Sunday, January 4, 2009

Kitchen 2.0

I've been whining about this "kitchen" since we moved in.



After a year of planning and collecting I finally took the week of Xmas off and started to really tear into it.



There were major setbacks, a foot of snow, electrical decisions, my (well deserved) fear of drywall, a sudden need to re-lay 60 squares of the kitchen floor, another project wherein I drunkenly offered to build a wheelchair ramp for a friend (in the foot of snow), and some appliance mysteries to boot. But the first bank of new cabinets with a cooktop and built in oven are in place.



Soon I will install the face of the cabinets which I have already assembled and then put in cement board on the upper wall for tile. Then on to installing the prep sink and the copper vent hood, the oak butcher block counter and the grand finale, an in-counter grill.



Ill get into the specifics on further steps later, but just a few notes on this section. The oak raised panel cabinets were salvaged from a Seattle home remodel as were the cooktop, the built in oven, the faucet, the garbage disposal unit, and the copper vent hood. The prep sink was bought new to match the large farm sink that will go on the other side of the kitchen. It took 6 months to collect all the parts, and there were several changes to the plan based on availability of better material. The copper vent hood just voted the stainless hood off the island last week. Keeping my plan loose and taking my time to prepare has led me to a remodel at substantially less cost with little impact on the environment.

As for the environmental impact, I try every way possible to mitigate my consumptive nature. While pulling down the lath and plaster I separated the lath so it can be recycled as clean wood. My previous set of cabinets were donated to the salvage store so they can hopefully end up in someones garage or retro kitchen. There are three parts to the logo "Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle" we've got to remember that re-cycle is the last of them.

Breaking Rocks in the hot sun

Way back in August we brought home a vintage cabinet so big that it required a dinner party to entice moving help to come by an carry it into the dining room.

My great appreciation for you all who helped.

What hasn't been mentioned is that it also required the removal of several layers of brick from the hideous planter box in front of our front door. While we had planned to remove the giant brick box eventually in favor of installing a real porch, there was no timetable set other than "next year sometime".



Since the box is in the front of the house I'm concerned that it looks like a@# with a large chunk missing so I've been slowly chipping away at it for the last few months.
With the current on again off again slush and snow its not any sort of priority. Ill revisit it as part of the wrap around front porch that is still scheduled for "next year sometime"