A burner on our 1980's era electric cooktop gave out. The big problem was that it was the last of the four that was sort of working. This, my friends, for the two of us who like to cook was an issue that had to be dealt with.
There it is the cooktop and as you can see work has begun, the demolition of a once dreadful granite back splash. I took this just before the cooktop was ripped out as a reminder of what once was.
And, by the way, who puts a cooktop in a corner? Farewell ye ol' cooktop!
The old sink, bye-bye!
The cooktop....gone along with the granite countertop. Did I mention our sink and faucet and how much we disliked it? With the corner freed up we planned on putting a new cooktop into the island.
That was not going to happen. We called in David Dubois, a cabinet maker we have worked with in the past. James and I designed a pantry to add storage to the galley kitchen we were creating. As far as we know when this house was built in the 1950's there was a galley kitchen, so, in fact we are just going back to the original concept.
The entrance from the dining room was made smaller to retract the open concept plan, and Mr. Dubois designed a long counter that would accept the range top we wanted. Yes, it is a six burner gas Wolf with red handles and all! Now, we also needed a vent hood and a counter top for this baby !
The snowball was rolling and getting bigger and moving faster daily.
The upper cabinets were coming down and would be repurposed in the pantry. In the meantime everything had to come out. John Kendall, friend and our builder fit us in his schedule for this unexpected project, so we never quite know when is would and will show up. So when we he showed up to remove the upper cabinets we had to clean them out in haste! It looks like it, and it stayed this way for weeks.
There's John at work putting in the vent hood.
David's lower cabinet installed and it's beautiful along with the new range top.
This was prior to the gas line being hooked up, so we could only admire the new gas beast and please notice our plywood countertops that we lived with from Thanksgiving through Christmas!
The oven was the same 1980's vintage as the former cooktop. This kitchen was designed in 1983 by a Boston designer. We could never understand why this oven was installed so low. It was backbreaking to get a heavy cast iron pot out , not to mention a sixteen pound turkey at Thanksgiving. James and I could only surmise that former owners used the microwave above the oven, which we never use.
In the dictates of the 'might as well' we decided to take the plunge and buy a new oven, that turned into double ovens. We are really home cooks and prepare almost all of our meals here in our kitchen, so it was easy to justify 2 ovens!
( Excuse the interruption but John just showed up, really! We had to 'conference' for a few minutes on what he was working on for the next two hours!)
Turns out he is here to put another skim coat on in the pantry.
The pantry in the rough.
The black box on the wall, that I insisted be saved, is the maids call box. Each room in the house has one. The problem is that when you push a buzzer no one comes with a tray of tea and little cakes.
So unfortunate!
This is how the pantry looks now. Just a little more work on the walls and then James and I will prime and paint them. Love this work space and now we can begin to reorganize and clean up the mess.
Counter tops being installed. James and I had decided on Carrera marble. The same marble that Michelangelo chose to carve out his masterpieces.
James woke up in a panic one night with a fear of Carrera marble being stained by red wine or etched by lemon juice after hearing so many dire warnings of marble's demise.
We went back to RE Granite and Marble and since they had not gotten to the point of making templates for our counters there was time to make a change. James and I selected Absolute Black granite.
Go ahead James, open that bottle of red wine!
We must not forget there was an electrician, Tim Twitchell, involved in all this and a plumber too.
The snowball keeps on rollin' gaining size, cost and momentum.
This is where the kitchen redo is to date. At last, new counter tops, new range top, ovens, and a big single sink and faucet. David refaced our old cabinets with cherry ....still waiting on the corner lazy Susan. We kept the existing tile floor, and as I mentioned reused the cabinets in the pantry.
The best part is that we can cook again, together.
There is still work to be done. Slowly, slowly, or as they say in Italy, "Piano, piano!"
I will keep you posted on the progress, but for today.......
Soup's on!
Minestrone.
The entrance from the dining room was made smaller to retract the open concept plan, and Mr. Dubois designed a long counter that would accept the range top we wanted. Yes, it is a six burner gas Wolf with red handles and all! Now, we also needed a vent hood and a counter top for this baby !
The snowball was rolling and getting bigger and moving faster daily.
The upper cabinets were coming down and would be repurposed in the pantry. In the meantime everything had to come out. John Kendall, friend and our builder fit us in his schedule for this unexpected project, so we never quite know when is would and will show up. So when we he showed up to remove the upper cabinets we had to clean them out in haste! It looks like it, and it stayed this way for weeks.
There's John at work putting in the vent hood.
David's lower cabinet installed and it's beautiful along with the new range top.
This was prior to the gas line being hooked up, so we could only admire the new gas beast and please notice our plywood countertops that we lived with from Thanksgiving through Christmas!
The oven was the same 1980's vintage as the former cooktop. This kitchen was designed in 1983 by a Boston designer. We could never understand why this oven was installed so low. It was backbreaking to get a heavy cast iron pot out , not to mention a sixteen pound turkey at Thanksgiving. James and I could only surmise that former owners used the microwave above the oven, which we never use.
In the dictates of the 'might as well' we decided to take the plunge and buy a new oven, that turned into double ovens. We are really home cooks and prepare almost all of our meals here in our kitchen, so it was easy to justify 2 ovens!
( Excuse the interruption but John just showed up, really! We had to 'conference' for a few minutes on what he was working on for the next two hours!)
Turns out he is here to put another skim coat on in the pantry.
The pantry in the rough.
The black box on the wall, that I insisted be saved, is the maids call box. Each room in the house has one. The problem is that when you push a buzzer no one comes with a tray of tea and little cakes.
So unfortunate!
This is how the pantry looks now. Just a little more work on the walls and then James and I will prime and paint them. Love this work space and now we can begin to reorganize and clean up the mess.
Counter tops being installed. James and I had decided on Carrera marble. The same marble that Michelangelo chose to carve out his masterpieces.
James woke up in a panic one night with a fear of Carrera marble being stained by red wine or etched by lemon juice after hearing so many dire warnings of marble's demise.
We went back to RE Granite and Marble and since they had not gotten to the point of making templates for our counters there was time to make a change. James and I selected Absolute Black granite.
Go ahead James, open that bottle of red wine!
We must not forget there was an electrician, Tim Twitchell, involved in all this and a plumber too.
The snowball keeps on rollin' gaining size, cost and momentum.
This is where the kitchen redo is to date. At last, new counter tops, new range top, ovens, and a big single sink and faucet. David refaced our old cabinets with cherry ....still waiting on the corner lazy Susan. We kept the existing tile floor, and as I mentioned reused the cabinets in the pantry.
The best part is that we can cook again, together.
There is still work to be done. Slowly, slowly, or as they say in Italy, "Piano, piano!"
I will keep you posted on the progress, but for today.......
Soup's on!
Minestrone.
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