The Bank

I went to Marshall & Ilsley to talk to our banker. The interest rate on our remaining house loan is 5.5% and the rate on our home equity line is at Prime, 7.25% I think.

I told her what we’re doing and about how much we’ll be putting on our line. I will want to lock that new loan in at some interest rate – either combining it with our existing note or having a separate one.

If we combine the two, we lose the low rate on the existing but get a lower rate on the new quantity. Or, we keep what we have and take the higher rate on the new amount.

That’s not a decision. The math will work out the way it will work out. The color of the granite is a much tougher problem to solve.

Looking At Display Kitchens

On 4/24/07 we went down to meet with our designer again and look at some display kitchens in order to come up with a close-to-complete design.

The Sub-Zero refrigerators, although fabulous looking and made right here in Wisconsin, seemed too big. We don’t need something like that for the two of us. However, the dishwashing drawers seemed too small and we opted for a full size DW. We’ll probably go with middle of the road quality for both of those; something like a GE or Jenn-Air. We do like the French doors on the ‘fridge.

I very much liked the five burner Dacor cook top. It’s arranged three in back, two in front with the five controls in the spot where a sixth burner would be. The Dacor is a professional grade, up there with Viking. They also make ovens and we’ll probably go with two of those.

The granite counter tops look great but we didn’t really see a color that we liked. We’ll have to go to the granite supply place and have a look around. Never thought I’d be doing something like that.

We are torn on the flooring between vinyl “tiles” and cork. They’re about the same cost, both look good and are easy on the feet. We’ll need to see some final designs in order to choose.

We’re leaning for fairly traditional birch cabinets. The counter tops will most likely be dark and will therefore go with a lighter stain. The hinges will be visible. We are pro-hinge.

Our choice or two sinks, one large single compartment one small, both enameled cast iron with a single handle faucet is still our preference.

The next step will be for our designer to make the design and get it to their art department to make up the final drawings. This should take about two weeks. Our timeline for completion is August.

Meeting With A Designer

We met with a designer from Wisconsin Kitchen-Mart on Wednesday April 18^th. This is the largest project that we have ever had done by far and had as many questions as answers. We told her some general things about us and what we were looking for; a kitchen designed for people who like to cook, a general budget range, and some ideas so that she could get the general feel of our limits.

She then asked us a series of questions in order to put together the pieces of the design:

• Countertops? They don’t recommend concrete as a work surface – granite is better.
• Six burner cook top with some high BTU burners.
• Double oven
• Cabinets? We’re not sure. Frosted glass? Paint? We’ll need to look.
• I want a rack to hang pots and pans.
• Refrigerator? We don’t know. French doors maybe? No wood, however.
• Dishwasher – would a dish drawer work for us?
• Cooking hood – we want stainless
• Floor – hardwood to match
• Tile behind the counters
• Sink? Prep sink and main, enameled cast iron.
• Two garbage disposals
• Single handle faucets with a hot water tap and a dish soap dispenser.
• Perhaps an under-counter wine cooler

We want to use the back hall pantry as much as possible. We’ll loose the clothes shoot, but gain quite a bit of square footage.

She also asked about opening the north wall, where the existing refrigerator is, to the dining room and putting barstools on the dining room side. We would have never though of that and told her to put it in the design.

She took a whole mess of measurements and said that it would be about 10 days to put a design together. Saturday we need to go to their show room to make some choices.

Contacting Contractors

We have been planning on remodling our kitchen for some time now. We just had our main bathroom done and it turned out great (I'll post pictures somewhere). Sure, there were some issues with our contractor and timing, but all in all it went well.

Our kitchen will be a much larger project. We need to re-do the entire room along with the back den and the back hallway and pantry.

I started contacting contractors this week. We plan to sit down with a couple of designers the week of April 16th, 2007.