Yes! The cabinet guys were here today and began putting our kitchen back together again. Can you say,"Debbie is so happy!"?
But before any new cabinets could go in, the few remaining old ones had to be removed. Boy, were we ever glad to see those bad boys go outside. Not the cabinet installers, the old cabinets. The installers were wonderful!
And now we're starting with a blank slate. The door to the right is our laundry/butler's pantry where the canning shelves that Joel built and old cabinets are now in place.
As two of the cabinet guys were preparing to install the new cabinets, one of the men took on the task of repairing the sub-par work of a previous carpenter. Right after we moved in, we hired someone to built this pantry surrounding the refrigerator. On the right of the refrigerator is a bookshelf that holds all my cookbooks. The problem is, the drawer slides were installed underneath the drawers instead of on the sides.....and the weight of the canned goods was causing the drawers to collapse.
Um, yeah. Not good. Especially since this is supposed to be a pantry.....a place for canned goods. Hmmmmm......well, it took the better part of the morning but they now work like a dream. Thanks to the conscientious work of one young man. It's amazing how well things work when they get installed as they were meant to be installed.
Another mistake we made was the paint color I choose. It was too creamy and pretty much looked awful in our kitchen. So our new guys took off the doors and they will get sanded nice and smooth(they were really rough, too) and repainted to match our new cabinets. It's my job to use the paint they gave me to repaint the cabinet cases so when they return with the newly painted doors everything will match the new cabinets.
They even removed the upper portion of the cookbook case so it could be properly sanded and painted in their shop. Things are starting to look up now. This will create a really polished kitchen that has all the same quality workmanship.
I just loved walking out to their truck and seeing all our new cabinets lined up, ready to be installed.
That's quite a pile of old cabinets, the one counter I used for the last 8 months and the utility sink. Guess we'll repurpose the sink in my potting shed some day. As for the cabinets....good riddance. They went back with the cabinet guys.
Now for the fun stuff. Drumroll, please. The upper corner cupboard is the first to get installed and all the others build off of that one. These guys were perfectionists about leveling everything.
I'm liking it already! The right hand wall is where our new sink will go under the curved arch cabinet with the dishwasher to the right of the sink. And there will be counters everywhere!! Yippee!
Our guys even installed the stove hood that Joel spent hours and hours researching on the internet. We were afraid it wasn't going to arrive until mid-October but we got a call late last week that the hood had arrived at the plumbing supply in Chattanooga, so we drove down there Friday to pick it up personally. It was worth the trip so it could be put up right away. One problem occurred, though, after it was up as the installers realized the two upper cabinets on either side of the hood were each 1" too wide. Rats. I felt really bad that they now have to remake those two cabinets so they will fit in the space remaining.
Once again our rocking chair porch served as a staging area. Out with the old folding tables we've used for 8 months and in with the new hood, sink, and cabinetry.
Ok, things are starting to take shape now with the lower cabinets in place. I'm so excited to have real drawers and shelves and cupboards to store all our kitchen items that have been in boxes for over a year. It's going to be wonderful to cook in a fully equipped kitchen sometime soon.
This is how far we got today. After the guys cleared out their tools I took a few pics of the beginning of our brand new kitchen. I kept pinching myself all day today because I could hardly believe all our planning finally resulted in our kitchen being transformed before my very eyes.
The huge cabinet to the left is my baking center. The wide drawers below will hold all kinds of baking tools while the upper cabinets will hold flour, sugar, etc. The stove looks so pretty now with it's complementary hood(it's hard to tell in the pic but the hood has chrome rimming the curves up to the ceiling with a wide band of chrome in the lower front). The center island will house my pots and pans and the baking sheets have their own special cabinet with pull out dividers to hold them in place.
The black beadboard behind the baking center has sanded edges to make it appear more aged. So does the center island. It'll be wonderful to have actual counters to work on once again. Our old kitchen was a dream to cook in and I've missed the functionality of it. I believe I'll have that once again in this smaller farmhouse kitchen.
Once the pantry is repainted and the doors are back in place it should marry seamlessly with the rest of the kitchen. There will be a place for everything and everything will be in its' place. Can't. Hardly. Wait.
And I almost forgot about the farmhouse sink! This beauty is porcelain and should provide a lifetime of service. Pretty soon it will be in working order and paired with a lovely faucet and sprayer.
Please ignore the ugly glue and various colored paint on the wall behind the stove. As soon as the counters go in Joel and I will commence with the tiling. Yes, we're going there again. But we're good with that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Simple white subway tiles are all this kitchen seemed to call for and I think I'm going to enjoy the ease of cleaning with them in place.
Now we just wait.....wait for the countertop folks to let me know what day they will be here to template for the counters. And then the counters should be installed a week after that. Then the plumber can hook up the sink and dishwasher and I should be fully functioning by that time! And sometime in between the cabinet guys will be back to reinstall the doors they're painting for us and put up the 2 cabinets they had to rebuild. Hopefully 2 weeks from now I'll be unpacking the remaining boxes from Florida and lovingly placing my kitchen tools in their new home.
But wait, there's more! We got the call that the studio we ordered 8 weeks ago (it was supposed to be done in 4 weeks) is going to be delivered tomorrow morning. Yes! How crazy is that? I had been hoping the studio would be here on time so we could work on one big project at a time. Oh, well, what's the fun in that?
Going to bed early tonight,
Debbie
