I just don’t have enough photos from before the flood that really show the kitchen. These may provide a rough idea?
You can see the built-in oven, the white cabinets.
The granite counters the previous owner installed with his kitchen remodel.
The island with the houndstooth Lynne put on the back for us–but I’m really showing you the floor, because I always thought it was kind of orangey to go with the granite.
SO ANYWAY–the cabinets had to be pulled, the dishwasher wasn’t working, and I wanted a gas stove. All reasonable. Our faucet sprung a few leaks, so when the plumber came to do other things, he replaced it with one that we had to order online because no one local had wall-mounted fixtures in stock.
So far so good. But when Keith and crew talked about our cabinets, they were concerned. The insurance would pay to replace the lower cabinets that were affected by the flood, but not the upper cabinets. But all those cabinets had been custom-fitted for that kitchen–which Keith and Mike could do, as they are both carpenters–but matching the exact color, the paint finish, etc., would be a challenge and costly. Or we could replace the lower and the upper cabinets–more costly. Keith wanted us to be happy, but he didn’t want us to go way over budget.
He never saw The Compound, of course, and how Tom and I went crazy with color for our walls in the Jewel Box. The only hint he had was our accent wall in the living room.
So when Tom and I sat down one night to talk things over, I said, “Why do the lower cabinets have to be the same as the upper cabinets? What if we…” Then we started looking at photos online. In under half an hour, we knew exactly what we wanted.
Oh, the skepticism. The nervousness of contractors. The doubt of friends. But Tom and I knew. And when the lower cabinets were built and painted, and they were brought into the house in sections, I kept grabbing pieces and holding them to the countertops and to the floors, saying, “SEE? All the colors you couldn’t see in the granite are being pulled out now. The old tile floor isn’t orange, it lives up to the name Tom found on an extra box of it in the shed, which contains the word ‘cherry.'”
WE LOVE OUR KITCHEN. The granite and floor I hadn’t been that crazy about, the backsplash I didn’t really like, it’s all good to me now with the new cabinets and the new appliances. Keith and the guys did a spectacular job of making it work.
Yes, that is the same color on the cabinets that’s on the wall in the living room. The pulls and handles were reused so they’d match the upper cabinets. Other parts of the cabinetry were also salvagable (the drawer and door fronts, the interior hardware, etc.). So we were bold AND economical.