Prologue

It was a year ago, that I chronicled our 8-day trip to England on a blog. We're now on another journey--a kitchen renovation.

From our first visit to this apartment, it was clear that someday we would renovate the kitchen. It wasn't that the kitchen was not functional or distasteful, it was just that it was the most obvious remnant of the 1980's renovation and conversion.

After moving in in August 2006 and a quick replacement of the cabinet pulls and painting the backsplash a bold blue color, we enjoyed the kitchen heartily. However, by December Brian was brainstorming about something new. Byron began drawing. In late January 2007 on a trip to Seattle, we met with a custom cabinet maker. The quote doused our project with ice cold water and we slowed down... for a few months.

By October, we had settled on using Ikea cabinets, to reconcile our tastes with our budget. Brian converted our "custom" ideas into Ikea standards, preserving our intent of increasing countertop space and opening up the room to the Den and its windows. In November, Byron began drawing again. A trip to ABT Electronics got us dreaming about cooktops and exhaust hoods. By mid-December, the ideas had crystallized and someone's bonus gave the project the green light. By Christmas, our appliances were provisionally ordered, to avoid the 2008 price increases

January and February flew by, Byron capturing any available time to complete the drawings--including demolition, cabinets, flooring and utilities (including electrical). By the end of February, the design had settled long enough to our satisfaction, that it was time to take the plunge. We spent a long Saturday at Ikea getting the cabinet order placed. An IT glitch caused us great delay and frustration, though. It wasn't until the following Thursday that we finalized the order.

The next week, our neighbors David and Eric began their kitchen renovation. It made sense to solicit a bid from their contractor, since we would have the opportunity to review their work and to have someone who was already familiar with the building. An appointment was made for the following Thursday, and Byron raced to the finish with the drawings.

On that Thursday, we had little construction parade. The Ikea cabinets arrived, our buildings' storm window project was completing, and I was meeting our contractor and a flooring installer.

By Easter Saturday, we had a preliminary price. And when Brian returned home from a trip to Seattle, we began dismantling the kitchen and den for our project.