Temporary Rookie

We bought a temporary refrigerator at Lowe's tonight. Unfortunately the ones that we wanted are all 34" - 36" or more and the space that we have is only 32".

So we got a 18 cu ft Frigidaire for $450. We'll use it for the months that we need it and then move it into the basement for find a home for it. I have a scheme...

Fate Plays A Card

We’ve decided that $80K is too much to spend on a kitchen. I called our designer and told her that and told her to eliminate the prep area on the south wall and add a prep sink on the east wall, on the opposite end from the oven.

When we got back from Boston I had a message from her. She said that that change, along with the change in the cabinets we requested, and eliminating the granite counter tops (which we did not request), dropped the cost to $55k. That’s still a lot.

Our refrigerator has been failing for a while. Now it can keep ice in the freezer, but cannot get the ‘fridge below 60F. I’m pretty sure that it is a Freon issue. We were hoping that it will last until we get one with this whole project, but now it looks like we’ll have to buy one now. We’re going to look at them tonight.

Today I called another design place, Artisan Kitchen & Bath, and we will be meeting with them next week Thursday for another design.

Design Meeting

Yesterday was our kitchen design meeting with Janell at Wisconsin Kitchen Mart. Despite the rain, we both arrived exactly on time at 5:00PM. Janell was waiting for us. She explained that she first wanted to go over the design, then look at the specifics and consider options.

When you enter our house by the driveway door you are walking north. Immediately inside there is a small landing, about three feet, with a wall on the right and the stairs to the basement on the left. Up two stairs on the right, there is a small pantry with the clothes chute, and the door to the kitchen is straight ahead. The wall on the right has hooks for coats and a shelf for hats & gloves.

The door leading into the kitchen proper, which currently faces north, would be moved 90 degrees and open to the east, facing the direction of our TV room. Immediately to the right of that entrance we currently have a small dining table. That wall would have a small prep sink with cabinets and counter tops on either side. The prep sink would be a black enameled cast iron Kohler sink, with disposal, and the counter tops would be black granite. The TV room would not change except for a small wall on the right hand side of the cabinets to frame the space.

To the right of the new kitchen entrance, on the wall where or stove and sink are, would be a double Dacor over, the refrigerator with a right hand side hinge, and counter tops and cabinets extending to the dining room wall. The cabinet enclosing the oven would not reach to the ceiling so that we could store pots up there.

The wall separating the dining room and kitchen would be removed. Along that wall, where our current refrigerator is, would be the main sink, again black enamel, and counter tops. There would be another counter top behind, raised about four inches so that people could be on bar stools in the dining room and still converse with those in the kitchen.

Opposite that, where the Tupperware cupboard is, would be the cook top, again a Dacor, with cupboards on either side, drawers below and an open pot storage directly beneath the cook top.

The floors would be oak hardwood and would extend into the front hall. The cabinets would be either maple or birch with a light stain to contrast with the dark counter tops. There would be under cabinet lighting throughout and canned lighting on the ceiling.

We will probably need to upgrade our electrical to 150 amps. 200 would be more than we need, but the incremental cost would be small.

After the meeting we were both pretty overwhelmed. There were a lot of details and it was difficult to get our heads around the change in layout.

We’re mulling it over now and need to make the critical decision: do we really want to spend $80,000?

The Next Meeting

I called Janell (our designer) yesterday to find out the status our drawings. She said that they will be complete by the end of this week. We scheduled an appointment for next Tuesday 5/15/07 at 5:00PM to review them and choose the specifics. She said to plan on three hours for that meeting. I hope that they’ll have snacks.

The Boys' Room

We finally have the middle bedroom, aka The Boys' Room, ready for occupancy.

We 5S'd it, cleaned it top-to-bottom, and bought a bed. We even put one of our Persian carpets in there. Laurie did nearly all of the work. It still needs to be painted and have some other remedial work done on it, but this is the Year OF The kitchen and we're not going to do much more than we already have.

Still, it's ready for guests as on 10 May 2007.