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.

Cabinets!

With the floors now done, we are starting to actually put our new kitchen together. Though they're the most difficult, we had to start with the wall cabinets (because they're easier to hang without base cabinets getting in the way).

This is our first cabinet. Once it was on, and on sturdy, there was much rejoicing.










Due to a heating vent, we had to make our first modification. Though it was the most substantial, it was far from our last. I'm pretty sure every cabinet has a touch of customization.







Here they are, side by side, framing our new cut-out very nicely.






However, because we're us, and because the cabinets looked so nice on the walls, we decided we had to take them down and paint, because we didn't want to make it too difficult to do the same in the future. We decided two coats of primer would do it.





And then the cabinets went back up.







And we could turn our attention to the base cabinets. This was taken with a self-timer. And no, we don't coordinate our carpenter wear; we're just All-American like that.



So, after much progress last night, with most of the cabinets in place, we were feeling good; we were ahead of schedule and things were looking great. Ilana was so excited that she asked me to rest the new sink in the cabinet to see what it would look like. I did so, and out of curiousity, held up our newly purchased garbage disposal to see how much room we would have under the sink (not much, by the way -- we've got a big sink and it rocks). Unfortunately, the garbage disposal didn't fit under the sink hole because one of the water pipes stuck out too far. We knew we would need a plumber (disappointing) and decided to hang it up for the night. So we took showers, and after Ilana finished, she noticed that the water wouldn't shut off completely. A steady drizzle was coming out of the shower. I tried all my tricks, but ended up having to turn the water off for our whole place. We went to sleep on a low note, knowing that we now had two reasons to call a plumber, and one couldn't wait.

Luckily, this morning, Ilana found a super nice guy on Yelp who lives nearby and came over within two hours. He fixed our leaking shower, showed me how to do the same in the future, and moved the kitchen sink pipe all for a ridiculously low price. He's our new plumber. With all that solved, we were able to turn our attention back to the cabinets.

This is our current setting. We're getting pretty excited; it's nice to get a sense of what our kitchen will actually look like, as well as actually have some room for things (Ilana has already used some cabinet space for pots and pans). Notice the sink is there, and the disposal fits fine this time.

The counter installers are coming tomorrow to measure everything so they can install next Wednesday. Then, perhaps, we can stop doing our dishes in the bathroom sink.