Get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!

With our move in date being two weeks away from today, there's a big push to start getting some serious work done in our house. This past week has been one where we're not only making a lot of progress, but now we can actually see it as well. The biggest change has been, of course, finally getting our kitchen installed.

We began the work on our kitchen about a month or so ago. The first step was to make an appointment with the lovely people at Prestige Kitchens to discuss what it was we could actually do with our kitchen. We have a decent sized space, but due to having three doors and two windows in this space, we were limited as to where we could actually have appliances and cabinets. Thank goodness for kitchen designers. There were multiple conversations about pantry areas, window arches, window trim, 28 inch spaces vs 30 inch spaces, etc etc. We finally decided on a design that would give us a functional and beautiful kitchen.

The next part was deciding on the cabinet panel design, countertop, hardware and flooring. Never having gone through the kitchen design process before, I was at a loss. I had absolutely no idea how to go about choosing countertops and floors that went together. On advice from our designer, Mike, we started by choosing a floor. We went with this picture for inspiration:

Taken from kitchen-design-ideas.org

We really liked the stone colour of the floor, as well as the look of different tile sizes. We tried to find something similar, but couldn't find anything that was the right colour or the right look. We decided to go with something that had a stone colour rather than tile sizes, since we couldn't have both. I think we made the right decision. Our floors are a light colour, but still dark enough that the dirt (hopefully!) won't show. Besides, after all the work on the house, I've become an expert at sweeping. I've swept the entire house about three or four hundred times now.

Once the floors were chosen, it was much easier to choose a countertop. We knew that we wanted a darker colour since the cabinets would be white, so we took home samples of every dark coloured countertop that Prestige had available. We narrowed it down to two samples, and since TJ had let me choose the floor I wanted, we went with his choice of counter - Basalt Slate. It's a textured countertop, and it has a very slight whitish marble running through. Very pretty, and it looks fantastic with the floors. We went with an oil rubbed bronze finish for our hardware, and after much begging and pleading, convinced Mike that we could make a farmhouse pull work with the cabinet panels we chose, even if it meant that we would have to re-order three of our drawers.

Then the hardest part came - waiting three weeks. For anyone who knows me well, they know that I HATE waiting for things. Sadly, I had no choice. I spent most of my time over the next three weeks searching for the perfect kitchen faucet. We had found a great sink at Kent in Kensington. It's fiberglass, but the finish is so great that it actually looks like it's made of ceramic. Our ideal kitchen sink would be a gorgeous farmhouse sink, but seeing as they cost approximately five million dollars, we had to go with the next best thing. It still has the farmhouse look to it, but it fits our budget much better! Anyway, we had to find a faucet that would really complete the look of the sink, as well as match our cupboard hardware. That oil rubbed bronze cupboard hardware.

There is a much smaller selection of oil rubbed bronze kitchen faucets than I imagined. The selection that is available is very pretty, and also very expensive. Upon finding this out, there was no turning back. There was no way I wanted a boring old silver faucet with my pretty sink. No way. I needed something oil rubbed and bronzed and old fashioned. And I found it. But we will now be eating oatmeal and lettuce for the next two years. But we can eat it while looking at our fabulous kitchen faucet!

Finally, on Thursday evening, our three week wait was over and it was time for the unveiling of our brand spanking new kitchen.

Just ignore the snarling Irishman in the corner - I usually do, and he eventually stops snarling and does a wee jig.

See, there he goes.

The sink with the lovely faucet....not installed just yet....it's a bit of a long story, but one that ends well!




We also had the plumber come in and set down our fixtures in the downstairs bathroom, so we finally have a functioning powder room once more (this is very welcome news to any ladies who have been working in the house for the last month). TJ took the facilities for a spin:

And a close up of our pedestal sink - I love the old fashioned feel of it, it reminds me of my grandparents' house (307 to any of the Harris Clan who happen to be reading...).

And there you have it - finally progress that you can see! We're so happy with the way things are coming together. It's been a lot of work, and there's still a TON of work ahead of us (every half an hour we add another item to our "Winter Projects" or "Summer of 2013 Projects" lists), but we love our little house. We've decided to take tonight off to get some R&R, as the work has been catching up with us and it's becoming quite noticeable. One of my students let me know today that my eyes were "All squinty sorta, like you're having trouble seeing me", so that's telling right there! Oh grade two. So honest.

Stay tuned for our next update after the weekend - painted walls!!!