1 post tagged “home renovation”

The last house we renovated had an awesome kitchen--that is, once we were done with it! I designed the Shaker-style kitchen for our 1896 Victorian house. We helped an Amish cabinetmaker build the cabinets. I enjoyed working with him and seeing how he ran his power tools without electricity. He had a huge diesel-powered air compressor, and he retrofitted all of his power tools to run on compressed air. Really ingenious.

The cabinets are natural cherry with walnut pegs in the door joints. We found period-style bin pulls, hinges, and cupboard latches and chose a brushed nickel finish. When we moved into the house, the oven (30+ years old and  harvest gold) didn't work and the fridge was on its way out. The sink was avocado green. The cabinets were painted to match the appliances and sink: yellow and green. Let's just say that it was a 1940s paradise.

We installed granite tile countertops and backsplashes in the new kitchen. We chose tile over solid slabs because of the price ($4/sq ft versus $80-$100/sq ft). We installed the tile as close together as possible and found an epoxy-based grout with a perfect color match, so that unless you're quite close you can't tell there are tiles. The epoxy grout was indestructible. I found that out the hard way when I tried to remove the grout film from the tiles. I bought several specialized products for removing epoxy grout flim, and they did nothing at all. Finally, I put a 600-grit sandpaper on my power sander and polished the film off. Worked like a charm!

We fondly called this our "yuppie paradise kitchen." It had its intended effect: helping our house sell for a very tidy profit!