The Chosen Finishes (for now, at least)

I thought I'd also share some of the finishes we're thinking of using.  In my head, "finishes" mean the color of the cabinets and the kind of tile and stuff.  It might not mean that, but that's what I'm talking about.  Without further ado, here they are:

The cabinets will be Woodmark's "Reading" cabinets in "Linen" finish.  

Home Depot is running a serious sale on cabinetry right now that make these babies super affordable -  So affordable that, when we priced out cabinetry at Ikea, the total for the cabinets would have been only about $400 less than the Woodmark cabinets.  The Ikea cabinets would have been made of MDF (medium-density fiberboard) and we would have had to put them together (along with all the improvising and cursing that always accompanies Ikea furniture assembly).   The Woodmark cabinets, in contrast, are solid wood and are put together in a factory by someone who knows what they're doing and has all the right tools.  If I'm going to put my wedding china in these cabinets, I'd rather the assembly process be somewhat more systematic than Drew and I in our socks trying to decipher those blasted little Ikea blob men's instructions.  And cursing.  

WHY DON'T THEY JUST USE WORDS?

Furthermore, the Home Depot price includes delivery and tax, which the Ikea price doesn't, probably bringing the two prices to within a hundred bucks or so.  If all that weren't enough (and it is), we love Jose much more than we loved the disgruntled Ikea kitchens guy, who looked like he would rather have been getting a root canal than helping us design our kitchen.  

I also priced out other options, but got nervous and overwhelmed because a lot of them involved buying cabinets online with no in-person guidance.  We feel like we're getting a great deal on the Home Depot cabinetry and like the person we're working with, so we felt okay taking the plunge.  (I'll share all the pricing information once we finalize everything).  

We briefly considered doing stained wood cabinets but decided against it because (1) the kitchen doesn't get a ton of light and we want to keep things as bright as possible (a new light fixture will help with that too) and (2) we already have a ton of wood in the adjoining dining room (floors, table, china cabinet) and it feels like way too much to have wood cabinets in the kitchen too.  More of a hunting lodge vibe than I'm going for.  I'm sure we could have made it work, but I like white cabinets and it's my kitchen, so there.  

The choice of countertop is a very personal one and people can get pretty heated about it, it appears.  We considered butcher block, which we saw in one property we looked at, but ultimately decided against it because it needs tons of maintenance and could look beat up in a few years.  Stone countertops add more value to a house than synthetic (i.e., Corian) countertops, according to the internet (which is never wrong).  We're also not very good about being careful about putting hot stuff on the counter (our laminate countertops have not been ruined yet, but it's really just a matter of time) and the synthetic stuff isn't super heat-resistant.  So far, all the granite we've looked at is more reasonably priced than quartz (by quite a bit), so that's the choice for now.    

At the moment, we're thinking about Azul Platino granite (see above), which is in the lowest-priced group at Home Depot ($50 per square foot).  We'll probably get it from these guys, though, who installed our neighbor's granite and apparently charge $35 per square foot for the exact same stone.  

We also want an undermounted stainless steel sink.  The one above seems cool to me (I found it on overstock.com) but we haven't really gotten far enough in the process to start choosing sinks.  

Finally, we're going to try and do subway tile all the way to the ceiling by the sink (to highlight all the stuff on our super-cool open shelving) and as a backsplash in the stove area.  Subway tile is cheap, timeless (hopefully), and neat looking.  I also don't care that every kitchen remodel right now includes subway tile.  The only potential issue is that the cabinets are "Linen," not pure white, so it may look a little funny.  I think it'll be fine, but it's on my list of things to check out, just to be sure.  

I think we'll slowly replace the appliances with stainless steel versions as necessary but (other than the fridge), replacing appliances won't likely be part of this project.  It's very expensive and it feels terribly wasteful replacing totally functional appliances just because they don't "match."  

So there you have it.  Our current thinking on finishes (or whatever they're called).  Our meeting with Jose went well yesterday (we even have an appointment for someone to come measure for cabinets!) but decided on a few design changes that I'll tell you all about later.  With that, I'm off to work.  Have a great week, everyone!