Bistro-Inspired Kitchen Remodel, Garage Addition, Flooring, Tile, Appliances, Lighting, and Bathroom Updates
Host:
Welcome to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction on News Talk 1310 WIBA. Have a question? Email it to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Now, here is your host, Sean Prebil, on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
You want to head over there right now because we are going to talk this week about a couple of recent projects, and you definitely want to follow along at home.
These are some amazing jobs they have been doing at Edge Construction.
Speaking of the website, not only can we look at the one we are talking about today, but we can go back and look at their portfolio.
There are also some great links to Houzz, Pinterest, and Facebook as well.
That is all at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Mike, how are you doing this week?
Mike:
Great, Sean.
Host:
Are you wearing glasses?
Do you typically wear glasses?
Mike:
I do.
I try to get away without them.
Host:
I thought, “Hey, Mike has his glasses on today.”
We are really getting down to business.
Mike:
We are serious.
Host:
You and I are going to talk about some priorities when it comes to remodeling.
We will get to that more in-depth a little bit later in the program.
But oftentimes, we start talking about recent projects toward the end of the show, and I always feel like I have a million more things to talk about.
So we are going to review a couple of recent projects.
First off, this one is listed as Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
I am scrolling through and looking at some of these pictures of the work you guys did, and it is an amazing project.
You were also telling me — and we will talk about the kitchen in just a moment — but you guys also did a garage as part of this project.
Mike:
Yes.
Some of the bigger parts of this job were — it is a nice little brick house, or I guess not tiny, but not a huge house, over off one of the lakes.
Like so many houses that were built 100 years ago, you were lucky to have one car.
You did not need more.
Host:
What would you do with all those cars?
Mike:
I do not know.
My wife says, because I have two, that is one too many.
Host:
That is a start.
You are an American. You can have whatever you want.
Mike:
Yes.
They had a little one-car garage that was on the side of this house, attached, with a narrow driveway going up to it.
I do not even know if a normal car could get into this 100-year-old garage anymore.
By the time you throw some of your stuff in there, you are not getting a car in.
As part of this project, we took that off.
We salvaged as much of the brick as we could.
There was also a section — and we will talk about the kitchen part of this in a minute — where the kitchen had this weird sunken area.
So we tore that off and started fresh to rebuild the kitchen area of this house back on.
It was like a demo and then an addition back on.
But I think what drove a lot of it, aside from the kitchen, was that this person has a few cars.
Have you seen the lifts on TV where you can stack cars?
You drive one car on it, it lifts up, and then you can park a car underneath.
Host:
I think we have talked about it.
Like an oil-change place, where they lift a car up and you can pull one underneath?
Mike:
Yes, kind of.
I suppose you could work on your car with it too.
In this instance, it was to stack the cars.
We built a garage in the back.
They had a pretty good-sized backyard, big enough to get a 24-by-24 garage in there.
So they have an area where they can have this garage, get two cars in the garage, and then, if they really want to, put them on the lift, raise it up, and park two more cars.
They are maximizing the storage.
Host:
What does the design process for a garage look like?
Now I am all in on this because I typically think of a garage as fairly basic, and this sounds like a pretty deluxe man-cave garage.
Mike:
It is pretty nice.
This one is brick to match the house.
That is why we salvaged the brick when we tore off the old garage.
We were hoping to use that and do the front of the garage so it matched as closely as possible to the house.
This one was built in CAD around the lifts because we needed 11 feet on the inside for the lift.
I do not remember how tall we could go with the peak of this garage.
There was a caveat — I do not know if it was a neighborhood thing, an area thing, or a Madison thing — but you cannot go higher than this with your garage.
The peak of the garage had to be figured out so the roof was not pitched too high and we were not violating code.
So there are a few things to keep track of.
It is a box, obviously.
It is not hard to draw a box or build a box.
But this one had a couple of extra features.
Host:
We need details on that.
Again, we are talking this week about a couple of recent projects they have done at Edge Construction.
Let’s move inside the house.
You mentioned the demo on this Bistro-Inspired Kitchen was pretty substantial.
The work to get to doing the work — you guys had a lot to do to get that area prepped and ready for the updated kitchen, didn’t you?
Mike:
We did.
We had to demo the brick on that side of the house too and try to save as much as possible.
Where we took off the chunk of the old house, we saved what we could and basically got it down to a bare foundation.
As part of this process, we had to verify that the foundation could hold up the house, which meant going down to make sure the footings were at least four feet below the earth on top of it.
We were getting below frost.
Spectra came out.
We dug the hole.
Spectra came out, looked at it, and said, “Okay, fill in your hole. We are good.”
There were a couple other demo-related things we did.
I think we moved a doorway and made a new doorway.
If you look at the finished end, there is an arched drywall doorway opening going into another room, sort of a sunroom or little living room there.
So we had to cut that in too.
Host:
With the way the original kitchen dropped down, was that an addition itself, or was that designed originally that way?
Mike:
I think that was an addition.
That is a good call.
Or it may have been a porch or something that got a roof put over it.
We are not exactly sure.
But you are right.
The new kitchen takes in an area that was kind of a sunroom area and the old kitchen.
That sunroom area was a sunken room. It was down at ground level.
How that ended up, I do not know.
The reason we had to tear all of it off was that the roof would have interfered with the new kitchen.
So we basically tore it all off, rebuilt the same room back on, but raised it up about four feet.
Now we have a big, nice, long kitchen.
Host:
How does that work behind the scenes and behind the walls, when it comes to engineering and tying the new in with the old?
Obviously, there is a lot more to it.
I look at the finished product and think, “Wow, that is beautiful. Everything looks like it was meant to be that way.”
Anytime I see something like that, I know Mike and his team probably worked really hard to make sure the things you will never see or never know are there all worked perfectly.
Mike:
I am glad you said the word engineering because this one had some interesting things.
It is called a shed roof, so it is just an angled roof coming off the rest of the house.
That is what this new area turned out to be.
That was all drawn in CAD ahead of time.
The top of that roof basically ended at the brick.
We did not really want to rely on that brick necessarily to carry load, meaning we had to support that room.
So there are beams in front of that brick.
That is what I am trying to say.
On the engineering part, our designers drew this, and we sized the beam that is holding up that roof and the roof joists.
There are some skylights in there that got put back in.
Then we had to figure out how to make the solid work, draw it, and get from here to there.
We ended up building a nice little jump deck — I do not know what else to call it — just a smaller deck and entrance stairway from the back.
It shaped up really well.
You have a great view of that new garage out the kitchen window too.
Host:
If I had a garage like that, I would be looking at it all the time.
I would just sit in there staring at my car.
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
One of the things that also jumped out and was very striking to me was the flooring.
The previous flooring, and then what they ended up choosing — the stuff that was there was not going to work.
It was not a good look.
But the flooring they did choose is really nice.
Let’s talk about what they chose and some of the considerations in putting that in.
Mike:
The floor that was in there was — what color would you say those tiles were?
A dark salmon, maybe?
Host:
Kind of salmon.
I think that is the right color.
Mike:
Yes.
If you are going to eat sushi, think about that style.
This was actually a fairly popular tile, so I am not going to pick on it too much.
I am not sure who picked it out, whether it was them or a homeowner further back down the road.
But this was the typical 80s or 90s installation too, with inch-wide grout lines.
It feels like these huge grout lines with the salmon tile, and there is a million feet of it.
It is just too much.
In the little sunroom to the left of the kitchen, where you can see we cut that arched doorway in, there is an old parquet floor.
We did not really want to tear that up.
We pretty much made it look unchanged.
We did some repairs in there, but you could not tell where those are now.
The rest of the house has beautiful oak nail-down, sand-and-finished wood flooring.
I am sure you have seen this a million times, where it takes on that orangey color.
With old oak, some of that is just the redness of red oak, possibly, but a bunch of it is the old oil-based finish yellowing with UV light.
It turns this orange color that is hard to design around.
It is about as hard to design around as the salmon tile.
So we sanded their existing wood floor, and then we installed new sand-and-finished wood floor out in the new addition in that kitchen.
Then we stained it all a little darker.
The orange is gone.
Now we have a beautiful oak wood floor that pretty much goes through the whole house.
It all has, in my eyes, the standard Bona finishes.
That is B-O-N-A.
I think they are from Sweden or something, and they do everything.
They are just smarter than we are.
They make some really good stuff.
The Bona finishes are seen, I think, as the best stuff.
Now the floor is back to zero, and it has another 100 years of life in it.
Host:
That is awesome.
Were you telling me during a commercial break on a previous show about some of the treatments you have for these 100-plus-year-old wood floors?
Is there something that can take some of the yellowing and discoloration out?
Mike:
Yes, it is almost like a stain.
You have to take off that top layer of finish first.
It is not something that is going to change a floor through an existing finish.
Even when we sand this stuff and go back in to refinish, if somebody wants a natural finish, it is not going to look like a natural finish.
If we just poly it, it is going to look like it has some red in it, almost like we stained it that color.
There are products now that will take that down.
I think one is actually called Get the Red Out or something like that.
We have not used that one, but we have used the one from our supplier, and it is amazing.
It can make those red floors look almost like a white oak floor.
Can we nail it 100 percent all the time? I am not sure.
But we have had really good luck with it.
It is a way to handle that when people walk in and say, “I do not care what you do. It just cannot be red. It cannot be orange. I do not want those colors anymore.”
So there are some products to deal with that.
Host:
We are talking about a recent project completed by Edge Construction.
Check it out online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
It is the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
When you get to EdgeConstructionCompany.com, you can click to the most recent projects and check out their portfolio, as well as links to Houzz, Pinterest, and Facebook.
You can also listen back to this and previous show podcasts at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
We have not even talked about the range, some of the really cool design features, and those floating shelves.
We will get to all of that next.
If you are thinking about doing some remodeling, whether it is a kitchen, an addition, going up or out, a bigger project, a smaller project, a bathroom, or those types of things, Mike and the team would love to talk with you.
All you have to do this morning is pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We will continue our conversation with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction next as the Home Remodeling Show continues right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
All one word: Edge Construction Company dot com.
You will want to get over there right now because we are talking about some recent projects, one specifically being the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
Check that out.
Also, while you are at EdgeConstructionCompany.com, you can look at their Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Houzz pages.
All are linked from EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking about that Bistro-Inspired Kitchen and some of the literal groundwork that went into getting this remodeling project done.
One of the areas that really stands out is the kitchen tile.
I know you see a lot of cool tile and other things, but these tiles in particular really stand out.
I am looking at them, and they are white with a really cool flowing, raised pattern.
I do not even know how to describe it.
Mike:
I call it waves.
This is, I think, the fourth time we have put in this product.
Those tiles are three feet long, so they are pretty big.
The first time we did it was in a basement bar.
It really looked like a bar, with glass shelves in front of it.
The tiles are three feet wide, so we actually sort of built the back bar around the tiles because I was thinking, “Are we going to cut these things?”
Now we have a saw that cuts a four-foot-long tile, so it is not a huge deal.
But if you look at it closely, they are manufactured so that the patterns actually go together, and you can see how it looks.
It is a really tight grout joint — less than a quarter inch — and the grout joint matches pretty well.
You can blow that picture up and really see this tile coming through.
We actually did another backsplash in it maybe three or four months ago.
I have grown to like it when the gang brings me these products and says, “Okay,” and I am thinking, “How are we going to install this stuff?”
But the end product is worth it.
It is a very cool product.
If you want to see that tile in person as a sample, stop over at the showroom on Industrial Drive.
They have that and a whole bunch more.
Host:
You mentioned having that special saw to cut these large pieces and the small grout joints.
For your tile guys, that takes skill.
Obviously, they are very skilled at what they do, but working with bigger tiles and very tight tolerances — if you get that tile placed just slightly wrong, when you are talking three feet, that little millimeter on one side can turn into even more on the other.
That is a level of skill as well, to properly install these things so they look perfect and will last.
Mike:
Right.
You make a good point because those large tiles are just not very forgiving.
This beautiful tile job started at frame-up on this addition.
We needed a really straight wall and a really level wall.
The more in-plane we can make that whole surface — meaning the flatter we can make it — the easier that install goes.
Tile is not flexible.
It is not going to go around a corner.
Our guy Eli did this job and did a fantastic job.
It was a trick.
I am sure I called him a couple of times asking, “How long is this going to take?” as I am a little famous for.
But this is one of those things that cannot be rushed.
It is not like some of those little mosaics that go up fast because they are so forgiving.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
The end effect of this is worth it.
Host:
Something popped into my head while you were discussing the work that went into making sure the surface was perfectly flat and solid.
When people are now doing countertop-to-ceiling tile, I think about houses being houses.
Getting that to line up perfectly with the ceiling is another huge skill.
I know we have talked about that a lot with cabinets, but the tile also has to line up just right.
You do not want a gap on one end of the ceiling and no gap on the other.
Mike:
Right.
All that stuff needs to be figured out ahead of time.
For so long, tile backsplashes stopped at the bottom of an upper cabinet, so you had 18 inches or two feet of backsplash tile.
That looked great, and that is what most people did.
But going to the ceiling is another level of finish, and I think it is worth the extra effort.
In this case, you do not want to end up with a one-inch rip of tile up on top.
That is going to look ridiculous.
I would have to get in there and measure it.
That is literally how good it is.
You cannot tell just by seeing what he did.
But if you measure it, there are no secrets in construction.
You can figure it out.
He might have taken a couple inches off that bottom row of tiles.
Hence the four-foot-long saw.
That is what you need.
All those tools really help.
Host:
Really amazing stuff.
Check it out online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
We will talk more about it.
There are some other great features, and I am looking at the appliances.
Clearly, these folks know good stuff.
We are going to talk about incorporating those appliances into that project.
We will do that and so much more.
In the meantime, check it out online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
We are talking this week about the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
Then pick up the phone and give Edge Construction a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We will continue our conversation with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction next as the Home Remodeling Show continues right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
You are listening to the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction. Email your questions to EdgeConstructionRadio@gmail.com.
Once again, here is Sean Prebil on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
It is a great website to learn more about Edge Construction and see the recent projects they have been working on, as well as links to their Houzz, Pinterest, and Facebook pages for more remodeling ideas.
If you are thinking about doing some remodeling, Mike and the team at Edge Construction would love to talk with you.
Give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We are talking about a recent project, a pretty involved project for a Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
You also did a garage as part of this project.
Mike, I saw the range in particular, but they also have a very nice refrigerator.
These are not necessarily what we call standard-size appliances.
These are professional-grade appliances.
Of course, the homeowners, for good reason, wanted to make sure those were included in the project.
But that adds another layer of design and implementation, figuring out how to make all this stuff fit with the new space, doesn’t it?
Mike:
It does.
There is some scale here that we had to work with.
If your kitchen is closet-sized, you are probably not going to buy a four-foot-wide Wolf range and a great big hood.
I hope they invite me over for dinner because it looks like they could do some serious cooking in this place.
Did I tell you about the fridge and how we actually got it in there?
Host:
No.
It looks giant, though.
I will tell you, it looks like you can put a lot in that thing.
Mike:
It is a very nice, big fridge.
We actually built the addition around the fridge.
We left out a chunk of wall.
Once we got to the point where we felt comfortable that we could get it in there and not have it get wrecked, we got it in.
I cannot remember if the thing was just too big to get through a doorway.
I am guessing it was close.
I am told we could take the doors off and manipulate things a little bit to squeeze it through.
But I think the designers said, “Let’s get it in there before we have to go around a set of stairs and sneak it through doorways.”
It was a little easier to get that thing in there that way.
Host:
It is really well done, the way it was designed in.
As I am talking about the range and refrigerator being good-sized, they do not stand out as these humongous things that take up all the space.
There is a good amount of space in this kitchen, so it fits.
When you look at it, they do not stand out as being too large.
They really fit that space perfectly, and it looks very inviting, whether you are someone looking to cook or simply hang out in that space.
Mike:
Yes.
The trick is right-sizing it.
Neither one of these appliances looks too big.
I am starting to think that if they put normal-sized stuff in here, maybe it would look a little too small.
This is something you have to have budget for.
We all know those are expensive, big-ticket items.
But these were really important to these homeowners, and we were glad to have a kitchen that warranted these kinds of appliances.
Host:
What about the sink?
The sink is another thing that looks quite good-sized.
You can rinse a lot of carrots in there.
Mike:
I think you will run out of carrots before you run out of sink.
The sink is just a little bit bigger.
There is a trend we will probably talk about on a future show because I started noticing it at trade shows and in some online design articles maybe a year ago.
People are opting for bigger sinks.
As conservative Midwesterners, we take a little while to buy into these newfangled ideas.
But when you have the room for it, like this one did, it warrants a little more sink.
It gives you a certain look.
But the stuff coming is not just a little bigger. It is quite a bit bigger.
We are going to see four-foot-wide sinks.
When I see them in the right kitchen and understand how they are being purposed, some of these sinks have two faucets.
You and your wife could peel potatoes next to each other.
You could get the mac and cheese going while she is rinsing other things.
Host:
Are we going deeper as well with these kitchen sinks?
Are they not just getting wider, but becoming deeper basins?
Mike:
Yes.
That trend has been around for a while, probably six or eight years, where sinks have gotten deeper.
It is so nice to have a deep sink.
If I am allowed in the kitchen, it is more on the cleanup side.
I can eat in there, but if you want to wrestle something big around and get it clean, the deep sinks really come in handy.
People love them.
Host:
Talking about things that are beautifully scaled in this kitchen, that island is really something.
That was one thing I was forcing myself to hold off on, because that was the first thing I wanted to talk about.
The island, the countertop — is that marble, or did they use quartz?
Mike:
They used quartz.
Host:
Wow.
It looks fantastic.
That whole island is an eye-catcher.
Mike:
To give some perspective, I think that piece of stone is 10 or 11 feet long.
So it is a big island.
There is a lot of working room around there.
I am sure you saw the microwave built in low underneath the island.
That is a neat little trend if you have the space.
There is lots of storage and big drawers.
This is actually the first kitchen where we brought in a new company, a Wisconsin company called Great Northern Cabinetry.
They are up in Rib Lake.
Do you know where Rib Lake is?
Host:
No, I do not.
I am guessing it is up near Eagle River?
Mike:
If you start heading toward the North Pole from Eagle River for about half a day.
No, it is up there.
We went through the plant.
They make a heck of a cabinet.
It is a little more expensive, but it is worth every penny.
We get such a good deal on our normal cabinets, and that helps us a lot on budgets.
They are a good cabinet.
But this is another level, and it has really taken off for us.
One thing I do not want to call it is a custom cabinet because it is not really like that, but they give us a ton of options and ways to manipulate standard cabinets.
Those lowers on that island are two big drawers.
I do not remember what is in there, but it was cool to have the option.
They can build those cabinets and drawers heavier.
If a bunch of plates, heavy dishes, or something like that are going in there, they can build those boxes heavier.
All that organizational stuff gives you a ton of options.
Host:
You mentioned the cabinets.
As we are talking about the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen, there is also a wine fridge.
Above that, there is a cabinet with glass doors, and it looks amazing.
Is that custom, or is that part of the line?
How did that come to be?
Mike:
That is a standard cabinet.
We ordered it prepped for glass.
We have a local supplier that puts the glass in the doors for us.
The cool thing about that is there are a million options for glass now.
You can get a bunch of different options on the glass, and we have all that available locally.
The inside of that cabinet is finished because we know people are going to be able to see inside.
We can get that with both cabinet lines.
But with Great Northern, we are very happy with the quality of the cabinets and very excited.
One neat thing is that when we are designing that little area, if we are hemmed in by cabinets coming in three-inch increments, Great Northern lets us customize these at no extra cost in increments of an eighth of an inch.
So if we put in that fridge down there and think it would be nice to have a cabinet that is two and a half inches wider than standard, it does not hurt us to do that.
The cabinet looks a lot more custom, even though for them it is another day at work.
Host:
That is amazing.
Going back to those quartz countertops, the design, to me, looks almost marble-inspired.
What is the design on those?
Mike:
Yes, this is a marble-look quartz.
The marble look in quartz has gained steam over the last couple of years and is very popular.
We have a similar type of top in my own house.
You have the white quartz countertop and then some gray veins running through it.
The more veins you get, the more the cost goes up.
Right now, these marble-look quartz countertops are actually very budget-friendly.
They must be somewhat easy for the manufacturers to make.
We have several options, and they fit into most budgets.
So not only is it cool, it is a great price.
Host:
That is amazing stuff.
Check it out online.
We are talking this morning about the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen here on 1310 WIBA and the Home Remodeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
The other area I want to talk about — and I thought we were going to talk about why folks renovate, but I do not think we are going to get to it.
We are talking mostly about recent projects, continuing with this one.
One of the things I thought was really neat is that you have those linear windows, a couple of those, with floating shelves below.
They frame that range really nicely.
It is a really nice touch.
Mike:
I think this is an advantage to having construction and design under one roof.
I remember when we were designing this, we knew we had to nail the placement of those windows and the hood.
We talked about that fridge.
We added, I think, three or four inches of cabinet filler on the right side of that fridge so the doors are fully operational, because it is in a corner with a wall.
All of that had to be figured in, and spacing had to be figured out to the T.
The same thing happened with the placement of those windows.
The shelves are not just shelves.
They have lights built into them, so all that had to come together.
If you look, you cannot see it, but the top of that shelf goes continuously right into the bottom of that window.
It is a nice little custom touch that makes it look like you put some thought into it.
We also built LED puck lights — really, little can lights — into the shelves.
Host:
That is beautiful.
The hood — was that custom, or was that something you guys were able to acquire already made?
Mike:
That is an off-the-rack hood, and the industry has just boomed with options.
There are a million of them.
Most are not that hard to get.
They range from fitting into budgets to being pretty expensive.
When you are shopping for those hoods, the things to watch for are the right size and the right look.
We also want to move the right amount of air.
If you have this Wolf gas stove, it is creating some fumes.
It is great to cook on, but you do need to exhaust that thing.
The hood needs to be within a couple feet — no more than about 24 inches — above that thing.
That is something to think about.
One thing we watch closely is how loud it is.
You can have this great hood, but if it sounds like a jet taking off in your kitchen, somebody is going to be annoyed.
Maybe the neighbors.
So I think it is called sones, or something like that.
They will have a ranking, and lower is better.
That can have something to do with the price.
The cool ones that are the right size, big enough, move a lot of air, and are quiet — that is probably what you are going to pay for.
Host:
We are talking this morning with Mike Twohig, owner at Edge Construction.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
We will continue our conversation with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction next as the Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues right here on 1310 WIBA.
Host:
The Home Remodeling Show with Edge Construction continues now on News Talk 1310 WIBA.
This is the Home Remodeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction right here on 1310 WIBA.
We are hanging out this morning, as we do every Saturday morning, with Mike Twohig of Edge Construction.
The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is all one word, Edge Construction Company dot com.
It is a great website to learn more about Edge Construction.
There are also links to Pinterest, Houzz, Facebook, and previous show podcasts.
Again, all of that is at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Their telephone number is 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Just kind of wrapping things up on this: we could talk for days about this kitchen because it is absolutely beautiful.
One of the things too — you mentioned skylights.
There were skylights in there before, and of course they wanted to retain those and bring in some of that natural light.
How does that work through the design process?
Were these the same skylights as they had previously?
Did they get new ones?
How did that process work to incorporate those?
Mike:
We did new ones.
We know if a product has been in there more than a couple of years, it might make us nervous.
I think those skylights had been in there quite a few years, the glass was fogging up, and there were problems with insulation at some point.
Skylights are such a tough thing to insulate.
In theory, it is a tube that goes from your ceiling out through your roof.
Ideally, you would want insulation wrapped about a foot deep around the whole outside of that tube, from top to bottom.
If you do not, in the winter, you have warm air on the inside of that tube going toward cold air in the roof on the outside of that tube, and that creates condensation.
You can get some rot in there that you cannot see.
That is why, if it is more than a couple of years old, we really evaluate whether this is a product worth putting back in.
Host:
Other things as far as bringing light into that space: there is very cool lighting over that island.
It is very well selected and placed.
There are also circular lights.
That is all part of the design conversation, isn’t it?
Mike:
It is.
One thing about skylights in a kitchen is that it does make lighting tough because, in a perfect world, we want to place these lights and not have things dictating where they go.
We want to get them in a spot that is best for the kitchen.
The homeowner had skylights before and loved them.
After seeing the end product, it was the right decision.
They look great.
We actually put small LED can lights in the side walls of the skylight.
So even at night, you are getting a light effect coming down through that skylight.
It was an idea we had.
I am sure we have done it before or seen it before.
If we showed you a picture looking up into the skylight, you would just see a bright sky.
Maybe that is why we do not have a picture of it.
But in the pictures where you see it, you can tell it is a light source, and it is probably not all from outside.
Host:
That is very cool.
With those island lights, I typically see smaller ones.
These are just two, and they are a bit larger — almost like wheels with bands.
They are very neat.
Mike:
I am not exactly sure how to describe them, but they really fit this kitchen.
They have a little bit of a Craftsman or Prairie-style look to them.
That is the feel I get from this kitchen.
It has a lot of open space.
We mentioned the open shelves and windows.
There are three pretty good-sized windows in this kitchen that normally would have cabinets in those spaces.
It was really important for this homeowner to achieve a certain look.
I like that open feel, and the fixtures really helped.
Host:
We started this conversation talking about looking out the window at the garage and the build there, and then we talked about the kitchen.
There is a third area you guys did work on.
I think we touched on this bathroom a couple of weeks ago, just briefly.
It is a really nice remodel.
It is not a huge space, but you guys got a lot of right-sized things in there, and it looks like a fantastic bathroom.
Mike:
Yes.
The before photos do not really do it justice.
There was water damage, and tile was loose.
It just needed to be refurbished.
It had gone 10 years too long.
I like the result.
You do not always get the pleasure and privilege of working in a great big open space where the sky is the limit.
A lot of the work we do is in small spaces, and this is an old house.
Bathrooms just were not that big.
We found a little vanity and top that worked in here.
This is stuff from our cabinet lines.
The shower is a fiberglass pan with a beautiful tile surround.
We got a niche back in there — actually a couple of niches.
It is just hard to see because you do not have perspective.
One cool thing we did was with the reach-in linen cabinet.
It was built in, and we were able to get our company to make us a front for it, so it looks like all the other cabinets in the same style.
This is painted instead of stained.
But it was just a front we were able to attach, and it modernized it and made it look great.
Those little custom touches matter.
The tile in this one is probably what shines.
Host:
It really is great.
That custom touch and the tile look really, really nice.
Those niches are phenomenal too.
The other thing that jumped out at me is the mirror.
It seems to really fit the space.
It is narrow, elongated, and oval, and it really does something.
Maybe it makes the space feel a little bigger.
Mike:
I do like it.
I am thinking of the couple, and they are pretty artsy, as you can tell by some of the stuff on the wall.
It did not surprise me to see this.
I do not know if I am brave enough to buy something like that, but I like it.
They had a flair there, and it paid off.
Host:
Was that something they had bought, or something they already had?
Mike:
I think they purchased this, and we did the install, of course.
But yes, they gave us the tool to do it.
Host:
It is nifty stuff.
Really, really great project.
A lot of great projects are online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
That is Edge Construction Company dot com.
This week, we talked about the Bistro-Inspired Kitchen.
There are a ton of different projects up at the website.
Even more importantly, when you get to EdgeConstructionCompany.com, click on their Houzz link.
You can go through the portfolio pretty extensively and check out some great projects.
If you have been inspired and are thinking about doing some remodeling, Mike and the team at Edge Construction would love to work with you.
They would love to talk with you.
All you have to do is pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343. That number is 636-EDGE.
Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.