When we planned the kitchen counters, we wanted something heat-proof and impervious. Our last house had Paperstone, which had some great qualities (recycled, one piece,  nice-looking), it was high maintenance in the areas that got wet around the sink. It required oiling every month or so, and it couldn’t handle hot things.

For the kitchen in the ranch we wanted something heat and water resistant. With a tight timeline & budget, Caesarstone quartz from IKEA seemed like a good bet. So far, we are very happy with the Caesarstone. But we left the area by the bar open so we could take our time creating something more fun: a wooden bar top made out of local, live edge wood. (Queue the Portlandia music. Wait until you see our local, artisinally hand-hewn steampunk bar!)

In the middle of all the remodeling craziness when we gutted the kitchen, Laura got these beautiful pieces of Elm from Salvage Works. There is a cool story about this wood: these slabs are from a Siberian Elm tree that was removed to make way for the new Orange Max train line down to Milwaukie. We grabbed these pieces of wood knowing they were at least big enough to complete the bar, but exactly how we were going to install them was something Laura took her time stewing on while doing other projects.

Here’s the kitchen with the Ceasarstone installed, but a gap between the dining room and kitchen where the wood bar top was going to go:

Here are the wood slabs before any cuts:

Laura broke down the larger pieces of wood at home with the table saw, then took them to ADX to do the planing and cut clean edges on all sides but the one facing the dining room. The two pieces needed to be joined in the middle with a dowel joint (creatively put together on site without a dowel jointer):

After much sanding and finishing, the bar looks great!  It’s my favorite place to lean and watch what amazing things are cooking up in the kitchen.

Getting the IKEA cabinets (as well as assistance to put them together) has been an ordeal. About 6 weeks ago, I tried calling IKEA to schedule the measuring service they advertised on their site, but it was impossible to reach anyone. We were going to use their DIY CAD program online, but it didn’t work. The “create a new account” page ended in a circular loop. 😐

We were pretty set on the IKEA cabinets because of the design and pricing, so we perservered. We went to IKEA in the morning on a weekday and scheduled one of their in-house contractors (Kitchen Helpers) to come out and measure and put the data into their design tool. That appointment was a couple weeks out. Then, the person was a no-show, and rescheduled for the following week. Grrr.

Finally, the Kitchen Helpers rep came out and measured. We weren’t 100% sure the measurements were accurate because we watched the tape measure sagging while they measured. But we figured we didn’t have walls on either end, so if it varied by a few centimeters, no big deal. Laura re-measured some areas before we ordered.

Then the fun part: we went back to IKEA (we were able to go on a weekday, thank heavens) and walked through the design with an IKEA rep and placed the order. The IKEA design person was really good, and walked us through the whole process. She was also a wizard with that buggy CAD program, hallelujah!

The cabinets were all in stock and ready to be delivered within a week. With so many other scheduling delays, this was a pleasant surprise. Here’s what 74 boxes of IKEA cabinets look like:

We considered putting them together ouselves, but instead prioritized our sanity & marriage. We had a professional cabinet guy lined up. He was slow to respond, but came highly recommended. We played phone tag for a week, then he put me on his schedule, which was 3 weeks out. GREAT! Then a week later after seeing the schematics, he called me back and said he was 5 weeks out, and could we not schedule an actual date yet. For Pete’s sake. We don’t have that kind of time. We can’t be paying mortgage AND rent for another month. Plus, the countertops can’t even be templated until the cabinets are complete, which then takes another 2 weeks to be machined for installation. 4 to 5 weeks out for the cabinet build would have pushed out our kitchen completion over 2 months.

Back to the drawing board. I put a request for bids on Thumbtack and got a decent one. This carpenter appeared to have a lot of experience, ok reviews, and matched The Kitchen Helpers’ pricing. However, before I give a random dude I met on the internet access to my house, I Google him.

This guy was a full-on, Hillary hating, Bernie-bro turned Trump supporter. I don’t typically care about the politics of people I work with. We don’t get into it, and there’s no need to. But this guy’s Twitter page was full of illogical rage against Hillary and garish cartoon charicatures of her. Since Prop 8, I don’t respect people’s political opinions if they are racist, homophobic, or misogynistic. I will argue with them and call them out. I did us both a favor and told the guy we were going with another bid.

I found another company online that installs kitchens and specifically said IKEA cabinets were their specialty. I spoke with them and they sounded good, although said they were more expensive than the Kitchen Helpers, which was fine. Their quote took over a week to put together, which is fine. But it included a ton of extras, like painting ($600), project managing ($800), and a porta potty for workers ($350). The cabinet assembly was in there for about twice as much as our baseline from Kitchen Helpers. The estimate total was over $11,000. It made me realize how easy it is to go into massive debt on home renovation if you let someone else be in charge of your project, don’t shop around, and don’t do some of the work yourself.

So here we were… boxes of IKEA cabinets still in our living room, move-in clock ticking. I searched on Craigslist and found a handyman who had some good woodworking & IKEA experience. I called him and he was easy to reach. He sounded like a nice, reasonable fellow who enjoyed IKEA instructional diagrams. The Internet search didn’t turn up anything weird. I called a few of his references and they LOVED him, so we hired him! He’s been the right person for the job and we’re happy.

Here are the cabinets going in before the countertop and the kickplate. Don’t worry about the floors! We have a plan 🙂