Kitchen
Posted by Chris
My new kitchen is my pride an joy, and possibly the scariest part of the renovation because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. A lot of planning has to go into cabinet layout because the plumbing and electrical feeds have to be in exactly the right place.
I considered getting cabinets from Ikea, and I am very glad now that I did not. My cabinets ended up coming from Lowes, and they are made by KraftMaid. Installing them was difficult, but not as difficult as I had imagined. As luck would have it, I had made a friend in the neighborhood who was a kitchen cabinet installer, and was gracious enough to help me install them. It only took two evenings.
For the floor and backsplash, I went with matching tile, 18 inch on the floor, and 6 inch on the wall.
The appliances were direct from GE, and since I worked for a contractor who did business with them, I got a very good deal. The range is dual fueled, meaning it has gas burners and an electric convection oven. I threw in an instant hot water dispenser and under-cabinet lighting as well.
I got my granite from panda cabinet and granite in Laurel. The price was right and they were in and out in a few hours.
The breakfast bar is critical, and provides a place for eating, working on a laptop, etc. I used an old leg from “second chance”, a place that re-sells old architectural products here in Baltimore.
The kitchen takes the most planning of any other part of the house. There are a lot of little things that can be overlooked, like a water line for the refrigerator, wiring for the recessed lighting, switching and dimming, electrical feeds for the range hood, range, fridge, dishwasher, etc. The layout of the kitchen is also critical, as it will effect how efficiently you can move around and cook.
I know this post is pretty brief, but I don’t have anything that was written during the renovation itself.
Updated January 18, 2008:
Here are some updated photos of the finished product. Last night I made tortellini from scratch…
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