In the beginning

DJ’s Entry: Back in August 2007 Mark & I got serious about remodeling the kitchen. I called a friend who has a degree in interior design because I knew this wasn’t where my talents would shine. Her expertise wasn’t with kitchens, but she brought a co-worker from Stock Building Supplies that specialized in kitchen designs and between us we came up with an initial design that had potential.

In September was the Southern Ideal Home Show where we knew we could see Blue Ribbon Residential Construction (http://www.blue-ribbon-construction.com/). John Sperath, President has done a number of projects in the past for us, including remodeling the main bath, adding an upstairs deck and the Cadillac of storage buildings in the back. His work has always been outstanding.

Anyway, back to the beginning of this project. We had a short chat with John at the home show and discussed what we wanted and John made a note to contact us in a week or so to go forward. He also gave us a list of preferred vendors so we could start looking at flooring, tiling and cabinets. Now, not being one to want to sit around, I started dragging Mark around to look at tiling, cabinets, and flooring. I’ve read numerous horror stories about remodels and I wanted this to go as smoothly as possible. So, I figured easiest way was to pick everything out first. I found an awesome backsplash tile that I wanted to use in the kitchen (http://www.lindapaul.com/tile_murals/Pepper_Pail_backsplash_tile.htm) I just knew it would be perfect. So with a copy of this picture, we went in search of cabinets and flooring that would work with this backsplash. As much as I loved this backsplash I quickly realized that it could cause problems in the future. While I love the chili pepper theme, the next owner might not. We visited the cabinet supplier, the plumbing, the tile and the flooring suppliers that John recommended. And in the course of a couple of weeks managed to pick out cabinets, flooring, tiling but alas, no plumbing.

John suggested we meet with Shauna McDonald at Kitchen & Bath Galleries (http://www.kandbgalleries.com/index2.htm). Since John has worked with Shauna In the past, we decided to follow his direction. Shauna was terrific, we were pretty set on getting oak cabinets because we like the look of the grain, but after explaining that oak has been over used and is actually being ripped out of kitchens now she directed us to the hickory. What a pretty grain and color. We quickly chose the hickory cabinet with a honey finish. It’s a very plain style which is just what we were looking for. We had chosen the countertop, and hardware on an earlier visit to the showroom so we gave that information to Shauna.

After a couple more weeks, we met with John to further discuss our project and to let him know we were adding another job (ah yes, the while they’re here syndrome). Not only are they going to rip apart the kitchen to the bare bones, they’re replacing the counter in the bonus room and removing the shower from the laundry room.

In the last week, we’ve had the final design meetings with both Shauna and John. So now, we’re just about ready to get this show on the road. We’ve a tentative start date for the kitchen demolition for 11/27/07. So two guess as to what we’re doing over Thanksgiving.