Big sink
island
electric plug on island
under counter lights
computer/tv/ internet for online recipes
heated floors
heat ducting coming out from under the kitchen sink ( so my feet would be warm in the winter while doing dishes)
sink waste disposal
in house vacuum with a suction hole some where in the kitchen for sweeping the floor and not using a dust pan
wine storage
potatoes/onion storage
recycle storage
water tap behind the stove
more drawers instead of doors for full easy cupboard access
flip down soap tray
built in knife holder
place for cookie sheets
place for spices
slam free doors and drawers
pantry area
lower lazy susan with flip in doors
foot pump garbage can slide out door for under kitchen sink
some where for my phone/ and phone book/address book
wine cooler
frosted glass doors
niches for display stuff
drop down recipe book holder
some place to store my toaster.... hate stuff on the counters!!
dimmers on all the lights
tiled back splash
high def or granite counter tops
cleaning supply area
Everything on this list we looked at, and considered.
I wanted a BIG and Deep sink.... I have had the sinks that were two big ones side by side and I didn't care for it, I had the one big, one small...didn't like that either! We had one with a drain board and I found we just left stuff out on it all the time. I wanted a sink big enough to wash my cookie sheets and roast pans in the bottom of the sink flat!! Doug wasn't sure, he thought it was gonna be too big but I'm glad to say I love it!! Its under mounted and I think that finish looks sharp..... but thats all personal choice. Its 33" wide and over 10" deep. Its made by Blanco this one is called the cascade.
The next thing was an appliance garage... I liked the look of the corner unit ones. I wanted something to hide my toaster and hold all of our breads. In the end we opted not to have the unit built in to the cabinetry. Instead I dedicated 1BIG drawer 33" wide by 12 " tall. It works really well for us. My toaster sits in the drawer if I need it we pull it out but it also has the room to house all of our opened stuff like bread, chip bags and cookies. that way nothing every gets lost and forgotten about.
The island with a plug was a must... we changed the original design from a peninsula to the island and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!....almost forgot about the outlet till I referred back to my notes. Disaster avoided!! Where else would I hookup my chocolate fountain for parties?
Under counter lights aren't yet installed , or even purchased but we did wire and set everything up to connect it all once we find the right ones.
The computer /TV one we haven't figured out a solution yet!! Doug can wire the internet to our Tv and I can bring up recipes online and view them on the TV but I have to go to the other room to access it all...... not sure where I want the TV/ or computer yet. we have talked about a computer with a Tv tuner in it. I wanna feel out my kitchen first.... I do miss not having the TV in there while I'm cooking or cleaning but i wanna make sure we know exactly if its needed and where it would be best placed. we've narrowed it down to three locations.
Heated flooring was a must for us.... we went with tiled floors and I never where slippers!!! so it was pretty much a no brainer. Some people opt to just install the heated floor in front of the sink or stove. But I didn't like the feeling of walking from a warm floor to a cold floor all with in the same space... it just felt unfinished or cheeped out to us, so we did the entire kitchen floor. the cost isn't as outrageous as everyone thinks it would be.
my next option was a heat duct .....this was my alternate if we couldn't do the floors then I wanted to have a heat duct blowing warm air on my tootsies.
The garbage disposal we were going to put in up until the closing in of the walls. We have a septic field and we both thought the added waste to it would be too much... the cost of a new septic was too pricey...... we didn't want to take the chance of disposing of stuff we shouldn't be down the sink or over working it. so in the end we nixed it!!
Originally I wanted one of those built in vacuum cleaners..... but really we have only one room that has carpet. So we decided not to install one floor sweeping.... so there went my sweep duct!
I'm a HUGE Storage NUT!! It could be cuz our hose appears bigger than it is and that we have close to ZERO storage space. So having things organized and placed properly is a must to have a smooth functioning kitchen. Any way we haven't finished the pantry but my plans in there involve the wine storage, cookbook storage, potatoes/onion storage, some recyclables an extra all fridge and all freezer storage.... not yet bought or done but in the works!!!
our kitchen was soooooo reasonably priced that we decided to spend the extra monies to make it look like a really custom and expensive kitchen one of the things that was pretty pricey but a very nice HAVE was the pot filler tap behind the stove. I will say now that I have one I don't thing I could go back to not having one. it is one handy lil gadget.
I know drawers are more expensive to get than doors but I must say it is soooooo nice not to have to bend over and search the backs of cupboards... we choose to have all big drawers wherever we could and all I have to do is pull it open and voila full access no rummaging , no hands and knees, no pulling everything out to get to that thing in the back you only use once in awhile. The slam free with this is soooooo smooth and nice to have again we got a really good deal which made everything high end affordable.....including the granite!! Doug and I say we bought granite and got the kitchen for FREE!!!
the flip down soap tray is a bit of a sore spot..... we did want one thought we ordered one but didn't get one.....do we hold off putting the kitchen together just for a sink with in a tray??? Our answer was NO!! Dougs looking at trying to put in an after market one..... we'll see.
We are gonna look at after market block holders for the knifes to be stored in the drawers or I may design something and hit my father in law up for a favor!! HINT HINT
cookie sheets have a home but in all honesty it was only a 6" cabinet and its not big enough for all my muffin tins broiler pan cookie sheets and wire racks so it will be nice when the pantry is complete to take some of the less used stuff.
Spices..... I was battling where and how to store these lil suckers!! I had a whole upper cupboard devoted to them in our last kitchen it wasn't as organized as I would of liked everything was buried in there and on top of each other. I don't care for them to be displayed on my counter I prefer out of sight!! But an idea presented itself... my tall pantry cabinet came in 4" deeper than it was suppose to but still with only 24" deep shelves which left a door void so I attached all those magnetic spice jars to the inside of the two upper pantry doors and it is working like a hot damn....... I still wanna buy another 6 to fill the top portions of the cabinets with spices we don't use that often as well as jimmies and cake decorating candies and such.
The lower lazy susan flip indoors is soooooo cool but we needed a cupboard without the inside top mount so the doors could lift up into the void,unfortunately ours had a top so the mechanism wouldn't work in ours. I keep telling myself we saved some money there for a really cool option we didn't really need.
The foot pump garbage can door opening we are still looking at.... living in a small town I can't see the size of the garbage cans and thats whats holding up the process. I want two slide out garbage cans under the sink... one for garbage the other for crushed pop cans... DOUG IS A POP JUNKIE!!! Guess its better than beer! So when we go on holidays we'll have to see if anyone carries them in stock to view.
My phone and phonebook area is still undecided it goes hand in hand with the TV/Computer answer..... and well, wherever that goes the phone probably will go there too.
Frosted glass doors got nixed, when I changed my kitchen design.... there was no symmetry and I thought one upper frosted door unit wouldn't look right.
Wine cooler ....... we thought maybe in the pantry but really neither one of us are big on wine so for the amount of time we drink it, it can go in the regular fridge.
There really isn't any place to display stuff but in the end we thought uncluttered would be the best... we'll have a few things out on some shelves but no real dedicated space for it.
I'd still like a recipe book holder...thought a drop down one would be nice and out of the way but it could interfere with my under counter lights......must wait till my lights are installed first to see if theres room for one.
I like dimmers on lights it can make regular lights mood lights so we installed em on the island lights, our pot lights and even the under counter lights will have em!
Tiled back splash.... this at first was a hard choice, we liked the stainless backsplash, the old world tin back splash, glass tiles... but in the end we choose something simple and close matching to our floor tile
Last but not least I want a pull out slide cleaning supply cupboard, just awaiting the mechanism to convert our 9" cabinet to that to hold all cleaning supplies and dish soap.
And there you have my mega long method of how we choose stuff for us.... Make a long story short put every and I mean EVERY want you have and you'd be surprised at how many you are able to make happen!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment