On finalizing our kitchen plan: what I'm obsessed with

Side note: I let my coffee sit too long enough, I got this great 'iced' coffee (as I poured the coffee from the mug to a glass)

I have been am currently trying to finalize our kitchen plan for 3 months. We are in a state of agreement, which is good considering I have to face Mr. I'm-going-to-criticize-your-plan. It's going to be an L-shaped with an island. The L-shaped cabinets will be in white, while the island cabinets will be in gray (I was going to go for red island, quickly turned down). All cabinets are shaker style door with slab drawers. The kitchen plan is shown in the picture below, the base cabinets are drawn with solid black lines and the wall cabinets are shown with dotted red lines (can't really see it). About 3 feet to the right of the fridge will be the pantry.

We ordered bathroom cabinets from Menards-Schrock, but we switched to Home Depot-Kraftmaid for our master bath, laundry, and 2nd floor wet bar. We personally think that the qualities are comparable. So, we'll see who has a better deal when we're ready to move on with the kitchen. Note: We need to build the soffit around the wall yet. 

One good idea (that will not happen because I did not see the picture until outside studs were built, which was waaaay back in Sep '12) was to have picture windows installed in between countertop and wall cabinets (the standard 18" gap), so that more lights could come in. Oh well. 

But, I'm obsessing with these now:

Let's discuss from top left corner, clockwise:

1. Pot filler. 

I gasped when I first saw it above the range in a kitchen design. What is this, I asked. To fill your pots with water when cooking, he said. Since then, I couldn't take my mind off of it. He though it was cool too (No good until I got the seal of approval. My ideas are mostly crazy according to him. Umm..creative, you mean?) So, he called up his plumber (J.J. Below - Madison Plumbing - Oregon, WI. Awesome and affordable, highly recommended) and asked for some thought as the plumbing will be on the outside wall. Problem solved! We need to rock that outside wall and build another fake wall (3 in forward) in front of it, so the plumbing will be safe from freezing. Hooray! I'll get my pot filler (Price to pay: I lost 3" of a cabinet)

2. Pendant lighting. 

For the kitchen island, 2 mini pendants. Nautical feel. Reached an agreement.

3. KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

Not urgent, especially if I count how many times I have baked in my life. In red (the accent color of our white kitchen). Red accent will be on the window roman shade, maybe on the stool cushion too.

4. Range hood

This is what my husband wants. Industrial look for the hood. So he'll get that.

5. Bar pull

If it's possible to have the cabinet pull extends as long as the cabinet, I'll love that. If not, I'll just order whatever the longest (cheap from pullsdirect.com). Second floor wet bar will have this look too.

6. White subway tile backsplash

We like the clean feeling. But, we don't know is if it's going to be porcelain or of glass tile. We  I don't know if it's going to be placed horizontally or vertically. I gravitate toward the vertical because it matches with our vertically staggered bathroom tiles. But, in doing so, it doesn't go along the longest span as it does with horizontal placement.

7. Sharp microwave drawer

We were not looking for anything fancy. Microwave is a microwave. The problem that surfaced originally was where to put the microwave. Placing it on the wall cabinet or base cabinet? If I placed it on the wall, the cabinet would stick out further and might be a challenge to work on the counter space. I browsed around to see my options and I saw this Sharp. We went to Brothers Main to check it out. It's super cool. It's a drawer instead of a door opening which is good since we're putting the wave in the base cabinet. This thing excited me the most, until I stumbled upon the pot filler.

8. High kitchen faucet.

This one is courtesy of my husband. He liked the look, again commercial and industrial look. No argument.

9. Wolf rangetop

We don't know if we have the money to get one. But we are obsessed. I, again, looked at a kitchen design with a front-knob rangetop (I really should stop looking around). Then he saw this Wolf rangetop, he couldn't stop admiring it. We even watched a video how to install this kind of rangetop. Maybe, we won't get a fancy fridge (I had my eyes on the Samsung fridge previously) and get this instead. It's easier to swap out the fridge later than swapping out the rangetop. Is it just our wishful thinking? Oh! Did I mention my kitchen accent color is red....and the Wolf knobs are red......Hmmm.....Meant to be?

10. Center pic - Apron Sink

This was my original obsession, before the Sharp microwave, pot filler, or the Wolf range. Undermount, of course (hihihi) I think it matches well with the industrial look that my husband is going for.

Once again, not urgent, not nagging, and not demanding. Just obsessing.

Cheers

On being 25: Princess cake, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Lost&Found

February 19th. I used to hate my birthday date. 02/19. Number 19 is just not proportional to number 2, I thought. But I have learned not to care about that, but to care about the meaning. Yesterday, I put on The Beatles - 1 CD. It reminded me of my 17th birthday, it was a gift from my mom.

Back story: Growing up, I got birthday gifts until I was 6 or so. Mostly toys. But, the tradition changed. My parents would give me money in the red envelope (Chinese's red envelope). They said, This is for you, but let's save it for your college fund. I am grateful for that. So, presents on birthday are not a big deal for me. But when I was 17, it was different. I saw something wrapped for me from my mom. The Beatles - 1 CD. Ah, she knows I like The Beatles. This would be the last year before I went to the US for college. The last year I celebrated birthday in a warm weather. Since then, it's been 8 birthdays I celebrated without them.

From Monday until today, it was reaffirmed what I looked for on a birthday. Monday was my dear husband's birthday. One day before me. I made him a strawberry cake. I tried to re-create our wedding cake, but it did not come close. Cake was OK, but the frosting was surprisingly delish! It felt warm and fuzzy as we watched The Bachelorette (Ha!). The following day was my birthday. He got back from work and I asked for my birthday dance :) Some spins and dips later, I was smiling from ear to ear. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings! Tuesday's Wings Night! I could not wait for my ice cream cake! At home, he brought it up and there it was! My Disney Princess Birthday Cake. I laughed, as I though he did a good joke! No, I'm not a fan of Disney Princess, but I'm a fan of Hello Kitty. But he genuinely thought I was a fan of the princesses, so I laughed even harder. How I love my husband. He put 2 candles on left side and 5 candles on the right, dimmed the light, and sang happy birthday to me. Too cute.

What I did for the first time after a long time today was to re-connect with my friend by actually using facebook properly. I replied each message one by one and asked about them too. Some have been replying back and it's wonderful. This is a true meaning of birthday, for me at least. So thank you dear family and friends.

And you know what the best part is - I share the same birthday as Nicolaus Copernicus. 'Nuff said!

Lost&Found - St. Anthony of Padua
I have been a fan of St. Anthony of Padua. If someone asks me who my favorite saint is, it would be him!  (Second will be St. Christopher - for another time) Fransiscans are my fav. too.

Back story: I have been praying to him since 3rd grade. I lost my Winnie The Pooh wallet. Somebody stole it! (Not sure though). My mom told me that I should pray to him, He's the patron saint of lost stuffs. I still did not find my Pooh wallet until this day. But, it does not deter my beliefs. Anyway, in high school, I expanded my prayers to St. Anthony not only for lost things, but also for everything else. I mean, each year my parents and I attended the big St. Anthony of Padua's novena in July-August for 9 Tuesdays in a row. Each time after school, still wearing my uniform. Each time, we got there 30 min earlier. Each time, it was crazily packed. Each time, it was super hot. Each time, I fell asleep. The people's intention part last about 30 min itself. It's like 2 pages long, single-spaced intentions. For example (not in order), 350 prayers for world peace, Lord hear our prayer. 589 prayers for reaching our dreams, Lord hear our prayer, 234 prayers to be able to travel out of the country, Lord hear...wait what? I do no remember if any of my prayers came true, but I remember my devotions (while falling asleep) and others' as well.

So, it was only natural that I prayed to him when my dear husband lost his wedding ring. It was December, when we were moving stuffs from the storage back to the house. Where's my ring?! We looked for it in the house, in his Jeep, and outside. We went back to the storage with flashlight. Nothing. St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost thing, please help us find the wedding ring.....................Please, please, please, please, please. (I definitely need to learn how to pray). But, again we did not find it. We gave up....

Until.......about 2 weeks ago. Someone knocked on the door. The mailman. He had his palm out. Is this yours? There it was! The lost wedding ring, which was now found (Amazing Grace is playing in the background...I once was lost but now am found......oh! and Hallelujah too) I was screaming OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! How did you find this?! Well, he said that he was feeling lucky that week, he found his lost car key in the middle of the road and now he found this ring too. The ring has an engraving 'AAG' inside. So he tried to figure out who had that initial. Bingo! It was followed by me saying Thank you for 1000x Thanks, Mr. Mailman. I should have invited you for a hot cocoa inside and tried to convince you to go to Vegas that week.

I decided not to inform my husband about this great afternoon (I informed my mother-in-law, who was also surprised) I waited for his birthday and have it as his gift (Smart cookie!) On Monday, he just could not believe it when he opened it. It was awesome. But of course, it was followed by It's been run by cars, I think stuff (Mr. critique).

I'm spreading the good news of St. Anthony of Padua. My favorite saint. Like probably would have fallen in love with him if I had lived 800 years ago......

What a loooooong post!