Well.... I finally have a functional kitchen again. I gotta say, they came out pretty damn good for a rookie's first game. 1 flaw / mistake was the color came out way darker than I wanted / intended. Mix was supposed to be "Platinum" it was anything but.... especially after it darkened when I applied the sealer. I guess it at least matches the steel appliances. I'd say "pewter" is more accurate, but other than that, I'm pretty happy, .... After ALOT of time grinding and polishing with a cheap polisher from Harbor Freight and 4" diamond pads I got off amazon to expose the aggregate. My intention was to polish to 3000, but the sealer company said only 400 or the sealer wouldnt penetrate / bond properly, so it has a bit of a stone texture to it (I went with semi-gloss) We'll see how they hold up..... I'm FAR from a neat freak Just finished a marble backsplash and got the cab doors back on.... still waiting for some special order drawer pulls. (Found ones that look like fish / mahi ) Then onto the next room in my circle of hurricane hell...
I am just getting to counter tops now, wasn't sure how things would work out so had to wait. Still need to take out the window to widen opening above sink and can't put dishwasher in until we get the counter done but it's getting there. Went with slate appliances so I could go with a darker paint. Hard to see but cabinets have a dark piping on the doors. Cut a section of old counter out with the sink so we could use that until new tops are in. A little before and after.
Nice. Looks good. GE appliances? I think I bought the same stove and microwave You could get a solid slab piece for the sink area.... then go butcherblock for the rest. Looks good and not that expensive since you're handy enough to finish and mount yourself
Yes, was going to go Frigidaire but they had a special on GE. A little more energy efficient and a few more extras. Been waiting to get the cabinets in so I can continue on with the floor. The only room in the house that isn't concrete right now is the bedroom. Put the floor down and then re-purposed some bookcases in there and built a bed out of them. Step daughter also came over past weekend and cleaned out the wood shop so I am up and running there. Getting there, but still looking like a couple of months before I get to pull out the BSA and try to get it running.
I got mine on black friday special...... and they sat in a box for 9 months before they got used. I laid tile down first, but some people set cabinets first. I just didnt want them on a bare slab in my house....plus I'm tiling the whole house after the flood. 1000' of 12x24" I think wood tops would look sweet on those white cabinets. If I had a bigger kitchen I wouldve went wood (aside from the sink wall) i think the prices have actually come down: https://www.flooranddecor.com/wood-butcher-block-countertops
OK, so I uploaded some pics to the interwebs....kind of shows the process in order making mold and internal reinforcements: post pour as mold is being removed: Fresh out of the mold: Lots of grinding and polishing requires the right equipment: Post grind and polish. Smaller piece on the right is for a bathroom vanity top: Surprise This is what it looks like when the lights go down:
The Cabinets were Prefab / RTA.... my 1st time assembling and hanging cabinets. Not too bad. worth saving $600 than getting them already assembled.... there were issues with a bunch arriving all fuctup, hence ANOTHER delay. shadow makes them look different colors... theyre not I did the backsplash in 3 days (including grout)... hardest part was wrapping the window) matching windowsill..... broke the first one where the faucet cutout is.
I wanted to try and go with wood tops but we are going whitish with gray grain wood laminate which was a bitch to try and find something that did not fight the red cedar around the fireplace and the backside of the bar top on the other side of the kitchen. Adding another wood would have really thrown things off. Laminate is also why I needed cabinets in first. Thinking of just going solid surface so I can have the sink the same color and then a glass mosaic tile backsplash, but I saw some nice natural stone today. This whole thing has been one change after another though so who knows. I will be heading over to floor and decor next day or two to check out their stone. And no more tiling for me, even with most of my work being stand up with minimal crouching, my knee is already the size of a melon from creeping through the attic to pull the 220 for moving the range. Speaking of wood though, my son has been starting to work some live edge. The bowls, pens and knife on the table he made also.
Nice. Those look great. I actually have two big PECAN slabs waiting..... to be the top of my new bar whenever I get to it. Go with natural stone. It's timeless (use "Aquamix" sealer) Do some pre-research on their website. When I go in there, I'm overwhelmed with all the shit in there, and ended up spinning wheels
Thanks! Not even a job.... First time doing most of this. (1st time messing with the concrete or cabinets... just chargin it. I've had experience with some of the other stuff before) Still putting my house back together from Hurricane Matthew ....trying to stretch the insurance $$. If I wouldve hired a contractor with the $ I got, it wouldve been been "builder grade" low end stuff. It's been a major pain in the balls but at least now it'll look better than it did before. Plus I'm hoping there's a little $ left to replace all my belongings (furniture, etc) that I had to toss (contents werent insured, just the house was) My regular gig is graphic designer / art director.... but I've had more jobs than the Jamaicans on Living Color
Those are actually "glow stones".... the blue ones look white in the daytime, like the natural aggregate in the concrete, the aqua ones have a bit of tint to them. They glow pretty bright if they get enough light (if it's sunlight, theyre real bright). Unfortunately I ran out before I had to make that THIRD windowsill.... or it wouldve looked like outerspace. I got the inlays, shells and stones (some geodes in the other piece) on ebay I'm happy for my 1st attempt.... but would already do things different I was to do it again. Eventually I want to do this for an outside kitchen / bar / firepit so we'll see. Turns out I have a friend that does this for a living now (wish I knew this before I started). He saw the photo and offered me a job.... same with my good friend who's a tile & stone installer, so I guess that's good....
thats good work boss! got some good sized aggregate exposed too. i have a customer doing 250k square feet up in L.A. right now and its a really hard slab. ridiculous hard, he's using bushhammers, those things are expensive (especially since they only last about 7500 sq feet) but they'll grind anything thats for sure. thats really cool you did this yourself
Thanks Tommy. My thought was it's cooler to say "I made that" vs "I bought that" ! EDIT: ha, nope, not married ...... actually was gonna go granite, but of course all the stuff I liked was the top dollar stuff. All the stuff in my budget you can see everywhere.... but so far all the ladies that have seen it are very impressed wait till I build my bar from reclaimed lumber / fallen hurricane trees.... got some good ideas for that one
My thinking now that I am 2 months into my rehab job is, "This hurts too much, I wish I would have paid someone to do it". But it is always nice to be able to look back and be able to say, "I made that.".
I have a backroom right behind the kitchen that used to be the screen room but they enclosed that and added another screen room. That will be the spot my bar is going, have my son keeping and eye out for some nice red cedar for the top, the whole back room is red cedar tongue and groove walls. It should be a somewhat easy job since water and drain are there already. Yes, almost pulled the trigger on solid surface today until they told me the time frame to get it done. About 3 weeks longer than floor and decors installer told me to get the granite done. Have another installer for stone but don't know anyone that has used them. Taking a break tomorrow to go shop some slabs.
