Closure. . .Literally

My missing cabinet doors have finally arrived. . .and only. . .26 days past the original finish date! 

Plus the painter came and fixed the gap around my farm sink--LOVE it!

Now if only our backsplash tile would get here. . . 

Hardware Is In

The cabinets are almost entirely done now.  The hardware went in and most of the finishing touches are complete.  I still need three of my glass doors to come back from the cabinet shop and a couple touch ups still need addressed, but the rest is up to us to do ourselves (moulding, tile, etc.).  Here are a couple pictures:

A Vegetable Garden Journey

First, how old am I?  Geez, one day working in the yard and I feel like I might be broken.  That is some sad commentary on my physical fitness of late.  I blame it on the homework.

Anyhow, in an effort to avoid said homework--and prepare a home for these:

We worked on our side yard trying to prepare for a raised bed garden.  When we moved in there was one tall spindly pine tree over there and three sad looking raised beds.  The tree came down on one and the other two were rotten--so we tore them all out.  Last year all we managed to do was throw a few vegetables in the dirt pile and call it quits.

This year I have bigger ambitions.  Here is where we were this morning:

Things were going fine until we ran into this:

We ground out most of the stump last year but apparently we missed this little lovely number.  Hours of shoveling and axing and digging and a little chainsawing. . .  and we had exposed a big chunk, but little else.  Our very nice neighbor came over and offered his assistance--and his truck. . . and chains.  (Note the rake for size reference--that bad boy was huge.)

Voila!  Out it came. Yeah!

Then we set to work putting in our first raised bed.  But everywhere we tried to dig for the corner posts we hit roots under the surface. 

 

FINALLY, a few feet farther forward than we intended, we have one bed.  

And we got a little eager so we transplanted our lonely blueberry bush into it.  We will buy it some friends.  For now I hope it lives through the traumatic five foot move.  If we had more lumber we would have built another one in like twenty minutes.  The area against the garage is all ready to go.  We started with the worst corner. . . I hope.

During our excavation we rescued a handful of chive plants, my garlic plants, and three mysterious bulbs that I will plant in a pot and see what comes out.  Whew!  

Now it is a race to see if the beds are ready before the 70 odd plants I have growing in little peat pots need to be planted.  I will be sure to post our progress.

Down To The Details. . .

. . . in other words: "Alright already!  I want my kitchen back."

Now that we have been on this month long journey to a new and fabulous kitchen it seems to have slowed to a snail's pace.    This week we. . . put up the second part of the crown!   And that is about it--oh, and they took three doors away to fix that had issues. . . and they are looking for the glass doors that go on the cabinets by the fridge--they never made it back when that cabinet got rebuilt.  This may sound like they aren't doing a great job when in fact they are.  Our installer has taken an inordinate amount of time adjusting each cabinet to make sure it is flush and level. . .I am just ready to put my dishes in my cupboards and reclaim my space.

Oh, I actually started to do that anyway--regardless of the missing doors and hardware (The missing doors are glass anyway so they will look a lot like this).  Here are the most recent pictures:

I am stilling working on the arrangement of these glass hutch cupboards.

A look at my ceiling - it is a little rough since it is painted pine, (and we didn't sand it much) but I've decided I like it that way.

Still to do:

1.   Door adjustments

2.   Bring back missing doors

3.   Hardware installation

4.   Sink fix (there is a gap around the sink due to a misunderstanding that will be getting fixed)

5.   Moulding around window and door to formal dining room (otherwise known as the piano           room since no dining occurs there)

6.   Backsplash tile installation

7.   Hardwood floor fixes (it needs to be stained in areas where the cabinet footprint changed           slightly--then a final topcoat put on)

8.  Final touch ups

So you see it's not as close as it looks. And now that I just catalogued what still needs to get done it seems less close than it did a minute ago.  Maybe I will go put more dishes away--that seems to help.

What do you think so far?  How would you go about arranging the hutch cupboards? Should I put cafe curtains on my kitchen windows (I never meant to but they suddenly look like cafe curtain windows!)?

Oh So Close

I may have spoken a little too soon.  My kitchen cabinets are not quite done. . .yet still, I love them.  Perhaps I should make you wait for the final reveal to make a bigger impact--but no.  Here is what we got done today: uppers in, first step of two part crown in, cook top and downdraft in, sink in, facet in.  (And by "we" I really mean the cabinet installer and Rob--with a smidge of help from me.)

Ode to Soapstone

Oh inky soapstone, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways:

I love the depth and richness of thy color. . .

and the wispy veins that flow upon thee.  

I love thy texture and thy shape,

thy silky smoothness and thy soapy talciness.

I love they way you set off my cabinets and make my appliances shimmer.

I love thee with smiles and tears, with sighs and long glances.

I shall love thee here. . .and I shall love thee elsewhere--

should we ever move and have to install thee all over again.

And I love that my cabinets will be all in by the end of the day. Yeah!

Welcome Spring!

So this time of year I start getting spring fever.  I want to be outside--with my hands in the dirt.  I start looking up plants and planning beds and thinking of making hypertufa pots.  But what I am really excited about this year is my garden. And since my kitchen is on hold mode until Wednesday (since last Saturday)  I decided to get a jump start.

Last year was the first year in this house and so the first year I had space for more than a couple tomato plants and maybe a pepper plant or two.  But since I had ripped out my rotten raised beds I merely had a dirt patch for a garden.  I threw in some tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and a few herbs and called it good. 

But THIS year, I have big plans.  I am getting ready to build several raised beds in my side yard for lots of lovely gardening.  I have drawn diagrams and made lists. . . and over the weekend I purchased SEEDS.  I am going to attempt to grow a garden from scratch.  I figure if they all die I can run out last minute and buy plants at the nursery and try again.  But since seeds are cheap I splurged and bought like 17 different kinds of seeds.  Then I purchased some of those little peat pots for starting seeds.

I filled the peat pellets with water and watched them swell--in equal increments with my excitement--then I pushed tiny little seeds down in the musty soil and stuck in my make-shift labels. . .

Then I covered them up to keep them moist and wait for the day when they will pop their tiny heads up out of the dirt.  I can't wait.  Just the sight of the water condensing on the domed lid makes me giddy. . .

And now that they are on their way to becoming little plants that will some day soon need a home, I have further incentive to get out there and build my garden.  Wish me luck!