Roll Tape

Today was filming day of the Nuckols Kitchen for the Malou Review show.  It was pretty exciting watching Malou in action.  She's cool.  They set up one camera and one light and rolled tape with Malou and John (our designer).  The episode should feature end of June, but we will post up the tape when we get it.

The Nuckols Kitchen- Before and After

It's finally done and here is the before and after. We are moving back home this weekend and very happy it's complete. We can't wait to start enjoying our new kitchen. There are going to be some amazing meals coming out of this place so check out our Sunday Night Dinner blog for some great recipes. (Some more below and after shots)

Floors are Finally Finished

After 1,000 square feet of installation, the floors are finally finished. It took forever, but it was worth it. We used Waterlox Sealer/Finish and Waterlox Satin Finish, total three coats. No stain. The color is the natural color of walnut. There are definitely streaks, but I'll live with it for now. Luckily for me, there is a flooring supplier in Dublin with all the tools and materials and they were helpful. Here's a shout out to Jeff at Tom Duffy in Dublin.

Floors, Floors, Floors

Delia warned me. Really had no idea how long this was going to take. The plan is to not only floor the kitchen, but the dining area, living room , two bedrooms and the entry way. That is a total of 1000 sq. ft. So far, we have done 200 sq ft in two days. Both of our engineering, math and geometry hats are on at the moment to get this right and so far so good. We have all the tools possible so hopefully starts getting done faster.

After many inquiries about solid american walnut, I found a great company out in Indiana that delivered our 5" width 2-10ft long boards in two weeks. The quality is great. They are Pennington Hardwood if anyone is interested, I recommend them. We got the natural grade, knots and all and they are beautiful.

It's Finally Coming together

The final touches have been put in, the knobs, the pendant lighting, the shelfs, crown molding, paint ... Here are the details.

• Three pendant lights from Pottery Barn
• Polished nickel Aubrey pulls - Restoration Hardware
• Polished nickel Ephram knob - Restoration Hardware
• Sherman Williams Conservative Grey Paint

Now it's on to the floors.

Counters & Backsplash Tile

We put in Absolute Black Granite, from All Natural Stone, for the countertops and Tonalites Gris Perle 3x6" ceramic tile from Country Floors. We found this tile over at the SF Design Center next to Ann Sacks. It was more rustic but still very sophisticated in color. I love brick patterns. In the day it looks more gray at night it is a greeny-blue-gray.

CABINETS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!

I love the shaker style white cabinets. Every home I see it in, every magazine I flip through, every time I watch Barefoot Contessa, it's the white cabinets and black counters. We moved the oven to the opposite side and have a pennisula/bar area where the wall used to be. Looking good so far.

Bay Window is out and posted on Craiglist

We finally got our window. I posted it up on Craigslist for $25, no response. Switched it to FREE, and got 10 responses. At least it's being reused and not ending up in a landfill.

Linoleum GONE

Brett and I removed the linoleum Sunday night. There were two layers of linoleum. It's interesting to see what previous owners did to their home to make it there own. In this case - nothing very inspiring.

Anyway, here was the trick. The linoleum was pasted to 3/8" particle board. Brett used the skill saw, put the setting to 1/4" (count for the linoleum) and cut out large squares. We used a crow bar and pried out the sections. It took us about 2-3 hours. Not too hard. Then pulled out any staples or nails left on the subfloor. DONE.

Electrical's In - Walls are Finished

I have to say, these guys move fast and do quality work. It's only been day 4 and the room is taking shape already. Just removing the sofit has made the room larger and the new lighting looks great. I'm not a big fan of textured walls but since we have them, we want to maintain the consistency and it really looks like these walls have been there since the beginning. (This is Isac and Demirel)

This weekend, I will be priming and painting the ceilings - Kelly Moore Swiss Coffee (Tia's "go-to" white, now mine).

Wall's GONE

The most dramatic change we are making is tearing down the wall between the kitchen and family room which we converted into our dining room. It's a completely different space. We can see into the garden from pretty much every corner of the main living area. It just looks bigger than I expected.

First Day DEMOLITION

They pretty much cleared out everything in one day with not a scrap left.

The Ceiling - GONE

The Ugly Tile - GONE

The Puke Brown Cabinets - GONE

After today, the wall between the Kitchen and Family room will be removed.

We are waiting for our window I ordered from friend of a friend and that will be gone as well. Lots of rain, so the window will have to get here before we put in the kitchen.

Brett and I are doing the floors ourselves to save some money, but luckily our contractors gave us a tip to take out the linoleum without breaking our back. We'll see how it goes.

Out with the old

We decided it's time to do our kitchen. This is the original kitchen built with the house in 1984. With typical square almond tile, dark oak cabinets, bay window and 6" dropped sofit for the fluorescent tube lighting.

We called around, got bids but the most interesting bid came from one company that came in with a TV show host which caught us by surprise.

Of course we wanted to keep the budget tight, keep all our appliances, same layout, etc. But these guys, Kitchen Experts, came in and wanted to knock down walls, move things around, AND put us on TV for a before and after. Was the price tag worth it?

YOU BET IT WAS!

And now you are going to see our renovation unfold with the end result a beautiful kitchen and be showcased on Malou Review.

Here are the before shots (many of you have already have been to our home and have had fabulous food and drinks from this very kitchen).