December 18th, Kitchen cabinets finished

At long last, the kitchen cabinets are complete and installed. All we lack now in the kitchen are the appliances, sinks, faucets and countertops. Our beautiful knotty alder custom cabinets were built by Chuck Bailey, owner of Eagle Cabinets in Flippin, AR.

This is the north wall where the main sink and dishwasher (automatic and Denis) will be located.

Above the dishwasher is a wine rack for 9 bottles (plenty for us) and underneath that, a slotted rack to hold wine glasses. There are two cabinets to the right of the wine rack, with shelves. The cabinet maker wanted to make this a broom closet or pantry, but we have a walk in pantry and a laundry room to hold cleaning equipment so we just opted for shelves in both the upper and lower cabinets.



This is the island showing the chef's side. In the middle will be a prep sink. The blue boxes are electrical outlets so I'll have plenty of places to plug in my small applicances.

This view of the island shows the supports in place to hold the extended countertop, which will be a place for our casual meals.

This is the back of the island where the stools will be located. It's hard to see in this picture, but the wood is grooved for a beadboard look.

Below is the wall where the gas cooktop, electric oven and microwave will be located. Above the cooktop will be vent hood and stainless backsplash with a pot filler faucet, warming lights and shelves.

This is an insert into a drawer that will hold spices. I have two big drawers like this. It will be so handy to be able to view all the spices and not have to dig for them in a cabinet.

This is a long range view of the kitchen, showing all the cabinets. The beams and the colums still have to be wrapped in sheetrock. I was debating having them done in the same wood as the cabinets but decided to go for some contrast and have the painted sheetrock instead.

December 5th, Screen dooor, wood box

The back porch and gazebo are fully screened in now. Here is the new screen door from outside the porch.

And here is the door from inside the porch.

Inside the house, next to the hearth which will hold the wood burning stove, is a huge box to hold wood. The top is hinged and will raise up to allow access to the wood. It will also serve as a window seat.

The wood will be loaded into the box from outside the house. This is the access door, made of cedar to match the gazebo.

December 14th, Kitchen cabinets and floors

The floor in the pool room is finished now. It has one coat of sealer and four coats of polyeurothane in a satin finish. That should make it hold up well under the traffic of pool players and grandkids. The half wall seen in the distance is not finished yet. It still needs drywall. We were going to have built in cabinets there, but decided to just finish out the wall and buy a piece of furniture to serve as storage for toys, games, and any other pool room paraphernalia.

The picture below was taken looking in a different direction, from the top of the steps. The color of the floor looks a little different than in the previous picture but it must just be the lighting. It's the same floor, 4 inch wide, rustic red oak.

The cabinet maker has started the cabinet installation in the kitchen. This is the main kitchen sink cabinet, including space for the raised dishwasher, wine rack and stem holder. Denis calls the ones on this wall "his cabinets" as he promises to be the main clean up crew while I do the cooking.

This is the huge island, under construction. There will be a small prep sink right in the middle. The extended board you see on the right is the appliance lift for the mixer. That way the mixer can stay hidden underneath until needed, then it can be raised to working height without any heavy lifting.

This is the fridge and cooking wall. The big empty box on the left is where the fridge will go. In the middle will be the cooktop with venthood above. On the right are openings for the built in oven and microwave.

There are many many drawers and doors to be installed yet. Here they are lined up and waiting, along with some of the painter's supplies. We can't wait until they are all in and the appliances in place. I'll do an update on the kitchen at that point.