Finally finished the kitchen!

Before:

After:

I especially love how my Traci cabinet turned out!

And I dreamed up this and the boys built it for me... a shadow box shelf to cover the alarm thingy and the phone jack...

I am so tickled with this... and I do like the white wall!  LOL

It's Island Time... Finis!

Here it is... in all it's lovely usefulness... happy sigh... I love it!

It's Island Time!

LOL

We decided when we first looked at this house that it needed an island in the kitchen.  There is not nearly enough counter or storage space for us.  I have schemed and dreamed up several styles but nothing just *clicked* for me.  It seemed one of those 'one day when we have extra money' dreams...
I woke up yesterday morning and said "today we are building an island" ... I had been working on a plan using scraps we had in the basement and it all came together in my mind yesterday morning.
This is made using mdf pieces from the Jr triple bunk we built in FL, some 2x4 pieces and some 1x4 and 1x2 scraps and leftover pieces.

Put together with screws, nails and brackets... just using what we had ;)

Made the bottom shelf to accommodate wheat berry buckets and the top to fit roaster ovens and crock pots.

And the base is all done!

The wood strips are just laid on top.  That is today's project -- attach the wood strips and sand well.  Tony bought beadboard for the ends and front and it will be painted... you guessed it... red. The side facing the refrigerator will be open.
We are not furniture builders but I am pleased to have something functional in place!  I am proud of my crew for making my vision a reality.  :)

The Next "kitchen project"

Well, Charlotte, since you asked...

This is the tall cabinet beside the refrigerator. Tony put beadboard up on the sides. Here are the doors but they aren't hung yet -- use your imagination! It has to be sanded and then prestained and stained before the doors are hung. I don't have a 'before' pic... or Wait, maybe I do?!

Let me go scrounging for old pics...

Yep, this is the kitchen when we looked at the house before we bought it. Yes, that is marble printed contact paper on the cabinet and walls. Yes, lovely avacado counter tops.

Kitchen Corner Shelf... before...during...

Can you see from these pictures the awkward area here? The counter ends in one place, the backsplash in a different place and the cabinet in still a different place. Look at the ceiling and you can see where Tony removed a bank of hanging cabinets to open the kitchen up to the living room more. Anyway, there was an awkward space there and we couldn't decide how to bridge the gap. We came up with the idea to build a corner shelf there.

Here it is in the 'during' phase. There will be beadboard facing on the insides of the back and side walls (to match the beadboard that's on the lower cabinets and tall cabinet beside the fridge -- that cabinet is NEXT on our list! Watch for pics...)

What do you think? We are not cabinet builders! This took a long time but I'm happy with it!!! I think it 'bridges the gap' wonderfully!

Oh! Look here. I found a picture from when we looked at the house before we bought it. Looky here!!! This is the true BEFORE picture!

And then Tony stripped the paint off and got to the original stain, it looked black.

Tony sanded all the stain off and got them back to naked wood. They've come a long way!