The Estate of Things

Take your first look at 404 North Poplar Street.  This is the first of many entries that will chronicle the renovation of this 1920’s bungalow. I’m sorry to say that I can’t offer an accurate before and after because I was a little lazy and didn’t get around to taking pictures until it was too late because some walls had already been torn down. Interior pictures are forthcoming.

Bungalow 404 is a two bedroom, three bath with bungalow/craftsman interior and exterior details.  Two bedrooms and two full baths are on the main level and in the finished basement there is a possibility for a third bedroom and a multi-purpose room, another bath and ample storage. Renovation officially got under way 9/28/08.

This week, the carpenters are out and the plumber is in.  We hope to have the entire house roughed in for plumbing by the end of this week 10/6. I met with Hank the cabinet guy on Monday.  We face a challenge in this kitchen because we opened the place up so much that we lost a lot of wall space.  After showing Hank countless pictures of Ikea kitchens for various configurations, Hank took his measurements and said he would send me some sample plans. So we will go from there. There are some elements in the kitchen I am certain of:

• white cabinets, some glass front
• subway tile backsplash
• nickel or chrome hardware
• stainless appliances
• stainless range hood

I think I talked the owner into a stainless steel range hood but I haven’t been able to convince him on the issue of solid surface countertops.  He would like to apply granite tiles but this is an unattractive option to me because grout does nothing but get dirty and stained and I’d like to eliminate that as much as possible. I have done some tile research online as well as in my local home improvement store and at a tile showroom/retailer.

I found this kitchen on Cottage Living’s website this morning. It uses some products that I was considering.  I was particularly interested in the tile combinations. The floor is some kind of tile product non-descript beige paired with black granite countertops and a white subway tile backsplash with beige grout which I think ties things together. For the floor in Bungalow 404’s kitchen, I saw a polished porcelain which has a marble-like appearance but not at marble prices plus porcelain is more durable than marble and ceramic tile. A little over $3 for 18×18 tiles. The black granite could create a great compromise with the owner because black granite is usually the most affordable color and if we use granite tiles in black as the owner suggested then we could also use a black grout line which would not show stains or dirt. Hank is trying to sell me on a solid surface countertop similar to Corian called Avonite.  Avonite is more affordable than Corian and granite.  Right now it is all about the kitchen because generally kitchens and bathrooms sell a house, that is if a house sells at all in this market! Here are some other kitchens I am excited about and have drawn inspiration from. The kitchen on the left is from the house of See Jane Work featured in a sneak peek at Design Sponge, the one on the right is a Thomas O’Brien kitchen featured in Domino.

This week we got the plumber estimate, the window estimate and we’ll get an estimate from a tree expert on eliminating some 50 year old tree limbs suspended over the roof. The tree expert starts next week.  We went ahead and scheduled him because he’ll need to drive a lift truck all over the property and we wouldn’t him to do that after we installed some new landscaping.

I read recently that bungalows typically did not allow a lot of natural light in to the house because of their gables, this is the case with bungalow 404 not solely because of the gables but also because of the mature trees surrounding the house. Shade is good but a sun/shade balance is better.

Next week…electrical, kitchen plan finalization