Cabinets go in!

It's been a looong time coming, but the new kitchen is really starting to take shape. When we first walked through the house a little less than three years ago, we could see the potential of the other living spaces, but the kitchen was crying out for help. It had been remodeled back in the 80s with oiled oak cabinets and Italian tile. Good quality stuff, but not the style we felt was appropriate to the design of the house or to our tastes.


We gave our drawings and a pic of the Case Study #22 kitchen to our cabinet guy, wrote him a check and hoped he would do a good job. Haley was having nightmares of Swiss Chalet, rustic cabinets with wood burned accents.

This was to be our first peek at what he came up with. Was it close? Did he really "get" what we wanted? Would the release of nervous endorphins be too much for our systems? Would I have to take Haley to Urgent Care because she was so excited she was visibly vibrating. Now was the time to find out!

The first piece in place... hmmmm... I think I like it, I like the legs and the aluminum band across the bottom.
Sliding frosted glass doors on the upper cabinets.
Ahhh... this is the base cabinet that will hold the vintage Thermador cooktop. Note the aluminum trim piece sticking out. That will overlap the cabinet that will extend the cooktop counter and hold the under-counter microwave.
Haley was so very excited... we had to get out of there. So we went out to breakfast and to the store to pick up some orange plastic spray paint for the pads on our Burke chairs (they were originally orange, but had been sprayed light blue. We would like them to be orange again). It was a good diversion.

This is what we saw when we came back 2 hours later.

The floor slants, the walls are a little bit wavey, and the beams aren't exactly the same so there was a fair amount of noodling needed to get things level and fitting properly. The height adjustable legs helped make things easier. These guys really know their stuff and were totally up to the challenge.

This was our first view of how it was all going to fit together. Those upper cabinets really set things off... as do the legs.
(note: they originally made the back of the cooktop/spicerack cabinet go all the way to the floor. We wanted everything up for a more cohesive look and allow light from one room to spill into the other, so they removed the spice rack, took it back to the shop to cut and trim it down.)
The sliders of the spice rack are paint grade plywood that Haley and I will paint to match our drawing at the top of this post.
All cleaned up with temporary melamine countertops tacked in place. They will work until we decide on the right solid surface counters (right= affordable and good looking).
The sink will go where the blue paper towels are, and the hole on the left will be filled with the under-counter microwave.
This is my favorite view. Those holes will be covered by the backing that is attached to the spice rack, which was removed to trim 8" or so off the bottom. The wood sliders under the glass uppers will be painted to match the drawing at the top of this post.
Next, install the fridge, dishwasher, sink, disposer, twin ovens, cooktop and microwave.
Phase 2 will include permanent countertops and the under-counter food processing center thingie.