Are We Done Yet?

The cupboards are hickory, the counter top granite, the wall above the granite is tile we combined in a mosaic pattern, and the floor is tile. The counter top and cupboards were done by a contractor. The rest of the kitchen we have done.

We started in October and planned to have the cupboards, tile, floor, and counter top in by Christmas. Instead we spent months with a piece of plywood for a counter top, digging through boxes for food and dishes, and a wood platform for the slide in stove.

What would have be a comedy of errors had it been funny ended up three months of intense frustration. Some of the problems were due to the store miss ordering and other times the manufacturer sent the wrong product. The cupboard next to the dishwasher was the worst mess. It arrived the first time with the door cut out on the wrong side. When in place, it opened into the side of the dishwasher, then it came with the opening on the correct spot but no door, then the wrong style of door was shipped to replace it. Since the cupboards are individually made, we waited weeks in between each shipment. I don't know if a single cupboard was correct the first time. Our contractors said they had never experienced anything like it before. And before they were done they ended up custom building a cupboard for the microwave-convection oven and one for the slide in stove.

Kirk laid the tile above the counter top, then we were too busy with other pressing projects to continue. So here we are, its June and we're finishing up the kitchen. We need to complete the kitchen adding decorating touches and decorate the main bathroom we redid before the kitchen because the master bathroom is next. My sister asked for pictures and so here they are on my blog as I wished to share them with you also.

We just completed the window seat Friday and I put the last coat of sealer on it Monday night. It was another challenging task as the seat is wider than a oak board and longer than a sheet of plywood. Designing and shopping are part of my designated tasks and it took three stores before I found a place with a large enough variety of trims and someone who could think outside the box with me, so to speak. The back trim pieces hide the gap left by the inadequate width of the board and on the front where the trim is eight feet not eight feet three inches we added square blocks similar to the ones on the window trim. We are pleased with the results. Who knows had it not been such a challenge maybe it would not have turned out so well.

The back of the microwave and slide in stove is paneling and I'm so glad we decided to spend the extra money and have doors put on. The paneling was just too uniform in pattern and contradicted the random coloration effect that hickory gives.
Mark, our tenth cousin, twice removed, whom we've never met.

What comes next is the curtains which I've yet to find the fabric for and decorating the walls. The picture frames have been up for months to my husbands disgruntlement. He says if we have to look at Mark, our tenth cousin twice removed, whom we've never met, one more month he's going to go insane. As for me, I don't mind Mark. He's quite a pleasant fellow. He's always cheerful and he's yet to make one demand of me. On the other hand, our son says he's rather put out since there are two picture frames filled with pictures of this shirttail cousin, be it the same exact ones, and none of him, the beloved son of his parents. Kirk said I either made it a priority and put some pictures in the frames or I had to come up with a good story line for each of the strangers that graced our walls. Me, well, I'm just trying to decide whether I like the intense Tuscon color on the walls or whether I should repaint the kitchen. I'm rather a boring cream colored wall person by nature. The kids said I had to break out of my boring mold and add some color to my world so here it is and I'm still trying to adjust. Though the photo does not do it justice, the deep red is a cool color. It's that orangy thing above it that bothers me. It didn't look anything like that on the paint swatch.