Kitchen almost done

This week end we pushed through and finished everything we could in the kitchen. That means we installed the new cabinets on the new fridge side of the room and framed the new door opening. All that is left is installing the countertop and handles on the new wall cabinets. The countertop is still not in stock at IKEA, but as soon as I can I will go buy that and we will really finish this project.

The door sill Dad made looks really great, even though to cover all the opening in the floor it has to be wider than the doorframe itself. Being one piece and stained similarly to the wood floor makes it not so obvious though. And we all love the big opening between the two rooms.

 And here is a view coming up the stairs into the room with the new cabinets on the right.

Kitchen, part 4 (or is it 5?)

Its really starting to come together now - both in terms of being useful again as well as in looking really nice.

Here is the new fridge waiting for the new cabinets to be installed beside it ...

Here are the 56 boxes and bags from IKEA after they were delivered and before I sorted them by cabinet. Almost every piece of every cabinet came separately packaged. It has been crazy keeping them all straight.

And here are some shots of the repainted main side of the kitchen now that all the handles have been attached and the first cabinet - the big pantry has been put together and put in place where the fridge used to be. I knew it was going to be a darker shade of gray, but I didn't want to do all the cabinets that dark. I think the multiple shades of gray works ok.

And finally, here are a couple detail shots of some refinements, including a spice rack in the door over the stove, new glass containers for coffee and sugar (placed directly over the coffee maker to things that get used in the same spot together), a new paper towel holder that doesn't scare or cut people with an overly serrated edge, and a divider rack for the cutting boards and cookie sheets to keep things straight.

New Fridge!

It's here and its big and shiny and we love it!

This week-end Miran will move the water hook up across the room so that we can hook up the icemaker and water. That will be exciting.

And now that I know exactly how big it is and how much space is needed around it, I can go to IKEA and order the cabinets - finally!

It also took us awhile to get it cooled because it seems the first outlet we used wasn't powerful enough, but the second worked. We'll have to switch out the outlets later.

Kitchen make-over 3, slow progress

I've been painting for days but it was only today that it started to really look different. I've been being very thorough, so it took a while to do a few coats inside the cabinets, including polyurethane. Today I got the gray on the outsides so it really looks dramatically different. This shot also shows the insides - green on the back walls and white everywhere else. I even painted inside all the drawers. It is very fresh and clean now.

We've had a most wonderful complication that will delay us from finishing this week-end. We are getting a new fridge (thanks Mom and Dad!), but it won't fit where the old one was. So we plan to put it on the empty side and I had to redo the design for the new cabinets as well as make a plan to get the pantry installed where the old fridge was. And this involves demoing the upper cabinets on that side. But we are very excited about the new fridge and the changes as a result. Having the fridge on the other side will be better anyway. In this image below from IKEA's kitchen planner, the fridge will go in the corner on the right (and the countertop will extend over to it).

The fridge has been ordered and will be delivered next Thursday. I'm not even going to order the cabinets until it is installed because I want to be sure my dimensions are all perfect. We are going to wait a little while to add the upper cabinets on the right (new fridge) side of the room to save a little money in the short term.

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the completion of this project because the kitchen and dining room are basically unusable and we are all getting tired of sandwiches and one-pot meals (the stove does work but we are keeping it simple).

Kitchen, Part 2

Yesterday I managed to get the wall all painted green. There is a lot of green now, but remember it will have cabinets in front of it eventually. This is also a nice daytime shot of the widened door.

Today I planned to paint the cabinets, and I worked from 9:30 to 4:30, but never go to the painting part. It took all day to empty everything out, clean inside, remove the hardware, and put wood filler in the handle holes (I'm considering having the handles on the old and new sides match to try to pull the different cabinets together). By the time I did all that, it was too late and I was too tired to open up the paint cans. But everything is ready so tomorrow I can just get up and knock out the cabinet painting.

Here is a shot of the cabinets, ready to be painted, as well as a shot of the contents of my kitchen piled up in my dining and living rooms! In the kitchen shot, you can get a little hint of the future gray cabinets because I forgot to mention I painted the ones around the fridge last night so we could put the fridge back and stop moving it in and out.

And for fun, here is a link back to when we painted the cabinets black in the first place in September 2009 - http://teammakas.blogspot.com/2009/09/kitchen-is-done-sort-of.html