That's your biggest gripe with the whole thing? Not the kitchen??
View attachment 520078
If I purchased a unit in one of these posh swanky places, I'd even sit through one of these "meet your neighbors" community outreach presentations. Just to make sure that the photo of the kitchen is just a bad photo. That in real life the kitchen doesn't look like an ikea set wrapped in reflective mylar and scratched up for good measure.
The upgrade kitchen is all stainless steel clad with a stainless steel framed ribbed mirrored glass for the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Options for the backsplash and counter are either all-stainless steel with integrated sink or white terrazzo.
The standard kitchen is either a matte black painted or natural white oak veneer with a light grey or dark grey terrazzo counter and backsplash.
I went with the all-stainless steel option for my unit. I know the finish will show scratches and fingerprints easily but I always wanted an industrial looking kitchen and a stainless steel restaurant kitchens develop a nicely worn patina after a ton of use and abuse they get put through so I’m not worried about having such a high maintenance material for my kitchen.
These are the photos from the sales centre a while ago, the stainless steel cabinets look stunning in person. The craftsmanship and level of detail is amazing. The way the light reflects off of the ribbed mirrored glass is beautiful and a subtle design nod to the glass block facade.
View attachment 520169View attachment 520170View attachment 520171View attachment 520172View attachment 520173
The upgrade kitchen is all stainless steel clad with a stainless steel framed ribbed mirrored glass for the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Options for the backsplash and counter are either all-stainless steel with integrated sink or white terrazzo.
The standard kitchen is either a matte black painted or natural white oak veneer with a light grey or dark grey terrazzo counter and backsplash.
I went with the all-stainless steel option for my unit. I know the finish will show scratches and fingerprints easily but I always wanted an industrial-looking or commercial-styled kitchen and stainless steel restaurant kitchens develop a nicely worn patina after a ton of use and abuse they get put through so I’m not worried about having such a high maintenance material for my kitchen.
These are the photos from the sales centre a while ago, the stainless steel cabinets look stunning in person. The craftsmanship and level of detail is amazing. The way the light reflects off of the ribbed mirrored glass is beautiful and a subtle design nod to the glass block facade.
View attachment 520169View attachment 520170View attachment 520171View attachment 520172View attachment 520173
The appliances are Miele PureLine.
Nice to see that this posh swanky place is getting proper posh swanky appliances.
When I first visited a unit at Eau du Soleil, I was shocked to see the cheapest Whirlpool appliances installed by the builder. Sure, they were 'stainless', but only if your idea of stainless is 20% of the surface area finished in the cheapest black plastic:
View attachment 520399
And sure, the dishwasher washed dishes, but only if you didn't mind evacuating the apartment any time it did, because the noise level was unbearable. And yes, the countertop was definitely made from the cheap MDF of the Home Depot variety.
And sure, Eau du Soleil is not a swanky posh condo in the middle of Fashion District, but that sure as heck didn't stop Empire from marketing it as 'luxury waterfront living'. And they sure did charge luxury prices for it. Eau du Soleil went onto market at the same-ish time as, for example, Westlake Encore across the road, but Empire charged about 1.5X higher prices for their 'luxury' Eau du Soleil apartments. And for comparison, Westlake Encore ended up with GE Profile Series appliances (i.e. top-of-the-line at GE). And the countertops at Westlake were quartz.
Anyway, the point of my rant was that I'm glad the builder here treats their customers with respect when they market their project as 'luxury'.
Which also reminds me: I really ought to write up a review of Eau du Soleil in the real estate thread.