WOW - that's DIY!!!???

Great job even in though it's in-progress. Just think, the little setbacks will help - giving the time for things to settle in as the improvements are made. I know you'll be happy when it's finished, but even right now it's great.

Congrats and ENJOY!!

gneegirl

That's so wonderful and a fantastic island work space!

--You should see the temporary laminate top on our island...It is a piece DH found in the back of his shop and it's a solid, bright, bluish green! :-)

Beautiful, mo_sgal! And you're at the stage where every little thing you do will show up as big progress!

I have one of those temporary island tops like Rhome's, too. Only mine is a really ugly just beige laminate and it's sitting on a $5 rummage sale plywood temporary island... (I'm actually jealous that Rhome has bluish-green!)

Okay - so I'm a whole lot more content now with my temporary island countertop!! :-) Apparantly, I'm living the dream with my faux granite design!

Bluish green hmm? :-)

It does feel good to just be beyond the drywall phase (that almost killed me!), to have that vacuumed and dusted up, to have most of my furniture back in place and have an island countertop to work on.

Oh, and just having the ovens hooked up!! After seven months of avoiding recipes that began with "preheat your oven to....." - - I made a CASSEROLE in my oven last night!!

It was divine!

Beautiful job. Love your big kitchen. Enjoy!

You must be thrilled. It is beautiful.

One question, if you don't mind. What size is your island? The island planned for our kitchen is 5' x 10'. Yours looks about the same size. Do you ever loose things? ha! Seriously, you probably can't reach across to get something on the opposite 5' side. So do you walk around to the other side a lot? Seems like a big frustration (waiting to happen in my case). Also I am curious where on the island you are putting the prep sink. Esthetically, mine is better toward the middle of the 10' side. But I don't want to break up the long run of prep space.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

What a beautiful kitchen! It is stunning at the half way mark. Can't wait to see it with all of your counters and the kitchen "bling" installed. Congrats on a great DIY project. It looks great!

Hi cotehele,

Yup, it's a massive island. It long ago was nicknamed 'The Continent'!! My DH said, "Hawaii is an island, Australia is a continent!" With the temporary countertop we have no island seating and overhang. Someday when we do that it will increase the size of the island. It is currently 53 x 107 inches. So roughly 4 1/2 x 9. It really is big and it took me a few days to get used to it!

I can't tell you yet if I'll lose things in the middle because the countertop was just put on it on Saturday and it's not in full working order yet (no sink or fridge) so I'm not doing much in there yet. I did put my baskets with fruit in the middle and I can reach them just fine.

The prep sink is plummed to be on the working side of the island on the opposite end of the microwave. It will be just across from the fridge and close to the refrigerator drawers where I will keep most of my produce. I didn't want to break up my long run of prep space either. My baking center is in the middle with all my baking supplies and mixing bowls and I wanted that huge run of countertop space to work in. And tons of space for cooling racks full of muffins!! :-)

HTH!

OMG! That is an amazing DIY!!! Congrats on a great job...I personally think the laminate looks great!!! Can't wait to see it all finished....

Cooling racks of muffins brought to mind an image of my Golden, who can reach the back of a counter with ease. I need to measure her reach to make the island a width she can't reach the middle, LOL! Please continue to keep us updated on your progress; I'll follow with much interest.

Enjoy The Continent!

AMAZING!! I can't believe it's a DIY. It looks like it came out of a magazine. You should be VERY proud of yourselves. You are truly an inspiration to all! Wish I had an ounce of your talent!

mo sgal--- DIY??? Unbelievable! Fantastic job. Can you tell me what applianes you decided on, they look great!

Thanks.

Beautiful! Congratulations on a spectacular DIY job!
Would you mind sharing the dimensions of your kitchen? Also, what is that Laminate? It looks great, it might be a good option for our kitchen island in the house we are building. We are not certain we will have enough left for granite right away, so were considering temporary laminate as well. If it looks as good as yours it might just be permanent!
Thanks!

You're doing a great job. THat's going to be quite the space when all is said and done!

Thanks, guys, for your kind words. It's been a long haul getting to the level of done that we are, but I can tell it's already worth it! Sorry it took me a while to reply - I've been busy baking in my new ovens!! Fresh bread, muffins and cinnamon rolls all around!

I couldn't get my KD to call me back today so I can't answer your questions on the laminate right now. I'll do my best to get you that info tomorrow. It's the same laminate that I put in my butler's pantry and I loved it so much in there I picked the same thing for my temporary islandtop.

This is my pantry with the same countertop:

mominthedubc - I'd love to share about my appliances! I researched them SO hard, and so far I'm really liking what I choose. The ovens I've been busy cooking in today that I LOVE are by Dacor. My gas cooktop and warming drawer are also Dacor. My microwave is the 24" Sharp micro drawer. My dishwasher is Bosch (not used yet), fridge is SZ 736, and refrigerator drawers are GE Monogram.

HTH! I'll have countertop info to you soon!!

Thanks for going to the trouble of calling your KD!

mo sgal,
Beautiful! Can you tell me what brand of cabinets those are? They are a lovely color.

Beautiful! You must be thrilled!

Hi Sally - My cabinets are two differnet manufacturers, which I think may only work when you do two different colors like I have. My perimeter cabinets are by Custom Colors in a rustic beech. It's the perfect amount of 'rustic' to not be in the 'rustic mountain home' style yet it gives the cabinets great character! I love them. My island is by Kemper in Amaretto Cream. I hope that helps!

(My chandeliers arrived today and once my husband gets them installed I'll add more pictures!! Hee-hee.....)

Mo sgal, this is a simply beautiful job! I saw your pictures earlier today and I smiled to myself, thinking: "This is going to be a real killer kitchen when she's finished"!

Something made me take another peek and I saw DIY!!!!!! Now I am TRULY in awe! Wow!

You are not going to be able to stand to leave this room when all is finally completed. It's looking grand.

Everyone's kind remarks have certainly made my day! Thank you! But I also can't have you think this is a 100% DIY job. We have been our own GC, did all the demo (two walls came down, and nine layers of floor came up!), my husband did all the wiring, drywall and painting. But I paid the gas man to move the gas line, paid a plumber to install a totally new drain and pipes to the prep sink in the island and I paid for the floor I bought to be installed. We had a local cabinet man $600 for two days worth of cabinet installation to just 'get the show on the road'!! :-) My husband would be capable of doing it, but since it's not his day job, it would have taken him weeks of evening and weekends to plug away at it. That was some of the best money we ever spent. In two days that man had almost all the cabinets in and my husband installed the appliances.

So, we've paid for some work to be done, things we knew we couldn't do or didn't want to have to wait a month to do! But I estimate my husband's "handiness" has saved me well over $12,000. I've had to be patient, but it's been worth it.

Now, if I can just be patient until this weekend when we hangs my chandeliers......... :-)

i'm jealous of all that room. i can't believe yall have done that all yourself. congrats and yall will be so happy when it's all done!

For those asking for the name of my island countertop, it's called Butterrum Granite by Formica. Apparently, it's incredibly popular and one of the most common formica countertops! :-) He said if you can't find it, you're not looking!! :-)

Thanks for the countertop info, I havn't actually started looking (IRL anyway, does Gardenweb count? LOL!) So thanks for the time saving tip on which one to start with!