What's up with the kitchen?

     Lots of development with our kitchen in the past few weeks...  We have now finally been able to find a solution that pleases us and that takes into account all of our preferences and choices.  Hopefully the overall cost will be manageable.  

    

    Instead of the usual Kitchen Maker route, we have decided to work with a carpenter who will outsource the cabinets but will install and paint our kitchen.   Our last meeting with our Building Contractor, Suzuki-san, was dedicated to confirming our preferences for the style of the cabinets and other details.   We patiently went over all the details...

     We chose this type of cabinets, but we will have them made in white, using wood and melamine.  We feel we have made an excellent compromise and we are very happy that our kitchen will have the same feel all around.   Plus we've confirmed that we can have a Dupont counter which we're very happy about too!

     During our long search for the right appliances, we visited numerous showrooms.  One of them was Sanwa Company from where we will be getting our sink.  This model meets our requirements for size, shape and drain. Yes, we were picky even about the sink!  It also had to allow us to put in our current dish basket...  We probably drove our architect nuts with all these demands!

     We also went back and forth on our choice of faucet.  This Grohe faucet is the one we've finally selected for its nice European look.

    
     Now, for the dishwasher, we're not fussy.  As long as it's one of the new small models that use less water per load, we're happy.  And of course, it has to be a drawer type, because back home a lot of dishwashers aren't.  And we also wanted to make sure that we could get a drawer above or below the dishwasher.  Suzuki-san confirmed this could be done.  Great!

     Now onto the Range Hood.  Our main concern was to get an appealing model but at budget price.  We found this Panasonic model we liked and confirmed that it could be mostly hidden behind a kitchen panel.  I know many people like to display their range hood, but in our case, we wanted this item to be as discreet as possible...

     There are still various little issues to take care of regarding the kitchen, like the cabinet handles for instance.  That's why we need to visit yet another showroom, that of Atom, this time in Shimbashi.  But at least now we know we're on the right track!

     We're also installing an Underfloor Storage Unit in the kitchen.  These are neat little space savers usually 60x60cm in size that allow you to stock such things as rice, wine, and other goods under the floor, thereby freeing cabinets.  These are called Yukashita Shunou in Japanese - 床下収納.

     The unit itself will be covered by our choice of floor tiles, so it won't be very visible, except for the border.  We're hoping to find a unit with a dark grey or black border so that it won't attract too much attention.