Kitchen Remodel in Oak Park

Project and Design Scope:

The homeowner wanted to achieve a kitchen that was modern yet functional with a family of five.  Cabinets were to be maple and countertops to be solid surface.  Immediately the cabinet design was turned over to our cabinet guy to do a custom design. After numerous meetings and looking at countless photographs, a European modern design for the doors was agreed upon.  Material was a fiddleback maple sequenced and book matched with a stain color to be determined upon selection of the countertops and flooring.  Walnut Travertine floors were chosen for look and neutrality as the cabinets and countertops were to be the focal point of the kitchen.  Stainless Steel was chosen as the color for all fixtures, pulls and appliances.  Countertops were turned over to our stone fabricator and after going to the slab yard, an exotic “Verde Lilium” was chosen and a waterfall book matched eased edge detail was chosen.

Additional Work Orders:

During the project the homeowner decided to add a nice desk area next to the kitchen with the same style cabinets and marble countertops.  In addition to that, a French door was cut into where a window was to allow for quicker access to the kitchen from the outside and three rivers stone was laid to accommodate the new walkway.

Unusual Problems and/or Challenges

• December 23^rd deadline

Part of the condition of this project was for the homeowner to have a functioning kitchen in time for the Christmas holiday, which meant quick turnarounds on cabinets, quick fabrication of the countertops while maintaining high quality.

• Post-tension slab and existing plumbing

One issue was not being able to saw cut the slab to move existing plumbing in the slab due to the time constraints.  The cabinetmaker, the client and I met to resolve this issue with the new island.  We were able to have the plumber do some tricky routing inside the cabinet in the toe kick as well as modify the drawers to allow the correct positioning of the island.

• Fiddleback maple and snow

The maple wood was picked up and taken back to the cabinet shop and after careful examination, it was noticed that the material was not book matched.  New material was ordered and when it came in to the warehouse in Van Nuys, CA, The cabinet maker picked it up and tried to take it to his shop, but was delayed by 3 days due to the snow level in Southern California dropping to 1,500 feet.

• Marble Countertop cracked upon installation

After the island countertop was installed, a small hairline crack became evident and after making a weekend trip to the jobsite, we decided to replace it.  Fortunately, the stone fabricator had put extra slabs on hold in the marble yard in case of a problem.  He immediately called the yard, had the new slab delivered to his shop and had the new island installed by the 21^st of December, which allowed for the plumbing fixtures to be reinstalled in time for the December 23^rd deadline.

Relationship to Existing Home and Neighborhood

The existing project flowed well with the existing wood floors in the remainder of the house and although the house is not too old, it meshes well with other design features from the original builder

Homeowner Objectives and Needs

The homeowner was told she was crazy for starting a kitchen remodel that was to be completed before Christmas but we were able to schedule and allocate resources effectively, that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some late nights and some weekend work either.

Overall Results

The results were a success measured by the letter of recommendation I asked the homeowners to write for us. And yes we did make the December 23^rd deadline for the kitchen aspect of the project.

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