Wrap it up and put a bow on it — we’ve finished the Seattle kitchen remodel, exterior renovation, and bathroom remodel.

You may remember our client Tom used us before to renovate his living room fireplace. He was so pleased with the design and quality craftsmanship that he brought us in to completely reimagine his kitchen and dining space. This also included a full makeover outside, and a remodel of his bathroom.

Formerly closed off from the rest of the home, we knocked down the walls surrounding the kitchen, added a wall of windows in the dining room to take advantage of the water views, and bumped out the exterior to make that half of the house larger.

In the kitchen, Tom chose a sleek and modern look for the cabinets and island. He’s gained cooking and entertaining room and has so much more storage space than before. The backsplash tile matches the tile on his fireplace, visually uniting the whole space.

“I had a party and several people said it looked like something out of a magazine,” says Tom. “My neighbor said I should have Better Homes & Gardens out to take pictures.” In the kitchen, Tom chose a sleek and modern look for the cabinets and island. He’s gained cooking and entertaining room and has so much more storage space than before. The backsplash tile matches the tile on his fireplace, visually uniting the whole space.

With the dining room window wall open, there’s a seamless flow between the inside and outside.

“Many people have remarked on the attention to detail,” Tom says. Which is also what he loved about our original fireplace — that it was perfect. So the stakes were high on this larger project, but he’s thrilled with the results.

“It’s so far beyond my expectations,” Tom says. “The quality of the work from everyone was off the chart — beyond excellent, they maintained great relationships with my neighbors. Just last night a couple came by and told me how much they appreciated how friendly the guys were when they would just walk by. And when my elderly next-door neighbor fell ,and his wife needed help getting him up, she turned to the Fuller guys for help — she still talks glowingly about them!  There’s also the puppy St. Bernard that ‘grew up’ while walking by the house and getting to know the guys.”

So a job well done, and we wish Tom many years — and parties — in his remodeled home.

If you want to catch up and see where we started, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

If you’re thinking about a project, get in touch. We’d love to talk to you.

Tom’s hit the mid-point of his kitchen remodel with dining room addition in his Seattle home. The interior framing is done, and we’re working on the deck outside while the electrical rough-in continues inside.

He’s excited to see what it will become. “With the addition wall, it was amazing how fast the structure was built,” he says. The expanded dining room will have a Nano wall, which will make the most of the ocean view and fold away when open to allow for a free flow between inside and out on the deck. As part of the new deck, we built a trellis at the rear to create a nice visual backdrop.

“There are no flaws,” Tom says. “They put up this perfect trellis, every time I show someone a picture of what’s being done, and they say ‘wow, they really know what they’re doing.’ I’m so impressed by the quality of the work done by the Fuller Living crew and all the subcontractors — they’re top-notch.”

That confidence is helping him get through the project. It’s stressful living in a construction zone, especially in a project like this where we’ve demolished the kitchen, and most of the living space is affected. Tom’s living in his bedroom, a spare room, and his bathroom.

He’s cobbled together a kitchen of sorts between the spare bedroom and the bathroom, which hold a toaster oven, microwave, and Instant Pot. Even without a full kitchen, when the craving for biryani hit, he marinated the chicken overnight in his fridge, then used the Instant Pot stored in his bathroom to cook it. “It turned out great,” he reports.

Tom has a totem of sorts that also helps him keep his eyes on the prize. This red bag, which he calls his hope chest, is filled with samples of his finishing materials — tile, counters, cabinets, flooring. It sits in the garage. As he leaves home for work, he checks on that bag. “Seeing that little hope chest tells me it’s all going to beautiful when it’s all done,” he says.

“Over and over and over again, I’m so grateful for knowing everyone’s at the top of their game,” Tom says. “But June can’t come soon enough!”

To see what we started with, check out our project kickoff post on the blog, and be sure to check back this summer to see the final photos and see what Tom thinks.

And if you’ve got a kitchen remodeling project (or any other renovation) in mind, please get in touch — we’d love to talk to you!

Our client Tom loves his Seattle home — it’s got ocean views in a great neighborhood, and he plans to live there for the rest of his life.

However, the kitchen is awful, he admits. It’s tiny, has little storage, and is cut off from the rest of the home. When he moved in seven years ago, he replaced some of the appliances, but ignored the rest of it — there are still two cabinet doors falling off their hinges.

But since this is the house he plans to stay in, his Realtor called it a toe-tag house. “I’m going out of this place feet first,” says Tom. So it’s time to remodel the kitchen, open it up to the rest of the home, and — most important — get a more spacious and aesthetically pleasing kitchen that actually works well.

Making Space

To get the space Tom wants, we’re bumping out the exterior to create the new kitchen area, gaining about 60 square feet. To do that, we have to build a new foundation for that extra room.

The remodeled kitchen will include an island, with drawers on one side and cabinets on the other to increase his storage capacity.”It’s seven feet by four feet and it’s going to be great,” Tom says. We’re also building in a pantry for even more storage.

A wall will come down, opening the kitchen to the dining room and front entry.

The appliances will all be Bosch, in the black stainless steel finish. Tom did his research, and loved that the Bosch finish is more durable than of other brands. His backsplash will be tiled in the same material we used on his fireplace.

It’s that fireplace that led Tom to call us about his kitchen. “The fireplace is perfect,” he says. “Who doesn’t want perfection?”

The fireplace and the rest of the house is protected from construction. Plastic zip walls that keep the dust and other debris within the construction zone. Ram board is down to protect the floors. These precautions make it a lot more pleasant to live in the home during a renovation.

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