This week we met with the contractor again and have had a few back & forths with the kitchen designer.
On the contractor front, he’s off revising the draft contract to reflect the newest kitchen design, and correct some issues that were not what we wanted. We came to some decisions:
- The cost of radiant floor is above what we perceive to be its value for us, so I think we will be doing normal kickspace heater(s) instead
- The “new” layout is generally better for us than the original one,
and he’s proceeding assuming we will do something based around this
design. - We will do a normal 4″ backsplash and paint above the majority of the counter, and a tall tile backsplash above the stove. The short backsplash may be counter material, or may be tile that matches the stove’s backsplash.
- What locations for the prep sink are doable and cost-effective, due to vent pipe?
- Since we’re probably not doing radiant floor, do we still want tile? Or do we want wood?
- What can we do for heat in the area of the coat closet, since the existing radiator will be inside the closet, and we’ve got poor access to the crawlspace under there to move any piping?
We’ve also signed a contract to do the design & zoning work for the sunroom. I did some trial furniture layouts and determined that the minimum useful size for us is 10×12 feet; 12×12 would be better, and 12×14 would fit better when taking the existing window/door into account. Our Southboro sunroom was 12×16, but it also had what amounts to a hallway along one end, and the chimney taking up a pretty large footprint. Based on sunrooms on several other houses in the neighborhood, we’ve okayed the use of a flat roof. Flat roof, besides being less expensive, also frees us of some constraints from the 2nd floor windows. Even though that’s more of a Federal detail than Victorian, I think we can pull it off with appropriate details, maybe something like this (the railing on the porch roof):
