Bobby Brackets!

This post is actually about shelf brackets for the kitchen, but i felt compelled to name it after this mockumentary series Jon and his friend Drew (featured dancer in the Welcome to My House video) make every year in honor of the final 4 tournament. (Video below)

So for our kitchen we will have one full wall of nice open shelving.  It's a design decision we both quickly settled on, for it's ease of use AND opportunities for decorating.  We are fortunate to know an awesome woodworker, Gabe,  who will be custom making the shelves for us.  We were briefly undecided about how rustic v. industrial v. modern to go with the look and finally settled on modern.  We will have rich walnut shelves that will be about 1" thick.  SO not super chunky or bulky - more city mouse than farmhouse, if you will.

To go with that decision, we have to choose brackets to go with them.  NOW the whole time we've been planning our kitchen we were thinking of black brackets - to match the black hardware we picked for our ikea cabinets.

Countertop Fun*

* sarcasm

Let's get this out, i love a nice counter top.  I've mentioned that i'm partial to marble - i love the natural look and just the living feel of the stone.  But for a kitchen countertop, with staining and etching, it just ins't practical.  If i was the kind of person who never cooked, or never made a mess when i cooked, i would consider it.  But i am neither of those people so it's not an option.

Jon and i were pretty set on granite after i got over my marble desires.  There was one hot minute where i wanted Vermont Soapstone (because BEAUTIFUL!) but we have agreed that it will be too dark for our small and sort of dark space. We have granite in our condo kitchen and it has been great durability wise.  I can put hot pans on it, spill messy things on it and it will still wipe down to look fresh and clean. It also has a more natural look than say, ultra durable quartz which just looks too manufactured for my taste.

So we began a hunt for granite that looks like marble. I did some preliminary research online to see what kinds of granite may have that look.  I found these articles to be helpful.

Check In

Things are moving along at the house.  We had a bit of a set back with the roof - in summary, we thought we might have to move windows in two upstairs bedrooms because they were placed in a position that could potentially lead to leaks, hence the Money Pit feeling. But Jon and i were steadfast in our preference to keep them where they are.  If we had moved them they would have faced directly into our neighbors windows, where as now they are on angled walls facing the front and back of the property.  Our contractor and roofer came up with an alternative solution, with some fancy (read: expensive) custom flashing and siding, to keep the windows where they are.  Jon and i vowed to do anything necessary to keep the windows in their current position, including wiping them down every time it rains, and clearing them off in snow.  It probably won;t come to that, but that's how strongly we felt about it.

Things are also moving along inside - i hope to post some progress photos soon, so check back in the next few days for real updates.

how i feel some days...

Progress Update

It's been awhile since i gave a progress update - with a bunch of progress pics - so here it is! You'll see a lot of open walls where electrical work is being done and a few widened doorways as well as a good amount of construction accouterments and Jon popping in and out of the frame.

This is the eat-in side of the kitchen with a view to the living room and dining room

here is jon in the kitchen, standing about where the sink was in the old pictures