Country kitchens

I've got kitchens on the brain these days, so I thought I'd share some lovely kitchens from Country Home.

More kitchen progress

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I posted recently about the arrival of the cabinets, and now for the arrival of the appliances and some other odds and ends that have been completed.

Since my last post things have been moving along in my kitchen. The end is near and I could not be happier with the way the space has turned out, and I am dying to cook my first meal in probably 6 weeks. This post is going to be a bit random, of different projects that have progressed, and next time I'll show you details of the lighting.

Let me start with the arrival of the appliances. I was so stoked to see them in the kitchen. To finally have a fridge that has a freezer in it...to be able to have ice in my drinks without having to go down to the chest freezer in the basement and bash a bag of ice on the ground. It was a scary sight to see them being moved into the house though, let me tell you. The movers removed all the packaging and then carried them into the house, through my narrow front door in the pouring rain up my rickety steps. I held my breath. The stove, I was told, weighs about 500 lbs. Amazingly, it survived the trip into the house. It was left in the middle of the floor while it awaited the gas guy's visit for the hook up.

The uppers were installed, in about 15 minutes, while I was upstairs locked in my bedroom with the cats. LOVE EM.

Here is a photo of the kitchen with the uppers in place and, well, at least the fridge in place.

To see more of the progress, click HERE.

Arrival of cabinets

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I posted recently about the flooring, and now.....the cabinets have arrived!!!

I was sooooooooo excited for the day the cabinets were to arrive. Since Greentea Design is based in Toronto, I had only seen the cabinets on their website, and got a tiny sample (about 3 inches) sent to me in the mail to help with my countertop selection. Friday was the day....and it turned out to be bright and early. There was a bit of chaos early that morning as I scrambled to get some extra hands out to my house ASAP to help me unload the truck, but was quickly forgotten once I got a glimpse of the cabinets. The unloading only took about 20 minutes (once they got a system going it was easy peasy). I wasn't able to take photos of them being unloaded because it was raining that day. The first photo I managed to take was of all the cabinets stacked in the living room.

The cabinets were left there for the majority of the day because I wanted to get the walls and ceiling painted before getting the cabinets in place (turns out the walls weren't ready and needed more sanding - but we found this out after 3 coats of paint and after the electrician got the potlights working). For several hours the cats had a ball climbing all over them.

WOW - they were packed so carefully. I worked for moving companies for a few summers during my university years and I have never seen anything packed like that. For each cabinet there was styrofoam on the corners, then a box that wrapped all the way around, then moving blankets wrapped and taped (with perfect corners, like how us women wrap presents), and then shrink-wrapped. It was like Christmas morning unwrapping each piece. And not a scratch or mark on any piece. What a relief!

Is the suspense too much to handle? Then click HERE.

Flooring

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I posted recently about some final sketches Greentea created for me and some decisions I've made. Now for the flooring.

One of the steps to this renovation that I was super excited about was getting new flooring. When I first moved into this house I knew I would eventually knock the wall down separating the living room from the kitchen, and continue the same flooring throughout. Since I love the look of painted hardwood, I decided to paint the existing hardwood in the living room (I detested the oak colour) and get hardwood installed in the kitchen and paint it the same colour. I was so excited to see the tiles go that I had lived with since last December (beyond gross). I'll stick a before photo here as a reminder:

As I mentionned in a previous post, the contractor spent alot of time levelling the floor, because it dipped from one end to the other by several inches.

Initially the contractor was going to purchase unfinished hardwood to lay in the kitchen. But when he went to pick it up, he said there were alot of knots showing and was worried it would show through the paint. So he went with finished flooring. And he purchased boxes of various colours that were leftovers from previous customer orders, so it only ended up costing $1.99/sq.ft. When they started laying it, we all got a kick out of the different colours and thought it looked pretty cool.

As you can see in the last photo, because the floor involved some layers to get it level, the kitchen is now a little step up from the living room. The contractor put a nice curved finishing piece on the edge.

To see the result of my flooring project, click HERE.

What's cooking in the 70s?

Perfect timing for a retro kitchen post. Kim has reached the stage with her kitchen renovation where she loves her new kitchen more than she hates her contractor. Today's retro inspirations are from The Australian Kitchen, by Babette Hayes, Cassell Australia, 1979. I used to feel that kitchens like these dated a modern home but look closely and there are great ideas and a look that is perfect for those who choose not to have the cherrywood and granite dream.