Missives from the 6th Floor

We're still looking for ways to control costs and end up with a kitchen both that we're happy with and that's suitable for the house with an eye towards retail.

The first bid we got back was closer to sane than any bid or estimate prior, but was still around ten-thousand dollars higher than I had hoped.

We've "found" some of that difference by relaxing our materials requirements on the cabinets (birdseye maple door panels would be absolutely beautiful, but...), and over the weekend we did another pass on the design to try and reduce cost and complexity.

This time, rather than scribbling on paper, I downloaded SketchUp.

As an aside - I took some drafting courses through the ROP program in High School, including a couple semesters working with AutoCAD back when the monitors were monochrome, the PCs required math co-processors, and the cost of each workstation was in the five figure range. All I can say is 3d software has come a long way. I was amazed at how quickly I could get the basics of the room drawn, and how easy it was to create and experiment with dimensioned scale drawings. I think I got more done in the first 15 minutes without training or instruction than in the first couple weeks of AutoCAD under experienced direction.

So we've sent the revised design back to the contractor for some reactions.

Hopefully moving the stove to a wall (rather than keeping it in the peninsula where it is currently) will both open a large prep surface as well as reduce cost and complexity. The current stove is an electric cook-top with down-draft venting, which mostly doesn't work, and certainly won't work for the sort of gas ranges we're considering. We've also decided to go with a 30" range, rather than the 36" I had been shooting for. When cooking for large gatherings (which I don't do in the current kitchen 'cause, um, it sucks) the stove top of a standard 30" range is always a tight squeeze, but the cost differential is just more than I can justify.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that kitchen is spelled c-o-m-p-r-o-m-i-s-e.