no beams about it

One of the struggles of this project has been taking down a wall and finding a way to reconcile the new opening with the ceiling heights. In a normal world it wouldn't be that difficult, but I am dealing with a geriatric of a house that was not all built at the same time. The ceiling height in the back hallway is a good two feet below the ceiling in the middle hall because it was an addition added after the original structure was completed. And, the ceiling in the kitchen was probably a foot below that, but we didn't know for sure it was a dropped ceiling until we knocked a hole in the ceiling. I have always LOVED exposed beams, and really wanted to incorporate them in our kitchen. Since the ceilings are now 12' I thought it would also help to add some interest to all that space up thurr. Finding a way for it to work with the different ceiling heights though, has presented its own challenges. 

I knew we would likely need a new structural beam anyway with the removal of the wall, so I wanted to add back as much character as possible. To take out that wall, we had to bid farewell to a transom, which was pretty devastating for Jack. Even though it has absolutely zero functionality, he of course saved it in hopes we can add it above another door that doesn't already have a transom. This is along the lines of what I had envisioned...

via Hooked on Houses

When we took out the wall, we did find out we needed to add a support beam. I was kind of excited thinking of the possibilities. I was hoping for some hipster chic rustic looking beam, but this is what we got instead. Screw practicality.

Please notice the difference in ceiling heights from the third picture. It is like a fun house. Except people live here. And we don't travel around setting up at State Fairs.

Clearly, we can't leave that beam exposed, so I began my search for the perfect ceiling/beam solution. 

Where do I sign up for this next situation? Perfection.

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

That girl, Jessica Helgerson, can do no wrong. Remember her from here? Jessica, if you're out there, I want to be your BFF. You are everything.

Ceiling beams + La Cornue. Be still my heart.

via Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles

Jill Sharp

This next picture served triple, maybe quadruple duty for me, or whatever comes after that. I used it for inspiration for brass hardware, butcher block counter tops, ceiling beams, open shelving, navy cabinetry for the bar, the list goes on. and on.

Blair Harris Interior Design

L. Kae Interiors

So many unreal options, so little time (and money) at this point. I was really hoping my dad would have some old beams I could use out of a dilapidated farm house on one of his farms, but so far, I don't think I am going to be that lucky.

However, after I had already typed up this post, and in a rare stroke of good luck, my brother in law recently informed me that he might be able to come through for me! He has a weathered and worn beam that he reclaimed from his family's old farmhouse, and he and my sister used some of the wood for a mantle in their new house. He has one beam left over that they weren't planning to use. I think the tides might be turning for me!

tiling out

My kitchen has been just whiling out, I mean tiling out, a lot of this week. It was kind of a slow process, but there was A LOT to tile, so it inevitably was going to take quite a few days. 

You may sense the dismay in my voice, and it is not just about the tile. I feel like so many disasters have happened in the past few weeks you would think I was exaggerating if I were to spill the beans on all of them. But if you would like the CliffsNotes version, I will be brief: 

1. I had to flat out cancel my pendants I was obsessing over because they couldn't give me a shipping date and I thought they were basically holding me in a virtual hostage situation. I waited 10 weeks. Enough is enough. I ordered new lights that were supposed to get here on 7-23-15. One pendant safely arrived. Winning! I called the company. The other pendant, which they somehow failed to disclose when I ordered, will be on back order until September. Not winning! FML.
2. The countertops I picked out (which only took 98987876 hours) had some impact marks before they were even cut. I could not take another minute off work to go look at slabs AGAIN, so I told them to just go ahead. I was thinking the marks would miraculously disappear because I am overdue some good luck with this project. Spoiler alert: the marks did not disappear and are more prominent than the worst pimple you've ever seen on picture day in a 9th grade classroom. Failing! 
3. My precious range I ordered got hit by a freight train while in transport. Or a falling meteorite. I am not sure which and I don't care. The company will be sending me another one. Whenever that might be. The last one took 2.5 months to get here. Status: Currently sucking at life.
4. The walnut butcher block countertop in the back bar had to be ripped out. It was like I just opened a Christmas present and someone snatched it out of my hands. The brainiac who installed it decided he didn't care whether I wanted wanted the sink to be over or undermount, he would just take a stab? So instead of just asking me or my GC, he just went ahead and sawed away a giant hole in the middle of the countertop for an overmount sink. And guess what? He guessed wrong. So the options were to buy a bigger sink (which was custom and a 6 week lead time) or install a new countertop. Major FML. 

OK, I promised the CliffsNotes version so I am stopping here. Maybe I am getting to my wit's end. Maybe I need a vacation. I could keep going, but this blog is supposed to be uplifting and is obviously inspiring countless people out there to be heroes every day, so I am not about to be Ms. Debbie Downer on everyone's sweet little Sunday. I am supposed to post pretty pictures and positivity! I am supposed to be a cheerleader for you other delusional DIY-ers! Just shut up and post some happy pictures already, lady!

For my one lonely pendant that arrived, I needed to check out the best length to hang it so I had to solicit some help. I received assistance from a special helper, who would prefer that his picture "never, ever under any circumstances be posted on that stupid blog". So I had to use my great editing skills to crop these quality photos. 

Too high?

Too low?

Maybe right?

Sadly, I might even have to send this lone soldier back. I cannot wait again until September. Cannot do it. I never would have ordered the freaking thing if they had been honest up front and said it was on back order. I think every light in the whole damn world is on back order. This is ridiculous. Why is the light world out to get me? I even planned ahead and you guys can vouch for me. Lights were like the first thing I blogged about for crying out loud. 

And now, for some tile progress:

I promise to be on the happy train all of next week. I pinky promise!

current mood

...or literally when I wash anything in the bathroom sink. I think I may have washed my last dish in my 1980's pedestal sink in the upstairs bathroom, where the drying rack is actually the inside of the claw foot tub, probably covered in dog hair and saw dust. A bathroom is not a substitute for a kitchen people. And it's not my last dish because we magically finished the renovations, it is my last dish because I just can't anymore. I just can't. 

sunday funday

Best surprise ever to come home to...and then there were countertops!

I haven't had a chance to take any good close ups of the counter top stone since they were installed, so here is a close up of the slab I went with. 

Just kidding. I didn't win the lottery. But I did fall in love with that stone. She was just a bit out of my league, so this is what I went with for reals. 

So it is a honed super white Carrara, even though I never thought I would do marble in the kitchen. After dealing with the lowest of lows over the highest of high prices for all of the quartzites I had to have, this was much more friendly to the budget. I was initially really worried I wouldn't be able to tolerate the etching and staining, but then I started thinking about places where you always see marble kitchens and I immediately thought of France. I love all things French and if anyone does fine cooking and living well right it is the French. If marble works for them, clearly it will work for me. I have polished Carrara in a bathroom and the scratching drives me nuts, so I went with honed in the kitchen so the scratching won't be as much of an issue (fingers crossed!). I will still have to be on my A-game as far as mopping up my red wine spills and lemon juice goes so there won't be terrible staining, but I am pretty anal about keeping a clean kitchen anyway so I think that will be just fine. I am actually excited about the aging and changing the marble will do over time and the patina it will get. Check back with me in 5 years and hopefully I will still feel the same way.

I looked at A LOT of slabs. A LOT. I am not kidding when I say I went to different slab yards upwards of 30 times. I was being picky but I also had my eye on a particular stone. And one of the reasons I actually chose the stone I did is because it reminded me of one of the stones I wanted the most, known by many as Super White.

Perhaps the most hotly debated controversy since the blue and black vs. white and gold dress saga from earlier this year, the classification of Super White seems to really rile up people in the stone world. You can check out the debate here, here, and here. I sought it out at a number of different wholesalers in Raleigh, and I found it labeled differently at each location. Some places categorize it as a marble, some as a quartzite, some as a granite, and some as a dolomite. Some places said they won't even carry the stone anymore because there have been lawsuits due to mislabeling the stone. That was just barely enough to scare me off of going with the Super White, combined with the fact it was over double the price of the stone I ended up choosing in the end. At the end of the day, as much as I loved it, I couldn't justify paying 2.5 times the price for a stone that may end up etching and staining just as much as a similar, definitively classified marble. And if I am really lucky, maybe the marble I chose will have some of the dolomite characteristics of the Super White since they look pretty similar. Here's to hoping. 

And without further ado, here are a few more shots of the new countertops:

Come Together

The wet bar in the sunroom is really starting to come together. I ordered the plumbing fixtures through Wilkinson and the sink and faucet have actually been sitting in my house in boxes for awhile waiting to be installed. I wish I could say the same for everything else I've ordered. It is a major mix of metals so I imagine most of you will cringe when you see these things and think about them being used together in the same space. But I am going to have to ask you to just trust me on this one. 

House Beautiful

Okay, busted. This isn't actually my bar. But, since the progress has been painfully slow as of late, I thought you people might stop reading if I didn't post pretty pictures to keep your attention span from shorting out. I should probably hand out snacks while I'm at it. And free money. Also, I know you are dying to see what I used as inspiration so I will share more photos of things that are currently not happening at my house. 

Amy Bartlam

Glitter Guide

Ashley Whitaker Design

Shop MK Style

via Pinterest

So, big spoiler alert, I was going for high gloss navy cabinets. But yet again, everyone wanted to blow up my spot about the high gloss and the navy. "The high gloss will show every ding and blemish." "The navy will show every particle of dirt." I do have two wooly mammoths for dogs. Their saliva knows no end. I find dog spit in my house in places I never knew it to be possible and this bar is actually in a spot where the dogs immediately come in from outside and shake their sweet little heads. Every day. So I got backed into a corner and COMPROMISED. AHHH. Am I going to hate myself for not sticking to my guns? The cabinets are now kind of a dark grayish with maybe a blue undertone. I have a hard time describing paint colors. 

You've already seen the cabinets, but just as a refresher: 

It is a very small space, but for some reason I cannot manage to get a good photo of all of the cabinets in one shot. Pure talent. The cabinets are painted in Sherwin Williams Cityscape.

The counter top is about to be installed this week and it is a walnut butcher block. I am super excited about that.

The knobs are pretty killer:

Then, the faucet goes like so:

And then the sink goes like woah:

I know, I know. Crazy mixed metals all over the place. I thought a copper faucet would be complete overkill, but the copper sink was mandatory, so this seemed like a logical choice. I really don't think it will be too crazy once it's all installed. Again, just asking for you to have a little faith here. I am so excited about this sink! It looks way cooler in person, my iPhone doesn't quite do it justice. 

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:

I had already typed this earlier in the week, when WHAM, the countertop got installed. I couldn't bear to leave you hanging like that anyway. Feast your eyes my friends:

And one last photo, so you can get more of the full effect. The sink will be undermount though. And you may have noticed something missing. No, the upper cabinets were not snatched by the Grinch in an early rendition of him stealing Christmas. They received a bit of a bump (read: giant dent) during installation, so the cabinet maker took them back to get them all pretty again. One step backward, two steps forward maybe?

pack rat

Earlier this week I was a hood rat, today I am a pack rat. I have said many times I wasn't going to freak out about how long this renovation takes. I have made a lot of personal promises to myself not to force my contractor into giving me a specific, final, ALL things complete day, but there are some days when you just want to go home and it not look like this. 

I am trying to be nice and polite, but there are days when I feel like this is my current state of mind. I am the dog on the left when I come home from work and the house looks like a complete war zone, and then I turn into the dog on the right when I see a little bit of progress. 

I am serious. 

Oh, and yes, we are the people with a Pack Rat in our driveway. 

hood rat

In a rare show of  semi-laying down the law, Jack made sure to reiterate that he wanted the kitchen to have an exposed hood. I was already leaning that way anyway, so it was a pretty easy decision to move in that direction. The only issue was, the contractor's bid included an allowance for the hood at $ and I seemed to have an eye for hoods that were priced at $$$$$$.  But who doesn't love a good exposed hood?

Jenny Wolf Interiors

This may come as no surprise to anyone, but I think HGTV has ruined my life. I think all of my frustrations and heartbreak regarding kitchen reno sticker shock could have been avoided had I never been exposed to their fallacies. I watch way too many shows where they do an entire gut job, put in granite counter tops, Wolf appliances, always completed in only 3 days, and then say "we just did this whole kitchen for $20K." I hate to be the one to break it to you, but they are liars. LIARS, I tell you, LIARS. I have a vivid memory of a Nicole Curtis episode where she does a full kitchen remodel, puts in carrera marble counter tops, then boasts that the whole job was done for $4K. That, my friends, should be a lawsuit. It gets my heart rate up just thinking about that episode. Am I the only person who got "got" by HGTV?

Throughout this process, whenever I have first gotten a bid back or seen a price, I feel like the whole world is out to get me or someone is playing a sick joke on me. Fortunately, I now realize this is all HGTV's fault, but unfortunately, I am having a hard time accepting reality. I still have the delusion that for one of my big ticket items, the company I ordered it from is going to call me and tell me I am getting it for free because I am their 10,000th customer. It's crazy and ridiculous, you don't have to tell me. But sometimes it's just nice to think about. Kind of like thinking that one day I'll be the opening act for Beyonce, or one day I'll have a frozen yogurt machine instead of a water dispenser in my kitchen. These are just some of the comforting thoughts I like to have in my delusional little head. 

Costs aside, one thing I loved doing for the kitchen project was designing a hood. It was so much fun! My how my definition of fun has gotten drastically lamer the older I get. I went with Vent-A-Hood and they have this sweet feature on their website where you can design your own hood and (instantly!) see a preview and the cost. Confession: I made over 30 hoods. Easily. Once I decided to stop being lazy and finally met with a rep about placing an order, there were actually way more options. More options does not necessarily = a good thing for someone as ADD as me. I have to make a decision at some point. All these options and I am like a 6 year old on espresso. 

I had done years a bit of research ahead of time on hoods, and some of my favorite forms of inspiration are below. 

via Lonny

via Cococozy

via The Suite Life

Next up, Naomi Stein shows us she is a genius once again. She really always gets it right. 

via Lonny

Dianna Agron's entire kitchen...are you kidding me? Can I just be her?

via My Domaine  

Alison Cayne's Kitchen.  A real chef's kitchen for crying out loud, it's not just the hood I want out of this masterpiece. When can I move in and what is the first meal she is going to make for me? Do yourself a favor and check out her entire home tour, linked below, to really make your day. 

via One King's Lane

Then, of course, I got the half awesome/half terrifying news that the ceilings grew by about 3.5 feet. Guess what that meant? 3.5 extra feet of hood at 3.5 times the price. OK, I am kidding, but it was a little disconcerting at first since I had already designed and gotten my heart set on a particular look. So then I started looking for photos of exposed hoods with higher ceilings to make sure it wouldn't look like it was about to suck up the entire room. 

via Traditional Home

And one last final photo of inspiration. If I am being honest here, I have used every square inch of this kitchen for inspiration. I want everything about this situation to happen in my house. Perfect 10. 

Chassity Evan's kitchen (of Look Linger Love) via So Then They Say

So, I finally placed my order for the hood in May and it is still going to be awhiiiiile before it gets here. Come on Vent-A-Hood, I am dying over here. The suspense is killing me. They really said it could take 15 weeks. 15 weeks. That is 105 days. You are killing me smalls!!!
In the meantime, here is a little sample of what I am waiting on.