CityMama™

IKEA KITCHEN REMODEL DIARY. FINAL INSTALLMENT

At long last, here are the before and after pictures of our kitchen. Tiny detail work needs to be done (painting trim etc.), but it's pretty much done. It looks empty because we are moving.

The work was started by a friend (demo, framing & drywall, painting, some cabinet installation, some floors), and then finished to perfection by G Squared Building—possibly the most consciencious, kick-ass contractor on the planet— who did everything else. He fine tuned our kitchen like a Stradivarius to make our kitchen look immaculate.

I'm going to miss it.

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Finally! Here are some preliminary kitchen pix (taken with our new, non-rain-soaked Sony DSC-W7! I can't figure out their shitty directions so the picture suck—someone please fire Sony camera's whole tech writing department.)

Anyway, the range hood isn't up yet and the trim isn't painted and stuff is not quite arranged/put away, but here goes:

Before:

After:

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I never thought it would feel so good to wash dishes, but damn if it doesn't make me giddy with glee. (By the way, the Kitchen Aid dishwasher looks sleek and has the hidden controls just like the Bosch, but it is a touch noisy. And by that I mean, it's not absolutely silent like the Asko or Bosch would have been. But it does have the fancy adjustable racks so you can wash your big pots, and that's cool.)

Just for the record? Our kitchen kicks ass. I hope whoever lives here next will appreciate our vision. I am so proud of us. The blond wood and the stainless and the colors are all working together in perfect harmony. I am in love with our backsplash. Our cork floors are soft and spongy underfoot.
It is a little shocking to walk into our 1928 house and see 2005, but a good kind of shocking, I think.

We chose some stainless light fixtures at Lux (the coolest lighting store ever) that will flood our kitchen with light and make it seem more open and airy than it is. Well, it's airy, but not so open. Or, as open as a small, galley-type kitchen can be.

This weekend was spent on finishing touches. Contractor George has been here since early Saturday morning getting our kitchen together. He hooked up the sink, faucet, disposal, and dishwasher yesterday morning. Today he is working on the final details.

George is the master of flooring and trim. The test? He managed to cut around several molding reveals and make the floor look perfect. The blessing and curse of old houses are those beautifully layered reveals around doors and windows—where the molding is graduated like little steps.

J. and I stared long and hard at our doorways wondering how the cork would be cut to fit around it. George took one look and said, "Yeah. No problem." So floor is done. Appliances are installed and now the trim is being touched up. Tonight after the kids go to bed I am going grocery shopping—something else I haven't done in a month—and am stocking the gleaming fridge with everything my girls like to eat. Bunny is feeling under the weather, so tomorrow I am going to make her some of Mamma's chicken soup.  Yes, tomorrow, I am cooking like a mother.

So what's left? We need to paint the trim which J. will do tonight. We need to install the lights and put the plate covers over the outlets. Our range hood is being delivered tomorrow and that needs to go up. J. has to build one more IKEA cabinet and we need to decide on window coverings, then our kitchen will finally be done.

The bittersweet part is that instead of restocking our cabinets with all of our dishes and glassware, I will only be putting out what we need for the next month or two and then packing everything else up for our move.

Pictures are forthcoming. I accidentally left my digital camera in the rain on Thanksgiving and it's ruined. (I swear I didn't do that just because I wanted a new camera. No, really.) My regular (film) camera is in the shop for a tune-up, but I can pick it up tomorrow. Then I will be able to snap some pics and share our crazy-wonderful kitchen in all its glory.

THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we spent the holiday at the home of good friends who recently moved to Portland from Sacramento. We knew them when we were two childless couples living the high life in San Francisco during the Clinton adminstration. We had lots of fun together in those good ol' days. These days we have a different kind of fun that involves far less drinking, smoking, and staying out 'til all hours of the morning.

Thanksgiving was a potluck affair and even though our hosts worked so hard, it was nice just to be able to have a relaxing day without having to keep an eye on a turkey. I whipped out my two sides in a couple hours and it was low stress for me.

We are surrounded by an amazing group of friends who all share one thing in common—they are fabulous cooks. How did we get to be so lucky? And the best part is that they have, in one way or another, taken us in while our kitchen is being remodelled. We feel so lucky to have such talented friends and to have been on the receiving end of such culinary goodness.

Mamaloo—Thank you for your comforting dinners and sweet desserts.

Stellarma—We appreciate you feeding us like family and letting us use your kitchen. Thank you for always keeping the cocktails flowing.

Darbunk—See Stellarma. And thank you for hosting such a special Thanksgiving. The turkey was perfection.

Silly Spilli—Lasagne like no other. Thank you, thank you.

AfrindieMum—Thank you for coordinating all our dinners in the midst of your own move. We appreciate it muchly.

Now that we are moving, we don't know if we can "repay" them for all those delicious meals. But I'd like to try. When the kitchen is done, I'm working out my month's-worth of non-cooking by having the dinner party to end all dinner parties. Well, as much as can be with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers under foot.

We may be karmically fucked, but we must be doing something right to have such fantastic friends. No matter where we are, our front door is always open to you.

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As I type this, Jonathan and Mark are working fast and furious on the kitchen. The painting is pretty much done and the cork flooring is about to go down. The appliances have been delivered and are sitting in the garage waiting to be installed, and we finally picked a range hood. It's really pretty, I think.

But all of this suddenly doesn't matter anymore. Why? Because within a few months, we will be moving. Back to San Francisco. As I type this, I almost cannot believe it. State of shock, here.

So what does this all mean? Selfishly, I can't stop thinking about all the work that went into this kitchen and how I won't be able to use it. I won't be able to enjoy the cute apple green and the new-ness of everything. I won't be able to put all of our dishes into the cabinets. I won't be able to look for vintage posters to hang on the walls. I won't be able to enjoy the warmness of our cork floor because we are moving. Again.

J. got the job opportunity of a lifetime working with old colleagues again. It is the kind of job that you would move anywhere for, no matter what. And it just happens to be in San Francisco. The company cut a check for our re-lo the day after J. sent back his signed offer letter and today, a welcome gift arrived on our doorstep. We haven't opened it yet, but it's from wine.com. All of this went down while we were in Hawaii so we haven't really been able to talk everything through. It's all moving too fast.

All I know is that we are moving back to the outrageously expensive city we left because it was too outrageously expensive. A quick perusal of the interwebs tells me that preschool and childcare are going to cost almost double what we pay here. We are leaving our cute house, our new friends, and this beautiful city which I love.

I have written before about how we are karmically fucked. Wallie was almost born in Tokyo instead of in Portland. Our family has been faced with more Sophie's Choice-type situations that anyone else I know. And no one moves as much as we do. Some force out there does not want us to ever put down roots. Or maybe we are just meant to be in San Francisco.

In the meantime, I instructed J. to downgrade our appliances slightly. We are not running the gas line for the pro-style stove and are going with a ceramic-top electric model instead. And instead of a Bosch dishwasher we are going with a perfectly fine Kitchen Aid which looks identical. (If I can't enjoy my new fancy appliances, ain't nobody gonna.) The fridge stays, though. I love its modern design, and I hope the people who rent or buy this house next (still to be determined) love it, too.

So San Francisco—land of 700k+ median homes, $15/hour childcare, self-absorbed retail employees, Judds, and their female counterpart: The Twenty-Something Marina Chick—here we come. But I hafta admit, I look forward to pumping my own gas, buying booze at the corner market anytime I feel it, walking Clement Street, and seeing old friends.

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Our kitchen is coming along, but slowly. We still need the wallboard to be taped and mudded (and sanded). Then the walls can be painted, floor can go down, appliances can be installed (we've put off delivery three times now), and the cabinets can slide on in. This project has taken longer than I ever thought imaginable. When our bid said 30 hours (or whatever it was) I didn't realize that our contractor meant over the course of a year. Work has been frustratingly slow mainly because people aren't here everyday working. To be fair, when he is here, work progresses nicely.

But, the paint! I finally talked J. into letting me paint two walls green. (Typepad green!) The color of the cashmere sweater that everyone seems to be wearing this fall (including me).  The coolness of the color should help to open up our small kitchen a bit more. And I am doing the walls that have the windows—one of the reasons why we have no storage space in our kitchen is because it is full of windows. And windows mean no wall space for cabinets. The rest of the kitchen will be a color called "Natural Wax" which is the color of beeswax candles. There is one wall that I would like to paint a bright contrast to the green, but I think Mr. Resale Value would kill me.

J. was in Seattle for work this week so he hit up the IKEA for the rest of the things we needed for our project including the stainless steel backsplash, another section of cabinet, some shelving, my magnetic knife racks, and our stainless kitchen island. I noticed that Pottery Barn is now carrying backsplash sections, but why would you pay $79 for it when IKEA has it for $29? (And IKEA's is bigger.)

The one thing that I am really pissed about is that they don't have our faucet in stock and won't have it (company wide) until January. Maybe. It's not listed on the site either. It's a single lever, industrial-looking faucet with a big, curved, springy, pull-down sprayer. It's tight. Does anyone have a lead on how to get it? It's not on eBay, I checked. We could get an alternative, but then we'd be spending over $1000 for it instead of a fraction the price.

The last thing to do is to finalize where our wine fridge/storage will go. We still have one small section of our kitchen to address—it has a very complicated wall situation thanks to an old metal laundry chute running through it that can't be removed without exploding our budget. Against it I'd like to build a custom cabinet to house our wine fridge with extra storage for wine bottles. I can't think about it until the rest kitchen is in place.

So tomorrow the girls and I leave for Hawaii for 10 days to visit Tata (my mom). J. will be there to hold down the fort and to hopefully kick our kitchen project into high gear. When I come home I am promised both by the guy working on it and by J. that kitchen will be in place. All I can say is, it better be so. Seriously, bro. Or the smack? It shall be laid down.

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I miss cooking.

I miss making meals for my family. I miss Bunny walking into the kitchen when I am sauteeing garlic and onion in olive oil saying, "Mmmmmmm! That smells good, Mamma. Are you making pasta?" I miss Wallie in her high chair chomping on cheese while I get dinner together. I miss chopping —and sipping wine, stirring—and sipping wine, seasoning and tasting—and sipping wine.

When I can't cook it feels like something is off in the world. At least mine, anyway.

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Last weekend J. held an IKEA building party and he and AfrindieDad along with Mr. StarryCharley built almost all the cabinets for our kitchen. No one is more appreciative than I am. It meant a lot that both would give up their Sundays to do such crap work.

In the course of building the cabinets, they discovered that our stainless steel sink was delivered with a corner bashed in. For some reason the IKEA doesn't show the sink we are getting on their site. It is an integrated sink so imagine a counter top with a sink integrated into it in one seamless piece. The front corner is flattened as if someone dropped it on that corner. No worries. We will get a replacement.

In other setback news, the place where we got our floors is located in Florida and suffered damage during the last hurricane. As of last week they still had no power to their warehouse which meant a delay of several weeks in shipping. However, their staff was extremely accomodating and found us some flooring in Seattle which they shipped to us at no charge. It arrived today and is sitting in our garage along with the rest of the kitchen. It is slightly lighter than our original choice, but it will do.

We've got the bulk of the appliances selected. The fridge was a tough choice because we knew we wanted stainless and preferred a freezer-on-bottom model. We covet the french door fridges but they are too rich for our budget. Most of the stainless fridges we looked at have black sides which I didn't like because it is free standing and I didn't want it ruining our aesthetic. I didn't want to walk into our stainless and light-wood kitchen and see a wall of black. Only two companies make an all stainless fridge. One of them is a side-by-side which I personally don't like because of the annoying lack of storage. The other is the one we chose. It's made by New Zealand company Fisher and Paykel (of the cool-but-still-too-over-priced-for-me fridge drawers) and it is a no-nonsense, quality fridge. Fridges should keep food cold. And this one does...and looks pretty snazzy too.

I rallied hard for an Asko dishwasher. I did my due diligence and these are consistently highly rated for cleaning ability, water and energy efficiency, and quietness. People just love the shit out of Asko. The only downside I could see if that they have a filter that needs emptying. Big deal. When it came time to purchase the appliances, J. ixnayed the Asko in favor of the better-looking Bosch stainless. (I don't love the towel bar aka Wallie's future jungle gym.)

His opinion is that no one has ever heard of Asko and when it comes time to sell the house, he wanted our appliances to help do the selling. He actually said something like, "It's the kitchen that sells the house to the woman." I wish I could call him out for being sexist, but he's kinda right. Statistically I venture to say he's spot-on. And he's so not. Sexist, that is. In an irrational moment I tried to convince J. to buy a house that blew off the top of our price range just because the kitchen was so beautiful. Thank goodness he talked me down. His thoughts are that the kitchen can make or break the deal and he wants ours to be as appealing as possible. I could argue that no one has ever heard of Fisher and Paykel or Bosch either, but...eh.

I have my own reasons for not wanting a Bosch dishwasher. I know people who have them (granted, different models) and hate the way they clean. And they do not get good marks from folks at the appliance store. Everyone sales person we talked to would pick Asko over Bosch (and they are comparable in price so it's not the up-selling). But Asko is not pretty enough for J. so hmph. We'll see who gets the last laugh.

The hardest decision for me was the range. I consider myself to be a culinary pro and wanted a range that could stand up to everything that I would throw its way. Unfortunately, we don't have a huge budget for a range nor do we have the space in our tiny kitchen for anything larger than 30 inches. So how does someone who considers cooking as an essential part of her happiness (and livelihood) pick a professional quality range on a limited budget? Well, it wasn't too hard since with our requirement, there isn't a whole lot of selection.

I knew that I wanted a dual fuel range—gas burners, electric/convection oven. In a recent issue of Consumer Reports, nine dual-fuel ranges were tested but only three were in our price range. The one they liked—the Kitchen Aid—was too pricey. The next one down—the GE Profile—was too ugly. The one that I decided to go with was the Frigidaire Professional Series range. I never think of Frigidaire when it comes to ranges, but I am satisfied with our selection. It has everything I wanted: 5-burners, a couple of high BTU burners, a convection oven, and a warming drawer. According to Consumer Reports, Frigidaire gas/dual fuel stoves report fewer repairs and serious problems that almost all other ranges in that category. (The worst offenders? Dacor, Jenn-Air, and Viking.)

Our kitchen is still gutted and we are dining out every night like our names are Mr. and Mrs. Howell. I just want to be able to cook again. And it looks like we are still a couple-three weeks away at least.

Still left to do is pick a range hood, the lighting and fan, and a paint color for the kitchen. (I'm thinking apple green. I know it sounds gross, but I fell in love with a modular Tuscan kitchen in the last issue of Saveur that sported apple green cabinets. I've almost got J. convinced, I think.)

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(pictures to come)

Bye-bye crap kitchen with your fucked up bottom-of-the-line appliances and fugly floor. I will not miss you one bit.

Demolition started today. My friend and colleague's husband is doing the bulk of the work. By the time Wallie, J, and I headed out the door to our favorite WiFi hotspot, he had most of the cabinets taken down. He seems to be very conscientious and methodical. And I appreciate that a lot.

We have a Dumpster® in front of our house. Dumpsters are so cool. I can't wait to start hucking crap into it. Like everything the previous owners of our house left in the garage. How ghetto is that to leave shit behind for other people to clean up?

We've set up a make-shift kitchen in our living complete with coffee maker, rice cooker, hot water dispenser, toaster oven, and microwave. I went to the grocery store and bought all kinds of stuff that could be easily prepared using the aforementioned small electrics. My head almost exploded when it came time to pay. I am just not used to buying so much pre-packaged, processed food.

We found out that because of the hurricane situation in Florida, our flooring is going to be delayed. Guess the warehouse is located there. So far this is the only hitch in the works. But it's kind of a biggie. No floor means no appliances can be installed so we had to call the appliance mafia and tell them not to deliver as we had planned. They were nonplussed. This happens all the time, apparently.

Speaking of flooring, we're doing cork (Don't think of wine bottles or bulletin boards, it really is neato.) It seems like such a trendy choice, but I grew up with a cork kitchen floor and I remember it being soft and warm underfoot. I want that for my girlies. I also the remember the way it gleamed whenever my mom waxed it. (Not that I'll be doing that.)

I grew up in the house that my grandfather designed and built. (He also designed my crib.) He was meticulous when it came to building materials. Quality all the way. He also designed all the furniture and had it made to match the house. This was in the 50's when it seemed cool for men to do stuff like that. I mean, it's cool now, but seems even cooler to me because it was the 50's.

We went to a local flooring place to get a quote on purchasing and installation. Then J. found a source on the interwebs that quoted him half of what our local store wanted. (Plus we'll get enough flooring to cover a section of the basement and some flooring for the back of garage where J. wants to make a Man Room) Plus free shipping. From Flahrida. I want to support the local guy, I really do, but not when they want to ream me up the ass.

When the kitchen is all done I am going to have a big virtual cocktail party to celebrate. And you are all invited.

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Remember J. saying he was going to build all 16 pieces of our kitchen this weekend? Well, he did this:

I feel like this is my take on Sweet Juniper's Friday Morning Street Urchin blogging. Instead of grainy, gelatin silver prints of street rats, I'll be throwing up glossy pictures of build-it-yourself, Swedish cabinetry.

Woohoo, only 15 more pieces to go!