Kitchen Renovation

Remember these drawings?

We’ve made some kitchen changes since I made those lame sketches in 2009. Here’s the ~~new and~~ improved 2010 model. Side note, I hate the phrase new and improved. How can something be both new and improved? If it’s new, there’s no room for improvement. If it’s been improved upon, it’s not new, is it? Ok, rant over. New kitchen drawings, courtesy of Lowe’s.

Notice any changes? Well, that’s because there aren’t many. But, 2011 brought about many changes, some major, some minor. All for the better. Except we’re back to my drawings. Though, I did pull out a ruler.

Now do you see the difference? Let’s discuss.

Big change number 1: We’re moving the trash can. The apron front sink is six inches narrower than our current sink, so we’ll have room for the trash to the left of the sink, not across the kitchen.

Big change number 2: Switching up the cabinet size. In the past year, we’ve been discussing all drawers in the lower cabinets. Really, this isn’t that different from our current set up because we have cabinet doors with pull out drawers behind. The small drawer stack to the right of the stove is so small that we have utensils in three of the four drawers. Because of this, we’ve decided to make each drawer stack as wide as possible. Instead of two drawers, we’ll have only one on each side of the stove. One will hold our knives from the knife block. Three cheers for less counter clutter. Hopefully Ben can make something as cool as this.

Big change number 3: Extending the upper cabinets to go counter to ceiling. We plan to use the two smaller cabinets as ‘appliance garages.’ We don’t have room for a microwave to sit near the stove, so we’ll use the cabinet to the right of the sink to house a microwave. Hopefully. We’ll have to hunt down the world’s smallest microwave. It may be this one.

Big change number 4: No more spice drawers below the bar top. Originally, we planned to build small spice drawers to double as a back splash. This would also allow us to use a cheaper stove with a back. Game plan change. We’re going with a slide-in (backless) range and the larger drawers below should accommodate spices nicely. Oddly enough, I’m most concerned about where I’ll put spices.

Small change, known as number 5: The small drawer stack will now be part of a larger, wider drawer stack, as mentioned in number two.

Small change, number 6: When I made these sketches, I loved the idea of legs to replace the standard toe kick. Reality (and building issues) have set in. Problem number one, the flooring will transition at the dining room and this will be obvious. We could make a nice transition of the floors, but the second problem is cleaning under the cabinets. This seems fine and good, but I think I’d get sick of it really quickly. And, Ben brought up another good point. We’d probably stub our toes on the legs constantly.

There’s the plan, Stan. We’ve already made some progress. Mostly purchasing items (plywood, studs, a sink, range, range hood, and paint) to get our ducks in a row. Notice I said mostly. Dun, dun, dunnnn. Cliff hanger.

Now it’s your turn. Do you have any of these features in your own home? If so, love it or hate it? Where do you store your spices? How many planning phases have you had for one project?

Well, the first step of our kitchen remodel is done. We’ve ordered a custom apron front sink and it is fantastic. First, let’s discuss our options and why we chose a custom sink. After a look on Ebay, we realized we liked two options. One, a 30 inch flat front stainless apron sink, like this:

Pros: 30 inch width, flat front, single basin, great price. Cons: This sink, like most apron front sinks, is between 18 inches and 21 inches from front to back. Which means, we would have a four to seven-inch piece of granite at the back of our sink. That’s okay, but we don’t like the look of a seam at the back.

{via}

Option two is a full depth apron front sink, like this.

Pros: This sink is counter depth, so we could avoid a piece of granite behind the sink. Cons: This sink costs nearly two thousand dollars. Um, heck no am I paying that much for a sink.

So, we took a chance and talked to a custom metal shop in town, just to get a quote on the price of a custom-made-to-our-specifications sink. A few days later, we got a call. The price? Only 650 bucks for our design made of 14 gauge stainless steel. Most other sinks are 18 or 16 gauge, so ours would be more heavy-duty. Just because we’re ~~paranoid~~ perfectionists, we took another trip to the shop with pictures, to place our order. Neither Ben or I have ever had something custom-made without one of us doing the work. It is accurate to say we were apprehensive. Then, we waited. Ben received a call only nine days after confirming the order that our sink was done and ready to pick up. Whoa, that was quick.

We decided it would be best for Ben to drill a hole for the faucet, just to be safe. Our sink is 30 inches wide, 25 inches from front to back and nine inches deep, exactly.

Completely perfect. Well, nearly. The weld and bend marks are slightly more visible than Ben would like, but he should be able to sand it down.

Actually, he has already started. But, he made a mistake by using a random orbital sander.

Rather than the ‘grain’ of the steel showing, you see the circluar pattern from the sander. But, Ben bought a different sander, so we’ll share an update once things get further.

Now, allow me to explain why we opted for a custom, $650 sink over a store-bought $320 sink. First, we got exactly what we wanted. Seriously, I had my doubts that the sink would live up to our expectations, but it exceeded everything I had imagined. Secondly, our granite company charges $400 to cut and polish a hole for a sink. Essentially, our sink total for the store-bought version would come in at 720 dollars. Our custom-made sink eliminates the sink cutting charge, which means we’re actually saving 70 bucks for our custom sink.

868 dollars spent on the kitchen so far, several thousand more to go. One project down, roughly 786 left.

Have you had something custom made? Did it make you happy? Or was it nothing like you hoped for?