Post by pooka on Mar 21, 2019 0:56:14 GMT -5
A few weeks ago, they finally finished the repairs at my Brother's house. He'd had no kitchen for about six weeks. The back story is there had been water getting in around a broken vent pipe for the kitchen sink. It seems when the house was built, instead of having a straight pipe up the wall near the corner, & through the roof, this one took two 45 degree turns to avoid a rafter or joist. Consequently, that jog collected crude that held moister so that eventually rusted out the joint. Who knows how log it'd been like that. It wasn't discovered until a while ago when he was cleaning out the gutters, & noticed the vent pipe was a little cockeyed. He grabbed it, & it pulled right out. He covered the hole with duck tape for a quick patch.
Anyway, the insurance company did a test for mold, then started the dance with contractors, plumbers, a cabinet maker, electrician & tile guys began. They had to take down all the cabinets so they could get to the pipe by opening up the wall. The vent pipe got fixed pretty quick. They patched the damaged wallboard & insulation. It was discovered that the dishwasher had leaked for a while & damaged the flanking cabinets. New boxes had to be made, because they were putting the old cabinets back up. Damaged wiring got fixed with a new over sink light. They had to order a new counter, because of course the old one got trashed pulling it out. Since insurance was paying only so much, & he didn't want to break the bank, he went with an interesting laminate.
Then came the tile. He called me one day, frantic from the grind of the process. He had to pick the tile in short order. My sister had picked some glass tile, but it was way more than the insurance was going to cover. My brother didn't want to pay a premium price out of pocket. I looked at some tile, but that can be a rabbit hole that never ends. I gave him the idea of choosing a cheap subway tile for the field. Then throw a few random color tiles to break it up. Beyond that, he was on his own. I said make it different. He had a couple of day till they needed to know. I like the results, though it's not a show stopper.
He picked white field tile in what I've see called either a basket weave, or parquet. The random colors are blue, charcoal & pearl. The white were 20 cent a piece. The colored ones, a bit more.
This is all done except the tile. Those cabinets were put in when the house was payed off in 1978. The same floor too. I always remembered that they were pecan, but when they pulled them out, there's a tag on the inside that says hickory. The company is still around. Haas Cabinets in Sellersburg, Indiana.
This is the counter. It's got a mottled finish like rough stone.
I took these real quick while sis had dinner going.
Again, not a hot designer job, but I like it. It's a great budget conscious effort. The glass tile my sister had picked was about four times the price of this. The thing that draws the eye is the unusual pattern. The random colors are just enough to break up blank field. The countertop shares common tones with the cabinets & tile. The blue tile are the cool touch of color plopped here & there.
There's talk of new knobs & pulls for the cabinets, but not for now. They're just happy to have their kitchen back. The whole ordeal was about six weeks, but it seemed like more for them.