Wow, long time no blog!

Way back in June I had a bad accident with a kitchen knife. I was making lunch when the knife slipped: all the way through my hand!

All is well now or almost, anyway. I still have some numbness but I seem to have full use of my hand and, most importantly, good wiggle with all fingers. In the meantime, I want to remind everyone to always use a cutting board.

One of our clients gave me a wonderful tool to prevent this kind of accident from reoccurring — an avocado tool. Here it is:

From the Trudeau Corporation, it is available at amazon.com among other places for $5. I’ve used it a number of times and it works beautifully!

It’s been a long road with a few bumps, but our kitchen remodel is complete! Here it is:

In case you’ve forgotten ( I know I have!), here’s what we started with:

Quite a difference, wouldn’t you say? The new kitchen is brighter and lighter, with a raised beadboard ceiling, painted cabinets, and improved lighting that shines throughout the kitchen instead of just in the middle. And our “surprise” weight-bearing beam turned into a lovely accent piece that really sets off the entire room.

I hope our client will be enjoying her new space for many years to come. We would like to thank our fantastic client, Veronica, and Alex, our amazing construction chief, and Micah, his able sidekick. And thank you, readers, for following!

The end result for our kitchen remodel is in sight for the first time: things are starting to come together. Here’s what I mean:

We’ve shortened the kitchen island to bring it into proportion with the rest of the kitchen and Alex is tiling the top to match the backsplash. New countertops have also been installed. The half-wall that will enclose the refrigerator is complete, as are the soffits above the cabinets. You can see the cedar beam in the foreground of the photo above; notice the corbel we added for design detail.

The shorter island left us with a hole in the floor to fill. Alex added a few pine boards of varying length to go with the existing floor; we’ll stain them later. Here’s a close-up of the island; you can see the first piece of border tile that will edge it all the way around:

So glad demo/construction/lighting is behind us without any further surprises. Actually, there was one good surprise: Alex found an unused live wire behind the old oven that we can use for the new stainless microwave we’re installing above the new stove. Besides the convenience, we also have the “surprise” that the house hasn’t burned down in the last 30 years with a bare live wire stuffed into its walls! I guess code was a little different back in the 70s…

Anyway, here’s where we are:

You can see how the accent tiles are “dancing” across the backsplash. This whimsical element adds a touch of our client’s playful personality to the design. I mean, anyone can line up accent tiles in a straight line. We wanted this backsplash to sing!

The newly-covered cedar beam has led to another great idea: we changed the ceiling design from standard textured drywall to bead-board. We’ll paint the bead-board in our wall color later.

Turns out we can make this change for the ceiling with zero cost increase. Although the bead-board itself is not cheap, the installation is less labor intensive so the cost is a wash.

Here’s where we are:

We’ve also got the halo lights up and the two decorative pendant lights. There’s still too much hammering and dust around to hang the gorgeous art glass globes.

We’re busy getting the bones of our new kitchen up: the new wall, soffits, and hardiboard for the tile backsplash. This is the unglamorous part of design, but proper installation and preparation is essential. Alex and his helper, Micah, have been taping and floating, texturing’s next!

Above, Alex has already built our new “refrigerator wall” to enclose that space and give it a more finished feel. He also has the halo lights installed in what will be our new bead-board ceiling. We’ve also added a halo light in the ceiling just in front of the pantry, an area that has always been very dark until now. We’re adding a total of eight halo lights, plus replacing the light above the sink with a ninth halo. In addition, we’ll have the fabulous pendant lights over the island with their stunning art glass globes.

We’re also adding halogen under-counter lighting. This kitchen will have about a 150% increase in light. Very important since the only windows are at the breakfast area wall. Here’s a couple of photos of the hardiboard and the tape/float:

The last couple of days have been without surprises, for which we are eternally grateful!

After the shock of a huge, stubborn, weight-bearing beam that must remain in place,  we’ve come up with a great solution. We’re going decorative:

It may not look like much now, but it’s going to be beautiful. We covered the beam with rough-hewn cedar to complement the pine-board farmhouse floor and textural woven wood blinds we’ve ordered for the breakfast area windows (seen behind the beam).

We’ll be accenting it with a beautiful but not-too-dressy corbel, as Alex demonstrates here:

Looks great, doesn’t it? I think we can safely upgrade this “crisis” to  a “happy accident!”

Great news! We’ll be using Plan B for our kitchen remodel (see The Metamorefix Kitchen Remodel: We Begin) It costs more but we’re still on track for a full-blown overhaul of this area for under $15,000. We’ll brighten, lighten, improve the space for day-to-day “kitchen-ing,” bring in new appliances, plus hit a beauty and style home run.

It all begins with demo day — here we go!

Above you see the ceiling knocked back up to the studs, the low-hanging outdated fluorescents removed, and the area above the cabinets already framed out. We’ve also decided to build a new wall to the left of the refrigerator to give our new kitchen a nice finished feel. Since we’re only repainting the existing cabinets (if your cabinets are good quality, this is a great way to hold down costs), we needed to add soffits above to accommodate our new ceiling height.

However, when we get to the other side of the room we get a surprise.

An unexpected beam all the way across the width of the kitchen — and it’s structural. We can’t remove it. There goes our plan for a lovely high ceiling to open up the entire space from the breakfast area to the kitchen. We’ve got to come up with something, fast…

Our kitchen remodel begins by telling you a little something about our client. She has been in her home for over 30 years; in fact, she and her husband built this home from the ground up.

It has a wonderful Hill Country view just outside Austin, an acreage lot on a hillside. The kitchen is the same as the day they moved in. Here’s what we’re starting with (that’s me peeking around the corner as our client points out how she uses her kitchen):

We’ll be updating a lot: lighting, countertops, and backsplash. The overhead fluorescent lighting, the entire kitchen ceiling actually, is very low (only 7′). Very trendy at the time it was built, but very outdated now. She also has a kitchen island that is too long for the space, making it difficult to open the refrigerator door. And check out that vintage GE Double Oven! This was top-of-the-line when our client bought it. In fact, I saw the movie “Tootsie” once again the other night and Jessica Lange had this exact appliance in her high-end Eastside NYC apt! (This is the scene where Dustin Hoffman babysits her daughter).

Back to our kitchen remodel: we are presenting two options for our client. Our goal is to update and restyle this room to make it lighter and brighter, function better, and most importantly, give it a fun, upbeat style that matches our client’s bubbly personality.

Plan A is very simple: remove the fluorescent lights and replace with halo lights, install a new stainless oven with stainless over-the-range microwave to free up counter space, new countertops and backsplash, and cut the island down to size, replacing the top with a new tile that better reflects our client’s style and personality. We will also repaint all cabinets and add stunning new pulls to all cabinet drawers and doors.

Plan B is all the above with a bit more construction involved. We will raise the kitchen ceiling to the height of the adjoining breakfast area, add rows of halo lights plus two beautiful, decorative pendant lights above the newly retiled and redesigned island. The backsplash will be upgraded to the same tile as the island. Plan B really brings this kitchen into the 21st century and we’re hoping our client chooses it.

We’ll soon find out!

Sometimes we “Metamorefix” from the bare walls out. That’s right, I’m talking about remodeling.

We have an unusual take on the whole remodeling thing: we like to keep the costs down. We’ve seen the results of an overly-generous checkbook and it can be disastrous: a $50K kitchen in a $150K condo. Big mistake come resale time — you probably won’t get that investment back. Just yesterday I saw a home for sale in South Austin that is priced at least $75,000 above market value due to an over-the-top remodel.

Instead, our goal is to design a dream room that’s beautiful and practical: the best possible balance between quality, high style, and price. In our May blog series, we’re going to feature our latest kitchen remodel, with a step-by-step update of the entire process.

Here’s a tease to get you going. This is not our kitchen, but simply one of my favorite kitchens from AGA ranges. I love this space for its beauty, ease of use, and family-friendly feel.

Be sure to check back next week for the “before” photos of our latest kitchen project!