Cooking up some fun

We have been working like mad on the kitchen the last few weekends. We wanted to have the upper cabinets done before we leave for Utah in June, but I really don't think we are going to have the time.

We still need to fill some holes, sand, add another stile to the cabinets (this is your basic building term for the vertical supports in a cabinets door, etc This will help it not look so boring) you can see what I mean in my little renderings that I drew really fast one day while Natalie, was napping.

I am really hoping to get this done by the end of the summer for sure. But who knows!

Here is one of the renderings, the line drawing then the semi-colored version. I used a photograph to get started so it was hard to get the colors right, but in the end we are planning on white cabinets, ether concrete or marble tile counter tops and a robin egg blue glass backsplash.

We are also planning on installing wood floors. There is a company called Lumber Liquidators that has an unfinished, slightly lower grade oak. Lower grade, meaning there are knots and some more waste or just plain bad pieces. But, I love the floors with a bit more character, so I am happy to pay less and get what I want.

In this rendering, I remembered to move the dishwasher into its future home on the left of the sink. The problem with its current location is that you can't be cooking and loading the dishwasher, so by moving it to the other side, I can cook dinner, while Justin cleans all the dishes I'm making - creating a perfect world, our own little Zion if you will.

We took out the cabinet above the microwave and rebuilt it. Now not only can I fit all my spices, but I can also store the tall bottles of balsamic vinegar and what not! This change also adds a nice bit of dimension, especially for the crown molding! All these seemingly small changes, with I am sorry to say a lot of work for my sweet husband, definitely makes a huge difference and equals a happy wife.

So, more recently, within the last four weeks to be exact, I saw a picture of a beautiful kitchen with display boxes above. Of course we could not afford the custom cabinets in the photograph. In fact, we cannot afford any new cabinets at all. So, of course, we just get creative.

Our church building is being remodeled, so we talked to the man in charge and he let us salvage some old, perfectly good window casings. We have already used the wood for several different projects, but my favorite project by far has to be the new display boxes Justin built for above the cabinets. It brings your eye up and helps me to store all my many, (maybe too many, but I won't admit that again) dishes! In a few weeks we will putty and paint the entire cabinet so that you can't tell they ever lived apart.

These show what happened it seems all at once. Justin cut all the boxes outside (I did help a little). then he brought them in and had a bulk of it done in about an hour. Then he finished the other side the next day or two and within a few days he had the crown put up perfectly without any gaps at all! What a MAN! Thank you honey!

This last picture is just the shelves rearranged a bit,
now that a few more things have had to be moved.