Counters!

I highly recommend soapstone to anyone looking for a countertop material. It is a beautiful natural material that is extremely dense do it will not stain, but it also soft enough that it can be cut/shaved/filed/sanded by hand if necessary. The only 'drawback' is that it takes months of use to achieve it's rich dark patina. We've been oiling our counters 2-3 times per week in order to simulate the eventual effect which is a 5 minute job whenever the counters start to 'go gray.' The end result is a surface that has a truly natural and organic pattern but has a much softer look than a polished marble.

Cabinets!

We went back and forth between a variety of cabinet options including IKEA and Home Depot, but in the end decided we needed to have cabinets custom built for our space. The room is so small that we needed the cabinets to be extremely efficient and we weren't having much luck putting together pre-sized boxes into an arrangement that worked for us.



A preview of the pantry and sink base in the 'shop.'



In the end, we are 95% happy with our cabinet maker and cabinets and we didnt end up spending any more than we would have at Home Depot...



The long bar of upper cabinets is for items taht aren't utilized on a daily basis. The new sink will face the back yard and the range now looks out to the dining and living rooms.

putting it all back together...

it's been a while since i've posted a kitchen update (and even longer since I've finished most of the work) so i'm going to try to get up to date with our latest project.













(the majority of this work actually happened back in november)

Good Riddance! (demo)

The old color scheme was apparently, white, pink, yellow and stains...


We continued to cook (mostly pizzas) in this until the week before Christmas. Very classy indeed.


New framing in the old wall for the new door.


Dad is way too skilled to be sawzall-ing through old sheathing and stucco, but nevertheless he helped install the new door. I couldn't have done it solo.




The cabinets in the dining room have been removed and will be rebuilt and reinstalled later. Hope it all works out...


I found this old wallpaper behind the old sink. Now, I'm trying to decide if I should have custom wallpaper made to match,or if I should do a large scale mural of the
is painted on the wall...


I burned ALL the old wood lath and ALL the old cabinets in the backyard...I don't miss them.