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By the Des Moines Register
October 1, 2009
In the 10 years since Pam Deacon and her financial-planner husband, Pete, moved into their newly constructed house in Johnston, she had compiled a long mental list of features she wanted to incorporate into their next house.
"Pete finally looked at me and said, 'Pam, there is no next house,'" Deacon says. That's when she changed her tactics and their very white kitchen.
"Ten years ago, I liked the white," Deacon says. "Now that I've got a 3-year-old, it shows dirt, fingerprints and food."
She wanted to update the kitchen quickly and economically to a look that would last and have good resale value, she says.
Deacon researched remodeling options and decided to work with Granite Transformations in Urbandale because they could complete the job quickly.
"Time factor was my biggest driver," she says. "I have a son who is allergic to milk and eggs. We cannot go to a restaurant I just can't risk it. So I could not go without a kitchen for three or four or five weeks."
The Granite Transformations crew started the job on Monday, and they were done Friday morning, Deacon says. They resurfaced the old cabinets (although Deacon did pick out new doors). They added a new section of countertop and cabinets and placed quarter-inch granite overlays on existing counter surfaces.
"It's really a slick process," Deacon says. "If I had just done countertops, they would have been in and out in four hours."
She originally chose a dark cherry color for the cabinets, but her husband was wary. Teresa Egli, owner of Granite Transformations, steered them toward a lighter wood.
"Because we've been in different homes and have seen the different colored countertops and backsplashes and combinations with different colors of cabinetry, we get a feel for what looks gorgeous together and makes the whole thing gives you the 'wow' factor," Egli says.
Deacon says her favorite new feature is the sink.
"It's much deeper, so I can get my cookie sheets and muffin tins in. And my husband loves to make fruit smoothies with blueberries that stain," says Deacon, who is expecting twins in February and sought a baby-friendly kitchen. "Before, I had the white sink, and it would scratch. But this is no-scratch and stain-resistant. This is genius. It has saved me so much time in cleaning."
Deacon recommends homeowners who are considering a kitchen remodel do research on options and get referrals from others who have done similar projects. She says they paid about a third of what it would have cost her to replace cabinets and install thick slabs of solid granite for countertops.
"My husband probably would have not spent as much and not done the cabinets but just done the countertops," Deacons says. "But I live in the kitchen. I'm ecstatic with this."
Jane Schorer Meisner writes for the Homestyle section of the Des Moines Register.
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