The Kitchen Chronicles: I'll counter that.

Well, it took a little crying, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but after our window installers cancelled AGAIN today I got through to the head honcho over there and he sent over 3 poor souls who agreed to work late, miss the football game and get it done tonight. I swear getting this thing installed has been more painful than child birth. They are only 30 or 40% done but it already looks bright and airy down there. I guess it should considering we have a hole in our wall the size of a small car.

Besides displaying my powers of persuasion all afternoon on the phone (which may or may not have been closer to threats of violence) Wren and I also wrapped up our hunt for the perfect counter tops! We have gotten quotes from a handful of fabricators on everything from quartz to Cimstone to Silstone to marble to granite. We thought long and hard about how dedicated we are to getting the 'look' we're after and what we are willing to do to care for these counters and in the end our hearts told us to go with our original instinct and go with marble. Surprisingly many local fabricators told us they would not be willing to install marble in a kitchen. But once we settled on a fabricator to work with we had to decide the type/color of marble and finish and this is where the real debate began.

I found both carrera and gioia slabs that I really liked the coloring of but in the end we went with a carrera and at the last minute decided on doing a honed finish. For those of you who are like me circa 2 months ago and have no idea what that means, it is just the finish of the stone. Honed stones are not glossy in appearance.

Here are a couple of kitchens with glossy carrera and you can see why I like the sleek, chic look of it.

But in the end I feel that the traditional look of honed stone will add a nice contrast in texture to the stainless steel appliances and shiny chrome faucet and door hardware. Plus it seems to have softer lines/veins and the colors feel more muted. As for the edge profile, we went with the traditional look of the square edge like both the kitchens below with honed counters in a 3cm thick slab for added chunkiness.

Thankfully our awesome project coordinator at the fabricators office assured me that since we are going into this with our eyes wide open she doubts we will have any complaints or issues with marble. It sounds like if we keep up on sealing it and don't just let messes sit around they should look as good as new for years to come!

And I promise that once it all comes together I will share all our source info and pricing for anyone interested~

The Kitchen Chronicles: A tale of 2 (or 3 or 4) lights.

Ding Dong. Oh hi there! Long time, no see. Why don't cha come in and have a cup of tea!

Oh, do be careful not to trip on the dozens of blankets and plastic sheets covering our floors.


Hope you don't mind sitting on a tarped up couch? You do? We can go relax on my bed then. It's really the only plastic-free seating we can lounge on while drinking our tea.


Speaking of which, it's just going to take me a few minutes to locate it in our 'pantry'. Yes, you're right 20 minutes is a long time to spend looking. Maybe we'll just go heat up some water with lemon.


Oh drats. I completely forgot that I don't have the ability to heat up water. Why don't we just go grab a drink from the hose outside and laugh at how neglected my yard has become and what a great neighbor I am then.


The good news is that we are at ground zero and it is only down hill from here. Most people would look at this mess and think "golly, they have a lot of work ahead of them". And those people would be correct, but they would be wrong if they think we have more work yet to come than we've already done. You see, our lovely old tile floor was not only hideous well installed (therefore impossible to remove) but it lay silently for years upon a second plank of subfloor that also needed to be removed. And they didn't want that floor going anywhere fast so they not only stapled it down, but screwed and glued it. It took a will power unlike any we've had to conquer before to keep plugging away at it, but once it was up the cabinets, electrical and plumbing were relatively painless work to remove. So the true test of our skills are about to be tested: our patience.

I've already had to lay the law down with our window installers after more than a week of delays (the new windows are going in tomorrow!) and I'm just hoping that the cabinets and counters fall into line nicely.

And while a few delays have only given me a little time to focus on the finishing touches and some retail therapy they have also given me too much time to second guess my lighting choices.

Originally I'd planned to do all recessed lighting, with the exception of over the peninsula/breakfast bar. I wanted to create some interest and do a series of hanging pendants. So I ordered 3 of these cute little mercury glass fixtures.

Then I decided that they were a little too dainty for our cape cod/commercial kitchen. So I picked up 2 of these slightly larger cottage-y pendants from Ikea. Plus the $50 price made them a fabulous upgrade.


But then I decided that perhaps they might be a little too predictable. Lovely? Absolutely, but maybe too expected. Plus it occurred to me that with a metal shade it would give only downward lighting and it might feel too much like a pool hall in the evenings.

So in the end I still have them all on hand to make the final call when I see the cabinets in place, but I also ordered this factory-like fixture from Restoration Hardware. It is not even close to being the deal that the Ikea lights are, but I love the unique shape and style, it's flexibility to extend or retract, and the touch of darker metal. I feel that we should have just a handful of darker touches to mimic the floor color and tone down the white cabinets and counters.

But like most girls with a credit card that is poised to be swiped, I was swayed to add to my order by finally getting a fixture for the front door. We have accommodated the hideous brass fixture there for long enough and I decided it was hightime to kick it to the curb.

I'd been eyeing the giant lantern like fixtures for quite some time. But some little inner voice told me "don't do it!". And it took every ounce of strength convince myself that I need to stay focused on the kitchen. I can worry about the front door later.

No more than 30 minutes later I sent up a prayer of thanks to the Karma gods that told me to turn down that light because low and behold a nearly identical one was staring me dead in the eye at homesense. On clearance for only $80 no less!!!!!! So while I splurged ever so slightly by switching up the kitchen light, I saved over $800 in the end by not buying the front door light. Plus I'll have a fabulous new fixture greeting everyone as I show off the new kitchen, just like in my dreams.

And that part that really makes me smile is that I actually prefer the finish of mine, in a polished chrome that matches my table lamp at the front door, over the oil rubbed bronze of RH's version.

The electrician will be here on Monday (along with our cabinets!) so I am crossing my fingers it will be up then and I can share "the best find of my life"-glory I will be experiencing.

Abducted by aliens? admitted into the witness protection program? Travelling to the center of the earth? No, no and no. But they all sound a heck of a lot more exciting than what my daily life is currently like! Slap me with the bad blogger of the year award guys, I totally deserve it for my reckless abandonment of the blog lately. Between the death of my beloved old laptop, the hectic daily demands of pulling together this kitchen without a contractor, throw in the fact that my 1 and only car key snapped off in my car door (and took almost 3 weeks for the new one to arrive) with a few bouts of good weather and I seem to have let myself go in the blog sense. It is also the busiest time of year for whiteberry and I have been bombarded with a month long waiting list of projects for lovingly patient clients. I haven't even had time to raise a speck of paint to my ever mounting pile of personal finds. Anyways, I promise not to bother you with the time honored "whoa is me" speech because if there are moms with 7 or 8 kids out there that can find time to blog at least once a week I really have no excuses.

Buuuut with that said, I can't guarantee I will be back on the scene much for the next few weeks as all our hard work comes together in the kitchen. But when I do make it back it will be for good, cross my heart, poke a needle in my eye and all that jazz.

Enjoy that sunshine, friends!