Saturday, August 28, 2010

Some Info About All Our Kitchen Selections

Appliances:
Dishwasher - Kitchen Aid, stainless steel, KUDC20FVSS
This thing is SO quiet. Seems to work better with powdered detergent than with liquid. Tall glasses on the top rack end up with a bunch of residue in them, though.


Fridge - Kitchen Aid, side by side, 25 cu ft, stainless steel, KSCS25FVMS
Only complaint is that the water coming out of the dispenser isn't all that cold.


Range - Whirlpool Gold, slide-in, gas, GW397LXUS


Microwave - Whirlpool Gold, over range, GMH5205XVS
The unit is kind of loud when it's running, but this could be an installation issue.


Countertop: Affinity solid surface, Linen
We like the way this looks and the way it wears. It does scratch, but you have to have the right lighting at the right angle to see it. No regrets about going with a solid surface countertop.


Sink: Domain Industries 50/50
It's a sink, not much else to say about it. We put a metal can in it once for a few minutes and it left a rust ring in the sink for a while. It's been a long time since I had a stainless sink, but I guess this is normal???


Faucet: Hansgrohe Metro with SS Optik finish
We loved the way this looked, and how it has a loop handle instead of a stick. Bought it online because I thought Costco didn't carry it anymore, but apparently they don't list everything on the website. It doesn't function well as a sprayer - there's not enough pressure. Also, every now and then when you're not using it, it just lets out a short burst of droplets. Strange. I'd probably get something else if I had it to do over again.


Backsplash Tile: Lyric Lounge Penny Round Mosaic Tile
This is the one thing people have been most likely to comment on, in a positive way. Here's a link: http://www.mosaictilesupplies.com/lounge-lyricwaferand8482pennytiles-lpr-0635.aspx The website photo looks pink on my monitor, but the tile is off-white and beige.


Cabinets: Mid-Continent, Slab doors in natural cherry.
These are pretty nice. They are not actual full frame face (or whatever it is called). There's a garbage and recycling unit to the right of the sink, and a lazy susan in the corner. The vertical pieces in the wall cabinets are a little bit in the way, and it seems like there should be more shelf height adjustments in the pantry. Although the cabinet shop originally suggested it, we decided not to go with slide-out pantry shelves and have fixed shelves instead. If we had it to do over, we probably would have spent the (ridiculous amount of) extra money and gotten the slide-outs - it's pretty tough to get to stuff in the back.


Cabinet Hardware: Omnia 9153 3/4" in SS.


Exterior door hardware: Omnia Lever #12 in SS. Epitome deadbolt, SS.


Pocket Door Hardware: Linnea L-100 edge pull in satin nickel, Sugatsune 4" flush pull in satin nickel.


Flooring: Home Legend Bamboo - Toast
Based on what we'd heard about bamboo flooring, we expect this stuff not to dent or scratch much. Maybe our expectations were off, but it is really easy to dent. You could put a dent in it from dropping a cell phone.


Paint: Sherwin-Williams Sedate Grey
We primarily used the Harmony (zero-VOC) stuff. Same color for ceiling, walls, and trim. Ceiling paint was flat, walls were Eg-Shel, and trim was semi-gloss.


Living Room Lighting: Lithonia Lighting L3R with halogen bulbs.
If we had it to over again, we would have stayed with the MR16 lights. These are a little yellow in comparison and not quite as bright as the MR16. But they dim well.


Kitchen/Dining Lighting: Halo ET400R with halogen bulbs.
Awesome lights. White, clean, dimmable.


Laundry Room Shelving: Rubbermaid pantry wire shelving.
This stuff was a pain to put up, but it worked out pretty well.


Windows: Andersen 100 series.
The glass to frame ratio is too low on these windows. If the frames were smaller it would look more like a wall of glass. As it is, it looks like a lot of white metal.


Doors: Exterior door is Simpson Performance Series. Not sure about the new pocket door.

8 comments:

  1. I like your reviews Dan. I need to do the same.

    I'm glad you posted the countertop info. My mom just bought a house and is looking at countertops.

    Where did you all purchase yours? Is there a showroom somewhere? And do you remember approximately what the price per sq ft was?

    Ashli

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  2. We used David Shica, DS Surfaces, 512-787-9978. He works out of Under Budget Cabinets, but I believe is independent. He was one of the best contractors we had on the job; he was professional, responsive, knowledgeable, did good work, and was a nice guy. I assume he did the counters in the Under Budget showroom, and they have (or can get) samples of several lines of solid surface and other counter materials.

    I believe we paid $37/foot for the counters, including installation; there was an additional charge for the undermount sink and the drainboard. This may have been discounted due to our cabinet purchase or going through the builder. He brought larger samples of the material and finishes that we were leaning towards, and did a sample drainboard on a piece of scrap.

    Your mom is welcome to come by and see ours in action sometime.

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  3. Great info. Thanks Dan. And thanks for the offer for her to see yours. She may very well want to do that, although I did point her to the pictures on your blog, so that may be enough. I personally think it looks even better in person than in the pictures. I'm a little bit envious of the lack of imperfections. ;)

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  4. More research for my mom . . . how wide is the trash pull-out part of your base cabinet? We're trying to figure out if my mom can fit one in a small base cabinet in her kitchen.

    Thank you!

    Ashli

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  5. It's in a 15" base cabinet. There is a small drawer on top that is functional, and the area that would normally be taken up by the 2 lower drawers is the trash pull-out with 2 fake drawer fronts on it. There are 2 bins in there -we use the front one for trash and the back one for recycling.
    Is yours bigger? It seemed different to me - does it move more smoothly? Or maybe it just feels different because of the pulls.

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  6. Yeah, ours is bigger. It takes up the whole base cabinet, so we lost that drawer at the top that you guys have.

    The cabinet company gave us a choice, and I was just worried it would be too small (that we'd be taking out the trash all the time), so we opted for the bigger one. It does take up a lot of space.

    I don't know that it's any smoother than yours. I think it feels different because of the knob vs pull.

    Thanks for the info . . . my mom's having a carpenter do her cabinets. He does nice work, but he's not great on the design end, so we were trying to design her cabinets. Deja vu for me. I'm SO glad we're DONE!

    I still need to go back and finish my blog like you did. One day . . .

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  7. Hi,

    I'm looking at that same range, if you still follow this blog, any chance you could answer some questions about it?

    Thanks,
    Johny

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