The biggest consideration was budget. How much do you spend on a kitchen remodel and not over spend so that you don’t put in too much money? It’s a cost vs. value equation. You basically figure out the amount you should spend based on the value of your home.

We also had to consider materials. We didn’t think long and hard, we knew right away Ikea was the way to go for the cabinets. They had the cabinets in stock and a really nice quartz countertop. That was probably the first decision to make. Quartz is actually equivalent to granite so there was no skimping on that but going with Ikea cabinets really saved a lot. The color of the cabinets and countertop really is the basis and structure of the whole kitchen.

So we sat at the ikea kitchen planning station and designed our semi-dream kitchen and with a little photoshop, we added in the floors and backsplash to help us see our vision a little better.

After all the planning and designing was done, we looked into hiring a construction company. After a few bids (prices were all over the place btw – like 20Gs off from one another… high and low), we went with Kaminskiy Construction, a local company that does several types of remodels. A quick note about them: Though there were a ton of bumps in the road with them, they did a good job and we’re completely happy with the final product. It started out rather rough as their work ethic seemed a little off in the beginning; there didn’t seem to be a sense of urgency to get the job done. The quality of their work is good and they’re all pretty young professionals like myself, which was cool. I think it was probably a time management problem more than anything. But then again, we’ve never done anything this major nor have we worked this extensively with a construction company, so I can’t really compare.

But I will say there was a lot of project managing done by our part. There was a lot of things we needed to tell them to do and to fix. Sometimes they were slow, sometimes they were fast. Most of their work was top notch… some was half assed. The people they hired to tile our floor did such a shitty fucking job that they had to pull out 2/3rds of the tile and retile which added a couple more days to the project. Not to mention, we were the ones questioning the quality of the work and they didn’t say anything until we mentioned, “the tiles looks pretty shitty”

Anyway!, after we booked them for the job, we started shopping for materials. We knew exactly the backsplash we wanted so that was pretty easy. For the fridge, we scored at Sears Outlet. The Samsung fridge we got retails for 2700 at Home Depot, Sears, Lowes, etc., but we found one at Sears Outlet (with a small scratch on the side) for 1200 less. We couldn’t pass on that, especially when we’re coming off a fridge from the Renaissance. We also found a matching Samsung dishwasher at Lowes.

The electric cooktop (Ge Profile) and sink was purchased at Home Depot. What we love about the sink is the surface material. From the website:

Pegasus granite sinks are made from the most technologically advanced material available on the market containing up to 80% natural granite quartz and are designed to combine hard-working performance with stunning good looks.

It looks stunning with the white blizzard quartz countertop. The last appliances we needed were the range hood and oven which we ended up getting at Ikea. The hood is fantastic, sleek and modern. The oven is ok. We don’t bake much so we opted for a smaller, lesser awesome oven.

I think the hardest material to agree on and find was the tile. We both wanted something modern, minimal and gray that mimics hardwood floors. Finding that at a reasonable price was rather difficult. Prices ranged from 5 dollars a square foot to 14 with lead times ranging from 3-9 weeks. It took us a couple weekends to find, but we did and couldn’t be more happy with how they look.

The last set of materials was the extra hardwood floors we had from upstairs. We used that on the opposite side of the kitchen wall. It’s look fab! For accents, we found some great bar stools at a bargain price. The best find though, was probably the sectional we randomly saw at Hold It Contemporary in Mission Valley. Their Blue Dot Bonnie and Clyde sectional, which was their floor sample, was on sale from 2,700 to 999. How do you pass that up?

We also made our own “balloon-tied” table, sanded and stained wood stumps we found in the side of the road and we painted an owl hot pink. I think the small quirky items helps add the color to the kitchen. We still don’t know what artwork to put on the white wall. Perhaps wall mount a tv and put on a slideshow of photography and art when we have company over to act as art? We’ll see. We saw a cool piece at Hold It that we may recreate. It deals with a lot of design and magazine clippings.

After all that’s said and done, the kitchen remodel is finally over. Here’s some before images:

and here’s the after:

The only thing we changed from the original concept was the omission of the wall cabinets on the back splash.

So there wasn’t a real theme to the party other than the fact that we didn’t want to use plates. So Holly, myself, Mark, Jasmine and Clarione designed a “grab and go, or stay” menu.

Brushetta

Crackers w/ cheese spread, cucumber, olive and smoked salmon

Shrimp scampi w/ lemon, cocktail sauce & chives

McDonalds french fries infused in truffle oil and garlic

Ahi poke atop a scoops chip

Deviled eggs topped with bacon and chives

Lumpia... ok this was bought

Mini waffels, sugared strawberries with nutella

Never too old for jello shots... as long as the liquor in them isn't popov

Grapesicle shots

Birthday Boy

Lumpia Boy

View the rest via flickr Still waiting on pics from my bro though, so check back later for them…

And so bad… BUT (vomit warning!!):

AND YES, I totally cleaned it up. We didn’t let him sleep like that lol.

Mark is taking week 2… the fun week. It’s ok though! I’ve mastered working from home with banging noise all around. It’s called noise cancellation bose headphones

So here’s a pictorial update on what’s going down…

Let’s start with the before images of what the kitchen/extra room looked like prior to week 1 of the remodel:

Pretty dated and tragic right? So Mark and I spent about 2 weekends building Ikea kitchen cabinets. It wasn’t so bad as long as you’ve set your mind to understand that it’s gonna take time to build and that some of this shit is heavy! I was so sore after day 1 of building lol. But I’m happy to say that Mark and I were able to concur this emotionally and physical journey haha! Beer and music definitely helped!

Not pictured is our quartz “blizzard” – basically white – counter tops. The island alone is 11′ by 3′. It’s massive! There’s an extra foot of quartz on the back side of the island for some bar seating. On the counter top will be our new electric cook top with a contemporary rectangular range hood above. Also not pictured is our cool new sink! It’s not the normal stainless steel sink. It’s brown, almost a modern bronze/steel look to it which has a matte finish. I forgot what the actual material is, but it’s pretty awesome. It also has beveled edges and comes with a wood block that shifts left to right on the sink acting as a cutting board. It also came with a cool strainer that does the same thing. Stoked about that!

So now, we’re 3.5 days into week 1. Here’s how it’s looking:

A 600 pound support beam inside the ceiling will be replacing that wall since the wall ended up being load baring. That wasn’t good news at all.

Here’s a mock up we made using both the ikea kitchen guide (had to install on parallels since it’s PC only) and photoshop to add in the flooring and backsplash. The backsplash color is actually different though. We ended up going with a green/brown vibe.

The flooring is 6×24″ gray tiles that almost mimics wood. Very modern and chic and another highlight I’m looking forward to.

Also is week 1 is our new bar stools. They arrived today!

And last… and possibly least is an art installation/seating Mark and I created. Awhile back, we found some wood stumps on the side of El Torito. They had just cut down some trees. We parked and picked some up. They’re pretty heavy but really cool in my opinion. They actually sell something similar online for 100s each.

So we sanded each stump and stained them a darker color. They’re naturally tan. Last week, we headed to Home Goods and Mark found these really cool porcelain mushrooms. Usually, I’m not into that fantasy look for interior design, but they were just so unique we had to get them.

We ended up placing them on a stump that was unusable as a seat since it’s quite lower than the rest. We had planned it as an end table, but I guess now, it’s somewhat of an art piece. It looks kinda weird in the picture, or phallic even lol, but in person, it’s actually kinda cool/cute. We’re thinking of using it as bench seating possibly in the kitchen under our window. Not sure, but I thought I’d include it anyway since we finished it.

I present to you… mushroom bench lol:

So that’s week 1. I don’t expect people to actually read this lol. It’s more of a documentation for us so we can look back at this and say, wow. WTF?!

It’s a two story, four bedroom, 2.5 bath home. Downstairs is the living room, dining area, 1/2 bath, kitchen and mini gym, though that gym will be a lounge after the kitchen renovations… Which brings me to the kitchen renovation lol. Disclaimer: We plan to renovate the kitchen to a modern, sleek and contemporary kitchen in the coming months so we’re expected to be without a kitchen for 2 weeks. I hope that’s ok.

Anyway, upstairs are the rooms where you’d share one full bathroom with possibly 2 other people. All rooms are equipped with newly installed dark brown hardwood floors. Each room is also cable ready. Unfortunately, we’re in the process of painting so disregard the color of the walls. Each room is going to be white with an accented color wall. The only thing I’d have to point out is that the closets don’t have doors. We took them off all the rooms because we feel it makes the space feel larger, keeps you motivated to organize your closet, but you can def. hang curtains or other types of treatment. The closet space is also double the size seen:

Room #1 and #2 (pictured is 9′4″x12′5″) is 550 which includes utilities and room #3 (16′x12′5″) is 600 which also includes utilities… electricity, water, etc., plus wireless internet and cable (hbo, showtime, and HD channels downstairs).

Here’s how the floors look in the master bedroom which is the same exact floors (also notice the lack of closet doors):

Bathrooms: Left is the downstairs half bath and right is the one you’d share with the shower to the right:

Here’s what else comes with the home lol:

A gay couple with the cutest dog ever, Cargo + her favorite dirty ass toy, Piggy:

The front yard is newly laid out with high quality artificial grass:

And in the backyard, which is still work in progress, we have a nice entertaining space with a firepit, cabana chairs and extra seating. Perfect for summer night gatherings:

So if you’re interested, email me and we’ll talk lease options and stuff. I know a few people already direct messaged me on twitter. So let me know if this still interests you since I was pretty vague with my limited character count.

Just other things to note: Cargo stays downstairs throughout the day when Mark and I are at work. We’re both working professionals. He’s in the Bio field while I am in the Design field. We like to cook, drink, party (but not all mira-mesa-house-party crazy); we’re sophisticated hoes lol. JK. But for real, we’re chill but also respectful and encourage fun and responsibility at the same time. This is our home, so whoever we share it with, we’d like them to feel at home as well.