Lois' Bathroom

This is Lois' Bathroom:








After 25 years, Lois has decided to update her bathroom with new flooring, fixtures, cabinetry and counters. We will also be remodeling the closets that are outside the bathroom. First part is demo, so everything comes out:

Shannon's Kitchen - Finished!

So here we are, finished with Shannon's Kitchen! It's been rewarding and exciting to see the kitchen transform into this beautiful space in just 10 weeks! I know it was tough on the family, living with no kitchen and all the dust, but they are very happy with the results. To recap, this is what it looked like before:


This is during:



And this is after:


Remember Shannon's 1'x1' pantry:


This is the new pantry:


Complete with a pass through to the utility room:


More views of the space, I am standing at the front door for this before picture:



And after:





Now it's on to a new bathroom for Lois!

Shannon's Kitchen - The Finished Entertainment Unit!

This is Shannon's kitchen remodel that also included a built-in entertainment unit in the family room. It is finished with the same elements as the kitchen cabinetry, i.e., door style and feet. We built it to house the new flat screen tv and the new speaker system. All the components for the tv and sound system were moved to a hall closet to be controlled with a single remote, too cool! The living room tv and sound system is also controlled from the hall closet.


There is a sliding door below the tv that houses the center speaker, here it is open:


We were able to slide the sub woofer into the closed-door area, thus hiding another black box. The sound quality is not affected by having it enclosed. Another thing we did was spend a lot of time discussing the height of the television, and since this is a very long room that is also viewable from the kitchen, we installed it at a height that works from all viewing areas-- a little higher than you would in a smaller room.

Protecting Marble Countertops

As you can see in my previous blog entries, marble is beautiful for countertops! Many people shy away from using it because of its tendency to etch and stain.

Etching is caused from things that are highly acidic such as orange juice, coffee, vinegar, wine, tomato products, mustard and soft drinks. On spots where marble has been etched, it is no longer glossy, but dull instead. Staining is caused by common foods including those listed above.

At this point, you may be saying, "Why in the world would I ever put marble in my kitchen?" The answer is SEAL your counters. There are many products designed to seal and protect natural stone. In fact, there is a product made by DuPont that offers a 15 year warranty. This product, as shown below, must be applied by an authorized applicator at the time of installation.


Check with your fabricator that installs your counters to see if he/she is certified. The warranty guarantees that the marble will not stain, it does not protect against etching, but is does give you a little more time to clean the spill before etching begins. For more information about this product, go to www.stonetechpro.com.

Shannon's Kitchen - The Finished Fireplace!

We have entered the final phase of Shannon's kitchen remodel, it's been 9 weeks and the transformation is amazing! The fireplace surround is faced with tiles of Calacutta Oro, the same material as the slabs used on the kitchen counters.
This is what the area looked like before:

Kitchen Sink

One of the things I like to do when under mounting the kitchen sink is make the surrounding countertop look thicker than it really is. Most slabs are 3/4" thick but you can make it appear to be twice that thickness if you plan for it and have the sink base made 3/4" shorter. Then the fabricator adds a straight bullnose piece to the slab at the edge. The result is something that looks like this:

Shannon's Kitchen - The Backsplash

And now, the Mosaic backsplash:


This tile mosaic comes on a mesh in 12" x 12". Isn't it gorgeous!

This is what it looked like before the grout:

To CFL or Not To CFL

There's no doubt that the light cast by fluorescent lightbulbs is different than that of incandescent lightbulbs. I personally like what Thomas Edison invented and all of my projects (and people) look better in this light as well. But every once in a while, I buy a CFL (compact fluorescent lightbulb) to see if it's any better than I remember, primarily searching for a long life bulb. And each time I am disappointed. CFL's have a way of sucking the color out of what it shines on, and while the picture below is not colorless, it is a far cry from what it really looks like:


This next picture is with an incandescent bulb, and the walls appear yellow, the true color:


I tried a CFL that was classified as "soft white" and this is the result, hmmm, not there yet!

Shannon's Kitchen - The Marble Counters

This countertop was one of the first things Shannon picked. She knew that she didn't want anything dark and she really liked white. After looking at several different suppliers and many slabs, we found this gorgeous Calacutta Oro Marble.


This marble slab set the stage for the backsplash, the wall color, the floor color, and the cabinetry color. So you can imagine our dismay when we found out that our slabs had been released and sold to someone else! But thank goodness, the slabs had not been taken from the supply yard yet-- And after some intense negotiations, the slabs were rightfully returned to us, and here they are!

The lesson here is when you find a one-of-a-kind slab, either purchase the slabs or make a down payment. That sounds easy to do, but until you have the cabinetry in place, you don't know exactly how many slabs you will need. This is an expensive product and we were trying to make sure that we would only use two slabs. By making a change to the microwave area, we kept it to two slabs with only a 10" x 30" piece left over.


The part in front of the microwave does not extend under the microwave area, thus the savings. Next stop, backsplash.

Shannon's Kitchen- the Cabinetry

The cabinetry is completely finished! There are still a few parts that need to be painted and that will be done when the painter returns for touch up. The are the photos:












Shannon saved about $2 per knob and $6 per cup pull by finding ones she liked at Home Depot. On the Entertainment Unit, she spent a little more with $8 knobs from Anthropology. Next step, beautiful marble counters!

Shannon's Kitchen - The Baseboard and MDF

When we replaced all the flooring in Shannon's living space, it was necessary to replace the baseboard as well. We decided to go with a taller baseboard than what the house had previously. Since the baseboard will be painted, there are two options-- use all wood or use medium density fiberboard (also known as MDF).

This is what we ended up with:


We used a 6" piece of MDF on the bottom and a piece of 1 1/4" wood molding (called PM5) on top, total cost is $.74 per linear foot. If we had used all wood, the cost would have been $1.44 per linear foot. At almost half the price, MDF is the better deal! This is what it looks like before it's painted:


Many times, MDF is not recommended in wet areas such as bathrooms and kitchens. With repeated exposure to water, it will probably puff up. I have it in my bathrooms and have not had any problems. My neighbor has it in her bathrooms and has had problems with it, she also has 4 young children. But even wood that is repeatedly exposed to water will have problems . . . At Shannon's house, it's not a worry because water is not used to clean the engineered floors. So we got a great look for less!