Presenting...

On my last post of 2009, I present a before, during and after of one of our largest projects, the kitchen.

Before (well, the cabinet was usually attached to the wall)

During

and, After

Happy New Year! 2010 Will bring some new surprises, so look back in the new year for more projects!

Kitchen Favorites

Before the final 'After' pictures of the finished kitchen, Here are a few highlights of some of my most favorite elements of our new kitchen.

Microwave Boxes: With a gap on each side of the microwave, we used this extra space to make two small boxes, one in which we keep a cook book, and on the other, our cutting boards. Easy access, and a great use of space.

Knife Strip:We did away with the wood blocks that took up a lot of counter space, and added a simple magnetic strip for knives and scissors.
Trimmed out fridge: Dan took the iniative to trim out all around the fridge, giving it a great built in look!
Black Granite: Installing black granite was actually a last minute decision, but one I am glad we made. The granite looks excellent against our white sink and cabinets.

Range Hood: Dan did a GREAT job finishing out the range hood.


Spicket: Dan got this at a furniture store that was going out of business, and I love it! It's very large, but it reaches all crevices in the sink, and scours dirty pans. Also like that it is from the Chicago Faucet Company, just cuz it's local.

DIY Cabinet

There is an interesting cutout in our kitchen wall. To make it into a large appliance cabinet, we had two doorframes custom made along with our other cabinets.


Using corks we had saved, we made the top two panels into corkboards, and using chalkboard paint, we painted two pieces of plywood. Presto! A formerly awkward space is now put to good use!

Dan's workshop

We found a great old library card catalog and transformed it into a great addition to Dan's workshop. It works really well! It smells like a church or library, too.

This is Dan's favorite drawer

Wine Room!

Dan found wine racking on Craigslist and fashioned it into a wine room. Here's a few pics






Future project: Dan will install this cooler and we will install an exterior grade door, making this room the perfect temperature for all of our vino!

Fire!

This December, Dan climbed onto the roof to install the 'RS Exhausto Chimney Fan' Why? Well, because every time we attempted a fire, smoke would billow into our house, making all contents smell like we live in a bbq pit.
He watched the weather daily, waiting for a day that didn't rain, freeze or snow. So, when the day came, he called Bret and the two ran up and down the stairs, up and down the ladder, installing the fan and running the electricity:


Dan was delighted to find that the gang box was already large enough to accomodate a new switch for the fan. Fire!!

Cats and Constructinon: a perfect pairing

Cats are such giving creatures, and I must take this opportunity to highlight all the help we've received during our various projects this year:

Here's Diego 'helping' with the painting of the living room

Torpedo and Ben "assisting" with the unwrapping of light fixtures

Diego "helping" hold the stove down

Ben "helping" to also keep the stove in place

Thanks, kitties!

Kitchen Finishing Touches: knobs and lights

With appliances and cabinets in place, we have a few finishing touches to add to the kitchen. For me, this part was ridiculously fun, after all of the messy work. First, we found these excellent knobs made by our Swedish friends for all of our cabinets:


Next, Dan installed our light fixtures, which we found at the Schoolhouse Electric.

These fixtures are beautiful!

Special Guests! The Kitchen gets humming!

After finishing with the metal cabinets, we had a few special guests to help us with the next two projects: installing wood cabinets (we have a mix of both wood and metal cabinets, you'll see, it worked!) and installing a range hood.
For the cabinets, we had two special guests, Connor and Ken! They got them up in no time. Thanks, guys! Look at how handy Connor is!

I think I scared Ken when I took this picture!Next came the range hood installation. So, here comes the muscle!

Bret helped Dan by lifting the hefty hood in place so that Dan could then make a tracing of where the hood would exhaust to outside, meaning he cut a whole in our house!!!

Heeeerree's Danny!

Thhhhatttt's all, Folks!

North Dakota Metal Cabs- a lot of before and after

These cabinets from ND that my cousin Bob and his wife Niki so generously gave to us are just plain cool, so I'm just going to post a whole bunch of pictures of them of before and after:


The cabinets were in fantastic condition, with very little rust.

You can see on the cabinet on the left the fade work in the paint, it was very cool. I think my uncle Milo had taken these to an auto body shop to be painted. We liked the green, but a paint job updated them for our more modern kitchen.
Goodbye Green! Hello, white:

This is a view looking down on a lower cabinet. What I love about these cabinets are these huge, deep drawers. Everything fits, evening funnels and measuring cups!

Ready powdercoating, who did the paint job, saved EVERY little screw and hinge. They did an AMAZING job. I couldn't believe that they had saved all of the hardware. And I'm glad they did, where would have we found replacement parts for these cabinets!

Doors, ready to be reassembled:

And the first cabinet to be installed!