simply scandi: so many decions

Peter and I feel like we have been working on this project forever and yet we are making no progress. You take a couple steps forward and then you feel like you take two steps back. The constant dilemma is making our dream a reality with the confines our our current kitchen. Deciding what to splurge on and what to save on. Originally we thought let's go cheap on the cabinets by getting Ikea cabinets and splurge on all new nice appliances. Although it makes sense to get Ikea cabinets since we are doing "white" we decided against it and would rather have real wood drawers and then Peter won't have to put them together himself. We designed our cabinets with BMC in Issaquah which is a company Peter's dad has worked with for a long time. We were very excited about our design until the quote came back way higher than expected so we had to change a few details to make it work. We decided to keep our existing fridge since it is already stainless and build a large space to replace it a year or two down the road. Since we are small family our fridge will work fine for awhile. When picking out counter tops I dreamed of a black dull (not shiny) look. We picked out one online with a company Peter has worked with on his current project as they will give us a great deal. The lady says of every single sample you saw online with no prices you have picked out the most expensive one we carry. Of course we did! So we have to compromise and go with a dark grey quartz with a dull finish. Every other black option was super shiny and I really want a dull hue to it. The re-cycled butcher block we were hoping to get through my aunt's friend who had just torn it out of the kitchen didn't work out. The dimensions wouldn't work with our island size. So we will most likely buy that from Ikea. We still have to find an apron sink that is one large bowl instead of two for a good price, pick out light fixtures, and find a retractable hood for the island. We also deliberated forever on whether we should take out the popcorn ceiling to match the kitchen ceiling but have decided against it. It would take tons of time and we would rather pick and choose our battles that not being one of them. So we will have to trim it out or put in a decorative beam to divide the two looks. We are on track to start putting in cabinets the last week of April with hopes of it all being mostly done the middle of May.

Below is current layout we have drawn up. The weird shelf you see in the island will just be an exposed shelf for cookbooks etc.