Name: Aaron and Emily Choi
Type of Project: Full remodel, including the kitchen and two bathrooms
Location: La Jolla, California
Type of building: Condo; 1300 square feet
The Renovation Diaries are a collaboration with our community in which we feature your step by step renovation progress and provide monetary support towards getting it done in style. See all of our Reno Diaries here.
First and foremost for this week, white paint on the wall! Aaron and I were tempted to do the painting ourselves, to save a little money, but hadn’t realized that the painting needed to be done before all the upper cabinets go up. So we asked our contractor to do the painting for us, and they did it in two days!
Because everything had to happen quickly in order for them to continue with the kitchen, I hadn’t finalized any other colors except white … so everything white it is for now. We went with the ultra white, which makes me a little nervous that it might be too cold, but so far so good. Hopefully the floor and all our furnishings will bring warmth back into the house.
Upper cabinets and moldings were installed this week. As you may remember from our post two weeks ago, I had wanted custom moldings for the upper cabinets to dress them up. Unfortunately, due to the ceiling height and our cabinet height, it didn’t quite turn out the way I’d liked, so we may end up taking out a piece next week to see if that looks more proportional. Same with the upper cabinet doors — there was some miscommunication and the fabricator didn’t make them with glass insert, which is what I had in mind. Luckily, I found another local cabinet maker who is going to pop the middle panel out for me and insert a glass panel for $300. This will happen in the next couple of weeks.
We are also trying to figure out what kind of molding to put on the back of these cabinets. Originally I had wanted shelving on the back side of the cabinets, but a little bit here and there and we’re now out of room for a workable shelf. It seems like there have been a few setbacks this week, but hopefully it will all get ironed out soon. Next week, everything will go perfectly … ha!
Estimated time for project: 8 weeks
Time remaining: 4 weeks
Check out the full series (so far) and be sure to join us tomorrow for installment #8 of Emily and Aaron’s condo renovation.
(Images and diary text: Emily and Aaron Choi)
