A hard day's work

Originally, our entrance to the house (translation: owners entrance to the house from the garage) was through the laundry room. Now how relaxing is that? Come home to find loads of laundry and buckets of cleaning agents? Pass.

With the benefit foresight from our kitchen designer, walking into the house through this space become a treat. He suggested that we make the area larger and give it soothing, spa-like tones. No, I'm not trying to con anyone into thinking that doing laundry in this house is anything like going to the spa, but then again, it's not the dingy little room that our previous condos tortured us with.

View from the kitchen. (Washer and dryer stands yet to come)

View as we enter

My favorite spot in the room (possibly in the whole house) is this little area just inside the door to deposit my bags and Mr. Big's shoes. It's just nice to have everything put away as we get home...as if we are depositing our work thoughts and days challenges at the back door.

If we never had to do laundry or cleaning, the room would be perfect. In the meantime, it's certainly enjoyable enough to entice me into these responsibilities every once in a while...but only every once in a while. :)

Casesarstone countertops

Our kitchen and mudroom countertops have been a bit of a trouble spot for us. We found a gorgeous limestone that manufacturers warned us about time and time again. Apparently it was just too porous and would be very difficult to maintain. We went back to the drawing board and considered granite, concrete, and pretty much any surface under the sun.

Our designer had suggested that we look at a product called Caesarstone, which is a manufactured quartz product. For those that have already raised their nose at a surface that is less than 100% natural (it's only 93% natural...), feel free to move onto the next post. For those that are interested, let me tell you that this product is FAB!

Caesarstone is more heat, scratch and stain resistant than granite. But more importantly to me, they have lots of options that are fairly uniform in color. Because we have floor and wall tiles with lots of movement in them, I was looking for something exactly along these lines. While I pined over concrete, this will give Mr. Big the comfort of countertops that won't require loads of maintenance.

We decided on the Desert Limestone color for our kitchen and the Concrete color for the mudroom. They look gorgeous with our door, tile, and floor samples. I positively cannot wait to see them once installed! With our dark cabinets, the kitchen should roughly look like this:


For the mudroom, we decided to go with the Concrete color to add a bit of contrast to our light cabinets and wall tiles. Once again, it looks fab together. (This color also looked great in the kitchen, but the lighter color seemed to brighten everything up).


Boy, am I ever excited that we've made a decision...and hopefully such a good one!

Mudroom and wine storage

Before we hired our designer, our plans called for a tiny laundry area which was next to an equally tiny wine storage area. The entrance from the garage required us to pass through both spaces before entering the kitchen and the rest of the house. Thanks to creative minds, we now have a beautiful mudroom with loads of storage in a soothing palette.


The cabinet handles went on recently and the appliances should be coming in two weeks. Once the undermount lights are in, the wall tiling and painting will be completed.

As for the wine storage, Mr. Big's favorite spot in the house is developing well below the stairwell. The terracotta floors should like striking against dark wood wine racking, which will be constructed over the holidays with our families.

Cabinet update

Here's a quick peek at how the cabinets have come along in the past week. The drawers and doors haven't been put up/on yet, but the boxes are all in place. We were keen on having lots of storage. Apparently we achieved that objective.

The kitchen

The mudroom

The first floor bathrooms will be started soon. The floors for the second floor bathrooms were done so those rooms can start quickly thereafter. I am thrilled with the terracotta tiles in the second floor shared bathroom.


L-o-v-e-l-y!

It's looking like a house (again)

Those words have been used here a few times already. Truth be told, we seem to say it to each other, albeit with a bit more emphasis, virtually every time that we are at the site now. There must be another way to convey our excitement, but apparently we are just that dull.

The cabinets arrived on the site on Tuesday. As expected, we scurried out to the house to find all sorts of boxes ready to be unloaded and installed. Boxes in the shapes of tall cabinets, short cabinets, drawers, mirrors, and all sorts of other treasures were divvied up into their respective rooms of installation. This truly feels like Christmas.


A mid-day trip on Thursday revealed a great deal of progress had been made on the installation. The kitchen and mudroom are taking shape very quickly. The installer is a lovely guy who is fanatical about getting it right. No doubt that this is the guy that you want on the job.

View from mudroom through to kitchen (sorry for the ladder in the way...)

It's a pretty busy place at the moment between the installers, the electricians, and the framers on the outside pavilion. And in the midst of all that commotion, I heard someone quietly proclaim "let there be light". And there was! The first lights have been witnessed. No, the angels did not start singing, but there was a bit of triumph nonetheless. :)

When we were planning the kitchen, we planned for ceiling height cabinetry given that Mr. Big is so tall. Well, he may be tall, but even he is going to need a stool to get to those top shelves. As for me, my reach will be more concentrated in these...

After months (ok, years...) of planning, it's very exciting to see the final product. Up to this point, the house was really a shell with simply walls and doors. There was a lot of possibility with it at that stage. Now that the livable features have been introduced, it's looking like a house...