My boys and I rented a backhoe once. I had decided I wanted a rock fence. Really I wanted a flat rock fence, but rocks here are round…and it freezes…so I needed to go with the footer, drainage, and cement work. I had so much fun digging up things and moving rocks and dirt.
Well, the plumbers are in the yard hand-digging out the old water main. Line goes in under the covered back porch the previous owners put in. They told me yesterday how much it will run; guess we’ll see how it all shakes out.
Ahh, home improvements that noone will get to come and admire!
I wrote the check tonight for the deposit/retainer to a design/build firm. Here we go.
Met with the contractor who did some structural repairs on our house last year to get a quote for new footings/anchoring for the deck. He said he has been really busy this winter. Some owners of small 2-story homes realize that they simply can’t afford to move into bigger homes or expand the house horizontally on their tiny lot and instead dig out 9 foot tall basements. Wow.
So many choices:
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/40991846511/in/dateposted-public/
I like the door style in the top of column 1, but I think the color is too yellowish, and that style only comes with slab drawer fronts instead of shaker drawer fronts. the grey one is out, DW will not do that color.
Some of them have bevels around the recessed panel, like the middle one in the second column. Not sure I like those.
Some have bevels between the rails and styles of the doors, like the bottom one in the second column and middle one in the third column. Can’t decide if I like that either.
We have shaker panels and I hate them. I have to wipe dust out of where the recessed panel meets the wood surrounding and it is a PITA. I am thinking about refacing the kitchen with flat doors. So much easier to keep clean. We have a mix of slab drawers fronts on smaller drawers and shaker on the larger drawers and I hate, hate, hate dusting and cleaning the shaker ones. They always seem to collect crumbs and cat hair and whatnot in those “crevasses” (for lack of the official term).
Don’t do pure white. Creamy colors soften the look and work great with blue-grey tiles and stainless appliances, IMO.
I can’t see how shaker doors are any worse than raised panel doors in terms of cleaning. I think doing slab doors for the cabinets is pretty boring, even if they are easier to clean.
I like the way Shaker doors look, but I agree they are a bit harder to clean. I like that very simple bevel in the middle. I don’t like the ones where the stiles have pronounced creases.
I have Shaker doors and I don’t have a problem keeping them clean. Love the way they look. Personally, I like the cleaner, straight line look with no bevel and no seams like in the top one in the 3rd column. I’m not sure I can see all the distinctions but the cleanest looking one to me is the bottom one in the first column. I think a white or gray would look great and all the tile choices are lovely!
Are the upper right tiles slate? Looks close to what I have and I really like it (the upper middle two are preferred over the upper right).
IMHO you have to put the door panels in the room and see how it looks with the natural light and the room lighting.
@BunsenBurner I have some friends that redid a brownstone in Harlem, and they had the cellar dug out to have game room/rec room. From the front sidewalk, there is a walk down 5 steps to an apartment; the steps up go to the 2 story main home. There are lower interior steps and a door to the tenant, then you go down to that cellar level that was dug out for a usable basement. The grandchildren lived in home town in WI, so they rented out the main home to a NY professional ball player. IDK if they still own or were selling when prices escalated (they were able to jump in with good real estate value for NY).
The bottom one of the first column and the top of the second column are very similar except for the color.
No, those are ceramic tile. It looked bluer in the picture when I ordered the sample, I think it is too dark for what we want.
This tile is really interesting: https://tilebar.com/roman-collection-brisk-blue-2x8-glass-tile.html
It’s got cracked glass sealed inside it. Might be a bit much to do the whole backsplash in this. I still like the blue macauba but I don’t know if I can get past $75/SF.
What is the flooring?
It depends what you are looking for with backsplash.
I do like the look of the cracked glass sealed inside it.
I didn’t realize you were looking at backsplash with your first post.
What are your light fixtures? Are you doing any accenting where you pick up some of the backsplash color elsewhere?
Appliance thoughts please. Slide-in range will be replaced by a range top. We are stuck on how to place two wall ovens and a microwave. We are planning to place one appliance below the counter in the island.
Option 1: 2 wall ovens, microwave in island (not a microwave drawer)
Option 2: micro and oven on wall, 2nd oven in island
We cook a lot but probably use the microwave more times each day (heating beverages, or cooking/reheating vegetables).
Any thoughts or experiences?
Option 2. Micro above the regular oven so it is easy to reach in without bending. Second oven in the island.
Haven’t picked exactly what we will do, but it will be in the dark brown/gray spectrum.
It is cool, but I think it is probably too much to do the whole backsplash with that.
Yes, all those tiles are possibilities. And we are getting some other samples.
There will be recessed and under-counter lights, but we have no idea yet what to do over the peninsula and over the table. So many choices…
NRE - just make sure the wiring is done to your liking. Light fixtures can be easily changed if you get tired of them. Changing wiring… Mr. thinks it is a piece of cake. I think… I hate drywall work. 
@Mom22039 I agree to have the microwave be very accessible and easy for you to get items in and out.
The appliance costs may be different under the two plans, but I would pay more to have the microwave be easy access.
@notrichenough you definitely want ‘timeless beauty’ for your selections. Keep looking at various ideas and either when you ‘tire’ of looking or narrow things down enough to the final combined look…how much time do you have to decide?
I am a big believer about not even worrying about backsplash tile until you have your kitchen installed. You need to make the critical decisions on kitchen cabinets, flooring and countertop. And after that countertop is installed you should have a lot of samples ready to line up in the kitchen. You’d be amazed on how you will change your mind from what you thought was your dream backsplash after seeing it in the real room with t he lighting and the other pieces.
You really cannot even select the countertop until you have a sample piece of your flooring and cabinet with you to make the right choice.
Cart before the horse
Agree with CB! I picked my dream quartz color at the store… then the designer showed up at the house with her trays of samples. We went with a completely different color, and I love it. My original choice was too dark for the space.
Quite a while, we are still waiting to get the building permit.
I can see the wisdom in this, but DW is the type who wants to get everything locked down way ahead of time, and the designer we are working with wants to have some decisions made so she can get on to other things. We are looking at the backsplash to make a statement, so in her mind it makes sense to try to pin down the backsplash first. We do have some countertops in mind.
So we have chosen this cabinet: https://www.rtacabinetstore.com/RTA-Kitchen-Cabinets/frosted-white-shaker-kitchen-cabinets/
And this tile: https://www.fireclaytile.com/tile/colors/detail/st.-albans-blue/?size=tile-field-2-x-4
DW has put the kibosh on the $75/SF blue macauba, not that the other stuff is that cheap either at $28/SF. I like it though because there is some variation between each piece. One drawback is that this tile has a 5-7 week lead time.
This cabinet is the middle one in the second column in the picture I posted here: https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/40991846511/in/dateposted-public/ It’s very white, but that’s what DW wants.
It’s got a beveled edge around the center which both DW and our designer liked, and our designer said that that one would be easier keep clean than one without a bevel. So I guess you guys were right about cleaning them. 
For flooring, we are looking at dark-brown-grayish LVT, we’ve seen a few we like, but there’s a few million more to look at. Too many choices…