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jmnorse

Finished Kitchen

jmnorse
11 years ago

Thank you all! I just finished my kitchen earlier this week. I started researching and posting here last June and after over a year of slow effort, it's now finished and feels great. I owe a great deal to people here for their assistance. Lisa A, LaxSuperMom, and Lavender Lass helped a lot with my layout, and LiveWireOak helped me pick out a door style. Also, thanks to everyone who uses gardenweb since I did a lot of research here.

Cabinets - Wellborn Forest - Madison Door - Cinnamon Cherry

I had some quality concerns when they arrived. After some cleanup and mfg replacements, they were great.

Counters - Blue Pearl GT

Beautiful! I used a trick I saw posted here to get ogee on the island and half-bullnose elsewhere. Got a nice look and saved some money. I also got runnels next the sink and I'm glad I did. I had tried to use Amastin for the overhang supports. The owner there was very helpful, but I could never get him to send me an invoice, so I ended up at a local metal fab place. Probably cost half as much.

UCL - Environmental Lights 12V Strip LEDs

I bought a reel and some housings and built them to my exact lengths. For the glass cabinet, I tacked strips on the insides of the stiles. I like the look and don't need glass shelves as a result.

Backsplash - Lowes...

A Blanco Silgranit single-bowl sink, Delta touch-on faucet, and Delta pot filler. I like the deep sink since it hides all my dirty dishes. The runnels let me dry everything without having a dish rack out.

Original Dining Room

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Finished

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Night Shot

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Final Layout

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Island Overhang Supports - This may be extremely close to the Amastin design. The owner had verbally described a few things. I used his description to create these drawings when I gave up trying to get him to send me an invoice to do the work. Contrary to the drawing, I used regular steel and painted it.

From Shared

Justin

Comments (35)

  • dilly_ny
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow! What a transformation! taking down the wall and opening up the space was perfect for your house. Congratualtions and enjoy.

  • oldbat2be
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Congrats!! I liked seeing your pictures over time, what a great transformation. I smiled seeing your night shot; I know that feeling of looking in at night and feeling so incredibly happy that it's turned out as well as it has. Best, oldbat2be

  • sixtyohno
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love taking down walls. What a different space with a wall down. The kitchen is beautiful and practical. The matching woodwork is a great idea. Congratulations.

  • tea4all
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It's a beauty!! All your structural work (wall removal & windows became sliding door) sure transformed the space. Love your cabinets, crown molding, and floor. What flooring did you use?

    You did a great job. Thanks for sharing the pictures in progression. Enjoy!

  • fouramblues
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I want to print out your pics and whir them by like an old flip deck. So cool to see the time lapse. Even cooler to see your beautiful new space. Well done!!

  • badgergal
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Beautiful! Your kitchen looks polished and elegant while still being warm and comfy. I bet you just love having all that room to maneuver in now. I love the color of your cabinets and the nice contrast with your hardwood floors. Your backsplash is great too. Congratulations on a job well done.

  • momo7
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very, very cool way to display your kitchen transformation. Wow, you must love this space now. It looks wonderful!

    Just wondering - how much space do you have between island stools and table chairs? Also, can you share more details about your backsplash, please?

    Enjoy!

  • williamsem
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, what a difference! Congrats!

  • onedogedie
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Congratulations on your new space! Was this mostly DIY? Your documentation is like a stage play. I love the photographs and how they tell the story with your dog keeping vigil. Most poignant to me are the first two photos. The old dining room and kitchen on the cusp of transformation.

    Now you need to post the close-ups of the details. I'd like to see the inside of the cabinet door with the LEDS. Pretty please!

  • willtv
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That's quite the transformation.
    Taking out the wall really opens up the space and makes it infinitely more useful.
    Great job!

  • jmnorse
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the compliments! It was actually a very enjoyable process.

    tea4all,
    I had existing 50 yr old red oak floors and didn't want to redo all my flooring. There's a place in Baltimore called Second Chance where one can buy (among tons of other things) reclaimed hardwood flooring. I took in a slat of the existing floor and found some close matches. I had to weave in the additional slats. Luckily there were some good videos on that at YouTube.

    momo,
    The final layout was for a round table. Using a rectangular table instead gave me 56" between island and table. With a chair and stool pulled out, there's still space to walk between them comfortably. In the layout, I had 9" less space and would have had to turned sideways to pass between if both chair were occupied.

    The backsplash tiles all came from Lowes. It was American Olean Cicerone Noche. The mfg must have changed the style because I had to pick through two slightly different colors that were listed under the same name... I don't know about others, but comparing HD to Lowes for tiles, I found Lowes to have a much better selection.

    Justin

  • rhome410
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lovely! Fun to see the steps from before to after!

  • Yvonne B
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very nice! It was great to see the transition, and you ended up with a beautiful space.

  • TxMarti
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love seeing the progession! And you space turned out so well. I love the open space and your island. It looks so much bigger. Well done!

  • blfenton
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a difference. It looks like such a nice, comfortable and very usable space. I like the pictures over-time presentation. Now, do the dogs like it?

  • camphappy
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a beautiful open space you have now. The long wait was worth it!
    I hope you enjoy many, many years in your "new" home.

  • go_figure01
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Looks great! What a difference a wall removal makes!
    Thanks for the inspiration.
    Many happy memories to you in your new space!!

  • CEFreeman
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ahhh... Second Chance!
    That's one of the reuse centers I visit occasionally. They have an incredible amount of building materials (move over HD!), kitchens, appliances, doors & windows. Love it. Them? Not so much, but their stuff? WOW!

    You've done a fantastic job. I also like the step by step photos. It really looks like a new space.

    Congrats!

  • jentrex
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well done! I love the space. Please post some close up pics of granite, cabs, and more info on hood.

  • ILoveRed
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow--amazing how this kitchen was transformed by utilizing that secluded dining room.

    Great job.

  • jmnorse
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It creates more running space for the dog, so he's happy ;) I no longer have the dog in the first few pics, the later ones include Zeke. He provided moral support.

    The hood came from Kobe (CH8136SQB). It has a "super" quiet mode that is reasonably quiet. I can still hear the TV over it fairly well. I'm very sensitive to noise (transfomers especially) so I picked appliances that received good reviews for their silence. My dishwasher is a Bosch (SHX55RL5UC), the range is GE Profile (JSP46SPSS), and the fridge is an LG with the linear compression motor (LFC25776ST). I've been very impressed with how quiet they all are, especially the fridge.

    The UCL took awhile to plan. There were a lot of posts from guys like davidtay that helped guide me. It's dimmable using the Lutron three way and Lutron three way Magnetic LV switches. My transformer is from Magnitude. All the wiring was 14-2 romex until it got under the cabinets. I switched to 16ga? at that point. The EnvLight strips worked poorly with stranded LV wire and I had to use a single strand that was small enough to poke through the solder pads. Some pics are below.

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  • gr8daygw
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love your kitchen it looks so great, also love your doggies! I was wondering about the load bearing aspect. Did you have to do anything special after taking out the walls for support?

  • jmnorse
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A few more pics:

    Tilt-outs in the sink cabinet were a must.
    The ez-reach corner wall cabinet is so much easier to use than the standard angled corner.
    I got a full height 18" wide cabinet for dual trashcans. I used a rev-a-shelf kit for dual 35qt cans, but bought 50qt cans and used those instead. The stiles on my cabs are wider than normal and I had to trim the lips off the trashcan lids.

    From Shared

    Again, the wider stiles caught me be surprise with the microwave. I think there were options for normal width, but I didn't even think about it. The microwave cavity was 23.5", which is just slightly to small for the common 24" width microwaves. To get power, I cut a hole in the back side and there's an outlet hidden behind the filler strip between the fridge return and mic cabinet.

    From Shared

    1' deep pantry cabinet. It's easily enough space for me alone. When I get a family, I would probably need to use half of my base corner cab for pantry as well. Also, I didn't get a toe kick on this and used furniture base molding. I think it would have looked odd otherwise. The crown is three piece per a drawing by buehl that can be found somewhere around here. It consists of the light rail (upside down), 3" filler, and crown molding. In retrospect, it's a little more oomph that I would have liked.

    From Shared

    Beadboard on all exposed cabinet sides. With a table saw, pin nailer, and wood glue, this was incredibly easy. I did have to back the island with some 3/8" thick plywood for support.

    From Shared

    Almost everything is hidden from view. Using the grate in the sink lets me fill up the sink w/o blocking water flow, and I can place glasses in there upside down to dry. Using the runnels, I put everything on them to dry and don't even have a dish rack.

    From Shared

    I chopped the toe kick backing out of the way on the sink. There was a HVAC supply behind it, so using a nice 3' wide valance instead of toe kick lets the air through to my feet and looks nice too.

    From Shared

    Justin

  • jmnorse
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    gr8day,
    The first few pics show work that was done by a GC. They built support walls and replaced the old wall with an LVL beam. I definitely would use licensed people for that work. The other wall that was removed later on was not structural.

    Justin

  • cat_mom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It looks terrific! Great job!

  • islanddevil
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Agree great transformation and love the way you captured it. If only kitchens could be finished as fast and as cleanly as a few click click photos would lead one to believe.

    Loved how you incorporated the dining room space. I so wish my layout would allow me to do the same with my NEVER used DR, but even with a bunch of expensive modifications I would have to swap Kitchen with DR and that would put my kitchen too close to my front door and living room and further from the family room which doesn't work at all in my home.

    Thanks for sharing!

  • bellsmom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A real pleasure to look at your pics and read your narrative. I hope you had fun with this. It is creative and unique to you. I know it must make you smile when you glance up as you walk by.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • lavender_lass
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It looks beautiful! So lovely and functional...what a wonderful transformation :)

  • Mags438
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, that's a beautiful transformation. *sigh * green with envy over all that space

  • poohpup
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a stunning transformation! Really, really beautiful! You must be beyond thrilled. Enjoy that gorgeous new space!

  • breezygirl
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow! I'm impressed both by the immense change and by how much work you did. Great job!

  • secondhalf
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a great picture journal of the progress! It's wonderful. Enjoy!

  • gr8daygw
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks Justin for the info on the load bearing aspect. The kitchen is fabulous. Congrats on a great job!

  • finestra
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a great transformation. The photos are an amazing diary of what you did. Congrats and enjoy!

  • a2gemini
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great job! Congratulations on a beautiful transformation! You will have so much fun cooking in this kitchen!!!
    Love how warmth and coziness of your kitchen (OK - I have to confess - I like warm kitchens! and am just about finished with ours!!)
    The floor looks amazing!!!
    Love the picture diary and now want to see pictures of your favorite food dishes made in your new kitchen.
    PS - Also have to congratulate you as an alumnus of the ABT club (all but backsplash)

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