"THE KITCHEN"

After three emails asking how the kitchen remodel I did ended up, I had never got around to posting the pictures. I usually like to keep my worked related things off the blog for escape, but here they are. "The Kitchen" as it is called, was a free-lance project I did in the middle of the pandemic and one of the longest projects I ever did. From design time, consolations, personal time shopping, the install, to the final touches, took about 10 months. My friends who asked me to do the project asked me to do it since I wasn't working...and quite frankly I was tickled and honored they asked. I knew their style. but had no clue just how much they planned to spend, or how much time this would take. The house when they bought it had the kitchen already stripped down to bare walls, because the previous owners had planned to remodel, but then lost their jobs in the pandemic, and had to sell their home, so it did save some money for my friends from gutting the kitchen and gave me a clean slate. The cabinets all ended up being all custom made from a place I knew of in NJ from River Wood Craft, which saved much time in the pandemic since they were local. I also had my contractor to do the install and also had him for consultation on any structural issues. See, I can get very clueless sometimes like Joan Crawford..." Knock out that BITCH of a bearing wall, and put a window where a window OUGHT TO BE!" This was the biggest kitchen project I ever did and thought it turned out rather very nice...even though it tested my patience at times.

The floors went in first, followed by the lower cabinets and island.

The kitchen stove went in , a La Cornue, a small fortune you ask me. But Darrin is a HUGE cook, and a good stove was important to him. In the planning when they mentioned that was the stove they wanted, I knew then price would be no object.

The one small pantry got gutted and became a wet bar, and wine frig before entering the dinning room.

Most of the metro tile work and the few upper cabinets were installed. They have such lovely ceramics, pottery collections and dinnerware and such, we though it a same to hide it all in cabinets, and they didn't want a typical kitchen. The one stimulation for me was to try and eliminate upper cabinets. My contractor and I came up with long linear shelves with brackets to run the length of one wall where the window is and run them right past the windows and have them meet the one custom made curio cabinet. It also helped to save money for other things they wanted. Like the Sub Zero frig and the Viking range microwave. The island even had their dog bowls built in. 

Then the fun part of decorating and accessorizing with what they had and infuse with some new things.

There was also a closet for brooms, cleaning supplies and such, that I talked them into gutting out and turning the closest into a bookshelf for all of Darrin's cookbooks, eliminating the need for an actual bookshelf to add into the kitchen. And he has some serious cookbooks.

I was both sad and relived when the project was done, and won't mention the final price tag of the project, but I sure can't complain with my commission of it. It got all banked while I was on unemployment, and by then, by a month, started working for the Dame in his floral shop as his shop assistant. The boys were over the moon when they got home from a trip to the finished kitchen. Of course, the joke ended up on me. As they were so impressed, they asked me to do their dining room next! Soooo.... while I was working in Harrisburg during the week, I spent weekends at my place planning and working before moving from Bucks County on their dining room. It only took a little over a month. But what a difference! And talk about timing...I finished that project and timed my moved perfectly. 

 And friends wondered why I was always so tired.