More Crown Molding Pictures

This is showing the crown molding (although not in detail, it's really pretty) around the dining room ceiling. It finishes the room off nicely and really makes the ceiling pop.

You can see it a little better on the cabinets, as well as see the vast expanse of counter top we now have and the high faucet on the sink. The double sink is very deep on both sides, so we are loving being able to put big pots under it. The garbage disposal, a top of the line Insinkerator, is incredibly quiet, as is the Electrolux dishwasher.

The last touches will be the back splash, which goes in on Monday. The tile installer says it's going to be spectacular. I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to cook breakfast on my new cook top this morning, or to eat a home cooked dinner tonight. Woonderful! Now if only all of those boxes of dishes and pots and pans would magically unload themselves and wash themselves and put themselves away.....

Crown Moldings and a Working Kitchen!

Finally, a functional kitchen! Here is the new dishwasher, which has been getting a workout today as we are emptying boxes of dishes and washing the newsprint and dust off of them. We ate at our new table on real dishes with real utensils and glasses and home cooked food. It was wonderful.

I baked a small ham in the oven, it worked great.

Notice the crown molding in the laundry room and throughout the kitchen and dining room. It matches the cabinets and really classes the place up.


There's a view from the laundry through the kitchen, looking into the dining room. Much more open, even if it is still a galley kitchen. Without the huge fridge at one end and the enormous laundry closet at the other, it just feels so much more spacious.

Joe's Aunt Shirley gave us these placemats and matching napkins one Christmas, and they go perfectly with the new table. They're extra large, which means you have room for your plate, glass, and tableware on the mat, and room to spare. As the table is not topped with formica, we have to be a bit more careful about not getting water rings and such.

Yet More PIctures

Here's a view of all the counter space we now have on one side of the kitchen....


.....and the other.



And finally, our gorgeous under mount sink. I'm hoping for it to be hooked up (along with the dishwasher) and faucet put in by tomorrow or Wednesday. We're planning a big, home cooked breakfast on Saturday!

New Dining Room Furniture and More!

Here's the wall ovens (the plastic is to protect them until the workers are done in the kitchen). The controls are too cool--the four Electrolux appliances are the Wave Touch ones, where the controls appear when you touch the surface of the panel (top). The bottom oven has a bread proofing feature, among other things.

Second picture is looking through the kitchen at the dining room. Lots more space, even with the wall ovens there.

The other three pictures are of the new dining room set, currently pushed up against one wall so that the granite guys did not scratch anything up. The wood is gorgeous, a warm mango wood, and everything is very well constructed and heavy. Really heavy. The table has an 18 inch leaf, making it 92 inches with the leaf. The china hutch is coming in about three weeks, and when it is on the hutch, little five foot four inch on a good day me can't reach the top by four inches. So we'll have lots of storage. Also noticed the lovely padded leather seats.

Almost There!

This is the counter top for the laundry room cabinet (no sense putting an expensive backsplash there).

Next is a wider view of the whole new laundry.

To the right of the new cook top we have a drawer for knives, one for spices, and one for cutlery (which will house our "good" set of stainless).

To the cook top's left is a drawer for cooking utensils. Organization, yippee!

There's a close up of the range hood (we haven't bothered to clean off all the fingerprints yet, no point with the workmen still coming to do the crown molding, finish the electrical plates, and the back splash, which will be the last thing. We went quite a bit over on the back splash, but I am assured by the tiler that it's going to look gorgeous. Joe designed it, and I have to agree it will be beautiful.

Came Home to a Wonderful Surprise!

I came home today to find that the counter tops, which were supposed to be put in later this week, are in! Not only that, but they put in the cooktop (seen in the first picture) and the sink, although the sink and dishwasher are not yet connected. That will happen soon, and I can finally cook again.

The dishwasher is also Electrolux (as is everything but the range hood) and is stainless steel inside, as you can see in the second picture.

The other three pictures are the new kitchen from several angles, showing the new sink, the ovens and cook top, and the counter depth refrigerator (you can also see the old refrigerator in the laundry room in the last picture). And no, the cabinets are not two different colors, that was just the difference in the unblocked light above and the overhang of the counter tops below.

Cabinets, the Sequel

Here is a picture of the cabinets in the laundry room, with the space for our older fridge. Tons of storage!

I tried to get a good picture of the hardware, which is beautiful and goes nicely with our ceiling lights.

Then there's the inside of one of the cabinets, showing the gorgeous wood and full finish--not a speck of particle board in these beauties!

Next comes the pull-out shelves, which are in every single cabinet except for the drawers. All drawers and pull-outs have that magic touch closing thingy, where they close themselves gently with just a push.

There are our two, not one, but two, count 'em, garbage cans, each holding a big kitchen garbage bag.

The quality of the workmanship is exquisite and the attention to details is excellent. I must highly recommend Florida Custom Cabinets in Panama City, because they have done a wonderful job.

The countertops will be here in about a week, but some of the appliances will be installed this week, so stay tuned!

Cabinets!

Finally, our cabinets are mostly in! First photo is of the space for the new fridge, second is the space for the wall ovens.

Next is proud hubby standing next to the pull-out pantry (we have two of these on each side of the pantry, four pull-outs in all).

Next is the left side of the kitchen, with the fridge space and pantry at the far end.

Next is the right side of the kitchen, with the wall oven space on the far end. You can see where the range hood and cooktop will go, under that higher section.

Lights, Paint, Doors!

Finally, I can do laundry again. There's a little more work to be done in the new room (moving the fridge in, taking up the protective blue plastic from the tile floor, and installing the cabinets in the corner) but it is at least functional once more.

The second picture shows the new (not yet painted white) pocket door to the new laundry room.

Pictures Three and Four show the new kitchen and dining room lights. Notice that the light over the imaginary sink matches the chandelier over the imaginary dining table. No, the refrigerator isn't staying there, that's the one that will be in the corner of the new room next to the cabinets come Monday. Monday should also see the first of our new cabinets installed on the sink side while the electrician finishes the wiring on the oven/cooktop side. With any luck, we should have appliances installed on Thursday and be able to cook again this coming weekend--yahoo!

We Have Tile! (Well, most of it....)

Here are the latest bits of progress. The first picture isn't great, but you can just see the light taupe color we choose for the dining room and kitchen on the wall to the left.

The second picture shows the finished ceiling tile in the kitchen, and the last picture shows our new tile floor in the kitchen (laundry room will be done tomorrow, then grout).

Next week, cabinets and appliances!

And the Old Kitchen is GONE

As you can see, the old kitchen is completely gone. My old appliances are awaiting pickup by Goodwill tomorrow. They've done the ceiling tiles in the dining room and will probably finish the kitchen ceiling tomorrow. The electrician also comes tomorrow to move switches and hook up the new lighting, and they are planning on painting the dining room tomorrow as well.

Next week should see the tile floors go down as well as the rest of the painting getting done, and then the cabinets will go in and the appliances, the backsplash, and voila! a new kitchen--I hope in no more than two more weeks.

Notice how in the top picture you can see the old brown brick pattern we had when we first moved into the house--much darker than I remember it being. The only place that still shows is in the front bathroom, which will be remodeled next spring.

Popcorn is Evil (Ceiling, I.E.)

The guys were here very early this morning and worked hard all day. They scraped the popcorn ceiling off (what a horrid mess, which they did clean up but the dust settles right back down). They've got the strips to which our tile ceiling is going to be attached, and as you can see in the three pictures, they had to do a lot of shimming to get the strips level. Apparently, our original builder didn't bother to use a level when installing the trusses, so there are some dips. When it was all done, James the contractor informed me that he wanted to kill our builder--this took much longer because of those 24 year old mistakes. But at least our new ceiling will be level!

Cabinets should be ready by end of next week. The kitchen will be completely demolished on Friday, but cooking in there is not really an option even now--takes too long to clean up after the construction. We're hoping for a completed kitchen in about two and one half weeks. Then we get to clean the rest of the house....which I'm sure is covered in that dust....