New Cabinets in the Bay Window Area
At long last, well, it seems long last – the cabinets are completed and in. The bay area that we decided to devote to cabinetry turned out to be particularly difficult because I didn’t want granite in that spot. The piece of wood for the top was apparently flawed and so the cabinet guy tried a number of approaches with it and finally had to go back to his supplier for another piece of wood. I didn’t get a good shot with the light the way it was. These are three separate cabinets, topped by a single piece of wooden counter and filler strips between them to make it look like one piece of furniture.
We have genuinely mixed feelings since those who have followed the posts have shared my frustrations, but the end result is everything that we asked for. In a way, it’s more because despite the drawing that he’d made, I couldn’t really see how he was going to fit in all the cabinets he was showing. That, however, is the difference when you go completely custom. Also, he used far more drawers than I was originally expecting, and while they do provide space, we are having to definitely rearrange the placement of certain items. That’s okay – it just takes some getting used to.
Cabinets With the Final Touch
This photo not only shows the finishing touches, but also the change to the microwave and the counter-depth fridge I’ve been posting about. I can now reach into the microwave without reaching over a hot stove. The cabinet to the left of the fridge was built in the space that became available after moving the pantry, and of great importance is that the shelves on the bottom are deep enough to accommodate the over-size and odd size platters that we have.
In order to have the kind of cabinets that we wanted, and there is simply no way around this, I still need the step stool to reach a lot of items. The one we have is functional and now that we separated the pantry from the rest of the kitchen, there is room in the “reach-in” pantry for that step stool. There is a very nice furniture quality one that we can order from on-line that we might get to leave in the kitchen area. While I would love a spot to slide it into, having the extra cabinet space is more important than hiding the step stool.
There are a number of items left to complete before the total remodel is done, but the biggest parts are behind us and in truth, it was only a two week delay from the original projection of six weeks. Still, when one is in chaos for eight weeks, it seems much longer. We’re doing okay on budget although I won’t know that for sure until we’ve actually finished because there are a couple of pricey items left that we need to do. I think our estimate on those is okay, but strange things can happen.
Oh, and we ran the dishwasher last night, used the sink and the garbage disposal and there was not a drop of water that leaked. All of that appears to be resolved. Hooray!
