Yikes they are dark! And the new mirrors and lights do not mesh well with the crappy faucets. Now the lady does not like them… they look like Moen stuff on my iPhone screen. If that is the case, they are going to need replacement cartridges sooner or later.
They are saving the faucet from the laundry room vanity to put into a new vanity?
I like dark cabinets. Are they maple or cherry?
Personally not a fan of the very dark cabinets or the style, but I don’t have to live with them, so.
Interesting about the Chinese installers. When we did our kitchen in this house, about four and a half years ago, I used a certain granite fabricator a friend said was least expensive of all of them. They were also Chinese! Their price was very good, and they’ve been in business a very long time. I got the same story – they’ll be there between X and Y o’clock on Friday. X came, Y came, and in spite of several phone calls, they didn’t arrive until 5;30 PM. They stayed and worked until 11:00 PM! I felt terrible for our neighbors because, while most everything had been cut to size before they came, one slab had not been – they were waiting to do it on-site. So, at 9:00-ish o’clock at night, they were outside with their noisy saws, cutting away.
Their work was fine, their price was fine, but I’m not going to use them again.
It was also weird – they were Chinese, barely spoke English, and one of them told me he had been in this country for 11 years! They didn’t wear dust masks as they used the saw, and they all smoked like chimneys. I can only imagine what their lungs looked like.
The installers were Hispanic. Store owner was Lebanese I think. But every single place along Miramar (our showroom street) have the Chinese cabinets from same manufacturer. They try to display them differently and give them different names.
It started with a couple of different stores with Chinese ownership. But the stores were in big warehouses, dimly lit, very dirty and customer service was nasty and rude. It was meant for wholesale/contractors. So now there are more ‘upscale’ stores popping up everywhere with all kinds of names. My owners went to this particular store because some friend told them about it and it was one of the few that had ‘cherry’ color cabinets.
The dark cabinets were a small victory over what they were going to buy. Either way, owners wanted dark cabinets because that is what they are used to.
Cabinets are ash with a carcoal stain in matte finish. In fact, as far as I can tell, there is not any protective finish. That’s another big complaint about the ready to assemble cabinets. I’ve installed them all…except extremely expensive Poggenpal or similar. Finish is horrible on these cabinets. Not enough coats of anything. Installer had to go through 5 pieces of crown molding to try to find ANY that had matching stain color. Stain color is not consistent across trim pieces. He told me to call store and insist they come out and respray the crown molding. Yeah right…thats going to happen!
IKEA has far superior protective finish and consistency. Kraftmaid, Diamond, Omega, Shenandoah have good finish. (Home Depot or Lowes special order brands)
Yes, countertop installers are notorious for showing up late and working in the dark. But I’ve gotten used to it and schedule myself accordingly
Thanks for the hall bathroom update pics. Now I know what my bathroom would look like if I had removed the glued-on wall mirror and left the vanity in place. It looks like you put in new light fixtures too, right? Because the old ones were just like my old ones. Maybe we had the same decorator.
Based on your profile picture…looks like you updated the faucets:). Yep, same era of decor
Ok…so replace the faucets with brushed nickel finish. Guaranteed…that will make the counter top look even worse!
It’s a domino effect…the more you fix…the worse the rest is going to look.
Those cabinets are a dark version of the oak cabinets we currently have…the raised panels. I like the dark coilor…but not the 1990’s style. But then…maybe I can just paint my cabinets!
It is finally getting very exciting at the Grandma project. Everything is coming together really fast.
All of the flooring is installed except the kitchen area.
Lighting is installed and today we are putting in the big foyer light and dining room hanging light. These were selected and purchased by the owners.
Kitchen cabinet handles going on
Countertop was installed last night
Appliances going in
I loaded some pictures of the new countertop. It is a gorgeous material - Namig Fantasy marble with natural quartz in the stone. Unfortunately the pictures make it look like a petri dish experiment. But it is now one of my favorite for countertops… except for the fact that it has etching issues from any acids left on the countertop too long. Not really ‘maintenance free’ type of material. It’s been sealed with one coat of special sealant and we will do another coat next week.
But I’ve always thought there are 2 ways to live with marble countertops. Either you are American and fuss over making sure that nothing is left on the countertop and constantly wipe it down. Or you are European and embrace the ‘patina’ that it develops from faint stains and etching, similar to old marble countertops in Italy.
Loaded some new pictures
Pictures are great - I love the kitchen cabinets and countertop… Great choice!!!
Is that going to be the only sink in the kitchen?
Is that a problem? I can live without my bar sink… with just the sink like the one pictured.
It would be for me. I don’t want the sink in the island where I eat.
Different traditions. I would never eat at a kitchen island, sink or not, as I prefer a slow meal at a dining table. Because my husband agrees, we have a choice of 3 dining tables: kitchen, dining room, and patio. 
I don’t have a table in my kitchen but even with my dining room table a few feet away, we only eat there when we have company.
I don’t like islands with cooktops on them either.
CB what do you think of Roman travertine? I keep going back to them at the kitchen designer I’m seeing. Not choosing anything yet, but I love the old patina. Somebody talk me down…
That is only sink in kitchen. Laundry room is through door on left. It has a big deep sink. I talked them into removing old lineoleum tile countertop and replacing with quartz.
The cabinets do not look so dark in real life because there is a lot of natural light and ton of ceiling lights
Regarding roman travertine…I’m guessing that is a big slab of tumbled cream marble. My biggest concern is that tumbled travertine has a lot of natural holes and crevices which will trap everything in a kitchen and it would be impossible to seal because it is very porous.
I have seen a new fancy countertop product made out of polyester (i think) that mimics stone and is gorgeous. You might want to research that product to get the travertine look
The reason the sink was moved out to island is to take advantage of the views. Remember where it was before? Facing a concrete retaining wall on side of house. This was the only way to enjoy views from the sink. Owners love everything and are blown away with how nice it looks coming together