Thursday, June 4, 2009

Kitchen = Küche = Finished = Fertig!

We spent 6 hours today with the assembly guy. Then we spent another 2 hours cleaning up the sawdust mess from inside the drawers and all over the apartment floors.
There was lots of cutting with the jigsaw for random holes like this:
The countertop was installed, as was the range, sink, and the oven. The faucet looks a little big for the sink, but we didn't have a lot of choice there. I wish we could have had a bigger sink, but then I'd be left with no counter space to work on. It was a trade-off. Another trade-off is having a seam in the counter. At least it was able to be slipped under the sink edge, which was not ideal, but left my prep area seamless. Custom sized countertops are pricey.
We like how the dishwasher has a unified front and we love all the drawers (even though they are a pain to put together)!
The oven is looking good too. All the new appliances are so high tech looking and I'll have to spend a week reading all the new manuals and figuring out what button does what!
I think the weirdest thing is that we OWN the kitchen. We rent the apartment, but we own everything that isn't a wall or window in the kitchen room. We even own the flooring. This morning we were saying how we'll probably invest in better dishwasher soap now, ha! Whenever we move out, we can take the kitchen sink with us if we want. So weird! So German!
Before:
After:
I think we're both in relief mode right now; relieved that this monumental task is over. I don't think we'll enter 'pride mode' until the whole move over here is complete. Now we just see the verrrry long road ahead of us regarding packing, taking apart the old apartment and reassembling everything at the new place. The kitchen was only the tip of the iceberg! Tomorrow I'll start packing up our living room and this weekend we hope to get all the living room storage moved. It's going to be nuts.

12 comments :

Ingrid said...

Wow, looks great! Nice job.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic before and after shots! Looks great, and very functional (very German)! Soooo sleeek and cleeeen.

Dad

Lucy said...

You are gonna love having a new kitchen! MOM

Ilea said...

Just let me know when you need help, I'll come over!

Maria said...

Congratulations on owning and finishing your kitchen! Woo hoo!

Anonymous said...

Lovely and clean. Am so glad you painted the walls blue!
Bethany

Barb said...

Beautiful -- what fun to have a brand new kitchen. Happy cooking! :)

Blogging Masterclass said...

Yay! Nice work!!! Too bad you didn't have the hot IKEA guys that we had do our install though. Oh man, I want to order a new kitchen all over again just so hot + hotter can stop by to saw and screw my cabinets.

Your kitchen is lovely. I noticed the sloped ceilings, are you in an attic apartment?

Juliette said...

@Decor8 - yes, pretty much all apts 4ZKB or bigger seem to be the Dachgeschoss/top floor apts. At least in our area. You should have better luck since you'll be looking in Hannover - you have a whole city to scout out! We're in a small university town.

That's another reason I had trouble designing this kitchen: there's a lot of open counter space under the slant, but at 6'1" I just can't get back there to prep food! I'm SO thankful for the corner cabinet we placed horizontal. The pull-out lazy susan lets me get stuff stored under the slant. Our (definitely not cute) Ikea assembler said that's the only kitchen piece of value from Ikea, lol! I had my handsome hubby building most of the kitchen with me =)

Anonymous said...

Hi Julliette, Great update via pics. Looks great and So glad Stephan has the time to do this now.
Did I tell you that Floyd and I understand your pain and struggle with learning German? We are in German class on Monday nights at church with Birgit. We are trying! I'm trying not to quit!!!! Love, Beth

Anonymous said...

I finally read your kitchen posts! So cute--and I'm jealous of all your space, ha! You really made good use of what you have. But where is your fridge?
BB

Juliette said...

The fridge! Good question Bethany =) It wasn't installed yet, but it went to the right of the tall cabinet where the oven and pull-out pantry are. It fits perfectly there!

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