points of reference
During the last three years, we have undertaken a variety of projects on our house that required some advanced skills and know-how. Sure, it definitely helps that we each have 5 years of architecture school plus 5.5 years of professional practice under our belts, but when it comes to wiring outlets, figuring out your drain waste vent design, or other tasks that are typically dealt with by specific trades people, you need some backup. In our basement, stacked besides past issues of Fine Homebuilding and Dwell, we have a small reference library that is a compilation of old textbooks and DIY reference guides. [Yes, Kyle bought “Working Alone”. I was slightly offended at first but it’s more about how to do tricky things like carry sheets of plywood on your back while climbing a ladder to your roof. Really.]
Taunton Press has been our go-to source for great books on all aspects of home remodeling.
I’ve tried to coax Kyle into wearing a bandana while doing plumbing work but so far no luck.
Any other good reference guide tips out there?
new from west elm
Kyle came home from work tonight with three pages torn out of the new West Elm catalog. [images linked to website.]
How would these look in the future dining room? At $80 each they’re a reasonable option. [I love the yellow, but we’d probably play it safe and go with the dark brown.] And the wrap is a playful variation on most of the bent plywood chairs out there.
Oh…and what about this large pendant ($150) to go over the dining room table? We love how natural linen diffuses artificial light and the cotton cover at the bottom means you’re not looking up at an ugly bulb.
If you look closely at the sketchup model of the kitchen, you’ll see a metal ledge below the vent hood. We’re thinking about something similar to the above as a modern and clean way to store spices and other small everyday kitchen objects. I’ve seen similar metal ledges, but this one is only $55 for a 4′ strip.
kitchen sketchup
During the last week or so, we have been updating our sketchup 3D model in order to study our ever evolving design ideas for the kitchen. While we had worked out the general cabinet layout and “what goes where” in autocad, we wanted to see how the materials and colors were coming together. As a result, we did a good deal of tweaking. We then went to IKEA to more closely examine colors, sizes, and door and drawer operation. Then, more sketchup tweaking. We’re pretty happy with where things are at, but will likely continue to adjust things here and there in the next couple of months. [click on images to enlarge.]
The bluish-gray base cabinets are IKEA Abstrakt as are the upper white horizontal cabinets (both have a high gloss finish similar to our bathroom vanity). The darker base cabinets provide some visual grounding and will show less dirt/food splatters/etc. White upper cabinets (and maybe countertops) will help the space feel light and bright. Since the kitchen will be part of a larger great room, we’d like to express the different components as a cohesive, built-in cabinet. To achieve this, we’ll build two infill boxes out of fir, one over the fridge and one to the left of the white cabinets and then wrap the entire composition in fir plywood.
The range shown above is the actual range we bought yesterday(!) and the refrigerator and dishwasher are what we currently own. For the range hood we’re thinking of going with a simple and clean model from vent-a-hood. We bought a sink on sale a few years ago, though we’re considering swapping it for a single, deep basin. We have yet to pick out a faucet, but will be looking for something that’s modern with a pull-out spray nozzle.
Here’s a view standing at the dishwasher looking back at the dining and living area. The island will be constructed of two drawer units and a shelf unit, with the opposite side and back wrapped in IKEA end panels. The shelf will hold the microwave and Bailey’s bowls (hence the cutouts). For the countertop, we’re thinking IKEA’s beech butcher block or lyptus. We really want the island to be a large, open work surface that can accommodate several people [attention future dinner guests, you will be put to work!].
We had originally planned on chocolate brown paperstone countertops, but with the darker base cabinets we’re now thinking of something lighter – maybe either ecotop or a quartz material. We’re also still mulling over the backsplash at the range. It could be an opportunity to introduce some color (mustard yellow?) without being committed to that color forever. A few ideas include back-painted spandrel glass or just a really high gloss paint.
This bird’s eye view shows the overall layout and the connection to the adjacent dining area. The back door and windows are part of the work we did this past fall so at least we can already check off one thing from the list!
We’re also assembling a collection of material samples and will share those once we decide on potential countertop materials. We feel like we’ve made some good progress and it’s exciting to see things come together. In addition to finalizing materials, there are still a few design decisions to be made including finalizing our lighting plan [and selecting the fixtures] and deciding if we want to add any skylights. Before demo can begin [March, we must make ourselves wait till March!], we need to do some work in the attic so insulation does not rain down upon us once the ceilings come down.
Oh, and we still need to finish the porch/mudroom. Blerg.
range roving
Today was a marathon day. This morning we set out to look at potential cabinets, countertops and appliances and by 4:00 we were back home, exhausted but in good spirits.
You see, today we bought a range.
We had a few requirements going in…30″ wide, duel fuel, and a stainless steel, professional appearance. Budget constraints eliminated most of the higher end options (Dacor, Viking, Wolf, etc.), so we steered towards the Bosch, GE, and Jennair models. In fact, at the top of my favorites list was the GE Cafe line. Although only a few years old, the range has received good reviews in various consumer reports, and met our functional and aesthetic goals. It was still a bit out of our price range, so imagine our surprise and delight when we saw the exact model on sale in the open box section (at Albert Lee Appliance)…we couldn’t pass it up! Here are the stats: 30″ duel fuel (gas burners and electric convection oven), with a griddle insert and a second lower oven that can also be used as a warming drawer. It gets delivered next week and will reside in our basement for the time being.
We also had a successful trip to IKEA and are formulating the final design and layout for the cabinets. We’re in the process of updating and tweaking our sketchup model and will post some images soon.
home for the holidays
Kyle and I just returned from a week in Oklahoma with our families. Despite a Christmas Eve blizzard, we were able to criss-cross the northeast portion of the state (plus a quick dip into Kansas) and enjoyed time with family, ample food, and cozy fires. Santa also brought us a new camera! It’s a Canon Rebel XSi DSLR and I think I’m already in love. Until now we had been taking photos with our Canon ELPH, but just couldn’t get the right quality. The photos below are with the new camera. I found snow and ornaments make for good subject matter. These were all taken with the automatic settings and I’m eager to start experimenting with the manual options.
Of course a nice camera is also great for taking pictures of house projects. (I see a wide-angle lense in our future.) As predicted, the post-holiday mood has us itching to start the next. big. thing. As we dive into 2010, we also hope to update the blog more regularly, narrating not just the construction process but also all of the design and planning that has to happen first. We’ve given sneak peaks here and there, but there is much more in the works.
The view out my bedroom window at my parent’s house on Christmas day.
