I wish I could come over and watch you while you proceed. Are you reusing these cabinets and painting or staining them ? So you are replacing all the wood below the "box" ?. I admire all of you on smaller homes forum, so talented.

LOL Marti. We went to donate a bag of things to battered women place yesterday. I brought home almost more then I took in. Writing here because I just missed TWO sets of these refrigerator dishes in greens. WWWAAAHHHH BUT she left me one in white with turquoise on white larger dish I will use often. Happy camper I am!!!

Hope you are not working too hard on your remoded and get some time to enjoy your Christmas.

Was the white with turquoise roosters? I have a whole set of that.

LOL Yes it has roosters and people and corn and I think wheat. I looked it all up on Ebay and it s very expensive stuff. Mine was $2.50. And I carried it home no shipping.

No idea why the name would be Butterprint. It is really cute. Most of all the dish will be very useful to me. We have a small fridge and to be able to stack things is perfect. Specially with some thing like a turkey dinner.

Turkey soup ready in the pot smelling delicious. Time to NOM NOM NOM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterprint

Jeepers, this is going to go on forever! What with surgeries and travel, I don't feel I am making much progress. And dh doesn't want to be part of this, not that he is working on the dining room.

But enough with the griping.

I've got one top cabinet and one bottom cabinet stripped, stained, and a few coats of finish. Last night I got dh to help me get the other top cabinet down, so I could take down the backsplash and put the finished top cabinet back up.

I took out the backsplash today, and of course there is mold behind the sink. *sigh* There was probably some there when dh put up the BS, and he probably just put the backer board over it - knowing him he didn't think it would matter. Well, the sheetrock was so soft that it just disintegrated in places, so next step is replacing sheetrock.

One step forward, two back.

{{!gwi}}

And can you see that old light fixture above the sink? I said something about being able to see how the furdown/bulkhead/soffit is constructed through the hole when I take down that light. Dh looked at me, totally serious, surprised that I wanted to replace it.

He'd better not ask what is for dinner tonight!

LOL! I think he should take you OUT to dinner! Love your little guy...how did you do that? :)

Yes, it would be nice, but he hasn't offered yet. I threw a big fit last night and might again tonight. Think that would make any difference? I really don't feel like cooking in that mess.

I just did a search for clipart smiley's and saved it to photobucket. Feel free to save it to your photo site. I have a lot of them saved to photobucket if you ever want to move any over to yours.

OH Marti. OH.................... So sorry this is getting worse by the moment. Course this is always what we find diving into these projects. I do not think any we ever tried to do went exactly as planned. I could share some horror stories.

BUt I see after answering your other tile question you do have more of that border. That opens up lots more options. Border pieces on edge around tall glass vase and fill between them with those small half glass globs to take the edges off the border.

LOLing at the light problem. That totally cracks me up. I have had a few lights exactly the same. The globes make good plant saucers and water bowels. CERTAINLY not light fixtures. Hehehehe I think there are four lights left in the house that came with the house. And this was a brand new house.

So sorry about the mold.

About dinners. I did lots of crock pot meals when we were doing kitchen remodels. Even tonight was pulled pork made into BBQ with onions and sweet peppers rolled on tortilla and asparagus.It cooked all day but only took me about 15 minutes to make into a meal. YUMMY in the TUMMY.

your over the sink light looks like it's probably a cousin to the one over my sink...

boy, what ya don't find lurking behind/under the cabs. That is one reason I would like to pull mine out... but i don't think I'd survive the mess and uproar.

i'll have to save that smiley guy!

It is a horrible mess Steph. I was wishing today that we had just lived here a few years and sold while it still looked good. Working on a house while living in it is the pits. (Yeah, I'm old and still say pits.) I also had to cook dinner tonight. THAT was the pits.

Marti, mold is a serious problem, and our house was condemned after Katrina flooded it because of the mold growing all through the plaster. I still have issues with mold-related infections, and so does my little maltese dog. And we were just working in the house, after the flood, to remove some things.

Please wear respiratory protection, and wear gloves. Yeast infections are possible as rashes all over your body. That's why I'm taking insulin now.

I'll be careful. I'm putting mold & mildew all in one category, but so far what we've found is just in a small area and just on the paper. When I peeled the paper off the sheetrock, there was nothing under it.

What's weird is that it is all along the edge where the countertop meets the wall, and yet when I tiled under the dw spot last year, there was absolutely nothing on the wall under it. So it must have stopped at the countertop. I'll know for sure when we get the counter off.

We've decided for now to put a piece of masonite on the backsplash area until I can get all the cabinets refinished. If we take off the counter now, we won't have anywhere to work and wouldn't be able to use the sink or dw for weeks.

And that will give me some time to decide what kind of countertop I really want.

I like your idea of two surfaces and did consider that. But now I have time to really mull things over.

Making progress I think. Put up the one upper I stained in the garage, and luckily it matched the one I stained in the house. I won't be doing that again. From now on, it's all going to be stained in the house so I can make sure it matches. The window trim looks ok most of the time, but in the afternoon sun, the rest of the wood has a reddish brown look and the windows are just brown.

Also got the rebuilt cabinet in yesterday. Now I just have to finish staining it, and on to the fridge cabinet.

'(Yeah, I'm old and still say pits.) I also had to cook dinner tonight. THAT was the pits.'

I say it too! sad to think that some of the younger ones might still be saying 'like wow, I mean like really' type stuff when they're 50-60 yrs old! ugh!

how about some 'to go' dinners? I get one at a local diner that makes 3 meals for me... love that. no thinking about 'what should I have for dinner?' or I keep a few bags of steamable rice w/veggies in the frzer - love that for a dinner. A bag makes a dinner and a lunch for me.

ML - say what about taking insulin? what does mold have to do with being diabetic?

mold is my one (and only that I know about) allergy. i do have reactions to a lot of things tho -like scents (perfumes, lysol, windex, detergents, treated woods etc) but don't know that those are allergies...

That's a good idea Steph. I found a brand of frozen dinners that is really good, but I can only eat Italian every few days. I'm not a big fan of spicy foods, or at least my stomach isn't.

I got tickled thinking about some old people saying "like really" or talking like valley girls.

I can't eat a lot of spicy food either. I buy smart ones 3 (or4?) cheese ziti w/marinara sauce and their ravioli Florentine (I usually buy another pkg of ravioli at the deli counter because I don't eat a lot of sauce and there's enough for another 2 meals if i add ravioli to it). going to buy some today - it's on sale!
I've bought a few different brands of lasagna but it's usually too spicy for me.

my diner meal is Mexican (cheese enchiladas) - not very spicy. I'd make a very weak/mild Mexican- but I love the food! i usually keep refried beans, salsa, cheese and some tortillas on hand for a quick meal. It doesn't take much to make a meal for me - but I'm not feeding a guy either!

can you imagine the young people in the future will think those old 'valley' talkers are old fashioned - lol!

I just reread the topic line and it hit me differently...

I realized that I could post a thread on this topic just based on MY own multiple opinions - lol! I find I'm not in agreement with myself on my kitchen. And many other things.

I don't always agree with myself either. I can change my mind within 30 minutes of making a decision. I call it being flexible. lol

Thought I'd post a few pictures and ask for more advice. Here's what I've done since the last photo posted. Hubby is helping when I ask and not griping about this anymore. I think the mold/mildew behind the counter made a believer out of him.

Got the top part over the pantry pulled out, luckily it was a separate piece.
{{!gwi}}

Got everything on this side of the kitchen stained, and 3 or 4 coats of poly hand wiped.

So to get to my question. Here is the pantry as it is now.

I'll have a similar cabinet across from it on the other side of the kitchen, and I could put the same trim on the refrigerator cabinet.

Then, because of my height, or lack of, I've been thinking what to do with the inside of the top cabinet. It will go to the ceiling, and I am about an inch shorter than the current pantry (with the top section removed). I'm thinking of putting dividers for cookie sheets and casserole dishes below the soffit, and a glass shelf for pretties in front of the soffit, something like this:
{{!gwi}}

But with my unusual cabinet doors, I'm not sure what glass on top would look like, and I'm also not sure if it would look ok with those being the only doors like that in the kitchen. Opinions?

I'm also trying to decide how to plan the cabinet on the end by the refrigerator, but I'll post about that later.

Finally, some progress. All the cabinets on the west side have 6-8 coats of finish, the soffit has been extended to match the upper, and finally, some new construction. The refrigerator/freezer cabinet is built and part of the bench.

It looks huge in the room. Enough that I'm worried I made yet another bad decision wanting to do it. Hopefully, when the fridge is moved from the other side and it is stained, it won't look so overwhelming.

We've decided to put a bench with doors for muddy shoes, and a shallow cabinet above coat hooks for keys and mail. We can reuse old cabinet doors for the bench but will have to have new ones made for the top cabinet.

i think the fridge framework just looks overwhelming because it does not blend in w/the cabs yet. It sticks out like a sore thumb now - that will change.

I do like the grain on your cab wood, the color and lack of glossy finish.

on the pantry area - will you be able to get ahold of the bottom of a cookie sheet, baking pan up there? if so, go for it! I think a shelf toward the top of it for display is a great idea. maybe you can put glass somewhere else in the room to tie in w/it?

I agree with Steph. I bet when it is stained and the fridge is in place it will not look so large.

I really like the shoe cubby.

You are doing such a great job with the staining, Marti! The side of the pantry looks great. I love how the dark stain brings out the grain in your wood. I agree that the big fridge cab looks big just because there is no fridge in it yet. Just remember that the fridge itself is going to look big, and your framing it with wood will tie it in to the rest of the cabinetry and make it looks like it belongs there. I really liked the look in my kitchen. Glass doors on the shallow cab in front of the soffit above the pantry will look good, and balance out the full-height fridge cab on the other side.

I am enjoying watching your progress.

Thanks all, I'll post a picture when it's stained and see if it's any better. Today I am tiling there, as much as I hate to keep using that tile. But I lost my bargaining chip, the tv.

Tell your daughters never to marry a salesman or a lawyer. I really dislike negotiating.

Thanks Nancy, I needed to hear that. I am feeling really down today.

"balance out the full-height fridge cab on the other side. "

yes, it will need that.

marti - it's also that the wood is so light right now - it just glares at you! When it's stained it will fade into the background in w/other cabs.

I do expect the fridge in this new place will take some time to get used to also. I think it's often that way when you change something from what you've been used to for a long time.

The latest in the kitchen. The bench has to be rebuilt though because the wall isn't square right there. Gee, what a surprise.

Marti- That looks great! I think the fridge/freezer surround is wonderful and the kitchen window over the sink...now looks much more balanced in the space. Great job, so far :)

Thanks LL. I was hoping to get the freezer and fridge moved in there before the wedding, but that's not going to happen. I need to concentrate on laundry and wedding right now.

The inspector just left, and he didn't like the way the electrician did a couple of things. *sigh*

Looks great Marti.

oh, your fridge cab and the side cabinet look just great! what a job you've done!

The stain looks great & THAT FRIDGE CABINET...WOW
What great storage on top too !

Oh, inspectors always want a few things changed...sounds like overall it went pretty well.

Just think about how great it will look/be, when it's all done! :)

very interesting thread and I love some of the comments. Too late to comment on some of them so again a like button would work just fine LOL. Having said that I also add...anbody who has two ovens and a deep freezer in the kitchen HAS to be a serious cook. I am not that serious. In fact I think I have a kitchen just because its expected. A fridge and a microwave in a closet is all I really truly need. LOL

I want to say also I looooove the cabinet doors. Now my plain ole doors seem so blah...thanks. LOL. I also like the trim on the highboy and think it would look great.

You are doing a great job. I am ready for this long weekend so I can get this party started in my kitchen. I also appreciate the bottom view photos so now I have a better idea of construction. This thread made a great way to start my day today...inspired.

Have a good one!

I love to cook, especially bake. Wish there was a way to bake a lot without eating a lot. ;)

Here is the latest picture. You have have seen it on my post on Kitchens.

WOW Marti. So is this a freezer on one side and fridge on the other? Looks great.

Yes, it's a set made by Whirlpool. They're 12 years old so I sure hope they don't go out any time soon. They're a perfect fit in the cabinet and a new set might not fit.

They really are gorgeous. Gee I have to walk all the way out to the garage. LOL

That's what we've been doing for the past few years too, and our garage is detached! So if I needed ice at night, I just did without.

I have fridge envy! It looks awesome. I also love to bake (and eat) and wish that cookie calories didn't count. ::sigh::

wow - those are big!

hey, it looks like your floor got damaged during the work in there. Guess you'll just have to replace the floor then...lol!

Oh yeah, about the floor. If we continue under budget, we are going to put down wood. I was worried about the new slab shifting differently than the old, even though they are tied together. But we've got cracks in the floor now from the house settling, so I'm not optimistic. Anyway, a wood floor wouldn't crack like tile. Now my concern is a water leak. But we are leaving tile under all the appliances that use water and it will never be seen.

"Now my concern is a water leak"

how about water alarms for those appliances that use water? also, under the sink, behind the toilet.

I was thinking of that too steph. Do you know anything about them?

not a whole lot. I did look on Amazon about a yr ago after reading about dw water damage on 'kitchens'. i just looked there now and don't see the options i remembered seeing then.

I've also been seeing an ad on tv for them. It has 5 or 6 for - well, less than 50.00. I don't remember the correct $ now. I remember thinking it was only a few dollars each. will watch for it next time and write down the brand name.

They are small and sense the wet and sound an alarm. Maybe not loud enough to hear if you are sleeping.

here's one page from Amazon to give you an idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: water alarm

The tile we picked. The middle picture has the flash on, and it shows more red than it really is, but it also shows how much color movement there is in the tile which I think will help hide dirt.

{{!gwi}}


{{!gwi}}


{{!gwi}}

OH that is pretty tile!!

Oh My you could put a whole roasted pig in that fridge. Is that larger than 36" ?
You have no excuse now not to fill it up for a big party with home cooked delights. Looks great. I really like the freezer/fridge side by side--alas no room...

LOL EatRealFood. It's actually a 30" refrigerator and a separate 30" freezer.

marti, I commented on your thread in kitchens, but just wanted to say, again, how much I love your tile. It reminds me of how the hills around my place look this week--gorgeous colors.

Thanks mama_goose. I think that's why I like them too, very earthy.