Now for some cooking...

Most (maybe all) of you know that I bought a set of appliances a couple weeks back, and I've been slowly installing them and transferring my kitchen stuff over to the new kitchen. Everything's working, and I've been using the new kitchen for the past week. So far, the highlights are having more countertop space (about four times as much!) and having a dishwasher. The new kitchen is also a lot brighter (though that's hard to tell in these photos, which were taken at night). It's actually kind of hard to capture the space and how nice it really is. So you should all come visit sometime (maybe not all at the same time) to see it in person. I think it's at least 67% better in person.



Here's the view from one end of the kitchen (the patio door is behind you here).


And the view from the other end of the kitchen.


And here's the kitchen with the dining room in the foreground.


I was just going to post about the kitchen, but my new laundry appliances started whimpering, so I agreed to include them too.


And here's a little bud of rhubarb that peeked out of the ground about two weeks ago. As I type this, this bud has already grown about six inches and has three or four good stalks going. Time for some rhubarb dishes soon. And now I've got the kitchen for it.

The kitchen gets a floor

My kitchen cabinets have been lonely for quite a while now. They got installed in April, and every night I go to sleep to the sound of them whimpering. You see, they've been missing their friend Floor. They used to play with Floor all the time, and sometimes they'd play tricks on Floor by dropping pickles or ice cream or dry rice on it. Man, those were good times. Or so they told me.

I thought that if I ignored the cabinets for a while, eventually they'd quit asking me to get them a new Floor. Well, they wore me down, and so today I finally gave them what they asked for. Here's some photographic evidence.








Now I'll finally be able to get some sleep without those cabinets bothering me. Although I think I hear them murmuring about their old friends the Appliances. This'll never end.

It's time to start thinking about getting some trivets

As I've told a few of you recently, I've been pushing to wrap up my kitchen remodel (and a few other projects) before my paying guest moves in (for those of you who don't know, I'm renting a room to Amy starting next month). I made some good progress this weekend by finally getting my laminate countertop glued down. Here are some pics of the fun.

Dry-fitting the sink (if you want to live sheer terror, I recommend cutting a sink opening without a template and then dropping the sink in while you hold your breath and hope it fits).

I've got the countertop base glued up (with contact cement) and the laminate is ready to set in place (you can see a corner of the laminate laying upside down on the floor). The wood strips keep the laminate from bonding immediately to the countertop while you get it into place.

The laminate sitting on top of the wood strips.

The laminate adhered to the countertop with the front edge clamped down (to make sure it forms a good bond).

Here's the little countertop that separates the kitchen and dining room.

And here's the full kitchen with countertops installed. Now to stain the cabinets, install a face edge on the countertop, put in a floor, reinstall doors/drawers, install a backsplash, paint, and move the appliances over. I have a feeling I'm not going to get this done in the next week...

Another kitchen post

I know you've all been in withdrawal without recent photos from my house projects. So I'm drawing together a few recent photos of the kitchen. Hopefully, the next pictures I show will be after the floor and countertop are in place.

A Halfway Kitchen (for a Halfway House)

Some of you may remember my post about that simple kitchen project I was looking forward to. With the very able assistance of one Mr. Mike Barnhart, that project took a giant leap forward this past week. Here's a brief photo update:



Plumbing in the new drain. Dad's trying out his old-timey serious pose.


The PEX water lines, which will feed the kitchen sink and dishwasher.


And here they are, stubbed up through the floor.


We had to remove some drywall in order to run new electrical lines for the countertop outlets.


More wiring. For those of you interested, we added six circuits: two dedicated GFCI receptacle circuits, one dedicated refrigerator circuit, one dedicated dishwasher circuit, one dedicated garbage disposal circuit, and one 220V range circuit (in case I decide to switch from gas range to electric range in the future). You could power a bingo parlor off this kitchen without tripping a breaker.


Closing the drywall back up.


The lower (base) cabinets are just sitting in place here. I still need to mud the drywall joints before I can install these, but Dad and I wanted to see what they'd look like sitting in the new kitchen. I think they look pretty good.