Kitchen Progess Report #2

So much has happened since my last kitchen update, and yet, so little work has actually been done.  Decisions have been made.  We decided to keep the sink in the island instead of moving it to the counter under the window.  What seemed like such a logical request to make my kitchen more functional was going to be a very complicated and expensive change.  To facilitate my request, I would have had to purchase a new sink base cabinet.  They do not make a standard sink base cabinet to fit the dimensions of the existing cabinets on that wall.  I could have bought a stock sink base cabinet, but it would have been 9 inches shorter than my existing cabinets.  The options were to have a 9-inch custom cabinet built for that space, or to redo the floor tiles to fill in the 9-inch gap after the other cabinets were removed.  I didn't think I would have enough spare tiles to redo the floor to make it match, and the other alternative was too expensive for my budget at this time.  Also, I would have lost a large upper cabinet because part of it would have hung over my sink.  The decision to leave my sink in its current position also put a kibosh on my plans to turn my island into a breakfast bar with stools. Because as my painter/design consultant put it, "Who wants to eat that close to the sink?"


The only structural change that has taken place (or will take place) in this re-model is that the one-foot lower cabinets on either side of the refrigerator were removed.  The refrigerator and the cabinets above it were moved one foot to the left and a two-foot lower cabinet with drawers was installed between the stove and refrigerator.  This will allow me to have a two-foot counter top next to my stove.  This kinda makes up for loosing the extra large work area I was hoping to gain with the breakfast bar.  (Kinda, but not really.) Also, the upper cabinet that was to the left of the refrigerator was moved over and joined with the upper cabinet to the right of the refrigerator.

BEFORE

AFTER

(Notice the cabinet drawer to the right of the stove.  It can't be opened all the way unless the oven door is open.  What a pain!!)

Like I said, so much has happened, and yet it seems that so little has been done.  After the decision was made about the cabinets, I went to Home Depot to purchase the only cabinet I would need.  The kitchen design consultant advised me to wait about two weeks before I made my purchase because the stock cabinets were scheduled to go on sale and would be 20% cheaper.  I'm all about saving money, so I waited.  And it's a good thing, cause when I went back and bought my cabinet, not only was it on sale, but they had a sale on installed counter tops.  So I was able to get an additional 10% off my granite counter tops! That was an overall saving of $350!  SCORE!!  I ordered the Uba Tuba granite counter tops and the company doing the installation came and made a template of my kitchen layout.  The installation date has been scheduled for May 9th.  I'm getting a little bit excited!

This is a picture of my new cabinet.  The drawers are wonderful!  I can now put all my large cooking utensils in the top drawer.  I may even be able to get organizing dividers!  Oh be still my OCD beating heart!  The old drawer I used for this purpose was much smaller; too small for dividers, so it always stayed junky, and hard to find anything.  The other disadvantage to the old drawer (which is to the right of the stove, and can be seen in the "after" picture) was that to open it all the way, the oven door had to be open.  That was a real pain, to say the least.  The other two drawers are perfect for storing my baking pans neatly.   Before, they were all crammed sideways into a one-foot cabinet and I usually had to pull everything out to get to the one pan I needed.  Did I mention that I like things to be stored neatly?

Finally, when Lowe's had an advertised sale on appliances, I researched the dishwashers, read the reviews, and made my choice.  I went with the Samsung 24-in built-in dishwasher with hard food disposer and stainless steel tub; Model #: DW7933LRASR.  It had the best reviews overall, and got very good ratings for being quiet.  So far, I'm happy with my choice.  I don't always have the best luck with appliances.  But I tried to be smarter than just buying the model that had the cheapest sales price this time.   I'll let you know in a few weeks if I'm still happy.

Well, that's all for now. My electrician (cousin) is coming tonight to install a couple of new lights.  I'll try to get that post on here for you this week.