Kitchen is Done!

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Everyone of those Turf Blocks was 60 lb and I laid them myself.

And that is a walk in Vault, made out of 8 inch block all cells fillwith a 4 inch cement cap on top. I used a Diebold Vault door.

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And there is the finished product. I did all the landscaping and sprinklers myself...Every little hole had river rock in it...

I was Owner Builder.. I subed out the pool. all the block and cement work and hired a contractor on the garage cause it was just as cheap to have him do it.

[gprsh924]

Looks great Matt! Impressive DIY. I do not have the ability for that.

I too hope we are done. The projects never seem to end. We did a ton of work when we bought our place, and then last November we finished off the master bath and kitchen. The bath was a full gut, the kitchen we just did some cosmetic changes. I've swapped out the pendant lights for some metal lanterns, changed the barstools and put doors on the lower island cabinets since the photo was taken, but you get the idea.

[craigster59]

Jeez Tabs, looks like you scored at the Liberace Museum bankruptcy sale!

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So u Boyz think u are sumtihin with your piddly azz kitchens, come back when you are really gona do sumthin? Until then step to the back.

[vash]

Originally Posted by Alpha

This is considered a beautiful kitchen in Northern Europe..

that is badass..i'm seeing more and more of this. looks like a breeze to keep clean.

my wife would never go for it..

[vash]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

Looks great Matt! Impressive DIY. I do not have the ability for that.

I too hope we are done. The projects never seem to end. We did a ton of work when we bought our place, and then last November we finished off the master bath and kitchen. The bath was a full gut, the kitchen we just did some cosmetic changes. I've swapped out the pendant lights for some metal lanterns, changed the barstools and put doors on the lower island cabinets since the photo was taken, but you get the idea.

BOING!!

Shaker Cabinets! i would copy you in a heartbeat. i would use subway tile..and i would need a hoodvent that could suck start a harley.

[craigster59]

That European kitchen reminds me too much of this...

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Originally Posted by craigster59

Jeez Tabs, looks like you scored at the Liberace Museum bankruptcy sale!

Liberace was into French Louis XIV with the all gilt...ornate. ...Like Trump and the Russian Oligarchs.

What I have is Georgian and Federalist period furniture...you know the kind of stuff that you see on the Road show that goes for the dinero. It is the kind that you see in the WH.

[vash]

[Jims5543]

If I have time later I will post my kitchen nightmare. Had to fire the cabinet guy half way through it. For over 4 months, thanks to he cabinet guy, we had a barely functioning kitchen.

When we bought the house the kitchen was PINK! We refaced the entire thing ourselves with the help of my FIL who is in the kitchen business.

18 years later it was time for a long overdue overhaul. The ensuing disaster we never anticipated. The kitchen cabinet contractor was a soulless chauvinist POS that should not have a contractors license. A very expensive lesson was learned and if it was not for a really nice down to earth local custom cabinet guy who built missing parts and rebuild wrongly built cabinets we would have been out a lot more as we would have had to scrap the new cabinets and start over.

Even today I see things in this kitchen and start to get pissed off all over again. It looks fine but if money was no object I would rip it out again and start over.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by vash

BOING!!

Shaker Cabinets! i would copy you in a heartbeat. i would use subway tile..and i would need a hoodvent that could suck start a harley.

Gprsh, Where did you get the center island? Was it pre-made or custom? I'm looking to buy a pre-made island like that to put in the shop as a work bench.

And I know that white is the thing in Northern Europe, but it makes me think I'm in a retail store like Gap or Bananna Republic. I mean really, where is the cash register and fitting room?

[Alpha]

Doesn't have to be white..

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Originally Posted by vash

I accept your apology.

[Bob Kontak]

I like the lower island because the stools are not high.

Kids beat those higher stools up and with kid antics they can tip.

[onewhippedpuppy]

David and Garrett, both look great!

Tabs, you have a great looking place. I'm pretty happy with my humble home, I'm ready to be debt free and just live as opposed to moving up.

[Evans, Marv]

Your places look great!! Tabs, that was a lot of work & it turned out beautifully. After I retired, I decided not to remodel but to sell & build a place on some bare land I owned away from the city. Below is a pic of what I started with. It was originally covered with dense scrub oak like the upper portion of the picture. The first pic is after the front portion was brushed. The second pic is of the finished product, & we love it here.

[gprsh924]

Originally Posted by rusnak

Gprsh, Where did you get the center island? Was it pre-made or custom? I'm looking to buy a pre-made island like that to put in the shop as a work bench.

And I know that white is the thing in Northern Europe, but it makes me think I'm in a retail store like Gap or Bananna Republic. I mean really, where is the cash register and fitting room?

I would assume it is a custom island, but it was here when we moved in. We simply painted the cabinets white and replaced the brown granite with white quartz.

I could have done with a bit more color, but the wife had her mind set on a white kitchen. Its also in Chicago, so we only really get light from the main windows at the street. The window above the sink is about 3 feet from the neighboring building, so the white really makes the space bigger and is a nice contrast from the dark hardwood.

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Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

Your places look great!! Tabs, that was a lot of work & it turned out beautifully. After I retired, I decided not to remodel but to sell & build a place on some bare land I owned away from the city. Below is a pic of what I started with. It was originally covered with dense scrub oak like the upper portion of the picture. The first pic is after the front portion was brushed. The second pic is of the finished product, & we love it here.

Looks like La Cresta... and that is a nice house.

For between 100K and 150K I could have bought 5 acres down in La Cresta back in the early 90's. But I had my money already tied up in the above house and RE prices were in the tank.


What I would like to do now is buy a smaller home than 3700 sq (for just myself and the dog) it would be more manageable in the upkeep, LESS COOLING BILLS, Cheaper property taxes, NO HOA.

I am to the point that I want to start UNLOADING STUFF> More is now becoming less. There are still lots of things that I like having, but it is not so much having collectible stuff but more stuff that I can go out and use. So when I look to purchase it is with an eye for use rather than just sitting around gathering dust.

Speaking of Kitchens, I cook well and am self taught over decades..starting when I was about 10 years old. I go through learning curves where I get a hunger to learn more, make new things cause I get burned out on the old things. After I moved to LV I couldn't have cared less about learning new things or even make more than one or two process dishes. Now I gots the desire again to learn new stuff. That Shanghai WOK deal was part of that learning curve deal.

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WHITE KITCHENS are RACIST....