Bothell House Projects

Bothell House Projects

Photo Journal

Home Exterior Paint / Front & Back Yard Bedroom Living Room Kitchen Bathroom Study Altars

Kitchen

The kitchen projects began, I have to admit, as a bit of a wild hair. The first project (project RED) grew from the need to either move away from the house I had lived in while I was with Stuart or make everything look completely different. Painting was easier and cheaper than moving. The Red project was an overnighter (I was depressed OK?)....

The Total Kitchen Remodel project was another wild hair encouraged by several factors: My good friend Eric Yarnell got a new induction cooktop from Europe that cooks with magnets. I was fascinated! and of course just had to satisfy that gadget envy. But a new cooktop meant a new countertop, and if I was doing that, why not get new cabinets since mine were ugly and not a standard size so none of the organizer gadgets ever fit inside of them....

In truth I also knew that my dated kitchen would need to be updated before I sold the house (which could be next year, could be 10 years from now) and I hate spending money to fix up a house just in time to leave it.... It was getting to be time to refinance the house anyway so I decided that it was time to do all those big projects before I refinanced so the improvements would be rolled into the new loan.

Those two factors snowballed and gained momentum and the next thing I knew I was interviewing every kitchen company in Seattle.

I ended up going with Lowe's because they work with a "green" cabinet company and ended up being several thousand dollars cheaper (even with environmentally friendly cabinets) than many of the larger volume specialty companies that advertise being cheaper (and had absolutely no green options).

The down side of going with Lowes is that they would not work with the countertop or flooring materials I wanted to use (paperstone, marmoleum, or cork from the environmental home center), and I had to do quite a bit of the coordinating of contractors and installers.... the up side is that I was in charge so I was able to really get the schedules tight.... all in all the project has gone pretty well.

The new kitchen project has been in the works since October '06 (beginning planning), November (design and purchase). The tear out and install I managed to squeeze into 2 weeks (Feb '07).

Thru Lowe's I designed the kitchen with their excellent kitchen designer Paul who has gone to great lengths to help me get everything exactly as I wanted it. Paul introduced me to Pacific Crest cabinet builders. They made the cabinets out of Lyptus wood (a hardwood related to Eucalyptus that grows big enough to harvest in 5 years). They were solid wood, no laminates or MDF so much less off-gassing, and better for the environment all the way around. Lowes sub contracts to an installation company "Imagery Installation", they tore out the old cabinets, and installed the new cabinets. Catie at Jubilee Woodworks installed the countertops and Fyrer Knowles installed the the marmoleum floors. My roommate's friend Dave DeShaw patched the water damage in the floor (on Superbowl Sunday) and re-framed the pass thru. I removed the old wallpaper, washed & sanded all the old adhesive off, tore out the old floor, changed the lights and all the outlets, moved a phone jack (which required a new power tool to cut holes in the drywall), cut out rotten drywall, patched drywall, used drywall mud to smooth out all the old lumpy bumps in the walls (twice), sanded the whole mess down (twice) and painted (twice). I sourced the countertops, flooring, spice cabinet inserts all myself. I also pulled out the plumbing and all the appliances with the help of my good friend Kellly Pontiff (who's wife Stacey has helped with paint colors).

I definitely want my own show on the home garden network!

Here is the kitchen as it looked when I moved in (except I updated the handles from antique brass to these black ones)

More of the original kitchen

ditto

Project RED: Three cans of black appliance spray paint and a gallon of Bordeaux later.....

A successful cover up of the old tacky wallpaper and boring white walls and looks like I got a new fridge but didn't....

Total Remodel: Old kitchen after being emptied out

Ditto

Contents of the kitchen living in my study

another angle b/c there was so much it just wouldn't fit into one frame

The "dorm" kitchen set up in the living room

Bye Bye old cabinets, removing wallpaper, patching and sanding

First coat of paint, and a peek at the hole from the water damage

Water damage cut out on Super Bowl Sunday

New cabinets getting acclimated in living room

New cabinets installed! Wow, those look nice!

Trying to pick out cork tiles....none of them were quite right

Installing the counter top, and yes, that is drywall patch everywhere, I'll be painting again.... Picture on the right is the cook top about to be installed and one of the two missing cabinets that were not built to specs....