sad, too bad."  

We have to do what?

Ben really wanted a built-in speaker system.  I didn't care, at all.  I like music but I don't really care how it gets from the "system" to my ears.  And I didn't really feel compelled to spend money on this type of upgrade.

But, we decided to compromise.  Ben could get the system and speakers that he wanted but we would need to install them ourselves.  He went all out with lots of speakers, lots of zones, iPhone controls...  it seems like a very "smart" plan.  (My only request was a speaker in the powder room because, well, just because.)

When we showed up to the house on Saturday afternoon, we were very disappointed to see this:

That little brass lock on the gas meter means that Puget Sound Electric didn't show up to turn on the gas and the furnace, not that we should have expected them to come so soon (our "service window" was 8 am - midnight.  Gosh, I used to complain when Comcast gave me a 4-hour window.)  So, we'd have to complete our installation in 29 degree chill.  We bundled up and got to work!

(About an hour into the project, the PSE guy showed up and fired up the furnace.  It only took about 30 minutes to get the house up to a balmy 40 degrees.)

The project went well but it was hard.  We disagreed about whether the switches needed to line up exactly or whether a 3/8 inch difference was allowed.  We are both type A... but I'm more of an A- when it comes to the "perfectionist" category.  3/8 inch in either direction wouldn't bother me a bit but Ben would have hot flashes every time he passed it, so we moved the switch to its "perfect" location.  I already feel sorry for the tile guy.

We didn't finish the project... we had to run off to get a Christmas tree... but we worked hard and made some good progress.  As I write this, Ben is at the house finishing up what we started.  I'm "holding down the fort" by watching some Chelsea Lately and KUWTK. 

It was nice to have a small project so we could feel like we've paid our dues in the "sweat equity" category (ha!).  I hope one of our (many) future dinner parties will enjoy the ambiance we've created... and I promise to always have my music paired perfectly with my meal.  

Check, check, check

Okay, it's been awhile since I've really written a good, substantive post (and this won't be one either) but I feel like we've reached a good milestone today.  From here on out, things should be a little more "fun."  We've finished up most of the (boring) mechanical stuff and now we're onto the finishing stage.

Plumbing inspection - check.
Electrical inspection - check.
Framing inspection - check.

The bones are there.  Now we get to have fun covering them up with flooring, siding, paint, carpet, doors and other fun things!  (Of course, this is also the time when everyone says "you'll go over budget."  We'll see.)