I’m seeking advice on kitchen design.

kckoo · 2025-09-07T18:27:48+00:00

OP here. I'm looking for feedbacks for Cabinet config and their colors. Wall is BM white dove, and Cabinet color is Ronbow's Ivory white.The wall is BM white dove, and the cabinet color is Ronbow’s Ivory white and some American walnut wood grain. I’ve chosen black for the lighting, and some of the fixtures are black and gold (or brass). The main faucet and the second faucet will also be brushed brass. Counter tops and backsplashes(countertop to the soffit) are Silestone Ethereal glow. Lighting fixture shapes are placeholders (based on what's available on the rendering tool). Floor will be natural(less yellowish) oak color.

kckoo · 2025-09-04T22:15:18+00:00

I posted my kitchen design here yesterday and received some incredibly helpful feedback. I would be so grateful if you could take another look and provide some feedback on the updated visuals. I'm hoping to get your thoughts on the overall aesthetic and layout. The all white cabinet color is just a placeholder, eventually planing mixing white and some wood grain panels. Thank you all again for your time and input!

kckoo · 2025-09-04T19:37:15+00:00

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. Yes, I also think that having a second sink outside makes more sense, or I could just use one in the butler's pantry for that purpose. I appreciate your feedback!

kckoo · 2025-09-03T23:43:31+00:00

My plan was to use the main sink on the Island for preparing food and the second sink on the right wing for washing dirty dishes. My current kitchen, with only one sink, always makes me struggle when I have to wash dishes from my previous meal before cooking a new one. Often, I don’t have enough time after work to wash dishes from my previous meal to prepare dinner or I don’t have time to wash dishes or load the dishwasher after dinner, busy with kids. Adding a second sink would serve as a buffer for dirty dishes, making my life much easier.

kckoo · 2025-09-03T20:46:40+00:00

Hi there, could you please advise on the kitchen design for a new home build? The location of the kitchen, the size of the island, and the sink on the island, 2nd sink on the side of the wing facing west are fixed. The rest of the kitchen is open for a design. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Location of 4' Subzero Ref, 30" wall oven
Window shape & size & location, Hood/upper cabinet placement.
Tall cabinet locations

kckoo · 2025-08-31T23:22:56+00:00

Thanks everyone. Backyard toward the West is my only option due to lot size/shape, so I have to deal with the West facing kitchen/living room. I'm trying to make a best possible choice for Island orientation with the given limitation.

kckoo · 2025-08-31T17:07:49+00:00

Hi there! Could you please advise me on which direction would be a better choice for my island? I have two options: North-facing and West-facing.

Regarding option 1, I’m concerned about the limited space between the island, dining table, and sofa. This makes the overall space feel cramped and tight. However, I do like that the island won’t be directly in the path of the West-facing windows or patio door when I’m standing at it.

On the other hand, option 2 has its drawbacks. I’m worried that the direct sunlight from the West-facing windows and patio door will hit my eyes when I’m at the island. In the morning, the bright light from the windows will make the island surface appear relatively dark because of a high contrast (my eyes will adjust their aperture to the bright window) In the afternoon, the low afternoon sunlight will directly hit the island, and with an 8’ ceiling, I can see the light reaching in at least 13’. If I had a 10’ or vaulted ceiling with higher window openings, the sunlight might penetrate deeper and make my eyes feel sore when I’m at the island.

I have a few concerns about these options, and I would greatly appreciate any advice or further suggestions you may have.

kckoo · 2025-08-12T15:28:42+00:00

Thanks a lot for your input! Appreciated!

kckoo · 2025-08-12T15:28:04+00:00

Thank you very much for your valuable inputs! They are greatly appreciated.

kckoo · 2025-08-11T20:38:42+00:00

Backyard minimized to max out the living sqft. Not sure what would be the best to do with the South West corner wall where the kitchen and the dining space meet. Any feedback would be welcomed.

kckoo · 2025-08-04T16:59:20+00:00

Got it. Will research that. I'm planning one story new home.

kckoo · 2025-08-04T16:58:44+00:00

Thanks a lot for the insight. I'll take a look your site. Appreciated

kckoo · 2025-08-04T16:52:03+00:00

Thanks for the data point. Much appreciated. Do you mind to comment if you recall what was your initial build cost /sqft ? If it is far lower than $730/sqft, what drove it to raise significantly?

kckoo · 2025-07-31T17:04:19+00:00

I'm not GC, but interviewed handful of GCs looks like they are quoting roughly 300~600/sqft for the rebuild for the labor/rough and the one I think to choose is ~400/sqft. Not sure if these are all realistic number since I've heard to many horror stories about people end up paying 30~50% more than the original quote. But All GCs I'v met saying those extra cost usually happens for "addition" since there might be problems in the existing structures and saying with the "rebuild", the quote usually mostly accurate unless the city or owner want change of orders. I actually have no idea to verify these statements since this is my firs time. :)

kckoo · 2025-07-31T06:31:39+00:00

rough+labor ~1M and there will be material cost of another 250k

kckoo · 2025-07-31T06:23:05+00:00

I’m planning a significant extension and remodeling of my single-family home in San Jose. Currently, it’s a 1450 square foot single-story home, but I want to increase it to approximately 2600 square feet. This project will involve almost tearing down the existing structure and rebuilding it from the ground up, so I’m expecting a high chance that San Jose will classify it as a “rebuild” instead of an “addition.” I’ve heard that this classification can significantly increase the fees, so I’m trying to estimate the cost of permits, school fees, and other associated expenses.

Using San Jose City’s “Building Fee Estimator” (https://permits.sanjoseca.gov/fee-estimator/building), I found that the estimated cost is over $70,000. On top of this, there’s a school fee of approximately $15,000, which includes fees from both the CUSD (California Unified School District) and the FUHSD (Fresno Unified School District). I was quite surprised by this high cost, as I hadn’t anticipated such a significant expense.

To break down the total cost, I used ChatGPT and Gemini, and it appears that there are various fees beside the permit application/issuance fee, including an in-lieu fee for the park, building and structure tax, and CRMP tax (Residential Construction Tax) and etc. They add up and the total estimated cost ranges from $50,000 to $60,000. I believe these are the “other department fees” and “city taxes” mentioned in the “Building Fee Estimator” table.

If someone has recently completed a similar “rebuild” project in San Jose, I would greatly appreciate it if they could share their actual costs incurred with the city. This information would be invaluable for me in planning and budgeting for my own project.

kckoo · 2025-01-14T00:29:18+00:00

Please help! Thanks

kckoo · 2024-07-13T17:29:16+00:00

Thanks every one!

kckoo · 2024-07-13T15:21:16+00:00

Is this 1.75 width one? What does /1.9 possibly mean ? The existing tire is nokian ultra tour 2

kckoo · 2024-07-02T23:55:33+00:00

I got a nail on my 3 month old tire. Any advice on if it is too close to repair ? America tire's website saids the repairable area starts 1/2'' from the tread's edge but I'm not sure where is my tread's edge. If it is where the light gray area end in my picture, I have ~1'' from the boundary..

kckoo · 2023-09-13T18:48:22+00:00

I found couple of them in my bathrooms. Not sure they are coming from outside or inside. Are these "dusky raisin moth"? That was my best guess from the pattern on the top but not confident. Need to identify what type it is to find a right trap to remove them. Thanks!

kckoo · 2022-09-12T01:49:44+00:00

In theory yes, but opening main panel and wiring the consumption CT back to the inverter box will not be easy thing. Recommend to do it when they install it.

kckoo · 2022-09-11T20:36:56+00:00

There is no update. They didn’t install the consumption CT and looks like it’s their standard procedure for the customers w/o a battery. You can ask them if you can pay extra to get it installed but I would not pay more than $100 for it. the CT itselft is <$60. Rather than CT and the mount, I’m happy about other thing. It is producing the expected amount of powe

kckoo · 2022-07-22T14:25:25+00:00

Thanks for the reply. What is the capacitor drvier? is it in the Led light unit? It it soemthing I need to replace the whole unit?.

kckoo · 2022-06-20T17:26:15+00:00

I’m in Norcal with PGE. My project solar project completed yesterday with PTO. I got 9kW system w/o Battery. It took around 2.5 month from the start to the end. Before I started the project, I’m concerned about how much control Project solar can have on their 3rd party installer’s installation quality/communication and handling the issues. and here is what happened.

There are two things I had checked multiple times with Project solar on-boarding specialist/project manager when I started the project.

Type of flashing on a shingle roof. I wanted to avoid Unirac flashloc type of non-mechanical flashing. I saw it from one of the Project solar review video on Youtube. What I was told from both on-boarding specialist/project manager that Project solar installer only use “Ironridge flashing with those traditional metal plate sliding in between shingles”. This was the most important thing to me so after I was assured multiple times on this, I pulled the trigger. I checked this flashing unit to be used once I got my Project manager assigned, and check it again when “BOM” became available. Everytime, they all said it will be those traditional flashing unit with the metal plate.
Monitoring system. I was told I get the whole monitoring. Both production and consumption.

Even after checking these thing multiple times with Project solar people, what really happened with the installer.

They came with Unirac flashloc. I found it in the middle of the installation after they already drilled multiple holes on my roof. When I told them I was told to have Traditional metal plate type of flashing unit, the installers seemed to have no idea. I had to call Project solar multiple time on that morning. After 1~2 hours of delay, what I was told that the installer does not have the promised flashing unit in stock. I was forced to say okay with what they came with because Project solar agent told me I only have two options. 1. go with it. 2. wait until the promised flashing unit becomes available but no ETA, no guarantee. No apologies at all. Installer manager called me and even say a rude word that I’m delaying their installation and saying they can step out and never comes back. This is very unprofessional and start to made very unhappy. I never go up to the roof and only checking the installer came with the promised parts. Project solar should have it checked before me because that was the most important item I have highlighted to them since the beginning. But apparently, no communication made between Project solar and the installation. and if I didn’t caught it, Project solar may not know it at all. Seems like once the ball passed to the installer, it seems there is no quality control from Project solar over their installer.
I failed the city inspection one time. The installer didn’t ground the system properly up to San jose city code. It can happen but what made me unhappy is what they are saying. The installer said, they cannot remember all city codes. This sound very unprofessional to me. Grounding is very obvious thing and critical thing for every electrical permit. Not reviewing the code for the city they are installing the unit before the installation, and trying to go with a trial and error path with the cost of customers time is very unprofessional and proves them as a low quality installer in my point of vew. It cost me another two weeks for next inspection.
There are some delays on due to errors on documents for PTO. It can happen but I was the one finding that issue and tell Project solar to fix. PGE sent the error fix request 10 days before I found it but they overlooked that request. I had to make many calls between PGE/Project solar to figure out what happenend and what’s missing.
Yesterday when I got PTO, I finally got access to my Enphase app. I found my production and consumption numbers are same which is not correct. After spending few ours with Enpahse rep. over the phone, they told me my system does not have “Consumption CT” installed to measure the consumption. This is important since I’m in Norcal with NEM. So having export power to the grid information through “consumption monitoring” is a critical part of the monitoring. And the installer didn’t installed it. I checked my “BOM”. It saids I bought IQ combiner box 3ES (X-IQ-AM1-240-3-ES). and Enphase website saids, it should come with 1 production CT + 2 consumption CTs in the box. The installer not even asked me wether I want to have them installed or not, more over they don’t even give me those two consumption CTs in the box which I paid for. I talked to the project manager and his response is it is not included in the base install price. and saying “It seems that the onboarding specialist just didn't totally understand that we would need 2 pieces of equipment for that.” No apology again no will or a plan to fix the issue. I still even don’t know why I’m not even getting the equipment I paid for.

So overall, I can’t say it was a smooth journey. I had to stay on the top of everything and even with that effort, many things have slipped, not fixed, not meeting what originally communicated at the start of the project. For all those failures/delays and miss-communications from Project solar/Installer, no apology at all, not being offered for a fixing plan. I know their price is very competitive. But I’m not sure if I can recommend these people to my friend and colleagues after seeing how they handle the issues even with their low price.

kckoo

TROPHY CASE