BAR is shaped!

Wood is so gorgeous . . . I am so happy we are going with as much as we are. Evokes the boat, perhaps . . . and so does the shape of this bar! (A friend told me it looked like a sail - Todd calls it the guitar pick!) This pic to the left is a birds' eye view, taken from the stairs, of the whole kitchen (basically). You might be able to see some of the hardware on the cabinets that Jeremy is installing.

This next one is a close up of the bar itself. Imagine it stained dark (almost to match the chairs) and finished with a high gloss. Now imagine yourself sitting at it, drink reflecting in the bar top . . . and me handing over appetizers from the kitchen part! The bar is mahogany; the butcher block on the prep part of the island is rock maple (oiled about an hour ago).

It's getting closer!

Mid-January update

I guess it's later than "mid" January, and that's a relatively boring title for what seems to me to be an exciting post! Jeremy and Todd have been working feverishly on the house. Todd is a madman on stilts as he works to get the drywall mudded and ready for sanding, and Jeremy did a weekend's worth of work in a day yesterday by hooking up/installing the range hood, the instahot, and the soap dispenser, plus a couple of lights in the mudroom. We have not been without upsets, though, chief among them a mysterious illness that floored Jeremy and me for 3 days last week (hopefully Todd does not have it). The granite is 97% great, although our dealings with C-Stone Counters management leaves much to be desired and they will NOT get any recommendations from us. So . . . pictures, anyone?

First of all, what the kitchen looks like this morning from the front door.

Yes, we have some more work to do. We decided on and ordered pulls and knobs yesterday, and toady's missions include a trip to Lowe's to bring home yet more paint chips. Todd is hoping to get the drywall done early this week, and then he'll get to the bar top.

2. A picture of Todd. He is indeed tall, but he's 18" taller in this snap because he is on stilts.

3. I also have to post a picture of the cooktop and hood combo. Both appliances were on the difficult side to source, and I am happy to say that both (so far!) seem to be well worth the hassle. The cooktop (a Caldera) is 36" wide, big enough for 5 good-size pots on the burners all at once, and room for 2 cooks to work in peace at the same time (tested!). The hood (Sirius) was used for the first time yesterday on canadian bacon in the morning and pasta in the evening - quiet and efficient, as promised. Note the tile piles on the left of the cooktop - our eventual backsplash, or some ideas of what we'll use.

Other news is that we moved the temporary kitchen out of the "old" family room and put in the eating table. (we don't need it anymore!) The room is plenty big enough for such a set up, and we ate dinner in there last night with cousin James and his girlfriend Eliza - fire roaring and all. Nice inauguration! So we are moving right along. I'll keep everyone posted as to the party date, but I am hoping we can have a birthday bash for Jeremy along with a house-warming party.

More stone pictures

And it is installed. I must say, it is a bit unfair - Jeremy is working in the crawl space gluing plumbing pipes together and I am sitting here drooling over pictures of our new granite. The first picture is right to the left of the cooktop (like the cooktop? Tomorrow I get to cook on it! Maddie has requested Annie's Mac and Cheese . . .) and is my favorite piece of the stone. The second pic shows the main run along the short side of the "l" - the long side is where the fridge and sink are. As you can see, we still have priming and paint to tackle, as well as decide on cabinet pulls. We'll let you know when the party is!

GRANITE UPDATE!!!

Whoohoo! I came home this morning to find granite being installed! These are very initial pictures, but you can start to see what the final will look like! Please ignore the mess . . . I'll post more later tonight! Can anyone tell I am excited?

first post in 2008!

I have been remiss in posting, but it isn't because nothing has happened. The last week has been a busy one!

The kitchen at the end of 2007 looked like this:

Jeremy spent the last Saturday in December installing the wall oven and the microwave, and Todd worked on drywall mudding and under the house joist stuff. Come January 1, the focus shifted slightly to the new space (no, we aren't adding anything to the house - just playing with walls! So perhaps it isn't a new space . . . but it feels like one!) Jeremy spent the day at Lowes buying parts for the shower, while Todd began framing what will become our full bath downstairs and a long-anticipated and needed mudroom!

And now, after working on framing and setting cabinets, we need to make a decision on what the bar part will look like. We have decided on the wood . . . but here is out latest idea, and unless we get brainstorms that involve cardboard mockups in the middle of the night, this will serve as the template! Note, please, that this is taken from the SAME spot by the front door as the initial picture of wall and clock . . . what a difference! PS. If you click on a picture, a bigger one comes up so you can see stuff better.

This week? Granite on Thursday and gas hookup on Friday. Perhaps I will post pictures of a gang of us working in the kitchen next week!