Planning a Kitchen

After six weeks of interviews and role searching, I am back to work in Charlotte. Same client but very different project, working with my all time favorite Accenture friend/mentor. It's good to be back and on a schedule but I needed two weeks off of blogging to get back into the swing of things! 

Since the last time I wrote, we finalized our kitchen plans and will be making our deposit next weekend. Below is the updated layout, which is very similar to our current layout but with many improvements, including a 6 foot island.

The tentative plan is to rip out our current kitchen 4th of July weekend, have the new kitchen installed the weekend of July 12th, and the counters installed the weekend of July 18th. We have a crazy summer planned already and a ton of decisions to make but I have made good use of Pinterest to start our planning. 

We decided on white cabinets with a butcher block counter top for the island, but the counters are a bit trickier. Our contractor works with a guy that sells Zodiaq quartz, so I am hoping to see the selection in person next weekend.

Pinterest find of black Zodiaq Quartz

I have never been a huge fan of quartz so I am also exploring a soapstone counter. My mom is renovating her kitchen now and using Soapstone, a matte look I prefer over quartz.

Pinterest Soapstone Inspiration

After we decide on the counters, we can move forward with planning the floors and backsplash, both of which we will be installing ourselves (with a lot of help from our parents). Both will be tile, we just need to make sure the colors work well together.

Pinterest Tile Floor Inspiration

The one thing we do need to have decided before the cabinets are made are the appliances. The sizes of ovens, dishwashers (we are finally getting one!!) and microwaves are fairly standard but refrigerators are the trickiest. Today we went to Best Buy to check out prices and sizes and really lucked out! One of our top picks, an LG French Door refrigerator, was a floor model and on sale for half the price. 

The newest member of our family

The fridge will be delivered next week so we get to live in two months of refrigerator luxury until the rest is installed in July! We have decided to keep our old refrigerator for beer/extra food in the basement so we are really looking forward to the extra room and a refrigerator that doesn't require solo cups to catch the leaky water.

Next weekend I will be taking a trip to Kutztown to check out counters and make a decision! Andrew will be gone for a bachelor trip so I am hoping to make good use of the weekend and make some decisions :) More updates to come!