Kitchen Organization

Nothing in the way of kitchen renovations went on today. But we did have our first home cooked meal in our new kitchen, and used our new stove for the first time - which heats up SO ridiculously fast, its awesome.  I also got to do dishes for the first time, which I was oddly excited about it (I'm sure I'll get over that quickly... by like tomorrow.), and must say I do love the new sink and faucet.

Since not much was done today, I thought I'd follow up a little on my organization and cleaning up.  Over at Young House Love this weekend they are running a "Let's Tackle It Together" project, which just so happened to be cleaning up the kitchen cabinets! Perfect!  Unfortunately I don't have anything groundbreaking-ly creative in the way of organization, just some common sense placement of kitchen necessities. (But, I'm sure the Youngsters will have something wicked awesome, so check with them tomorrow if you're looking for actual tips and not just pictures of my cabinets.)

Starting from the fridge we have the glasses, and the mugs on the other side of the sink...

My favorite, and the one I am most proud of, the storage container cabinet...

Next  the plates and bowls, with the spices on the other side of the stove...

Luckily(?) we aren't too culinary-ly gifted, so our spices are limited. (And you're not imaging those 3 bottles of PAM. I don't know why we have 3)  Down below, we've got the pots and pans to the left of the stove in a super susan, and the mixing bowls and small electrics on the right side in a super susan (cause we like overkill, and what's more overkill than two of these massive cabinets?).

Interesting note, if it's not balanced correctly, the super susan will start to turn on its own (see top right shelf). So, there's something I'll have to work on.

Otherwise, we've got the dual trash can cabinet next to the stove, some small drawers on the end of the peninsula, and some large pots and pans drawers in the middle.  Oh, and this beauty...

Is it not the best utensil drawer ever?  I found this expandable organizer at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and it fits perfect in the top drawer of the peninsula.  (And yes, that is a cow ice cream scoop, thanks for asking.)  The best part, the main section has a little labels with pictures of the utensil that goes there, so B has no excuse for putting anything in the wrong spot.

And I'm soliciting suggestions for what to do with this drawer/shelf thing...

Yes, I understand it is probably *supposed* to be some sort of spice rack.  A very frustrating one, since it wouldn't be too easy to get spices out of there.  Right now, the top shelf is housing my new "Original Drying Mat" that I find much more attractive than an actual drying rack, and the second rack has a few dish rags and pot holders I shoved in there.  Any ideas on what else I could do with it to make it functional? (The shelves do supposedly come out and can be adjusted up and down)

And, in the spirit of organization, I spent a few minutes cleaning out the fridge tonight. (Which if you remember yesterdays asparagus, you know could be scary.)  I filled a trash bag with a variety of things that were too old to be eaten.  I always hate throwing food away, I feel so wasteful, but it was nice to get some of that out of the fridge, so I can actually make a real grocery shopping trip one of these days.

I've also got my fingers crossed that the shelves for my pantry arrive in the next day or two so I can get all of our non-refrigerated actual food organized.  Which will just make me realize we have nothing, and again force me to go grocery shopping.

Kitchen Renovation: Day 30 - Water!

30 days from demo to a fully functional kitchen.  Today was probably the most exciting day yet for me.  We have all the plumbing hooked up!! Big shout out to my step dad for being so totally awesome and getting it all done!  The fridge is in place, the dishwasher is hooked up, and the sink not only has water but drains too, AND the garbage disposal is working.  It was a good, good day.

First, we took three trips to the dump to get rid of all of this:

 It wasn't pretty, but it gone. And I'm grateful.  While the men worked on the plumbing, my mom and I set to cutting out the shelf liners.  After about the sixth shelf, I realized it would be a lot easier to put the liner on top of the shelf with it not in the cabinet, and then cut it out.  Such an obvious solution. (although the drawers were still tough.)

The next task was getting the fridge across the tile, without incident.  Lucky for us, our good friend and tile guy has the perfect solution: an air sled.

It's two pieces you slide under... well anything, and when you turn on the motor they fill up with air, making it much easier to move large objects.

After the plumbing was done, we of course had to test everything out to make sure there weren't any leaks, and to make the garbage disposal worked.  What better way to check it than to shove all the food, that's been in the fridge too long because we couldn't cook it, down the drain?

Yup, some, at least 30 day old, asparagus. I feel disgusting admitting it, but that right there folks, is reality.

And finally, here's the shot of the awesome plumbing job I know you've all been waiting for:

As beautiful as that is, I'm sure you were ACTUALLY looking for a picture of the kitchen put together.  So here you go:

I started getting everything organized, as you can see with the toaster oven and knife block making their appearance.   I've pretty much got the cabinets organized as well, but we'll save that for later.  And for your viewing pleasure, another gratuitous shot of the sink, this time with the fully installed faucet:

I'd like to say it's DONE. But it's not. It's done enough for us to function normally again, which is awesome.  But there's still some little things left, like drawer and door pulls, installing the soft close contraptions on the doors, some detail work, and of course the amazing microwave I've been anxiously awaiting.  Oh yea... and picking a paint color...

Kitchen Renovation - Day 28: The Day of Granite

It has arrived.  And it's pretty awesome, and actually exactly what I imagined... which never happens.  I was pretty nervous about it, and I'm still adjusting to the counter with the floor, but I think it looks good.  I'll have to sleep on it.

The installers working hard....

I guess it took them about 2.5 hours to install it.  It was three separate pieces, plus the pieces for the back splash.  So we only have one seam on the actual counter, which isn't too bad.

Yea, we still need the dishwasher in. Don't judge us, if you miss it you can see it here, almost in the living room.

Huge peninsula. And you can see the TV from the end of it. You couldnt' see the TV from any of the counters. I can't wait to use it.

Oh and check out the breakfast bar.  It's little, but its all we need and I'm psyched to go on the search for the perfect stools!

And a full(ish) view of the kitchen.

Oh, and maybe a gratuitous shot of the sweet new sink, just for kicks.

Not sure what's next, but you may have noticed the pile of paint swatches on the counter... so yea, we're in the process of trying to figure out what to do there... :)

Kitchen Renovation - Day 27: Priming and Prepping

It''s amazing what a little primer can do.

And while I was priming... I figured it was time to say farewell to the blue door:

And yes, that is probably the worst priming job I've ever done (and I'm not a very good primer anyway), but I didn't care. I was so excited to cover it up. It's all over the glass and I'll be cursing myself for being so careless when I have to scrape it off, but I don't care.  Cause the blue is gone. (From the kitchen.  There's still a team of 3 blue doors in the hall that I need to deal with.)

And while we're at it, might as well take care of another spot, from where the previous breakfast bar was taken out:

Now, we knew we needed to prime, and have been saying we're going to do it for at least a week, probably longer.  But we finally got around to it tonight, the night before the granite is installed.  Yet, we were completely unprepared:

That would be a piece of scrap from the molding being used as a paint.  And that "drop cloth" is leftover vapor barrier from when the insulation was put in.  Can't say we're not creative!

And, since this was all a quick last minute thing, I wasn't wearing my typical painting pants or one of my painting shirts.  I'm not the neatest painter when it comes to keeping myself clean.

Yea, I got a little on my shorts in a moment of panic when I had some drips on the tile.  Whatevs.

Tomorrow...it'll all come together with the counters.  I. Cannot. Wait.  Too bad B will be home for install and I'll either be stuck at work late, or working on a group project for school so I won't even get to see them for hours!

I've got my fingers crossed that they'll be beautiful.  I might be holding my breath too...

Not that I'm nervous about it or anything...

Good Stuff: May

So, after being inspired by several other blogs I'm totally stealing borrowing their ideas of having a monthly list of good stuff that happened and/or was discovered.  (And to be fair, I haven't seen anyone else come up with the really creative name of "Good Stuff".)  I think it's important to take the time to think about the things that make you happy, big or small, because we know we all think about the bad ones enough as it is.  So, here is the first edition of Good Stuff.

1. America: The Story of Us - A several (I don't know how many exactly) part special on the History channel chronicling well... the story of America.  Much better than history class, with the perfect amount of important facts and individual stories.  If you missed it, I'm sure they'll run it for a while.
2. Our New Kitchen - Okay, so we all know its not completely done yet, but it doesn't matter.  It is GOOD.  Maybe next month we'll call it great - because then it will be done.
3. Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffee - I've even got B drinking it now.  There's something about a really hot morning that just begs me to stop and grab one on the way to work. And it's quite an awesome way to kick start the day.
4. Doggie Daycare - With the kitchen, and school, and work, poor M doesn't get the exercise and playtime she deserves. For $17 she gets to play all day with lots of doggie friends and some amazing people who remembered her name after the first day. And, they have doggie pools, which for her, what could get better?
5. Those Willing to Help Us - Giving up nights, weekend, vacation days(!), just to help us.  It's wonderful and inspiring and we really truly appreciate every minute they spent helping us.  And we know they've got our numbers for when they need help too :)

Kitchen Renovation - Weekend Update

Hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend!

We caught some fish:

M did some swimming...

And oh yea, we've got power in our kitchen!!

All the outlets had been installed and set up, we just needed everything to be tied into the breaker.  We held off on that until all the cabinets were in.  You know, just in case anybody hit a wire...

The counters are set to be installed on Thursday!!  I'm really excited, because then we'll pretty much have an actual kitchen! Provided the plumbing doesn't become an issue.  Aside from that, its really just the little things we have left - adjusting the doors, adding the door and drawer pulls, priming, decided on a color and painting, and you know, actually putting everything away...

Holding Pattern

I know I know, I didn't post yesterday.  There wasn't alot to say, we've slowed down quite a bit and are in a holding pattern at the moment.  I bought shelf liners yesterday, but haven't put them in or moved anything into the upper cabinets.  The granite company called to schedule our install for Thursday, so we've got to try and get a few things done before then.  BUT, that should mean that *fingers crossed* we have a fully functioning and complete kitchen by next weekend!!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend, and while your enjoying your long weekend and BBQs and beers, take a few moments to remember what it's all about.

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

~Joseph Campbell

And I’m proud to be an American where as least I know I’m free.

And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.

~ Lee Greenwood