Kitchen Design – The Showroom Visit

Today was a pretty busy day for us.

I think one of the most fun things about me is that I have no plan. This morning, while I was sitting at my computer, I decided to call Lowe’s to make an appointment for Laura and I to head down and meet with someone. I had my measurements all set. I called and made the appointment for Wednesday at 7PM. I kept pacing back and forth, because the woman I spoke with on the phone had no business designing kitchens, much less answering a telephone. I wasn’t at ease.

I was talking to Laura about it when I decided to give the local place a call, just to talk. We talked and they sounded good. He invited us up for a visit. At 11AM, we pulled in the parking lot of the showroom. We walked in and were impressed with what they had. Everything looks so damn good in those places. We talked for a bit and we told the guy what we wanted. The room is fairly simple, so there really were no curve balls.

Ok, let’s get to the point. At the end of the visit, I found myself writing a check for 5% of the project. After Laura and I left, we headed to the tile place and picked out some really nice 13″ tile for the kitchen floor. We also scheduled the tile installation for the first week of the new year. Then, we got some food at the food store, but that’s not important.

Ok, here is the shnazzy design he created for us, based on what we said we wanted.

This is the window wall that faces the backyard. We went with the darker brown color. The wood is solid maple. We are getting a dishwasher, so that is going to be a nice addition to what we have. The upper cabinet all the way to the right is going to have glass in the doors. The corner cabinet is going to go all the way to the ceiling and have glass, but different than the others. This one is going to have panes in it. The bottom corner is going to have shelves, not the lazy susan thing. We vetoed that. All the cabinets are going to have crown moulding. We already have a nice sink with faucet, so we are keeping that.

This is the continuation of the “L.” I guess this is pretty self explanatory. Nothing new here, except that we are keeping the same refrigerator and oven. They are both new and stainless. From what I have been hearing, stainless is the cat’s meow for this half-year. Next half-year, I’m sure it’ll be something different.

This is the wall heading out into the hallway. This is a great new feature…a pantry. This piece comes with five adjustable shelves. We are most likely going to take most of them out, so we have somewhere to keep the vacuum. Also, the counter top to the right is a nice place for the cats to eat.

We are using them to install everything, except for the floor. Their price as a whole, is higher than Lowe’s, but believe it or not, the installation is less. We did get the least expensive counter tops. Whatever it is, it will be fine, I’m sure. We have another appointment next Thursday to go back to the showroom and finalize any colors or designs. Also, we have to pick out the color of the counter tops and choose what hardware (handles) we want.

I feel pretty good about this. I like the way I know who is taking care of the ordering, shipping and installation. That is what was making me nervous about the other places. Also, now that I have the designs, I can only fix the portions of the walls that need to be fixed. That is going to save a heck of a lot of time.

I really didn’t plan on doing this today, but I am glad we did. At least things can get ordered and we can have the project done early in the new year.