Oh happy day. I have been waiting since the day we walked through this house to start this project.
We must have visited five cabinet places and four or five granite places before nailing down our product selections. Give yourself some time. The good news is I knew about what I was looking for. I just had to find it.
This project consisted of:
- Relocating the island light and eat-in area fan/light combo
- Squaring off a corner of and connecting the soffit on either side of the back window to create a consistent look, allow for new cabinet layout, and create a space for an over-sink and window-centered light
- New cabinets and layout
- New countertop
- New backsplash
- New lighting
- Reusing the appliances we had updated two years prior
Preparing
I found my cabinets at a home improvement store in our area that isn’t a big box store, and isn’t a specialty kitchen remodeler. It was a Google search find. We visited once to see what their inventory was and pick up brochures, then completed some online research on the products. We knew we were going to do most of the work ourselves (minus the soffit and lighting work) so we didn’t need a full service solution. A few weeks later we returned to select a style and color in a line we felt had a good reputation and was solidly constructed. The cabinet manufacturer was Waypoint, for those who might be curious.
Once I found the cabinet style and color I wanted, I used software at the home improvement store to build the layout for the kitchen. The store had a cabinet consultant, but they don’t really design for you so much as ask you what you want and tell you what it will cost. So working with this person I built a layout that included relocating the sink to center of the back window, creating corner cabinets (that didn’t look like corner cabinets by getting hinged doors) instead of those horrid cabinets where the back half is basically unusable because you can’t reach anything, designing a larger island, making full use of my wall space, and creating dedicated places for cookie sheets and cutting boards, spices, and hidden garbage and recycling bins.
Getting Started
While this work was underway, the contractor was completing the soffit and lighting work.
(Do you see how the sink is to the side of window? Why? I don’t know! It will be corrected with the new layout.)
Then, we waited for a sale before ordering the cabinets. Why? Because I like to get a deal and save money, that’s why. Luckily the wait was only a few weeks as I did start getting impatient. I was distracted in part by the start of granite shopping. In the end we selected Alaskan White. The combination is so pretty. See below.
We can’t wait to get the cabinets and install the granite. And get a kitchen back.
Not Tomorrow 