mediocrates's Profile

@yonella, yeah, and i'm also worried about whether the tape will bring some of the finish up with it when it's removed. :(

i'd definitely try it if i needed to refinish anyway, though.

How easy is it to get off, I wonder? I'd be up for making a "rug" in our living room this way, but don't relish the thought of wrecking the finish on our hardwood trying to get it off...

@favabean: no problem! i guess this may not be the best forum to get into specifics, but if you decide to do it and need some help, i think we took pictures of what the underlying structure of the sink looked like. you can email me at ATkitchensink (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will send them to you. We also had to cobble some "custom" cabinets together for the ovens, as they're 24" wide, and ikea doesn't make those. You'd be surprised by how easy it is to modify their stuff once you've put a few things together.

Thanks guys, for the feedback. We really need to replace the door hardware all over the house, as not a single doorknob matches (how is that even possible? prob because the original homeowners who bought in 1947 had the house until a few short years before we did). I know replacing/refinishing doors is very much on our to do list, too. Thank goodness all of the interior doors are gorgeous paneled doors and they all match!

re: cabinets, yeah. The Ikea cabinets are constructed of precisely the same materials as KraftMaid cabinets. I'm not going to say that means they're high-end, but they are quite sturdy and nice, the Nexus finish suits our style, and I feel very happy about the quality/value ratio we got with Ikea. The Ikea hinges are nicer than KraftMaid, too. We really got a kick out of the hardware.

Oh! And the handles!! We got stainless steel Sugatsune pulls from HomeClick. Very inexpensive, and they look much more high-end than the options Ikea had in stock.

@favabean, the corner sink was there when we bought the house, so we kept the existing cabinet and shored up the support that was already there. It was pretty simply framed out, though, and I doubt it would be too difficult to build one from scratch. I think it might be difficult to describe how the cabinet was built, but suffice to say it was basically a non-cabinet, consisting of boards that crossed the space between the cabinets on either side, and with a little trim in the front to give the door a place to hang on. The important thing was that this contraption was strong enough to hold the cast-iron sink that was there before, so we knew it would hold the new sink. The sink looks larger than the cabinet, but it's really just larger than the door at the front of the cabinet. If you draw out what the corner layout would look like from a top view, it'll make sense to you. We replaced the door with the ikea door, and used a little of the trim to face it out. The toekicks come with a little iron-on veneer that you could probably use, too.

re: appliance concerns, we had a repair done to the ovens a few months before the remodel, and the guy who came to fix it pulled it out, reconnected a wire that had come loose, and said "I'm so glad you have one of these older ovens. These things are so easy to fix and last forever, if you take care of them. I'll bet you have another twenty to forty years left in this one. don't let anyone talk you into buying a new one. They all break down in five to ten years, and now they have computers in them that are so expensive to fix that you may as well buy a new one."

We hadn't even told him we were considering a remodel, but we took his advice to heart.

I want the pendants in No. 1. Well, really, they would look out of place in my house, but it's nice to dream. :)

I think your home is adorable, and I'd like to echo what @engineergirl said. I fully support your Le Creuset indulgence. I love them so much that I actually took a job with the company for a little over a year to get the employee discount. My favorite job ever? Not by a long shot, but my kitchen thanks me.

I also love that you have some creativity spillover space by way of your shop. What a marvelous outlet!

Thanks, everyone! We couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I really feel like I should have included a floorplan to help that cart make a little more sense. If we'd put a built-in cabinet at the base of the microwave, we would have had a doorway between the stove and the additional countertop, and we would have had to go with a shallower countertop than we used in the rest of the kitchen, which i just couldn't reconcile stylistically.

The microwave had to be up high because we have a two-year-old who won't be getting over her button-pushing obsession anytime soon.

The tile is very slightly more expensive now on Overstock: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/SomerTile-12.5x12.5-in-Morocco-2.5-in-White-Porcelain-Mosaic-Tile-Pack-of-10/4798935/product.html There's a blue version, as well, that you can get through Home Depot for slightly more $/sf.

Good point about the vantage point being different in the after pictures. That drives me crazy, too, and I really didn't think about it while taking the pictures.

re: the cabinets, they were cheap when they were new (forty years ago). We thought they were great when we moved in, and realized, as soon as our possessions were in them, that all of the drawers squeaked and stuck, and that the doors were veneer over particle board, just like modern ones. From the way the shelves sagged and the finish was wearing off of some of the doors, we knew they didn't have much life left in them. It wasn't affordable for us to replace them with a more expensive option, and it would have added a great deal more expense to install countertops over the existing cabinetry, only to pull them up in a few years and replace the cabinets beneath them. This was the time it made sense to redo them, and I am so thrilled that we did.

One more thing I forgot to include: all of the lower cabinets (aside from the one under the cooktop) are pullouts now, which feels like it increased our cabinet space twofold. The comment about things being lost in the back of the fridge goes for things being lost in the back of the undercabs, as well. :)

i'll be watching for details on that yellow wall, too.

spinach green. keep any mouldings in the room white.

it always manages to look playful and grown-up at the same time.