In my first post in this home reno project series, I outlined the scope of the work we intend to complete in the home reno project we are starting. In this post, I will outline some of the suppliers and products we have on our short-lists. If anyone with any practical recent experience in a condo reno project has any feedback (favourable or unfavourable) on any of the suppliers or materials, we would appreciate receiving it.
CONTRACTORS:
Selecting a contractor is the biggest decision we have to make, as a significant part of our budget (close to 40%), will fund labour costs.
We have two contractors under active consideration:
Celcon: We met Chuck (the proprietor) at the Spring Home Show at the BILD booth. Chuck and his son came out to our place to scope out our project and take measurements. They have provided us with a cost estimate itemized by sub-project. We have received some references and have also read some positive feedback on-line. We have been invited to go to Chuck’s home in Markham to inspect work he completed in his own home.
Bryant: Gary met with Trevor from this company at our place a few weeks back. Trevor has provided us with some pics of specimen rooms that Bryan has re-built with price tags attached but has so far not given us a cost estimate, pending submission of further product details. We understand Bryant has won many design awards.
KITCHEN CABINETRY SUPPLIERS:
About 30% of our project budget will be earmarked for kitchen cabinetry (the next biggest expensed after the contractor is paid).
Dekla: In the Liberty Market village complex. Dekla is the exclusive carrier of Italian brand Scavolini. We have spoken to Boris in their showroom twice and he was out to our place once. He has provided us with several designs. We have e-mailed him a few questions. This is our leading candidate for the work so far. The model we like is “Mood” with a dark oak veneer.
Raywal: on Allstate Parkway in the 404/Hwy 7 area. We talked to Jennie, a designer, at their showroom two weeks ago, left her with our drawing of the kitchen footprint and had hoped to schedule a second appointment this weekend to review her design ideas. However she cancelled on short notice and we have now made an appointment to go back to see her on Wednesday evening.
Cameo : @ 1020 Lawrence Ave. W. This store produces has a beautiful product but it is well beyond our price-range.
Binns: We checked out their showroom on Bay north of Wellesley. Its very high end and beyond our budget. They also carry bathrooms in addition to kitchens.
OTHER KITCHEN SUPPLIES:
Countertop: We are going with a quartz surface. Probably CaesarStone. We like the nouggat or perhaps oyster colour. A number of suppliers carry Caesarstone; including Ciot at 1020 Lawrence W and Allset @ 201 King St E. Apparently this products retail for about $100 / SF. Another alternative quartz countertop manufacturer is Cambria.
Backsplash: We are favouring a coloured glass backsplash. We like the longer brick look in a tri-colour (light and dark grey with clear) combo. We will probably purchase this at Allset.
BATHROOM:
Canorama-- In Woodbridge. We have visited their showroom twice and found a bathroom vanity and a bath-tub that we are interested in there. We talked to a design consultant (Simonetta) who has provided us with a quote. The 46” vanity is made by a manufacturer called Vanico and is called Avati . We also like a brushed nickel thermostatic shower system (available with a matching sink faucet and bath filler/faucet set) by Castile here. Bath-tub: We want an air-jet tub and have a space limitation of 60 inches long. Maxx makes several models that fit (including the Urban) but we are leaning toward an Oceania Unity 32 with aero massage and chromotherapy lighting.
Taps Bath Centres: On Lawrence. We like a polished nickel shower system and matching single piece vanity bowl faucet and 4 piece roman bath filler set (called Eiffel from Selection 25) here but is $800 more than the set we have selected at Canorama. Gabriel, a sales rep there, has given us a quote on this plus a small square kitchen sink and faucet. (see below)
Roman Bath Centre: At 883 Caledonia Road ( Castlefield area (near Elle and Ginger)). We checked it out. They have a reasonable selection but, as with Tubs, we came away empty-handed
Tubs : At 45 Samor Road in the Orfus Rd. area. We visited this showroom but came away unimpressed
FLOORING:
Hardwood:
The engineered wood flooring we are leaning toward is from a supplier called The Floor Shop . We talk to a sales rep called Alan there and we may arrange for an in-home estimator to come out next week. We like a Mercier light natural maple
Olympia Tile:
@ 1000 Lawrence Avenue West. We have selected tile flooring and wall covering for the bathroom here. It’s a Brazilian Montuak Black slate . We will may use a tumbled marble mosaic for the walls and grey pebbled stones (good selection available at Allset) as an accent. Warning: The proprietors are Jewish so this showroom is closed Saturday in observation of their Sabbath.
APPLIANCES:
We are planning to include two built-in appliances in the new kitchen—a wall oven and an electric in-counter cooktop. We would also like a small (15 or 17 inch wide) wine fridge.
Caplans: 1111 Weston Road (near Eglinton). We checked out this supplier. They had an amazing high end selection in their showroom. We had a sales rep price out a Miele oven, cooktop and wine fridge, but the price tab (over $8,800) drove us away in a hurry.
Sears: We talked to a sales rep (Sean) in the appliance department in the EC store about a Jenn-Air separate cooktop and wall oven. We are also interested in a full sized LG washer-dryer with steam (perhaps in the candy apple red colour) to stack in our laundry closet (tho we are concerned about whether we have adequate ventilation). Sean is offering us discounts of 10% - 15% off their listed prices.
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5 comments:
We put Caesarstone in our kitchen and are really happy with it. It's pretty much indestructible.
Goeman's is good for appliances. We have and AEG cooktop and oven at Radio City as we needed the 60cm width and the only other option was Miele. If you can go with 80cm there are a lot of good options from the North American manufacturers. All my plumbing purchases came from Roman except for the shower kit, which I bought at Taps (the only one I liked at Roman was about $1,200- found one that is ok at Taps for about $600.) I did splurge on the tap set but every bathroom needs a bit of bling. Check the true depth of the tubs before you purchase if possible- I found a lot of variance in the manufacturers spec's
Good to hear the positive comments on the caesarstone... that confirms what we've heard about it being a lot more durable and resilient than natural granite. It also offers a greater range of colour choices than the natural material. Since we are going with darker cabinetry, we want a lighter countertop.
We considered going with the smaller sized European oven but the North American turkey became the issue (even tho we only roast one to observe a few holidays a year). The oven is going to be placed below the cooktop so the widths should match.
Depending on how it all budgets out in the end, we may go with a cheaper shower kit / matching taps combo than the Selection 25 Eiffel (in polished nickel)-- which both Taps and Canorama carry. I do like the flared design motif but we saw an alternative square motif brushed nickel set at Canorama that will look fine and will save us close to $500 altogether, if we were to go with it. There are bound to be some tough trade offs at the end of the day, depending on the final kitchen cabinetry estimate
Some real foodie clients of mine are moving to a new home at the end of the month and are replacing their oversized Viking pro-style range with a Kitchenaid Architect series Cooktop and Wall Oven- they said that the Viking was too hard to clean. I looked on their website and noticed that they now a wide variety of oven widths- 24", 27", 30" & bigger. I wish they were available 2 years ago- the AEG was more expensive to buy and install since it was European spec'd.
It's informative post and help me in Interior Design. Thanks for sharing.
Website:- https://dtadesigngroup.ca
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