Well folks, the kitchen is almost done. Frankly, the rest of the work to be done are just touchups and in our own hands.

Ta-da! Here’s the final look. Gone are the memories of having to walk out the front door for easier access to the garage to make coffee because the family room was blocked off by construction workers. No dust, no noise, no strangers in the house.

Not fun was unpacking the kitchen stuff to put into the cabinets. But first, I went through my traditional exercise of “establishing my territory” in the kitchen. Through the many years of moving because I came from a military family, I established a routine that became a tradition whenever I first move into a new place. It is putting in shelf lining in all the cabinets and drawers. The quiet time and motions of measuring, cutting and installing shelf liners is a way of getting to know my new kitchen. Previously, I’ve put paper, but now they have come out with plastic ribbed liners which I’ve come to prefer. It keeps the drawers clean from stains and can be wiped clean with a damp cloth. I chose the clear liner because the interior is made of beautiful maple. After unpacking, I wound up with 2-3 more boxes of stuff to take to Salvation Army.

What is unfinished?

As you can see from the semi-final kitchen pictures the backsplash is yet to be done. Max and I thought about a basic, neutral tile background interspersed with the decorative, brightly colored glass tile. But, just this past week, Max seems to have lost interest in it and is mulling over something else. I’m a little disappointed, but I will let the artiste in him go through the creative cycle.

We ordered 2 new counter stools that will not be available until November. The stools are made of black leather and stainless steel to give it a modern look. What is cool is that there are gas or air pumps in the stools to control the height. The lowest the stool can go is the height of a chair. I thought that was great so that in case of parties, the food can go on the island and the counter stools can be moved aside and turn into chairs. If you don’t get it, I will add pictures once they arrive.

We need a step stool for short people like me. If you notice, the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. There are areas in the upper cabinets that are a bit too high for me to reach. But, we don’t want just any step stool. We want something unique and different that can be out in the open as a decorative item and still be functional. One weekend we traipsed all over Laguna Beach, but we could not find anything.

Finally, there is a bench seat that has extra storage and can be used for cozy seating overlooking the backyard. We still have to find a cushion to put on the top.





Kitchen features

The kitchen is now more open with the ceiling was raised and the wall removed. I’ve included pictures with captions on specific features.

First, let me shout out loud that I love my new stove. It is beautiful and if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten a bigger griddle with 4 burners instead of small griddle with 6 burners. I was in Denver and went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant with a large group of people. The cooks prepared dinner for 10 of us using a large griddle like at Benihana's. Anytime you want to cook anything using a frying pan, the griddle can be used instead. No oil is really needed because the surface has some sort of coating so that eggs or cheese will not stick. If you want to add olive oil for flavor, that is fine but not necessary. No…not Teflon. It is also really easy to clean. Just wipe with a soapy cloth to do the job just fine.

Now the rest of the stove is harder to clean than the electric cooktop we used to have. But it wipes clean easily. We have stainless steel cleaner wipes and polishers. Same with the granite countertops.

Notice that we do have a stainless steel shelf in back of the oven. We heard from someone that people have fancy backsplashes behind the stove, but it is impractical due to spillage or splatter. After awhile, cooking splatters settles into tile grout. So we are glad we have the backsplash shelf which wipes clean. Also the fan has lights and heating lamps. I love the heating lamps and I feel like a short order cook when placing items there to keep warm until everything else is ready. "Order up!"

Bad news. The ovens don’t work. It turns out that the fan motors failed so those are being replaced, hopefully in time for Thanksgiving. We were assured that this is an anomoly and that the Thermador is highly reliable.

The countertop is black granite and to be honest, any splash or spot will show up. But if you wipe any spots, the result is gorgeous. I equate it with a beautiful new black car. It takes extra care, but the results are worth it.

Notice the dishwasher and refrigerator has paneling covering it. I love it, so much better looking with clean lines with continuity throughout the kitchen.

Final Words

I think that though we have some things left to do and some issues we had to deal with, overall we came out of this remodeling unscathed. Before we started this whole process we’ve heard of several horror stories. We’ve learned from those horror stories and as a result, we have the kitchen of our dreams.

Please, please give us your comments or email us. Take care and we will update the sites with more pictures when everything is done.