A testimonial

By far the best, or luckiest, decision we made on this project was our choice of contractor. We are not DIY people, and we didn't necessarily want to re-do the kitchen on the cheap, so our priority was to find a company who would handle the project, from start to finish, with professionalism, skill, and creativity.

We found that company in Hurst Remodeling. From the initial proposal to the final Presentation Meeting, they handled the project, with all its ups and downs, with a great attitude and the utmost professionalism. We felt we were in good hands no matter the challenges that presented themselves.

Of course there were challenges and some "downs" (though plenty more "ups"), but our gauge of the company's character was in how they dealt with each issue as it came along. Always they were respectful, cheerful, helpful and informative. They were quick to address any problem the moment we brought it to their attention and had often solved it before we even noticed it was there. With a project this complex, I expected problems and we had our share. But each was quickly resolved to our satisfaction.

The final result exceeds our wildest expectations. The craftmanship is superb and we would not do a thing differently in the design. The suggestions from Hurst, its principals and employees, as well as from the outside vendors they directed us to, helped bring our vision to life.

We would not hesitate to recommend Hurst Remodeling and plan on hiring them again in the future.

Thanks again, Brian, Pat, Bridget, Dom, and everyone else for all your great work!

Before & After

Not much to say...the pictures speak for themselves!

The Keys to the Kingdom

Yesterday was the momentous occasion of our final meeting with the contractor. Even though we've been using the kitchen for a week already, they call it the Presentation Meeting and they officially turn it over to us. We would have had it a week ago but had to reschedule.

The company principal and our project lead were here, and it was an opportunity to ask any final questions, review the terms of the warranty, and answer a couple of their questions.

We had three questions:

1. Was there any way to stop the lightbulbs in the chandelier from humming when the dimmer was turned down? Probably not. It often depends on the individual bulb whether they hum or not.

2. Are the cheap mats I bought from Walmart going to damage the floor with their non-slip backing (we had read about not putting rubber mats on the floor, but these aren't really rubber)? Not sure, but they'll check with the manufacturer.

3. Can we get an itemized cost for the big-ticket items--the cabinets, granite counter-top, and floor? Just out of curiosity, a la HGTV's "Bang for your Buck." Sure, no problem.

They had two:

1. What is our favorite part of the kitchen? Very difficult to answer this! All of it. But if push comes to shove, we'd both have to say the granite. During construction, I was mostly able to stay out of the kitchen except the day they installed the granite. Then I just couldn't stay away, it was so awesome!

2. What is our least favorite aspect of the whole project? Certainly the inconvenience of not having a kitchen for 6 weeks. Whatever noise, dust, and assorted daily problems there were paled in comparison to the overall hassle factor.

All of the workmanship and the materials they provided are warrantied for one year. Even after that, they said, just call if something's not working and they'll come fix it or direct us to the vendor who can.

Then they took copious pictures, oohed and aahed, allowed us to congratulate them on a job well done a few times, and left. And believe it or not, it's sort of a letdown. Like when all the guests leave after Thanksgiving. Not that I want people in my house any more, banging and sawing, but still...it's all over! Nothing left to look forward to...

...except the pleasure of using our new, beautiful kitchen!

Moving back in

Well, I was looking forward to this part, but by the time I got to the 37th box it was getting pretty tedious. Where did we get all this stuff? And where am I going to put it?

I think we have as much or maybe a little more storage than we had in the old kitchen, but it's arranged differently. So things don't fit quite the way they used to, or the way I think they should.

There's drawers all over the place, but not in the right place. The hot-pads can't go next to the stove because the spatulas and ladles are there. Which is where they were before, so we're used to them being there, but now the drawer for the hot-pads that was there isn't anymore.

Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm not, really, it's just a matter of getting used to a new kitchen layout. 99% of it works beautifully, and the other 1% we'll adjust to. Who cares if it's a little bit of form over function? The form is too gorgeous to worry about a little problem like function.

Day 27

We're done! Finished! It's over! It's ours!

This was a day of fixin' and cleanin'. The plumber came with brand new oil-rubbed bronze sink flanges. Don't know where he found them, but they fit, so they're obviously not Kohler. Then we got a new threshold on the door into the garage. They broke the old one, many moons ago (well, just weeks, really, but it seems like a long time) while taking out the old refrigerator. Now that the new fridge is inside, and nothing else heavy has to be moved through the door, it was time to put in the new one. Too bad he didn't wash that dirty white door while he was at it!

One final touch to the island--feet! Aircraft carriers do not generally need feet, but as a purely decorative accent, they look good.

The best and most exciting final job was to complete the outside of the window, i.e. putting the siding back on the house. They not only put that siding back on, but found matching siding to cover the window frame. The original idea was to simply cover it in white vinyl cladding, but at the last minute, the company principal (and principal idea-guy) decided the siding would look better. As good as it matches, I assumed ours was a pretty standard siding type and color, and it wasn't that hard to find. The project lead said yes, the color was easy, but the type--some kind of 3-in3 (three slats by three inches)--was difficult. He had to go to three places before he found it. Otherwise it would have been a special order which could have taken several weeks. Anyway, it looks great, as if it had always been there.

Dinner: one final Crock-Pot, just so we'll have some leftovers while we figure out how to use our new kitchen!

Day 26

We are definitely winding down.

The project lead finished the trim around the inside of the window and then installed the remaining appliances. I have to get used to hearing the hum of a refrigerator again, not to mention the ice-maker. The first time it dumped a load of ice, it scared me half to death!

This fridge is "cabinet-depth," so is not as deep as a standard refrigerator. It makes it look built-in, more or less. It still sticks out, though, as the doors have to open, and it still has a one or two inch space at the top. I haven't put anything in it yet, so I'm just hoping its shallow depth doesn't equate to less usable space.

The microwave looks decent, though it's GE and not Electrolux to match everything else. Electrolux did not have a shallow-depth, or "space-saver," microwave that would fit in an upper-cabinet installation. This one is 800 watts, so I'm hoping (again) that we don't notice its lack of power (our old built-in was either 900 or 1100, we can't remember which).

The carpenter spent the day finishing up the trim work around the baseboards and cabinet toekicks. We now have all new registers over the heat ducts. Isn't that exciting?

Actually, everything is exciting, and we're almost there, which is the most exciting of all!

Day 25

And let there be light...

Can lights, under-cabinet lights, rope lights, and, miracle of miracles, natural light! Yes, we have a window again. It's not wider, only taller, than the old one, but it seems much bigger. Now the faucet, sitting in front of it, doesn't seem so big.

It was one of those very busy days in the kitchen. I've grown used to the project lead being here, doing most of the work himself, so having four guys here seemed very crowded.

The project lead spent much of the day installing the window, but since the electrician was here, he also put in the cooktop and oven. Which has a clock, so another light!

The electrician was very busy finalizing the electrical. He waved some kind of magic wand and now we have two outlets in the island (I still don't know how that was possible, with the island fully finished and capped by a 400-pound piece of granite). He installed the cans for the main lighting, put up our new light fixtures, and installed switchplates and assorted other details, including these nifty little dimmer switches. 

The carpenter spent the day installing the toe moldings around the baseboards and against the toekicks of the cabinets. The paint specialist painted the final wall areas, burnished the texture on the hood, and finished the grout on the backsplash. It's some of those little details that make such a difference.

Two days to go!

Skillet-Seared Salmon with Curried Pineapple Essence

This was a stunning combination of flavors, though I would use less vinegar next time. I froze two dinners' worth and it was excellent as leftovers.

1 1/2 cups (1-inch) cubes fresh pineapple
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 t curry powder
1 garlic clove, minced
1 t cracked pepper
6 (6-oz.) salmon fillets (1 inch thick)
1 t kosher salt
1 T ground cinnamon
1 T ground coriander
1 T black pepper
1 T ground allspice
1 T ground cardamom
1 T ground cloves
1 T ground ginger
1 1/2 T vegetable oil

Combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let cool slightly. Place pineapple mixture in a blender; cover and process until smooth. Stir in cracked pepper. Set pineapple essence aside.

Remove skin from salmon, and sprinkle salt evenly over fillets. Combine cinnamon and next 6 ingredients. Rub one side of each fillet with spice mixture.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add salmon, spice side down, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with pineapple essence. Yield: 6 servings

Source: Cooking Light 1998 (Oxmoor House)

Day 24

This was plumbing day. And only plumbing, so the project lead left soon after the plumbers got here. We now have a cabinet full of shiny new pipes and a new disposal.

Check out this faucet! It's what we ordered, of course, but it looks like we stole it from Hagrid's hut at Hogwarts. It's huge! I don't understand why Kohler would create a perfectly normal-sized sink and then design a faucet that's more appropriate for a swimming pool. As with the aircraft carrier--I mean island, and the super-sized cabinet pulls, I will get used to it. But it is sort of this giant sentinel, standing guard over our kitchen...

Experienced a big uh-oh when I looked inside the sink. The plumbers had installed a chrome flange on the disposal side instead of the oil-rubbed bronze one that matches the left side and the faucet. Hummph--either it didn't fit or it was defective. Jim and I figured we'd take up the issue with the project lead first thing Monday morning, and we headed out for some late afternoon cycling.

But no. The project lead called me on my cell phone at 4:30 when we were about five miles down the bike trail. Sure enough, he said, the Kohler flange does not fit the Kohler sink (how dumb is that?) but he already had two possible solutions for us. The first was a set of oil-rubbed bronze flanges from a different manufacturer. Unfortunately, they were bronze in name only and were actually made of plastic. That didn't sound so good. The second choice was a set of metal flanges in the same biscuit color as the sink. On the spot, we decided to go with that. It may not be quite the same color as the sink, but it should be close enough.

I have to say, I am not as impressed with Kohler as I thought I would be, but I am more and more impressed with our contractor. Did I mention I loved this guy?

Not to be outdone, we also have a shiny new dishwasher, hooked up and ready to go. Well, not quite, as the final electrical happens on Monday.

End of week 5--and what a week!

Day 23

The floor is finished, as promised. There's not much new to see, as the main traffic area is covered in brown paper. Trust me, though, it's gorgeous.

The process is winding down. The plumbing is due next, then the final electrical, the window, and the appliances. Then...done!

Dinner: We went out. We've been going out all week; there's a point at which the hassle is not worth the effort. Besides, we're both tired of leftovers and Crockpot.

Day 22

The flooring guys continued to make great progress, surprising since they only worked from 10 - 3. Jim suggested that the back-breaking, knee-straining nature of the work limits the time they can spend doing it. Anyway, it looks great and they promise to finish up in one more day.

The floor is gorgeous and we're very happy with it. Oddly, though, it does not have the impact that the other two big ticket items--the cabinets and granite--have. It's beautiful but not awe-inspiring. There's no "wow" factor like there was with the other installations, especially the granite. Maybe because a floor is just, well, a floor. It is simply the surface on which we'll move from one place to another. It is the blending element that turns the kitchen, eating area and family room into one big room. And a "blend," by definition, brings two or more elements together but has no specific identity on its own.

Day 21

The flooring guys got a good start--half the family room! Still several days of work ahead, so we don't expect to move back into the room until Friday.


This floor is "engineered" tigerwood. It is a hardwood, not a laminate, but it's built in layers of plywood with the true hardwood layer glued on top. This is supposed to help alleviate any problems with shrinking and expanding because of temperature and humidity fluctuations.

As with any wood floor, it will scratch and dent. According to the product literature, it has an aluminum oxide finish and may be sanded down to the bare hardwood and refinished up to two times. Or it can be "screened," where only the finish is sanded off and re-applied, an infinite number of times. Also according to the literature, scratches and dents may be viewed as giving "character" to the wood floor. Dogs and their toenails are one of the biggest sources of that "character." They even suggest putting booties on the dog's paws. Yeah, right. We just have to accept that with a really big dog, "character" is more likely to happen!

Meanwhile, the rest of the tiles for the backsplash have been installed, and half the grout has been applied. The tiles looked great before, but grouting provides such a finishing touch.

Day 20

Week 5 is and will be the most difficult week so far. This is flooring week. Inconvenience is no longer the word--total disruption is. We moved everything out of the family room, but since the living room is already our "temporary kitchen," there was hardly anywhere to go with it. Lighter things like lamps and stereo components went upstairs. Easy chairs, coffee table and end tables went into the dining room, which left the entryway for the sofa and stereo console.

The carpet came up with a little crowbar and knife action. Then the pad with much vacuuming and scraping. The new 1/4" underlayment covered the old subfloor. It looks nice and clean.

By the end of the day, more progress had been made on the tile backsplash.

It's all exciting, but I'm ready for it all to be over!

Day 19

It was a very busy day in the kitchen!


The granite arrived about 10am. If the granite templating was tedious, the installation was anything but. I watched them mix the epoxy to seal the seam, adding color so it won't be visible against the Blue Pearl.






Then they donned ear, eye, and breathing protection to cut out the area for the cooktop.













The next to last piece they installed was the cap for the aircraft carrier--I mean island. Two guys carried this thing, and told me it weighed about 400 pounds! Good thing the project lead made that island bullet-proof.










Then they "glued" it down--where's that thing going, anyway?











The final look? Absolutely stunning. Having only seen the Blue Pearl on little store samples, it was mind-boggling to see it in these large expanses. Even in my best dreams I couldn't have imagined it was so beautiful.











Meanwhile, the new skinny cabinets arrived, just in time to put in the bottom one before the granite was put over it.







The painting specialist was here to paint the walls. This paint is called "Deer Valley" and the darker taupe he's putting on the range hood is called "Tiki Hut." Whose job is it to come up with these names?

Finally, he and the project lead made a good start on the tile backsplash. The main background tile is called "Durango," and is a natural tumbled stone, meaning it doesn't have any square edges and is pocked and pitted on the surface. The metal-look tiles are also tumbled, and pick up the oil-rubbed bronze of the faucet and door handles, and the darker color of the range hood. We agonized over this design and color theme--looking forward to seeing it come together.

End of week four. There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

Day 18

Some of the details are starting to fall into place. The painting specialist put the first coat of paint on the range hood between the millwork sections. This will have additional layers applied to create a "Venetian" texture effect.







We now have a "real" range hood, not just the decorative cover of one. The project lead installed the actual hood, and hooked it up. It works! At least the lights do; we can't try the blower yet because the vent on the roof is not open.





And yes, we have new "white sand" finished woodwork, ready to go around the window.

To finish up the week: granite!

Day 17

It's one thing to watch people dismantling one's kitchen. It's quite another to watch them cutting a hole in the side of one's house!

This was window-framing day. The new window will be the same width as the old one but higher. The project lead cut out below the old window to the level of the countertop so the granite will extend six inches into the sill. Plus he took out a 2x4 that was beneath the header, thereby extending the opening above where it used to be as well. All to help bring in more natural light.

It will be a regular casement window, not a bow or bay window. We considered those options but the size of the opening was not conducive to them. Extending the height and the six-inch push-out seemed like good alternatives.

This frame on the outside is attached to the house with nine-inch lag bolts and a multitude of L-brackets. It's not going anywhere!

Meanwhile, the issue of the window stain color was resolved as soon as the project lead got here. It will be the color of the cabinets. When I apologized for the time he wasted staining the trim the wrong color (which was his own fault since he didn't look at the design), he just smiled and said, "No problem." I love this guy! Whatever we throw at him, he meets it with an unwaveringly professional, can-do attitude. He may go home at night grinding his teeth and thinking blasphemous thoughts, but to us he always presents a smiling, calm and unruffled exterior.

Now if the new window would just get here...

Day 16

This was a day that didn't have much to do with the kitchen, except in a bad way.



First of all, the job for today was repairing/replacing the doorframe into the entryway where a certain giant dog chewed it up years ago. This seemed like it should be a simple enough job--remove a few moldings and replace them. Not! It involved replacing the entire doorframe, rehanging the door, and staining the new frame and moldings to go around it.

That is when the bad thing showed up. While the project lead was staining the pieces for the new doorframe, I realized he was also staining the trim elements for the new window that goes over the kitchen sink. In the same medium brown color as the rest of the house.


Whoops! The window is supposed to be trimmed and framed in the color of the cabinets. At least I thought so. But he told me they "usually" stain the windows and trim the same as the millwork in the rest of the house. He about had me convinced. But I talked to Jim and we looked at the design drawings and sure enough, the kitchen window is supposed to match the cabinets. Who wants a big brown window in the middle of a bright white wall? We'll see what happens next.

Day 15

The millwork is done on the range hood. With a little stain and textured paint, it will be the focal point of the kitchen.

And we have handles! The oil-rubbed bronze is a fantastic contrast against the cream-colored cabinets, but I didn't realize they would be so big. Not out-of-proportion big, just bigger than I expected. But that's okay--it's a big kitchen (with an aircraft carrier in the middle, no less!).





How about this little gadget? A pull-out receptacle for trash and recyclables. No more trying to stuff a garbage bag under the sink!

Dinner: grilled brats and veggies with a shredded carrot salad.

Ode to the Tray

Fetch and haul, lug and carry:

Vegetables, fruit, meat and gravy;

Bear the mugs, tote the glasses

Not in five, but only two passes.

Save my energy, guard my steps

Table to sink, sink to table

Out to the fridge more times than I'm able

Oh wonderful, functional, laudable tray.

Apples to wash, carrots to scrub

Load them and lift them and carry them out;

There's no more handy or time-saving way

Than the beautiful, valuable, practical tray.

With microwave, Crockpot, and grill,

It's camping in style, almost gourmet.

But I couldn't do it, would not have the will

Without the admirable, estimable, commendable tray!

Day 14

What a difference the crown moldings make. The cabinets were lovely before, but now they have an elegant, finished appearance.

The molding also serves to hide the rope lighting. Yes, you've seen this in Christmas lights displays, but it's also a popular way to add landscape or architectural interest.












This was Jim's idea, to provide an ambient wash over the ceiling from the tops of the cabinets. It creates a warm glow for when task or direct lights are not necessary.



End of week 3--we're halfway there!