Kitchen Progress

The island is complete. We finished major construction on it last night; today while I watched the Packers-Vikings game The Wife put the finishing touches on it (a towel rack, handles, and an interior pot rack) and got it into the kitchen.

Along the way, we've had to replace a missing corded drill, a broken electric brad gun -- we almost bought a pneumatic gun at Lowe's last night, and would have been very upset because we don't have an air compressor to power it -- and bought a mitred chop saw and a handheld circular saw. Five hundred dollars worth of material, plus about five hundred dollars worth of tools, made this an expensive piece of hand-built furniture.

This is the best damn island since Bermuda.

We've also gone through something like twenty-five cans of paint and stain for the island and the cabinets. Only at the end of the day do we find handy-dandy work-saving tools, and do we think to replace the old, worn-out sandpaper (turns out, fresh sandpaper works much better) and the vagaries of building this thing got both of us good and ticked off at each other along the way.

Now, we can finally put away all of our dishes, pots, pans, spices, and other kitchen implements. And now, our bland early-nineties builder-standard white-and-golden-oak kitchen has been replaced with caramel colors and ebony cabinetry and beautiful bamboo shades on the windows. It looks richer, warmer, and everything accents the granite-tiled counter very nicely.

For our next tricks, we will be trying to install a ceiling-mounted lamp in the dining room and motion-activated lights on the driveway. The Wife also wants to get a security system for peace of mind, although I think the benefit of such a system is not outweighed by the cost.