So that's why it's called duct tape.

Though there was definitely a sense of completion after we got the counters and sink in (as evidenced by our victory pizza), we are not yet done with the kitchen. There are finishing touches to put on, as well as a few small construction projects. The first was the cabinet and microwave that lived over the stove. We had been ignoring them, as they did not impede any of our other tasks and our goal was to get a functioning kitchen again. But now that functionality was taken care of, it was time to tear down one more cabinet.

I was so excited to get these things down that I failed to take a good "before" picture. Here's the black microwave that had no place in our white kitchen (and, to be perfectly honest, was pretty disgusting), and the last of the original cabinets. And yes, like the other ones, this one was nailed into the wall with four inch nails and was just as difficult to rip down. Didn't they have screws back in 1969?

Because I don't like to make anything easy, I also decided to take out a piece of drywall that had some old water damage. It was a pain to have to cut and hang a new piece (notice there's an air vent and an outlet), as well as seal and spackle it, but I'm glad I did it and ensured there are no current water issues.




Because the new cabinet was about 3 inches taller than the previous one, I had to cut a filler piece of duct to get the stove fan vent to make it out of the house. And yes, I finally realized why it was called duct tape.






Here is the final product. We are now officially done installing cabinets, and all of our appliances have been updated.

Next up, constructing a box for lights above the pass through and a pantry.

Back in Business

And we're back to a functioning kitchen! After almost four weeks without a kitchen sink, we now have a beautiful one that has water and a drain and everything. You might not think it's amazing, but it is, at least for people who have been eating off of paper plates, licking utensils clean, and doing dishes in the bathroom. In addition to our sink and lovely faucet, we also have a new garbage disposal and a dishwasher. And it hasn't been all about utility: we've also finished putting the doors on all the cabinets, along with the knobs and handles. There are probably some in-between photos, but we're going to cut to the chase:

We needed a little help from our plumber Michael to feel good about the plumbing setup. He was a great help today.




And there we are. Cabinets, counters, a working sink, a dishwasher, and a cluttered dining/living room in the distance.



Another angle.







To celebrate, we made a nice home-cooked meal of pizza. It's been tough to cook things without a sink, so there have been a lot of microwave meals. Needless to say, it was delicious. But not as delicious as sliding a few of the vegetable remnants from the counter directly into our undermount sink. Sweetness.

There are still many things to attend to, but we're just happy we can live like normal people while we work on them.

Let there be light!

In case the kitchen and the start of school and wedding planning aren't keeping us busy enough, I have also been working on a side project for the past month: getting the tree next to our living room window removed. Not only was it blocking so much light that we felt like we were in a basement, but the type of tree that was there, a Podocarpus, was way too big for the space and had potential to damage the roof and the fence. Moreover, we were already seeing signs of damage on the walkway from the roots.

I got a bunch of competing bids, selected the best one, conferred with the HOA neighbors, gave a heads up to our next-door neighbors, and scheduled Matthew Bowman from Complete Tree Care to come out and do the job. Not only is he a great arborist, but he lives just down the block, so bonus points for supporting our local-ist economy.

Well, what a difference a day makes. Actually, in this case, what a difference twenty minutes makes. Matthew and his guys worked so quickly that I didn't have time to get a good before shot. But here's a mid-way shot:













And here's an after shot of light pouring into the living room:









While it's definitely not easy for environmentally-conscious people like us to give the okay to remove trees, we're going to eventually plant some shrubs that are better suited for that space, so bring on the oxygen!

Confidential to Seth: I told you so!

I love it when a plan comes together

Have you ever decided on a paint color from one of those color swatches, only to find that once you paint a whole wall that color it doesn't look like you planned? Needless to say, we were concerned about this issue when we picked our new (super permanent and not the cheapest thing we've ever bought) countertop based on two 3"x3" samples. Well, they were installed today and we couldn't be happier. Take a look:

Isn't it pretty? It matches the floors nicely and finally makes our kitchen look like a kitchen again.





Ilana is looking forward to sliding crumbs straight from the counter into our new under-mounted sink. However, she's going to promise to not slide too many vegetable remains in because garbage disposals aren't miracle workers, right?

Now all we need to do is hook it up and we have a kitchen sink again. Hallelujah!