Can you smell the oranges?

Mmm....orange oil is good stuff! Our countertops are happy now.

Biscuit joining on a Thursday afternoon

Todd and Willy are in the process of joining the 3 slabs of our butcher block countertop together as I type this post. This was our first biscuit joining experience. Here are some photos of the last slab being attached. The biscuits help provide a stronger joint as they physically tie the 2 pieces of wood together. The slots are glued and the biscuits are dropped in place. Once the biscuits and the surface are fully glued, then it's time to join the boards. Willy tap, taps it in…Clamps are attached and will be left on overnight while the glue sets. Tomorrow we'll be able to wipe on the orange oil and our kitchen will officially be complete!

Kitchen update

We had a great trip to the beach a couple weeks ago. It was nice to take our minds off of the house and relax to the point where you forget which day it is. Willow wasn't the water dog she used to be, but she enjoyed rolling in the sand and chasing the sand piper birds. Their little legs can really move! And just because I thought you might like to see, here's a little video:

Don't these peaches look yummy? Well, they were the worst peaches I've ever had. I was so excited to stop at a road side stand, just like I used to do when I was a kid on trips to the Outer Banks, only to find out that every single one of those stinking peaches were mealy and not actually from a local farm but trucked in from a neighboring state. I guess I should have read the stickers before I was 10 miles down the road. I felt so gypped that I wanted to stop and throw the peaches at the people who ran the stand on the way home, but I guess that wouldn't be nice and quakerly of me.

So now it's back to house projects. We came back from the beach a day early and ventured back to IKEA to pick up our cabinet faces and additional base cabinets for the island. With Willy's help we spent last weekend putting everything together. We are just about finished but are missing one piece (a drawer divider) and we still need to attach the floor/kick plate pieces. We're pleased with how it turned out and think the overall look gives a nice contrast to all the wood in our house. Here's Todd and Willy attaching the base cabinets together for the island. We have some serious storage space now.We know of several people who will agree with Willy's shirt!Here's a composite image of our main room so you can get an idea of where our kitchen is. Don't worry, our beams are actually straight. :)Mmm...natural light and shadows. Something hard to resist!IKEA has it down when it comes to their kitchen systems. Todd's favorite part is the hydraulic pieces that attach to the door/drawer hinges. They slow down the doors and drawers so they don't slam which is a pretty nice feature, especially if you have kids.

Now it's on to the trim and doors!

The 9th inning

Sorry for the weak posting this month. Too bad there isn't even a good excuse. We've had a busy couple of weeks building stairs and visiting IKEA to please the bank. We'll spare the lengthy details, but the bank wants us to have everything complete on our house before we can close out our construction loan. We followed everything on their list, but apparently it wasn't good enough. They are requiring us to have the following items installed: "hardwood" stairs (our soft poplar wood won't suffice), trim and base molding (yes, that's a tedious one), kitchen cabinets (I guess they didn't like the contact paper), and interior doors. Their list has something to do with "marketability", which in our minds is very subjective. What if you don't want kitchen cabinets and would rather shelves? Or what about carpet stairs instead of hardwood? Ho hum.

So we're tackling the list and making good progress. Luckily we had enough oak floor boards leftover to use to build the stairs. Willy and Todd worked hard over the weekend to get the treads and riser boards up. We're also scratching the kitchen cabinets off the list. We are still going to build our own someday but given that we needed something quick, we took measurements and ventured to IKEA. We sat down at one of their computer terminals amongst screaming kids and fumbled our way through designing our kitchen. We're pretty happy with the solution and were able to leave the store with the trucko'saurus loaded up with parts to put together. We're still waiting on the cabinet and drawer faces but it should come together pretty quick. We went with a butcher block countertop and dark gray/birch cabinets. Hopefully we'll be able to show you soon.

Now for some photos:
Here's a shot of the old stairs, or what's left of them. Todd and Willy work on installing boards for the landing.Todd making some fine tuning adjustments with a pipe clamp. Nothing like a couple hundred pounds of pressure to make a stubborn oak board comply!Damn, I need to shave! Just kidding. Those are Willy's legs.And now for the almost finished stairs. We still need molding details and urethane but they're close.While Willy and Todd were busy with the stairs, I kept myself occupied assembling the base cabinets. Oh, IKEA...we love you and all your little pieces! The first frowning illustration represents how I looked as we unloaded the trucko'saurus in a downpour. Rain and heavy cardboard boxes aren't the best of friends. And the second smiling illustration represents how I looked when I realized, after assembling everything, that nothing was permanently damaged.And here's how things are looking so far...door and drawer faces to come.We were finally able to bring the dishwasher up from the basement. I think we bought it 2 years ago.Ahh...pull-out drawers...a thing of beauty and function.Todd and Willy carefully cut out a hole for our undermount sink then routered the edge.Willow got a "mini-me" dog toy from IKEA for being so patient. Too bad it isn't real.


We're off to the Outer Banks on Friday for a week and we're looking forward to some R&R. Willow doesn't know it yet but she's in for a big treat. She loves riding waves and drinking mouthfuls of salt water. Stay tuned for photos.

Green and a little red

We are so excited that the grass is turning green and the trees are popping their buds. We tilled the garden last weekend and hope to get our seeds planted soon. The asparagus has already shot up and there is plenty of weeding to do.Green!We got a little crazy last weekend and painted our kitchen red. It's only two walls so really its more like an accent wall. The color was Todd's choice and usually I'm a little scared of red, but I really like it so far. It's an earthy, rust red and really gives some pop to our place. We still have to paint the wall behind the sink but here's how things look so far. Just try to imagine cabinets, countertops and an island that isn't covered in contact paper and black curtains!I found this little piece of art that I made in kindergarten. I know, wasn't I talented? I love the green and red and now I'm thinking about putting up some funky green shelves until we get our cabinets up.