cooking up all kinds of fun

This is a picture of grime and a 3-in-one tool. They seriously duked it out the other day.

After about five hours, assisted by a wire brush, hot soapy water, and the demise of three formerly useable kitchen towels, the 3-in-one tool was declared the winner.

Now we can actually use the shelves under the kitchen island!

The island itself received two coats of primer and a coat of "Prairie Dance". (More pics to come when the slate top is installed!)

In other news, Hubby got creative on me and crafted the panels for our double-oven cabinet.
He used the leftover wood from the original general store counter.

He re-created the look of the kitchen island with the oak panels.

Cool, right?
They were painted a color very closely matching the cabinetry.

The ovens ( which had been purchased over a year ago!) were installed....

along with a fantastic 5-burner cook-top! I am so happy to be using gas burners once again.

And speaking of happy, I don't think you have to ask Ana how she feels about all this!

seeing into the future

A colorful and fanciful imagination is indispensable around these here parts.

Presently, our rescued-from-firewood harvest table is standing in its rightful place in the dining room. While we scurry to move 6,397 items into the new kitchen, this table has come in handy as a giant catch-all.

I beg you to employ the imagination that God gave you in order to envision the following:

-candlelit dinners
-Christmas breakfasts
-Easter egg decorating
-birthday celebrations
-summer buffets
-group craft projects
-prayer time
-book studies
-guests from all around the world sharing stories

I could go on, but you get the idea!

pics for the curious

The big black trailer pulled into our driveway around 8:20 am.

Three guys began unloading very large birthday presents in assorted sizes.

They drilled & sawed and barked orders back & forth in a birthday-party sort of way.

Every once in a while someone scratched their head.

But around mid-morning, the bare-bones of our kitchen began to take shape.

I was pretty excited.

Here, Eric had an "eureka" moment. At the last minute, he had re-designed the sink cabinet.
From his hooting & hollering, I assumed he was pleased with the results.

He actually performed a variation of the I LOVE PINK dance in our kitchen. (see my other blog for details on THAT.)

I am not making this up.


We picked out a monster of a faucet. One can take a post-workout high-powered shower with this baby.

At lunchtime, Hubby took the guys up to the town square to the Hometown Cafe.
I would have fed them myself. But one needs a working kitchen for that.

Calm down, Nancy.

It's just your handsome husband
wearing a toolbelt
while putting the windows back on your hutch.

The hutch is heaved into place. We like its new home.

The baking center will have reclaimed slate for a countertop. Hubby will build them soon.
Notice the lowered counter for rolling cookies, pizza dough, and mixing.

One of my neighbors came down to view the progress. She had a new kitchen installed last year.
So she knows how I feel.

Here is the baking center side. The antique general store counter will be positioned in here somewhere. More on that later!

Stepping back into the unfinished family room, here is the view!

birch flooring

The kitchen flooring was installed by the Lord of the Manor today. He started at the entry to the kitchen, where I began oohing and aahing immediately.

The color is very light and natural. It fits the style of our 1843 stone home.

It's called hand-scraped pre-finished birch. And I like it very very much.

Here, the LOTM takes a phone call. Notice that the phone is wireless but the floor nailer is not.

The late afternoon sun is making our new floor look quite shiny. But really, it is a humble satin finish. The hand-scraping gives it a well-loved and country farmhouse feel.

Now we are ready for the kitchen cabinets! Will I sleep tonight?

I DON'T THINK SO.

swoon material

This image rocks my culinary socks.

We purposely DID NOT have any upper cabinets installed in the new kitchen. This way, I can take my time with designing some open shelving. I have envisioned shelves that would allow for home-made canned goods, spices, and other wholesome things stored in apothecary jars.

Floor-to-ceiling shelving won't need to happen over my way, but that doesn't mean I can't swoon over it online!

in which the Lady of the Manor needs therapy

Last week, Ben was on break from college.
In his dad's vocabulary, that meant Ben was available to work at home.

-which is fine with Ben. He got to demolish things. Like this temporary wall.

I lived with it for three months and now that it is gone, I hardly remember its presence.

After it was gone and all the pink insulation rolled up and carted away, the guys hardly knew what to do next.

Not really. If they stood still for a few moments, its was only to catch their breath before diving back in.As for me, I climbed up into the loft and snapped pictures.

This was my view to the left:


and the view straight ahead:

Someday soon, a woodstove will replace that three-story tower of tools.

Dear me. This picture doesn't belong.

But as long as it showed up, I might as well admit that I traveled to Ottawa to see the National Arts Center Orchestra last week. It had something to do with needing structure and perfection in my life -where previously there had been weeks and weeks of clutter, dust, and cacophony.

Wait. This picture doesn't belong either.

It surely means that the Lady of the Manor escaped the premises via kayak.
In the middle of March!
whilst glacier-like structures still perch on the frigid and perilously swift waters!

Henceforth, I promise to keep to the subject at hand; namely, the kitchen project -and leave my therapeutic ventures to another blog.

decisions, decisions!

After hours & hours of online shopping, I came to a snap decision about the dining room chandelier.
The chandelier I liked was just too expensive, so I hunted & hunted for one like it with a price that we could live with.

Couldn't find one.

So I logged on to JC Penney's clearance sale and went a whole different route. This lovely light
will do the trick quite nicely. Our table is over ten feet long and I was beginning to wonder if one chandelier in the middle would be enough light!

This chandelier is black iron, in a rustic style, and has some class. It will also allow the person sitting at one end of the table to see the face of the person at the other end of the table!

On top of this, the price tag simply cannot be beat! Down the road, I could easily justify an upgrade -but don't tell Hubby I said so!

the hutch

I purchased this huge step-back cupboard last fall, thanks to an insider's tip from my friend Margaret.

We literally designed one side of the kitchen around it. It's that big!

The plan is to strip off the finish and then stain it a dark color. I am leaning toward a charcoal stain, but if by sheer accident, the color leans toward a rich plum, well then it can't be helped.

Hubby votes against the dark plum because he doesn't want the kitchen to look like a Mexican restaurant. (He didn't mind consuming my pulled-pork Tex-Mex casserole the other night, though. So in my mind, I have some leeway.)

As I was working on the inside of the bottom doors, I realized that I liked the "wrong" side better. The simpler trim will match the kitchen cupboards. Hubby said "no problem" to pull a switcheroo and flip them around so the inside will be the outside.

Isn't that fun?

a busy Saturday in March

This particular Saturday, we had a lot going on in the remodeling department.

Hubby and Tommy bashed out another wall:

: and installed a door and a window in its place.


Jon replaced the window which will be over the baking center. It is lovely.

One day, the view out of it will be lovely, too.
But not today.

Ben made lots of noise. He drilled holes through walls and floors.

He also worked for hours in the stone cellar working on electric. By the way, he is such a goofball.

Tommy cleaned up the yard:

This was really necessary.
He did about 1,001 other things, too. He also had three helpings of pulled pork Mexican casserole for dinner, but I won't begrudge him his sustenance.

I swept up piles of rubble. These piles of rubble were making their way into every room of the house, including my bedroom. I don't know how that happens.

Ana baked cookies and helped with dinner. (That's after she cleaned someone else's house all morning!)

But back to the kitchen.
The guys have decided to break off the old plaster and wire brush the original stone:

You are looking at the future home of our 5-burner gas stove-top.

To accommodate the extra space behind the counter-top and stove, we will build a shelf which will extend the length of the wall. This will be a great space for stuff that would normally clutter up the counter-top: spices, cooking supplies, salt & pepper, utensils, and whatnot. Nice!

I abhor kitchen clutter, but if necessary things are up on a shelf and off of my work space, I think I can deal.

Also, we have decided to keep the peak open to expose the stone here, also. A wide piece of crown molding will separate it from the rest of the wall.

The original stone will look AMAZING . We are pretty excited about keeping it exposed.

From the stone house at the foot of the bridge, over & out.