CABINETS!

Just when things got slow, then they got really fast. The cabinets came in on a Friday, and they started putting them in on Monday. Here's what they looked like this last week (AWESOME!!):This is the desk and the broom closets.


This is the view out the back window (doesn't the island/table look great?).


The east wall -- I am so glad we did the little windows. The tin tiles will go behind the stove. Can't wait to see what they will look like.


The pantry -- Maurice and I worked out the shelving in the pantry, and I was worried because, really, what do I know about pantries and how they should be? But it looks great, perfect, in fact, and I am so happy about the design inside. Plus, it has a light that goes on when you open the door. How cool is that? You can see the bookshelf on the wall there on the left -- all of our cookbooks will fit (and more).

Next up, trim on the cabinets, paint on the walls (still have to pick a color everything looks very WHITE right now, and it will be so great to get some color in there), countertops (already picked out the slab -- they will be soapstone), recycled wood for the desktop, pulls for the cabinets (already picked them out at Restoration Hardware), tiles, putting up the lights, wood floors - still a lot, but every day it is so exciting to come home to see what the workers have done.

Walls, an Island and Tin Tiles

A provocative title, no? So, as promised, we got walls, outside and in:





And wonder upon wonder, after living through the disappointment that the island I thought I had nailed down went missing, I found an island that I think I like even better. I was disconsolately trolling the Alameda Antiques Faire on Sunday, aisle upon aisle of stuff that almost worked, but would require so much modification, or a special top, or would have to be custom built, blah blah blah. I almost had given up (it was cold and I was sure I wasn't going to find anything) when I came upon this:




My initial reaction was, too simple, no drawers, etc. etc., but then I had a revelation which was -- this is it. I had the guy measure it and it was almost the perfect size. I called Maurice (on a Sunday, he was working, such luck) and he asked me to take a picture of it with my cell phone and send it to make sure if it didn't work they could modify it. I did, he agreed it could be modified, if necessary, and we could add wheels to make it the right height. I was sure it was meant to be, so I just made the decision that I was going to get it. I talked the guy down some on the price, but actually it cost us so much less than anything else we'd been considering. I was on cloud nine. Problem solved.

Then, I was so happy with my find that I thought that I would treat myself to some vintagey cool object that I would put in the kitchen and found these:



Aren't they awesome? I was going through them, laying them out in a design on the ground and all these people were passing by saying how cool it looked and how great they were, so that of course egged me on. A woman stopped to help me find ones that would go together and confirmed that I was indeed a genius. Here is the idea, although I am not sure it will be allowed, but I'd like to have these as the backsplash behind the stove. You can see the tile on the upper left of the picture -- the tiles could surround them -- we'd have to get some border type tile.

What do you think? The brownish one was a compromise, they didn't have any other white ones, but I thought I could probably come up with a white wash that I could do with paint that would appromixate the other ones.

Anyway, we are coming down to the fun stuff now -- the cabinets have come in and are ready to be installed, then we'll get the counters measured out -- in short, we can see the end of the tunnel!