The Details!

The cabinet crew returned today with more amazing details.  Take a look....

 The hood turned out better than I imagined.  It is wood painted to look like metal. 

Don't you love this stove!!  It looks so dinky, but it has served me well for twelve years.  The new appliances should arrive this week.  

Glass doors and crown molding installed.

 Finishing touches on the built in dining room cabinets.

 Master bath cabinets dressed with their drawers and doors.  

The beautiful chandelier given to us by our dear friends the Scotts.  It needs a good cleaning and some new bulbs.  

I think this pantry will be my favorite room in the house.  Still waiting on the lazy susan's for the corners. 

The pantry's maple countertops have been installed. We can't remove the back splash braces until the glue sets. 

This is the walnut for the island counter top.  Our task this weekend is to lay it out and pick out the pieces we want to use.  The other counter top surface will be a brushed stainless.  We are off to Atlanta to pick up our pantry doors.  It has been a year since we bought them!  

Round and Round We Go!

Mr Creative created a plywood template of the island top.  The final top will be walnut from a tree he cut down about 20 years ago.  

We have lived in this house 12 years and every time we have people over, everyone gathered around the old narrow bar. We really wanted a large island where everyone could participate in cooking and a space at the end for seating.  Our architect drew the long island with an 8 foot circle centered at the end. That arrangement crowded the walkway between the island and pantry.  

We thought putting the circle off-center would fix that, but now that I see the template, I don't like it. The circle was reduced from an 8 foot diameter to a 7 foot diameter.  What you see here is the 7 foot circle. We tried a 6 foot circle and decided it was too small. We are at a stand still about what to do with the circle.  

The island cabinets were cut back on this side to accommodate the off-center circle and still allow for bar stools on this side.  

These are the pantry doors.  They will be installed as barn doors with hidden hardware on the outside of the wall, which crowds the aisle way even more.  

I love that the view from the dining room will be across the island to the pantry doors.  The doors will have lights so when they are open, the glass will be lighted from behind.  

We need to put more thought into the circle on the island.  

I'll Be Blue

I hope I haven't gone overboard.  I love this Benjamin Moore Palladium Blue on the cabinets so much that I have used it in several places.  

I love it washed on the spruce planked dining room ceiling! 

We used a lighter shade of it on the back wall of the dining cabinets.   

But this may be my favorite place.  

Next to the front door.  Please tell me I haven't overdone it!

One Step Foward, Two Steps Back!

The last two weeks have been a real test of my patience!  The framers have been working on the roof to expand the porch and cut back too far into the existing roof.  This has been the wettest July on record in TN, not jut outside, but inside our house! Three times it has rained inside!  Every time, they come back and put up a tarp and tell us "NO WATER can get in"; water gets in.  

So far they have removed the dry wall in the living room....

and in the guest room to avoid mold growth later. We were supposed to move into the guest room two weeks ago so they could start on the master, but there is NO WAY I am moving in here now. 

This is my craft room.  They put in the hardware for a pocket door, but it was so low, I could barely walk through it.  So the dry wall had to come off here too.  

 On a much brighter note, this is the antique door I bought for the pocket door!  I just love it.  

 Sweet Mr Creative, installed the bigger of the two kitchen sinks and hooked up the old faucet and even created a make shift counter top so we didn't have to wash dishes in the tub anymore!!

 Here you can see the two sinks and beside each will be a dishwasher.  

 They started putting the planking on the dining room ceiling, but got diverted to deal with the leaking roof.

 This is the expanded porch.  It will have columns with corbels to make it look Country French and it will be screened in!  Our contractor and architect said it was very unconventional to screen a front porch, but those who know me, know I am unconventional so it's perfect for me.  If we are going to have a 14 x 40 foot front porch, I want to be able to use it and not be eaten alive by mosquitos.  
Progress is being made, slower than I would like, but it is progress.  70% chance of strong storms tomorrow, so cross your fingers and send up a prayer that they finally got the roof sealed.