Name: Andi Forker
Type of Project: Kitchen Renovation — full gut remodel
Location: San Francisco, California
Type of building: 1890's Victorian condo
The Renovation Diaries are a new collaboration with our community in which we feature your step by step renovation progress and provide monetary support towards getting it done in style.
It is Week 4 of construction and we are back on schedule. The budget is a different story. During Week 1 we had a structural surprise that cost an additional $800. Week 2 brought the gas pipe upgrade for a painful $4,000. This week we confronted a choice on our plaster work.
Looking from the kitchen toward the front of the apartment, the coved ceilings are very dominant.
The kitchen was the only room that did not have coved ceilings. We debated whether the absence would look inconsistent, now that we removed a wall to make the kitchen more open. Our plasterer, Jimmy, said that he could build coves for an additional $1,000 (total of $2,500), as the work is done all by hand. We decided to go for it. Another hit to the budget, but we are happy with the decision.
Dean hangs mold-resistant drywall on the walls. We left the job of hanging drywall on the ceiling to the pros.
We visited the zinc bar at Pescatore in Fisherman's Wharf, just to make sure the imperfections that accumulate over time on zinc surfaces would not bother us.
In Week 4 of construction we are still picking some major finishes, including the countertops. I have admired zinc bars in Parisian cafes and at a New York City restaurant called Nice Matin, around the corner from my old apartment. But I also read about the patina that zinc gets — rings, spots, discoloration — which made me nervous. I wanted to see it with my own eyes before committing. We did an investigative happy hour at a restaurant called Pescatore in Fisherman’s Wharf to check out their zinc bar. The bar was beautiful, including the wear-and-tear, which did not bother us. We placed our order from Mio Metals in Petaluma and the island top will arrive in three weeks.
The new coved ceilings in the kitchen need one full week to dry before applying paint.
I did get out of bed a couple times over the weekend to help Dean do stuff. We put a new wood back on the vintage buffet and started building a hutch top out of poplar planks, nailing them together with a finish nail gun. Next week we paint and install the trim.Estimated time for project: 9 weeks
Time remaining: 5 weeks
(Images and diary text: Andi Forker)
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Good call on the ceilings. They are beautiful! And I am intrigued by the zinc countertop idea. I like metal, but stainless steel is too cold for our vintage kitchen -- plus we have stainless appliances: enough is enough! I've been considering metallic laminates but am worried they will look fakey even if the sample piece is lovely.
You will never regret paying for those coved ceilings. Zinc is definitely a good choice for a Victorian building.
I went back and read the past updates… somehow I didn’t see this project until now. We’re prepping for a kitchen reno in a Victorian, but unlike you, I hate camping…
We took out a chimney too… it was brick, and an exercise in filth and exhaustion, and a massive pile of rubble in the driveway.
Your space is amazing… I really can’t believe your progress in just four weeks!! Can’t wait to see the finished product!!
I really like the cove ceilings. The light from the big widows on the plaster will look interesting at different points in the day. It sounds like you would have to have some cooperative neighbors. ... So much to think about in a mulit family space.
Oh, my! You don't even have any cabs or appliances in yet and I already love your kitchen. I predict that the coved ceiling is going to produce an ah-ha moment every time you look at them. Congrats and can't wait for the next installment.
Thank you for this just the pick-up I needed, I love the kitchen already.
I'm so glad you picked coved ceilings for the kitchen as well. The zinc countertops are going to look very classic.
I'm getting excited for you guys! It's really starting to look fantastic.
I was just at Nice Matin last week, and their interior design has always been a big selling point (dendriform columns! with light bulbs!)
I researched zinc for a project last year, and ended up installing it in a butler's pantry. It's a very personable period material, and rebels against the current trend of hyperluxe finishes in kitchens (slab marble being the triumph of luxury over usability). Zinc is supposed to age, though unless your kitchen also services a Dickensian workhouse, it probably won't age that much at all.
Also, well done on continuing the existing molding to the kitchen! It looks wonderful, and even when your kitchen is renovated in the future, it will likely be preserved because it creates continuity with the existing at architecture.
Those beautiful coved ceilings completely offset the extra cost for the gas line, and then some.
love the zinc choice and the coves. the only suggestion i have is for the finish nailed plank hutch, from bitter experience. Once the glue is dry I'd reinforce with some pre drilled, surface sunk trim head screws [the ones you need the little square head to put in], and if you are attaching to the wall, a few L - brackets across the back where they wont be seen couldnt hurt either. at any rate, it sure is shaping up to be gorgeous.