Sunday, February 26, 2006

The Wall Stack


Picture 158, originally uploaded by Jrome.

I had a better picture of the cabinets, so here it is for what it's worth. The electrical went in Friday, and since we have all had some degree of sickness, it was a quiet weekend. (We did go out to a dinner party - it was a party, wernit? - and ate well.)

Friday, February 24, 2006

Cottage Cheese


01-19-06_cottage front.jpg, originally uploaded by Jrome.

Well, one thing that has slowed progress has been cabinets. We ordered Thomasville cabs from HD in December. They came early and we thought, "Holy cats, this kitchen is really coming together quick!" But then I opened the first box and snapped this picture. "Uh, wait a second. This is cottage not Monroe." Monroe is as blank as a piece of wood, no frame. This one has a frame. Our wall cabinets above the sink were to be cottage, and they all were, but most of the base cabinets had the wrong fronts on them. To HD's credit they fixed it all, and I even got some cottage front drawers out of the fiasco. I've really got no qualms. I think we made out like bandits. And I can't wait for that $400 gift card.

Cereal Counter


01-14-06_new seating.jpg, originally uploaded by Jrome.

More progress that never got any ink.

Despite M climbing in there and taking a nap in the cave, this is where we eat cereal everymorning. M likes to perch, so I stick her up there and she sits on the edge, eating breakfast. We have stools that pony on up to the bar there and that's nice. It's a good way to start the morning. The view ain't half bad either. Our microwave is ginormous. We had it up on a counter for a while (oh, the past year) and it just took up so much space I wanted to hide it. This is probably the best outcome. Hidden, accessible. And there's a plug right behind it, so no clutter even. As I'm fond of saying, "Super sweet."

The flip top


01-15-06_new range with flip.jpg, originally uploaded by Jrome.

Looking back over the blog it seems like we've been living with a wacko kitchen since sometime in October when we tore up the linoleum, but we've been busy, and life has actually not been interrupted to such an extent that we're going crazy. I'm not at least. I think I could live this way for a hundred years...

Anyway, here is a break down of things that took time to gel. The first is the flip top. To make it work, N had to first think of it. Then I had to build the three parts of it, figuring out how to do it all the way. (That's really the hard part...after this kitchen is done, I should hire myself out, cause I'll know what the heck I'm doing.) Anyway, it's done. Or as I like to say, "It's done for now. Once the concrete counter goes in, this is all getting rebuilt." Yeah, right.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

More Wall Cabinets


Picture 160, originally uploaded by Jrome.

Our kitchen moved one step forward this past weekend. We hung a cabinet above the fridge. Now I can't keep thinking about putting in another tall stack on the left, but N insists the idea for the desk/media area should carry the day. I partly agree, but my Dwell magazine brain is freakin' out.

I started out by hanging a two by four and then enlisting Jon next door for a little clean and jerk. Once up on the wall, we leveled it plumb with some shims and then anchored it to the wall cabinet to the right and to the wall studs. We used the same Robertson drive scorpion screws we used for the other cabinets. They're great.


The wire sticking out of the wall is live. It will be for a plug above the cabinets to run some rope lighting. Nothing fancy up there. Maybe, just maybe an HO train layout. That would be rather ambitious, but since we live on an old rail corridor, and we have some vintage model trains in our collection, why banish them to the basement or attic? Show them off! That's our spirit in a nutshell.

In other news, we ordered some reeded glass for the wall cabinets above the sink. Our concrete counter guys were featured in the local paper and it seems there are a fair number of local concrete counter types in our town, judging from the photo spread. I felt like our kitchen will be a nice cozy space, compared to those in the article.