About 15 years ago, Jean hired a designer to perform a full kitchen renovation and decided to temporarily move out of her Steveston home while the work was being done. When she returned home, the kitchen renovation had been completed and she was a bit disappointed about the look and style of her island. Jean loves to bake and with the second tier on the island, that left very little space to do all her baking. She put up with this island for years and one day while her new Oak Railing was being installed, she asked Gary from 2 Honest Carpenter Ltd. for some suggestions on how to alleviate the island frustrations that she had been experiencing. Options were soon discussed on how to provide a larger baking surface and together, we visited a countertop showroom to look at samples. Jean's decision was quickly made - a polished Quartz countertop is what she envisioned for her kitchen Island! The Quartz slab was ordered and when it arrived at the showroom, she was able to choose what corner of the oversized slab she wanted for her kitchen. While the Quartz slab was being cut to size and prepared in the showroom shop, modifications began on the kitchen island to accept her new polished countertop.
While the Quartz countertop was being prepared off site, work had begun on Jean's kitchen island. It was a solid structure with 2" x 4" vertical members surrounded by 1/2" plywood and decorative bead board. Cutting down the 2" x 4"'s while in place (with very little margin of error) proved to be a bit of a challenge, but the top of the island was soon completely level and ready for the new stone top.
Over the years, Jean searched for some shelving units that would fit the storage area under her stairs leading up to the top floor. The area was great to store all her baking ingredients, but not very functional being quite deep and not very wide when reaching in for anything, especially the heavy items! Our solution was some custom fitted 3/4" sanded plywood shelves. The plywood edges were rounded smooth and all plywood joints dadoed together for strength, along with 2 pull out shelves that were able to carry a weight of 75 lbs each, Jean was now able to maximize the storage area for all her heavy baking items and canned goods.
I would like to thank Jean for accommodating all the noises created in her home and for taking the time to move her car out of her garage each and every morning, so I could perform all the cutting and sanding. Once completed, her phone and knick-knacks now have a permanent home on top of the two new black floating shelves and a Quartz countertop surface she just adores. Jean's grandkids are now likely a bit happier as well, knowing there's a baking surface with more than enough room for Grandma to bake all their favourite recipes.
