"Designing within Reach"

SO we are moving along with the first floor -  a bit slower than I would like but my workload, combined with Viola's middle school transition and Tilo's traveling has us moving along at a snail's pace.

Demo is FINALLY done.  We took down the wall between the dining room and eat in kitchen, then we thought another wall should come out, and THEN we decided the refrigerator had to move so more wall could come out.  NOT recommending to do ti that way!  It is really better if you can think the process through beforehand and stick to the plan :)!!  It was tough though because in our neighborhood, size is everything.  We needed a BIGGER kitchen and we have finally achieved that.

Insulation has now gone in.  What we found out through the demo process is that we have NO insulation in the exterior walls on the first floor.  Funny thing is on the second floor we had insulation in EVERY interior and exterior wall!  Insulation is key to energy efficiency so I had my sub come in and put insulation in any open cavity they could find.  When we removed the existing kitchen backsplash, the sheet rock also came off opening up the wall cavities on most of the kitchen walls.  We then stuffed batt insulation up and down in those cavities.  Hopefully we will see the difference in our power bills.  We also insulated between the 1st and 2nd floors for soundproofing.  These things make a difference in the "feel" of the home.

Sheet rock will be installed this week, then we head into interior trim, hardwoods, cabinet/countertop installs and painting.  Now is crunch time for me as ALL design decisions have to be made.  I am struggling because my tastes do not exactly match our budget.

First decision is countertops.  Granite is the most common matl used, the newest is Quartz.  Quartz is an engineered product made from natural quartz.  it is super durable but also expensive.  You can buy "remnant" pieces from most fabricators but I need almost 50sf.  I have found one place with enough "random" pieces of a quartz by Zodiaq but I am still not 100% sold.  This is a HUGE investment so it needs to work with our taste and for resale.

The colors I like are "Biana Carrara" by Zodiaq and true Concrete by Dex Industries.  Have a look...

 This is the Bianca Carrara with dark cabinets - we would do dark gray cabinets..

 This is a concrete countertop which I love, just not sure about the resale value. It is an up and coming tread for sure....just need to evaluate it!! What do you think?? Let me know!

Then we have the backspash to choose - I am actually leaning toward solid panels of glass...AM I crazy??

It will add size and brightness to the kitchen and honestly I am a cleaner anyway and it is a whole lot easier to wipe a smooth glass surface than a tiled surface!!

Once we have those decisions made, it is cabinet color - we are having our maple cabinets painted and new door fronts made. Then it is paint colors - EASY white on white, hardwood floor color - going with another "custom color" - light gray!  YES we are asking for trouble after having to redo the floors upstairs 4 times!  But my hardwood floor guy seems to think he has the process down now so the color shouldn't be an issue!!  Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Last stop - FURNITURE.  we sold everything on the first floor before we started so we need to replace it all!!

Will post some pictures of insulation and sheet rock on Tuesday.  You will be able to envision the space once the rock is in place!  Thanks for following!!