kitchen inspiration

Many of the open houses we go to tend to be more modern in their detailing. Style is a funny thing to define. I'm not much for labels and find it hard to describe my style. In simple terms, I say traditional with modern detailing or classic with a twist. That's the way we have designed and detailed the Karina as well as our current home. The form may be the classic gable, but some of the detailing and plan layout is modern. Anyway...the kitchens below are all pretty modern.
love this deep stainless steel sink!

kitchen inspiration

Neil and I go to many AIA and other architecturally interesting open houses. Most of the time I can take pictures. I'm not always good at getting the overall picture, due to lots of other people at these open houses and the lighting is not always best, so I tend to take more detail, close in shots. Things like counter edges and how 2 different materials are coming together. Good shots for the files, to see what looks good together. Here are some kitchen shots from the past year.
concrete counters with metal edge
polished granite tiles with metal edge - nice thin dark grout

busy day - tub fixtures

After the appliance sale, we then picked up the last pieces of tile for the main bathroom. We had under estimated by a couple tiles. Hopefully Peter, the tile guy, will be able to finish up on Tuesday. It's looking so nice. He has done an excellent job. Once the tile is done, we can start to install the plumbing fixtures. The 27"x6' Duravit tub is ready to be set, but we need to install the tub fixtures first. So off to Morgans Plumbing Supply we went and these are the current contenders:
Grohe Concetto or Essence

Grohe Eurodisc II

or we might go with something a little slimmer...of course I don't remember which this was, but believe it was a hansgrohe

Next week we should be receiving a bid for the shower doors. The big question is will we be able to afford the frameless like below:

And I still haven't decided on sinks yet. Here are a couple more.
Kohler then Danze

busy day - appliances

We were up early for a Saturday and out of the house before 8:00am in order to stand outside in the rain with a couple hundred others waiting for the Albert Lee Appliance Warehouse Sale to open. What a very organized mad house that was.
Neil and I split up, and while he went to grab a range, I was able to find the dishwasher we wanted - KitchenAid Architect Series II KUDC03FVSS - stainless steel with the hidden controls for a slightly better price then this.

We met up over in the microwave/hood section and found the matching one to the slide-in range he had found. - Frigidaire Professional 30" Slide In Electric Range FPES3085KF & over the range microwave FPBM189KF - I had previously taken a picture of the two in the store.

Then while Neil was standing in line to pay, I went to look at the washer & dryers. We weren't planning to purchase these today, but these were such a good deal when you calculate in the rebates we can obtain, so these too will be showing up in a couple weeks. Whirlpool washer WFW9400SW & dryer WED9400SW
As Neil pointed out, we did overspend our budget, but we were able to purchase higher quality appliances without going too far out of our range. Plus, there will be more savings once I send in the different brand rebates I found online and the energy star rebates.

The Karina - stairs

Our friends Jeff & Alec are working on the trim out of the stairs. Here they are laying out where the handrail is going to be. We are using a breadloaf looking handrail with square pickets below that rest on a 16" wall. The tricky part of all this is how all the trim works with each other and dies into the newel posts.

The Karina - grout

Our bathrooms are nearly complete and we are deciding on grout - type & color. The downstairs bathroom which is the white 4x16 stacked tile will be getting "Smoke Grey" by Laticrete. Here we are using regular cement grout. In the upstairs small bathroom where we also used the white 4x16 we are looking using white "Sauterne" epoxy grout. The same in the upper portion of the main bathroom. We decided to use the epoxy grout in these areas as well as the entire main bathroom shower because it is stain & mildew resistant.

For the darker tile floor and walls in the main we are deciding between a darker "Moss" and a lighter "Natural Grey". I'm leaning towards the darker. I like how it picks up on some of the dark streaks in the tile and I think it won't stand out as much.

backyard cottages

The Seattle City Council unanimously passed the backyard cottage ordinance today for ALL of Seattle. This is great news. As I mentioned last Thursday it's been a long time coming. It gives owners much more flexibility and potential on their property. Our current house is actually 2 units, but they are attached. Neil built the garage/apartment in 2007 and before I moved in, Neil was able to rent out the older house for extra income. It's definitely now a possibility at the new house. The lot is big enough and we have alley access. I just didn't think the ordinance would happen this year.

Details:
Minimum 4000 sqft lot
800 sqft max including garage and storage
22' max. height unless lot is wider than 40' with alley access
owner must occupy one of the units

So if you want a small cottage in your backyard, check out my firm's plan options on our GoodFit site. Then call Neil to build it! Below is the Lisette plan which is 635 sqft.