Many thanks to all of you for your comments on my latest design of the lake house! I failed to mention that Dana is fabulous photographer and you can view her work at
StriplingPhotography.com! Your feedback and compliments of the design are so encouraging and motivating! I have other projects that I am currently working on that will be posted soon!
Onto to other things........
We wanted to share with you the first part of several renovation projects on our 1800 colonial that we love!
The kitchen!
When we orginally moved into the house we did a low budget, slap it in kitchen that included bits and bobs (for all you british friends) from other kitchens. We had cabinets and appliances from two different kitchens that we inherited and we installed them on laminate flooring and painted the cabinets, replaced hardware and wallpapered. After all was said and done, it wasn't that bad. After several years though, the cabinet doors were falling off, storage was an issue and there was damage to the formica countertops. My husband who primarily works on renovating kitchens said "it is time to do ours!" I was excited and nervous at the same time because I knew it was quite an investment of money and whatever we chose was something we would live with for a while. I became overwhelmed with all the choices and options, maybe you have felt that way? So we teamed up with Melissa Seibold of Canterbury Design and she helped us design a functional and beautiful kitchen that we love!
So here are some shots of the construction phase.........
So as you can see we had some issues.....The sub flooring was so uneven and rotting that my husband decided it all had to come up. That reveals the large tree trunk rafters that acted as structural beams for our house!
The framing around the back door was also rotting so that had to addressed. Don't you love the loose stone foundation wall that we had to build on, the joys of owning a historical older home!
After reinforcing and replacing different structural elements the finish work began............
Drum roll please!
Mouser Cabinetry with a beaded, raised panel inset door was selected. Sand blasted Cambrian Black granite was picked, sand blasting takes away the shiny finish and provides the slightest texture which we loved!
We thought the dark stained interior for the seeded glass cabinets would be interesting visually.
Jenn Air and Bosch appliances are used and my grandmother "noni" sewed these sweet little roman shades for me!
We opted for the larger Shaw farmhouse sink! My husband was skeptical at first but we both love it! We can wash large items like trays with no problem!
Adam made this hood for our range with MDF material, ordered the trim pieces from the cabinet company and had it finished with a local plastering artist. It came out just as we had imagined.
A few added touches for storage is the built in wine rack. Melissa took advantage of every possible inch in our smaller kitchen, for that we are thankful!
These photos were taken a few years ago. Since then we have painted the walls a creamy gray. The bistro sign is gone as are some of the decorative pieces. We have some other changes planned for the future, so stay tuned for an update soon! So, if this was your project what would you have done differently? Please post your comments for me to read! Thanks a million!
