Week 1

Interested in following one of our kitchen remodels from start to finish? Good! You're in luck. We're going to be posting entries here as often as possible – shooting for weekly updates – following one of our kitchen remodels in Boulder.

Today is the first entry – and I'm going to use a few photos and drawings to illustrate the old house footprint and what we aim to accomplish with the kitchen remodel.

Here is a drawing of the existing house – pre-remodel.

As you can see, the kitchen currently occupies the smallest room on the main level of the house.

And while the kitchen is the smallest room on the main level, the room with the most space, the lower living room, sits mostly under-utilized.

New Floor Plans

What we aim to do is completely relocate the kitchen down to the lower living room. This will take advantage of the south facing windows for great sunlight, a much larger footprint, and it will also give us the opportunity to create the "great room". Below is the proposed new floorplan for the main level:

3-D Renderings

And here is a 3-D rendering of what the new kitchen space will look like once completed. A mix of zebra wood veneer and high gloss white cabinetry will be topped with a white quartz countertop and a really amazing walnut top on the island. Sub Zero and Wolf appliances are complimented by the back painted white back splash. We're even incorporating a new bar into the space to create a place where our homeowners can make a drink after a day at the office.

Demolition

First phase of demolition was completed yesterday. Here's our first pic of the new kitchen space, after the built ins were removed.

Week 2

Hi there! If you remember from our last blog post, our plan calls for completely relocating the kitchen from the existing area down to the lower living room. Demolition is now completed and it revealed a few surprises - as usual with a remodel. Along the main window wall, we found a huge volume of audio wiring. It was coming out of the wall right where our main cooking surface was supposed to be. We also discovered a concrete footing for a foundation that was jutting into the room by about 4" along the south wall. To complicate things, we also found two vents from the basement running along the west wall. Fortunately for us, we have an ample amount of space to work with so we decided to fur out both of these walls and adjust our plumbing and lighting plan. Here is a pic of the space as of yesterday...

Week 3

Although it is tough to tell, there was a lot of progress last week. The plumbers were able to successfully create new plumbing connections for the main sink, cooktop, and bar sink. This week, the electricians are in the space, roughing in all the connections necessary for the new appliances and GFCI receptacles required in the kitchen.

Materials

The flooring contractor dropped off some stain samples for our floors, which are going to be refinished starting next week. Here's a look at our cabinetry finishes along with the flooring samples. We are leaning towards the natural oak which will receive one treatment of bleach to lighten it and remove any orange / red tones. We are also specifying a water based finish to prevent any "honey" coloring over the years.

Weeks 4-6

It's been a while since our last update on our kitchen remodel in Boulder. This post will summarize the past few weeks worth of progress.

Cabinetry Delivery

We delivered cabinets about three weeks ago...

Counter-top Template

The general contractor fell a few days behind schedule because the drywallers were not able to get started on schedule. However, he's been hard at work getting everything ready for our countertop template, which is happening tomorrow...

Cabinetry Install

The floors were sanded down last week. The final coats of floor finishing will take place after the appliances have been installed. Although it looks a long way from completion we are just a few short weeks away from being done. The countertops will be installed in two weeks and we will have the appliances and plumbing hooked up shortly thereafter. I'll keep you posted...

Weeks 7-9

This post encompasses weeks 7-9 of the remodel process for this particular project. To recap: we decided to completely relocate the kitchen from one part of the house to another. We moved it from a smaller space that was directly located next to the garage down to a much larger space - which was previously a living room. In addition to this - we've refinished all the flooring, redone the fireplace, and are also updating a small powder room.

Last week was really exciting! Our countertops and appliances were installed in the same day. It was quite a transformation and we certainly have to tip our cap to the general contractor who orchestrated all the trades working in one space together.

Below are some photos of custom 2" thick black walnut countertops that we had made locally here in Denver. These pieces are truly a work of art. Picture of the installation is down near the bottom of this post...

Our final post following this project will most likely not happen for a few weeks. Our general contractor is taking a much needed vacation and will be back in two weeks after a trip to Australia to finish up the last few details of this project.

Follow our remodel process from concept to COmpletion