by I found another great tradesman/finish carpenter, Tom Milfeld, and in the nick of time. My kitchen cabinets were delivered on Monday, November 12 and I was moving in on the 17th. In addition to having great skills, he is an absolute DELIGHT to work with. He has allowed me to be his assistant saving me money and I’ve learned some great tips on replacing floor boards, cutting with a circular saw, etc. that I’ll put to good use.
Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses, so thanks to all the sweat equity employed on this project by me, friends, and family, I was able to design the kitchen and master bath of my dreams. The HGTV 2017 Urban Oasis kitchen had blue cabinets, so that’s when I first started thinking of painted vs. stained. I grew up with brown, wood, cabinets and definitely wanted something different. I did not select the same shade of blue they used, Benjamin Moore Van Deusen Blue HC-156, because I was not going completely custom. Instead I selected Sherwin Williams Naval, the stock color offered by Shiloh Cabinetry, the builder of my kitchen cabinets. I carried the Naval into the master bath vanity made by Homestead Furniture. They matched it as close as possible, so not a custom color.
The bathroom vanity was tackled first. I utilized my Walabot gadget to locate the studs. I totally forgot my father and I had installed wood blocks in between each stud in anticipation of my floating vanity. Tom’s measurements and cutting out of plumbing fixture holes were exact. We placed a temporary support beam on the short wall, which greatly aided in hanging this very heavy cabinet.
I love the trough sink I found on Build.com. I will lack counter top space, but since my drawer/storage space has quadrupled from what I’ve had over the last 4 decades I’ll work around that. Sherwin William’s coordinating color system on their website really makes it looks like I know what I’m doing from a design perspective. The Icycle and Pacer White are perfect complements to the vanity.
For as many bad contractor experiences I’ve had, there have been equally good ones and another noteworthy one is Ohio Valley Solid Surfaces. I am a repeat customer of theirs as I worked with them when I replaced the Formica counter tops with Corian at my former house over 15 years ago. I also purchased remnant granite tops for my two full bathrooms about 6 years ago. Their crew arrived the morning of November 12th promptly and the quickly unloaded my much-anticipated blue cabinets. I had priced my cabinets through Pease Home Improvement, but went to Ohio Valley Solid Surface for my counter tops as I hoped to luck up and find another remnant slab. I was able to find a remnant piece of soap stone that I will use as the top for the built-in. Turns out they were also a dealer for Shiloh Cabinetry and their price came in $600 under Pease, so with the help of Emily Womble they became my one stop shop for kitchen cabinets and counters.
The process for hanging cabinets was simpler than I thought and my house only presented one wall that wasn’t square enough to the point you see a slight gap between the wall and cabinet. The style of my doors intentionally matches the doors on the built-in I saved and will eventually relocate back in the kitchen. My doors are inset (again like the built-in), so it was very important that the cabinets be level or they would not open and close properly.
I love the soft close feature and wish I had splurged and had them added to my vanity. They were standard with Shiloh Cabinetry and would have added $350 to cost of vanity. The goal was to get the cabinets hung by Friday, November 16, the day Ohio Valley would return to measure for the counters. I have totally snoozed on his name, but the same gentleman that installed my Corian counters at Inner Circle, came and took the measurements. I think employee longevity is a testimony of a good company. By meeting the November 16 measurement deadline, I was guaranteed to only live without counters for a week after my move-in.
One of the fortunate outcomes of self-funding this project was that at the time I ordered the cabinets I didn’t have the money for the counter tops. Cabinets were a 6-8 week lead time whereas the counters were only a week, so I had time to find more funds. If I had placed the order with the cabinets I would have gotten Silestone’s Pietra (sample B). It has blue and grey swirls and was the top vote getter by people attending my house blessing gathering.
When I had to finally commit, Emily shared with me some new options of overstock slabs they had on hand. Selecting one of them could save me about $900, so I took a serious look. Yes, I loved saving the money, but I actually think the Neve Corian Quartz I ultimately selected for the kitchen looks far better installed than what my original choice would have. It’s almost marble like, less busy, and oh so elegant looking. In the master bath I was able to select another overstock slab, sample A above, Ceasarstone Misty Carrera. The sample was honed (non-shiny), which is what I wanted, but the overstock piece was shiney. Again to save the money I made the change. I didn’t go with one stone for both, despite both being blue, because upstairs needed something that would coordinate with the hexagon tile I laid for the tub. Misty Carrera had a brown undertone to it whereas the Neve had a grey. The Misty Carrera is on the vanity, but it will also be the bench and ledge for the shower.
The same crew, plus one, that delivered the cabinets did the counter tops and as with the delivery they were punctual in their arrival and efficient in their install.
Ten days after moving in I was able to stop relying on the basement utility sink with the addition of the faucets. On the first floor my goal has been to maintain the original charm of the house, sticking with decor reminiscent of a 100 year old house. I went with a bridge faucet and stainless steel farmhouse sink. Ohio Valley crew drilled the holes exactly where I wanted them, but in retrospect I should have put a little more distance between faucet and sprayer.
The master bath is all about modern luxury. I wanted the faucets for the tub, shower and sink to match. I bought all my bathroom fixtures in March, so I’m long past the window to return even though they just got installed. Unfortunately my faucet has the wrong reach for the sink.
The vessel sink version of the same faucet reduced the reach by 2″, but is an inch taller. Signature Hardware gave me a 50% discount on it for not being satisfied with the first one, but sadly the flow rate on this faucet is half of what the original faucet provided. I probably would have been happy with it if I had not bought the first faucet. Now I have four faucets I don’t like the function of. My plumber took the aerator from the original faucet and placed on one of new. It worked fine, so I contacted Signature Hardware and was sent new aerators.
Once the new ones were installed the new faucets worked fine, but the list of problems with Signature Hardware’s products are growing. This will be the last project I’ll do and use their product. Highly disappointed.
In addition to the faucet mishaps their pop-up drain I purchased for the first floor bath tub and master sink failed to hold water. You should be able to see some pieces of metal in a cross shape at the bottom of the drain pictured on the left, but they broke off when my plumber attempted to tighten it to stop the water that was gushing into the basement. He ended up replacing both with drains from Home Depot, which worked fine. Signature Hardware did agree to refund my money on the drains, but I’m petrified about connecting the master shower and tub given how poorly these performed. Water running into the basement was no big deal, but if the master tub and shower fixtures fail they’ll ruin drywall in the living room and guest bedroom.
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