Day 9: What's wrong with this picture?

Uh oh. The wrong appliances were delivered and installed. Eeks. The refrigerator is right though... Note the difference in handle style:



Bill to the rescue! He will be chatting with the appliance vendor tomorrow to find out what happened. To be continued...

In other news, some of our hardware was installed today:


And our new ceiling fan!



The crew, hard at work:


Little Bill, with the level, installing cabinet hardware according to my diagram :)


It sure looks pretty, even with the wrong appliances. :)


TTFN!
C (& A)

So Long, Friend

We can hardly believe D-day is tomorrow! Holy schnikes. This is big time.

Below, our make shift pantry (one of the office bookcases) during the construction:


And, where all our kitchen goodies are being stored in the basement:


Oh, kitchen... we've come so far together. This kitchen has made many a family meal (well, not for our family, but maybe the people who lived here before)... so this kitchen deserves a proper send off! So, to cheers to the *old* kitchen! (Turn up your sound for audio pleasure):



Construction begins tomorrow morning at 8:30am and is supposed to last 2-1/2 weeks. I have started a new poll above -- will the kitchen be completed by July 1? You be the judge! Most people I've mentioned this to say "Heck no!". But the promise of a speedy schedule is a big part of why we selected this vendor. So, fingers crossed! Bill, I believe in you and your team! Otherwise, I am going to owe a couple of folks lunch.

I plan to update the blog everyday with one picture, until the kitchen is complete. I won't email everyday, so please bookmark us and check back daily for a shot with the progress.

Are you excited? I AM!

More to come -- daily!
Carole (& Adam)

PS: to the whopping 13 of you who voted in our appliance poll, congrats to the 38% of you (5 people!) who said we'd get our LG appliances, but with a price. That's the outcome! We are moving forward with the LG suite, for a little more money. We think it will be worth it!

Happy House-aversary!

Today marks the two year anniversary of our move in!
Happy House-aversary to us!

We've been starting to think finishes for the kitchen. So, this weekend we went to the granite place to choose our countertops.



We took a stroll through the warehouse and there was only ONE I liked. But guess what?


The price grades of granite were not indicated and of course, I picked an exotic stone (Azul Arun, to be specific) that was about two price categories above what we were supposed to be looking at. Oy vey. It was a beautiful, big patterned stone, silvery grey with some warm flecks of color. It was very nice.

However, we wanted to stay away from an upgrade. So I described what I was looking for to the granite lady and this is what we ended up with:


It is called Blue Pearl... although the stone we picked isn't so much blue as it is grey/black with silver/pearl flecks.

Here is a picture of a kitchen I found online that shows a modern cabinet (wood color is close to our cabinets) with blue pearl counter tops:


Now, we gotta figure out our floors and back splash!

We also went to Abt Electronics in Glenview to check out the Maytag appliances that Bill the Kitchen man suggested.

Of course, we like to be difficult -- we ended up finding a suite of LG appliances we liked better:









A little bit sleeker, cool handles and cool fridge. This means I had to email Bill and say, "Can we please get these instead?"

See *NEW* poll above... what will Bill say? Will he "okay" the move to a different suite of appliances? Will it come with stipulations? I will post a follow up after he responds. It isn't so easy, switchin' this up. Appliances have not been ordered yet, but we have to make sure these will fit in the layout and also -- find out if we can get these for the same cost (they are comparable in price).

Oh the drama.

Does anyone out there have LG appliances? Any thoughts? Good? Bad? All I know is they look cool but the price is right. I likey.

Two final things:

ONE: it is good to have a husband who works in special events. He brings home pretty flowers for the house when the events are over:



TWO: Here is a new print that I ordered from Keep-Calm.com.


I am super excited about it. Frame is from Michael's... Instead of matting it, I mounted the print to a piece of Martha Stewart metallic wood grain wrapping paper (also from Michael's).
They have really cool MS wrapping paper there. It is cool and CHEAP! A buck for two sheets. I am planning to hang this behind the dining room table (near our swanky silver chandelier).

Now, just gotta figure out what to do with the rest of the barren Living Room/Dining Room wall...


More to come...
C (+A)

Hip. Post-Modern. Sculptured.

Do you feel cool enough to read this blog? "Hip. Post-Modern. Sculptured." is the description from the manufacturer of our cabinets.

Not our old cabinets:


Our soon-to-be-NEW cabinets! See Adam and sample of cabinet door:


He is just as excited about this rehab as me -- really!

So, we've chosen the Bella style door, in Maple, with a Hazelnut finish. Ooo la la.

And here is the hardware style we'll be going with:


All of the hardware will run horizontal, like this picture:


We had a meeting with Bill the Kitchen Man a week ago to discuss the final contract. At that time, he let us take a copy of his drawings:


He comes to take final measurements on April 1. Construction to begin June 16!

Bill the Kitchen Man will also be sourcing our appliances, so that he can control the timing and delivery of them. (No he is not marking them up). Right now, we are looking at stainless steel Maytag appliances:

So, things are coming along! The cabinet style/color is really the only decision will be set in stone after April 1. Then, I think our next big decision will be granite. Oy vey -- so many colors!

OH! Bill the Kitchen Man also gave us references! Three to be exact. I called two of them on Friday and within the first few minutes got invited to both of their house to see Bill's work. So Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be seeing two kitchens done by Bill. Both references were really pleased with their kitchens. We are excited to see them in person. On another note: if we disappear on Tuesday or Thursday, well, check the address scribbled on the notepad on my desk :)

Decor updates:

Look at these guys! Aren't they precious?

I found these wonderful animal portraits on etsy.com, my favorite source for original artwork. The artist Ryan Berkley also writes these silly descriptions for the portraits he sells, so I printed them and hung them underneath the portraits. I originally planned to hang these in our stairway. However, they are SO special, I decided to hang them in the hallway by the first floor bathroom, on the way to our bedroom.

Neato! The frames: $10 for all eight from the Salvation Army. Plus a $3 can of bronze spray paint. Viola!

Also, after a visit to my grandmother's house, my mom brought me some quilt squares she found that she thinks used to belong to my great Memeré Airoldi. After thinking and thinking about how to display them, I found inspiration on one of my frequently visited design blogs. So, here they are:

The quilt squares are hanging in embroidery hoops, which you can purchase at Michael's or Hobby Lobby for about $1 each. Hip. Post-Modern. Kitschy. No?

And finally a shout out to Sandy, a faithful blog reader. She saw our wall hanging:

from Textile Arts and snatched one up for herself. Here's her new wall art:

Happy Easter everyone! If you don't celebrate Easter, I hope you had an awesome weekend. Here is a cute picture of us from Easter dinner:


PS: Dear family, some of you emailed to ask how our Easter was... I am married to Adam, right? Here is a little taste of our holiday at Grandma Nemec's:


Till next time --
C (+ A)

PSS: Like the new blog layout? I hope so. See the poll up top people! Vote! Vote!

Clean Clothes for Everyone!!

Well, the washer we inherited with the house finally bit the dust a few weeks back....


So, it was off to our neighborhood Sears to pick out a new one... since our basement is SO snazzy looking, we decided it was critical that we have a matching set.

Here are the delivery guys from Sears bearing gifts!


And here they are! Beautious!


Oh -- and our latest Salvation Army find (we are really romantic and spend our Friday nights sometimes scavenging the local S.A.):


A cute little nightstand for our guest room! At the bargain basement price of $20! One TV tray down, one more to go!

I am keeping this post short today. Off to celebrate Adam's mom's birthday!