A big ole kitchen post

 Now that we have a stove I feel like we are officially home. Being able to cook and bake makes me feel grounded. Today I whipped up a batch of box carrot cake from Betty Crocker , yummy yummy. I thought I should give my big oven a whirl. They were right about it taking a lot longer to heat up a 36" oven , but the upside is I can bake a mother load of cupcakes all at once, all on the same middle rack , bliss for lady who loves to bake.

 All those cupcakes fit side by side, amaze balls. I haven't gotten around to sanding any of the lowers here , when the weather warms up , which has to be soon , it's May right??? then I will get to them .

 Well here she is , my lovely little island , we even have the counter top just waiting to be cut. That is a two person job , because butcher block is HEAVY stuff. I will have to trim the width and length. We will have to somehow drag it outside and cut it with a circular saw.
As you can see I clad the island with bead board and then added the legs and wrapped trim around them and the entire base. I painted it Powder Horn by Para .

 I also finished off the fridge and hutch cornice , I am working on the shelves, I didn't dare try to paint the laminate shelves that came with the kitchen. Paint and laminate hate each other , no matter how well you prepare it . So I picked up some boards of pine and I will paint those , they will stand up better.

 Other exciting news , we have WATER AND ICE , our fridge was connected yesterday , we are going to really enjoy having cold filtered water and ice, crushed and cubed, LOVE this.

 We will be having electrical added to the island, one outlet for the microwave shelf at the end and then one to the back side facing the fridge.

 I finally decided on the location of our bottle opener, I went with the island location.

 I am loving the pine floors , the character is developing all over. I'm good with it. I do still need to go into some of the cracks / gaps and stain them , but that can wait till the rest of big stuff is done.

 I figured one of the pieces of hardboard would work well at least for now as a temporary counter.

 I love carpentry I really do , it is an amazing thing to be able to do . I am so so glad I learned how to do carpentry.

 Can we also talk about my dishwasher , I am so grateful to have this machine up and running, it is a dream , it fits everything and does a great great job and best of all it is the quietest dishwasher I have ever not heard.

 Some doors are back up , progress.

 Here are the two colours the top is Bedford gray Martha Stewart and the lower one is Powder horn Para, what a weird colour name , right?

 Lots to do , finish the tiling , but not until the counters are in though, the counters , cabinet painting , re-installing the brackets.

 Here is our island counter from Ikea , it is beech , I love the variation in the grain , it will be stained but not too dark and then coated with a hard wearing topcoat used on boats.

I've been able to prime out a few more spindles , my hands go numb and tingly when I paint so its taking me a while to complete it .

So that's that , lots getting done , lots still to do , lots of time to get it done.