Tuesday, March 21, 2017

BONUS POST...COUNTERTOP INSTALLATION...

You are in for a treat...TWO posts in one day!  Boy am I on a roll...lol.

I charged my phone and was able to access the pictures of the counter top installation so I figured I would just go ahead and share instead of leave you hangin'.

I have to say it was a very interesting process.  We ordered the stone through Home Depot and Home Depot in Manchester, Missouri subcontracts Hallmark Stone in Fenton, MO to do their installs.  I have to say from start to finish I was VERY impressed with Hallmark.  They made the install painless and were a pleasure to work with.  I can't thank them enough for treating us so well.

They came out the first time and made a template for the counters...which like a dummy I didn't take any pictures of.  SORRY!!!

Two weeks later they came out and installed the custom cut quartz slabs.


The stone is so heavy they had to bring the slabs in the house on a cart.






Once inside the house it took two of them to set them in place and if the truth be told they probably could have used a third or fourth person.





All I can say is I hope these guys get paid good.  They deserve it.  Not only did the set the countertops in place.  They installed my undermount sink, put in the bracket for the dishwasher and caulked everything.  Now that is service.  It's rare to find or get that kind of service these days.

I think the most impressive part in the whole thing is that the template guys were only at the house for about 30-45 minutes, maybe and hour and did PERFECT templating...and the cut stone was just as perfect...even where they had to notch out for the part of the wall we had to leave in on the peninsula. I really can't praise Hallmark Stone enough for a job well done.






I can't tell you how much I love them.  Not only are they gorgeous but easy to use.  Quartz is the most popular material of choice right now for countertops....even more so than granite.  They are maintenance free and shouldn't stain, etch or scratch.

I'm tellin' ya, this is a dream come true for me.  I hope they are worth the money...nearly $3000....GULP!!!! I KNOW, RIGHT?  But they should last forever and since I went with a classic marble design they should never become outdated either.

Well there you have it....Silestone White Arabesque Quartz...fully installed and beautiful.



KITCHEN REMODEL...COUNTERTOPS & BACKSPLASH...

This post should have been written a week ago but I've been too lazy to take pics.  As a matter of fact I still have not taken pics.  The ones you are going to see today are from the hubs' phone...which means they aren't very good.  :).

As you know the counters were installed a week ago this past Friday.  It was a very exciting day to say the least.  I took pics of the installation but I will have to share those later because they are on my phone....which is dead at the moment.  LOL.

Anyway, without further ado, here are a few pics of the counters and backsplash.




I still have to grout.  I started last night and got about halfway done and ran out of grout...I bought the premixed which was probably a mistake.  It said it would cover 50 sq. ft.  Well, I don't know how they measure sq. ft. but it only covered about 8 of my sq. ft....so now I have to make another trip to the store.  Yay me!

The counters are White Arabesque Quartz from Silestone and they are GORGEOUS!!!  Best choice ever!  Hallmark Stone in Fenton, Missouri templated and installed and I can't say well enough about them.  They were super nice and did an awesome job.  The templating process took about an hour and then the install took about another hour.  Super fast and I have to tell you I was impressed with everything from start to finish.  I would definitely recommend them to anyone putting stone counters in.  Okay so enough about that....

They installed the undermount sink while they were there and then hubs installed the faucet and stuff.  It's really great to having running water again.  I missed it much.








One...just one...of my favorite parts that we did in this kitchen was install an outlet with USB ports.  It was expensive $26 but well worth it as I know it will be used A LOT!!!  Really there is no excuse for my cell phone to be dead right now.  Ooooops!!!!  Hehe







Well with the counters in place we are now COOKING in this kitchen.  Cooking with GAS!  It's been great and with the layout and design of this kitchen now I have plenty of prep space.




Maybe in the future I will share some cooking videos.  That would be fun!!  I have just a few finishing touches...some painting mainly...and this kitchen remodel will be done.   YAY!!!

I will be sure to share pretty full view pics as soon as I get everything finished up.

Until then, have a fantastic life.

Ciao,



Monday, March 6, 2017

KITCHEN REMODEL...PART 2....PHASE 3...THE FRIDGE SIDE...

Okay, we made some serious progress on the kitchen in the past week.  We got the last of the cabinets installed and pretty much all the appliances in too.  Let me just tell ya, getting the fridge in the house was a nightmare. Not only was it the coldest and windiest night of the year, at midnight we were taking the door off the house and still had some issues with the screen door as well.  What a complete mess....definitely not something I want to do again.  Haha...but we got it in and all is well!

Anyway, all we really have left to do on our part until the countertops go in on Friday is some finishing work.  Lots of caulking and painting. O JOY!!! Once the counters go in we can install the backsplash, sink, faucet and dishwasher and this kitchen remodel will be DONE!!!  Yay!.

Now my kitchen is very small and very specific when it comes to measurements for things like cabinets on the refrigerator side of the room.  I wanted to have a pantry on either side of the fridge but there were limited size options for pantries in the Hampton Bay line of cabinets so I only had enough room for one pantry...with about 12" of space left over so I had to get creative when it came to making everything fit and had to do somewhat of a custom build on the one side of the fridge. I used a couple 12" cabinets, some cube systems and a whole lot of trim but I think once it's all painted out, it's gonna look nice.



I had a hard time finding baskets in the size and color I wanted but I think these cute Ikat print bins will work out just fine, though they are a little smaller than what I wanted.


They will hold things like bread, snacks, etc. and I think we are going to like using them.

We got the toekicks on and most of the hardware installed over the weekend.






I still have to put knobs on the cabinet doors which will only take a few minutes.

We got the peninsula finished out too.

I trimmed it out in the shaker style to kind of mimic the cabinets.I really like how it turned out. Now
all that's left to do there is some painting.


Well that's it for now.  I probably won't be back until everything is finished which I hope to be next Monday or Tuesday.

Though this is something I have wanted to do for a long time, I will be SOOOOOO glad to get this job behind us.  It's looking really good and I can't wait to start using this kitchen.

What do you think out first meal should be? Any recipe suggestions?






























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